Correct, but it’s one of the few metrics we can use when comparing processors.
Thermal Design Point is really the measurement of the amount of heat a processor creates under a workload. Hence the thermal reference.
TDP is supposed to represent the amount of heat the processor can generate while performing tasks. We tend to use the processor’s maximum TDP number to give its rating.
Which is why trying to the use the TDP rating can be difficult. But using the max number, can give you a super conservative general estimate of electrical usage. However, you will never use that in real life unless you are gaming on ultra high with a magic stock gpu.
Taking this number into consideration, you can figure out how to cool it by knowing how much heat it will generate. By knowing how much heat it will generate, you can guess the size of the fan needed to remove that heat.
I’m confident this i3 will never be maxed out for more than short periods, and on average will be using very little power. Perhaps not compared to the 15watt TDP of that Atom referenced above, but less than half its TDP rating.
It’s just like my internet line. I have 1000/1000 Mbps. The only time I max it out is by running a speed test. Even though everything in my home is internet-based, lights, switches, T.V.s, phones, etc, it hardly uses 2 or 3 Mbps. In fact, according to the UniFi controller, while writing this I was using 21.3Kbps down and 25.2Kbps up. That’s nothing.
I will be redoing my rack today to remove the UniFi stuff and set up the opnsense box, HPE Aruba Switch, and some other stuff. I’ll report back with some screen grabs of heat/fan speeds,etc.
