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Intel Will no Longer Disclose Multi-Core Turbo Boost Frequencies
In yet another unexpected move Intel has made is clear that it will not be sharing any details anymore on the multi-core Turbo clock frequencies of their processors.
You might already have noticed it, Intel is only listing the highest Boost frequency, and not the rest. Here’s the thing, the recent generation processors basically have three main frequencies.
- Base Baseclock
- Binned multi all-core clock turbo
- Single thread turbo
Intel from now on will only list the base and (1) and Single thread (3) turbo. As to why this is, remains uncertain, however many scenarios pop into mind. It might be a legal reason as they cannot guarantee the all core turbo on all processors.However, the longer I think about this, then an old routine kicks in .. what would be the most probable? Might it be that Intel likes that highest Turbo listed on their packaging a bit better for marketing and thus sales? I mean, it’s not unthinkable right? The guys from eteknix have a quote from Intel on this:
“[W]e’re no longer disclosing this level of detail as its proprietary to Intel. Intel only specifies processor frequencies for base and single-core Turbo in our processor marketing and technical collateral, such as ARK, and not the multi-core Turbo frequencies. We’re aligning communications to be consistent. All Turbo frequencies are opportunistic given their dependency on system configuration and workloads.”
So a Core i7 8700 is now being listed as a 4.7 GHz processor (click the link and look at the ARK info). But considering that is just one thread, it really runs 4.3 GHz on all six cores. Weird move huh?
| Processor | Cores / Threads | Base Clock | Turbo 2.0 (6c) | Turbo 3.0 (1c) | L3 | TDP | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Core i7 8700K | 6/12 | 3.7 GHz | 4.3 GHz | 4.7 GHz | 12 MB | 95 W | $359 / €389 |
| Core i7 8700 | 6/12 | 3.2 GHz | 4.3 GHz | 4.6 GHz | 12 MB | 65 W | $303 / €327 |
| Core i5 8600K | 6/6 | 3.6 GHz | 4.1 GHz | 4.3 GHz | 9 MB | 95 W | $257 / €273 |
| Core i5 8400 | 6/6 | 2.8 GHz | 3.8 GHz | 4.0 GHz | 9 MB | 65 W | $182 / €192 |
| Core i3 8350K | 4/4 | 4.0 GHz | NA | NA | 8 MB | 91 W | $169 / €189 |
| Core i3 8300 | 4/4 | 4.0 GHz | NA | NA | 8 MB | 65 W | - |
| Core i3 8100 | 4/4 | 3.6 GHz | NA | NA | 6 MB | 65 W | $117 / €123 |
If you look at the above table, pretty much the greyed out Turbo 2.0 info is no longer disclosed by Intel.
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H83
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#5480184 Posted on: 10/10/2017 01:16 PM
It is quite simple.
By stating all core boost to be 4.3 ghz they make a legal commitment. With Turbo 2.0 stating 4.3 every of their 8700(K) has to hit 4.3 ghz stable on all cores. Every 8700(K) that only hits 3.8~4.2ghz all core boost becomes a defective, non-sellable unit - or garbage, so to speak.
Ultimately Intel likely suffers from bad yields while AMD can crank it up quite easily in contrast.
Intel needs to back to the drawing board and rather quickly at that.
I could be wrong but i don´t think that´s the case here. I think more than 90% of 8700K can reach the 4,3ghz on all cores and the ones that can´t, can be sold as 8600K.
For me this is just a silly marketing ploy because big numbers sell!!! So for a normal person, a CPU that reaches 4,7Ghz is much better than one that reaches 4,3Ghz. Of course those speeds are under different conditions but the truth is that most people have no idea of what single core or multi core speeds mean anyway so Intel is going to take advantage of their ignorance.
For me this is just a perfect example of sleazy marketing.
It is quite simple.
By stating all core boost to be 4.3 ghz they make a legal commitment. With Turbo 2.0 stating 4.3 every of their 8700(K) has to hit 4.3 ghz stable on all cores. Every 8700(K) that only hits 3.8~4.2ghz all core boost becomes a defective, non-sellable unit - or garbage, so to speak.
Ultimately Intel likely suffers from bad yields while AMD can crank it up quite easily in contrast.
Intel needs to back to the drawing board and rather quickly at that.
I could be wrong but i don´t think that´s the case here. I think more than 90% of 8700K can reach the 4,3ghz on all cores and the ones that can´t, can be sold as 8600K.
For me this is just a silly marketing ploy because big numbers sell!!! So for a normal person, a CPU that reaches 4,7Ghz is much better than one that reaches 4,3Ghz. Of course those speeds are under different conditions but the truth is that most people have no idea of what single core or multi core speeds mean anyway so Intel is going to take advantage of their ignorance.
For me this is just a perfect example of sleazy marketing.
moeppel
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Posts: 152
Joined: 2015-06-30
#5480189 Posted on: 10/10/2017 01:35 PM
I could be wrong but i don´t think that´s the case here. I think more than 90% of 8700K can reach the 4,3ghz on all cores and the ones that can´t, can be sold as 8600K.
For me this is just a silly marketing ploy because big numbers sell!!! So for a normal person, a CPU that reaches 4,7Ghz is much better than one that reaches 4,3Ghz. Of course those speeds are under different conditions but the truth is that most people have no idea of what single core or multi core speeds mean anyway so Intel is going to take advantage of their ignorance.
For me this is just a perfect example of sleazy marketing.
Going with EU rights/laws I'd consider a 8700K being advertised as "4.7ghz CPU" to be misleading/false advertising unless it specifically stated that the frequency was single core only.
