TDP: Thermal Design Power
TDP is the sustained heat output in watts that a CPU's cooling must dissipate at its base operating point. It guides heatsink, fan, and rack cooling design. A higher TDP generally means more cores or higher clocks, and more heat and power draw to plan for.
TDP represents the thermal load a processor generates under a sustained workload at base frequency, expressed in watts. Cooling systems are sized to this figure so the chip stays within temperature limits. It is a design target for heat dissipation, not an exact measure of peak power, since boost states can briefly exceed it.
Server CPUs span a wide TDP range, from around 105 W for efficient parts to 350 W or more for the highest-core-count Xeon and EPYC SKUs. Higher TDP demands more airflow, higher-rated heatsinks, and more datacenter cooling and power capacity per rack.
When configuring servers from China, match the chassis and heatsink to the CPU's TDP, since a high-TDP part in an under-cooled chassis will throttle. Confirm the server ships with the correct performance heatsinks and fan configuration for the SKU, and factor TDP into rack power and cooling budgets.
Need a build that gets this right? We spec, assemble and burn-in enterprise servers in China and ship them worldwide with a 1-year warranty. Tell us the workload and get a quote the same business day.