hello i have a question!!

[turbomaru]

Hello everyone i am a newbie!! it is very nice to visit this community!

i have been reading a lot about "multipliers" in the motherboard but never understand anything about it
would someone care to explain it in a very simply way to me??

truly appreciated!!

 

[Crashman]

Intel boards used to use the motherboard to multiply the bus speed for the CPU. For example a Pentium 233 ran at 233MHz, using 3.5x it's 66MHz bus. Starting around the time of the PII 350 release, Intel started locking the multiplier on their CPU's. This is a HUGE BENIFIT to upgraders, as most PII boards only have multipliers of around 8.5x and downward, but will still support multiplier locked on the CPU up to 14x (in the case of the Celeron 1400, 14x100).

AMD has gone back and forth over locking and unlocking multipliers. If your CPU is unlocked, you can pick one in BIOS that will allow you to run different combinations of bus speed and CPU frequency.

Most AMD CPU's with locked multipliers can be unlocked.

<font color=blue>There are no stupid questions, only stupid people doling out faulty information based upon rumors, myths, and poor logic!</font color=blue>

 

[turbomaru]

thank you very much!
i now have a better idea of this now

does it also mean that the lower multiplier a board has, the higher performance of the PC??

thanx

 

[czarousa]

no the higher the multiplier the better the performance is a multiplier of 8.5 @ 100mhz will be slower than 10 @ 100mhz
but if u plan to change it then be very certain that it takes a lot more to increase the performance per se.

 

[Crashman]

Take the PIII 1000EB vs. the rare PIII 1000E. The "B" stands for 133MHz bus, so the 1000EB runs at 7.5x133.33, while the 1000E runs at 10x100. The 1000EB has better performance due to it's higher bus speed.

Now, using the 850E vs. the 1000E, they both have 100MHz bus, the 850E runs at 8.5x100 while the 1000E runs at 10x100. The 1000E performs better in this situation because it has a higher clock speed.

So in the first comparison, the lower multiplier wins by virtue of the higher bus speed, but in the second situation, the faster processor wins because they both have the same bus speed.

<font color=blue>There are no stupid questions, only stupid people doling out faulty information based upon rumors, myths, and poor logic!</font color=blue>

 

[czarousa]

Thats a rare case which you explained with an example i am thankful to the 'HONORARY GURU OF THG'
but what i wanted to convey was that in normal cases in reference to the question my answer is true
thanks anyway

& is <font color=red> my frame of mind </font color=red>
so enjoy life but!!!!!!

 

[Crashman]

Actually I agreed with you, see the second example. His question was whether a lower multiplier made more performance, my answer is that it's not the multiplier, but the clock speed and the bus speed, a higher bus speed at the same clock speed provides an increase in performance. And I agree with you, a higher clock speed at the same bus speed also provides an increase in performance.

<font color=blue>Watts mean squat if you don't have quality!</font color=blue>

 

[Teq]

Hi,
Mind if I take a stab at this one??

The idea behind "multipliers" is that you feed the CPU a clock (just a stream of square waves, really) from the motherboard and the CPU chip internally multiplies it by some number to get its actual speed.

Clock_Speed X Multiplier == CPU_Speed.

For example: A CPU will a multiplier of 12 when fed a 100mhz clock will run, internally, at 1200mhz. (i.e. 100 X 12 == 1200)

Intel has always been very honest about this. For example: their Celeron 1ghz chip has a Buss Clock of 100mhz and an internal multiplier of 10 (100 X 10 == 1000)

AMD takes a little work. They spec their Front Side Buss at double the actual motherboard clock speed. For example: the Duron 1000 is spec'd for a 200mhz FSB, but it's actually only getting 100mhz from the motherboard. It has an internal multiplier of 10 (100 X 10 == 1000)

On modern computers the only place the high speed clock actually exists is inside the CPU chip itself. The multiplier logic has been moved off the motherboard into the CPU chip. This has freed the motherboard designers from having to stabalize extreme high speed clocks in their foil traces (making design and layout more flexible) and it's lowered the price of motherboards considerably.

Hope this helps.