Thus, in terms of marketting I personally cannot see what is to gain here for Intel, unless we're talking about the really oblivious folk
I have however not seen a box, so I don't quite know what's printed on there or what the 8700K gets advertised as as a shelf product.
I could be wrong but i don´t think that´s the case here. I think more than 90% of 8700K can reach the 4,3ghz on all cores and the ones that can´t, can be sold as 8600K.
For me this is just a silly marketing ploy because big numbers sell!!! So for a normal person, a CPU that reaches 4,7Ghz is much better than one that reaches 4,3Ghz. Of course those speeds are under different conditions but the truth is that most people have no idea of what single core or multi core speeds mean anyway so Intel is going to take advantage of their ignorance.
For me this is just a perfect example of sleazy marketing.
Going with EU rights/laws I'd consider a 8700K being advertised as "4.7ghz CPU" to be misleading/false advertising unless it specifically stated that the frequency was single core only.
Thus, in terms of marketting I personally cannot see what is to gain here for Intel, unless we're talking about the really oblivious folk
I have however not seen a box, so I don't quite know what's printed on there or what the 8700K gets advertised as as a shelf product.
Denial
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Posts: 12852
Joined: 2004-05-16
#5480190 Posted on: 10/10/2017 01:36 PM
I could be wrong but i don´t think that´s the case here. I think more than 90% of 8700K can reach the 4,3ghz on all cores and the ones that can´t, can be sold as 8600K.
For me this is just a silly marketing ploy because big numbers sell!!! So for a normal person, a CPU that reaches 4,7Ghz is much better than one that reaches 4,3Ghz. Of course those speeds are under different conditions but the truth is that most people have no idea of what single core or multi core speeds mean anyway so Intel is going to take advantage of their ignorance.
For me this is just a perfect example of sleazy marketing.
Eh, i think it's more than that.
We're at the point again where we are rubbing up against the frequency wall and there are going to be certain apps where Intel isn't going to be able to boost all it's cores to 4.3 or whatever arbitrary 2.0 boost number they set, given a specified TDP. So you have OEM's building machines, validating the machines at specific TDPs and then if you go and say "well all our processors hit 4.3" and then there are apps where they can't without exceeding it - isn't that just as misleading? So the alternative would be set Turbo 2.0 boost frequencies to 4Ghz or something lower - but then every app where it could go higher, you'd be losing performance.
I think the solution for Intel to smooth things over is to do what Nvidia did and educate people on the issue (Tom Peterson talked about it on PC Per podcast/Anandtech) and perhaps list a "typical boost clock" or whatever Nvidia calls it. Like I remember when GPU Boost came out people were super against it, saying it's misleading, but if you think about it, it actually kind of makes sense to do it that way. There are going to be apps that hit the processors TDP instantly because they are utilizing AVX or whatever and then there are going to be apps that can boost the processor to 4.4/4.5, even if it's only for a couple seconds before dropping, because they aren't hitting TDP limit. And like how do you market that number? Outside of "this processor can boost between 4 and 4.8" or something, which is basically what they are doing anyway.
I could be wrong but i don´t think that´s the case here. I think more than 90% of 8700K can reach the 4,3ghz on all cores and the ones that can´t, can be sold as 8600K.
For me this is just a silly marketing ploy because big numbers sell!!! So for a normal person, a CPU that reaches 4,7Ghz is much better than one that reaches 4,3Ghz. Of course those speeds are under different conditions but the truth is that most people have no idea of what single core or multi core speeds mean anyway so Intel is going to take advantage of their ignorance.
For me this is just a perfect example of sleazy marketing.
Eh, i think it's more than that.
We're at the point again where we are rubbing up against the frequency wall and there are going to be certain apps where Intel isn't going to be able to boost all it's cores to 4.3 or whatever arbitrary 2.0 boost number they set, given a specified TDP. So you have OEM's building machines, validating the machines at specific TDPs and then if you go and say "well all our processors hit 4.3" and then there are apps where they can't without exceeding it - isn't that just as misleading? So the alternative would be set Turbo 2.0 boost frequencies to 4Ghz or something lower - but then every app where it could go higher, you'd be losing performance.
I think the solution for Intel to smooth things over is to do what Nvidia did and educate people on the issue (Tom Peterson talked about it on PC Per podcast/Anandtech) and perhaps list a "typical boost clock" or whatever Nvidia calls it. Like I remember when GPU Boost came out people were super against it, saying it's misleading, but if you think about it, it actually kind of makes sense to do it that way. There are going to be apps that hit the processors TDP instantly because they are utilizing AVX or whatever and then there are going to be apps that can boost the processor to 4.4/4.5, even if it's only for a couple seconds before dropping, because they aren't hitting TDP limit. And like how do you market that number? Outside of "this processor can boost between 4 and 4.8" or something, which is basically what they are doing anyway.
MaCk0y
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Posts: 787
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#5480191 Posted on: 10/10/2017 01:42 PM
They do state it's single core frequency on their website. Cleverly hidden within the ? next to Max Turbo Frequency.
They do state it's single core frequency on their website. Cleverly hidden within the ? next to Max Turbo Frequency.
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Is this really any different than what Nvidia/AMD do with their GPUs? Nvidia guarantees a base frequency and they give you a "typical clock" frequency, but the actual boosted numbers are dynamic depending on TDP in the given application, they don't guarantee a boosted number or even state it. Like with a 980Ti, depending on your ASIC quality, there could be swings up to 10% in performance compared to someone with the exact same chip - because a lower ASIC card would hit TDP at lower frequencies.