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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Senior Member
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Probably to "avoid confusion" - since if they have 3 different clocks normal people will just be confused all around. And it looks worse, too.
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I guess without naming the all core boost frequency they could start selling CPUs with varying boost speeds on all cores depending on how stable the cores are. As long as one core is stable at the advertised frequency, they could cap the multi core boost if all cores aren't capable of whatever speed they used to target. Thus more units could pass validation this way and potentially be sold as a higher-end model at a higher price.
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Ultimately Intel likely suffers from bad yields while AMD can crank it up quite easily in contrast.
AMD sells CPUs with basically no OC headroom (1800X has a "boost" of 4GHz, and if you're lucky in the die lottery you can OC that to 4.1, but not further), and you think they can "crank it up"?
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With even more luck in CPU overclockability, I'd expect more returns. Poor retailers.
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There is perfectly good reason why not to let anyone know any solid number for this...
Quality variance between chips is way too high. And as consequence, different chips have different leakage and require different cooling or power delivery.
In other words once fully loaded, one chip may not be able to clock that high on all cores due to stability issues, other due to cooling solution and next due to VRMs on MB hitting their limit.
In such situation, any hard number on paper is bad number for intel. Too high and people complain that chips are not getting there, too low and people see those chips as not so good. Not giving numbers and giving good chips to reviewers = they do not provide any false info, reviewers will.
Basically this kind of marketing strategy hints that customers are there for lottery, and may end up being disappointed.