Ivy bridge question-speed of the processor

[dragonfly522]

I have read some things about the ivy bridge chips coming out. Does a lower power consumption and/or lower voltage equate to an ultimately faster processor? I know it may be obvious, but I am not sure what it all means. If ivy bridge is faster because of these 2 factors, why?

 

[Leaps-from-Shadows]

Those two factors have no bearing on the CPU's clock speed or performance. However, in addition to the die shrink there will be optimizations introduced based on what Intel learned from perfecting Sandy Bridge. Intel predicts a ~20% performance increase due to these optimizations. That means that at the same clock speed, IVB should have around 20% better performance in certain applications. Some might be only 10% better, but a few might be 30% better.

 

[4745454b]

Assuming same generation and process technology, lower voltage and/or power consumption usually means slower chip, not faster. If your CPU normally runs at 3.4GHz @ 1.2v, and you give it 1.0v, you might have to go back down to 3.0GHz, or even slower. This is OCers need good cooling. To hit the high frequencies, you need to up your Vcore some. (usually.)

IB isn't out yet. We have no firm idea of what its going to be. We can guess and make predictions, but in the end we have no idea. I thought it was going to be mostly just like SB with some tweaks, but SB doesn't have 3D transistors which is rumored to be in IB. I'm not aware of any 3D transistors being used in CPUs, so we have little data on how that will effect CPU speeds and/or voltages used.

 

[Stupido]

voltage (and power) is not directly related with the processor speed.

actually the processor speed is related directly to the transistor switching speed (do you know what a transistor is? and how it works?)

when current flows through material, some of its energy is lost (due to resistance) as heat. the higher the frequency the higher the heat. more heat -> temperature rises until conductor melts = dead CPU.
having in mind that modern processors are working @ frequencies higher than your microwave... you get the picture...

the way to deal with this problem is to use less voltage. but for each manufacturing process (65nm, 45nm or 32 nm or whatever) there is some voltage range needed for the processor to work reliably. this is because you need some current to flow through the chip (which has fixed resistance. this resistance depends on the number of transistors). so you need X volts minimum to run the chip (having enough juice running through it in order to keep those transistor able to clock (switch)).
thus this is ruff explanation on what is so called "thermal envelope" that is defined for each processor...

the nanometers (manufacturing process) comes into play with 2 factors:
1. number of transistors per square millimeter/inch.
2. smaller transistor - less voltage to operate + less resistance (smaller conductor surface)

well, they plan to build the new Ivy Bridge with the new 3D transistors...
what they are talking about is actually improvement on the point 2 I just mentioned - they increase the transistor's gate surface in order to improve the switching capabilities and heat loss...

so this means that these new processors for the same GHz will run with much less voltage, thus much less (heat) losses and ultimately being polite to your electricity bill...

or if your enthusiast and do not care that much about electricity bill, you can overclock much higher with the same thermal envelope... (woo hoo!)

 

[Stupido]

damn, that was one long post...
sorry for that

 

[dragonfly522]

Best answer selected by dragonfly522.

 

[4745454b]

voltage (and power) is not directly related with the processor speed...so this means that these new processors for the same GHz will run with much less voltage

I thought they weren't related? You do know what a transistor is don't you? If your not going to play nice I'll just sling that back at you. Good day.

 

[Stupido]

voltage (and power) is not directly related with the processor speed...so this means that these new processors for the same GHz will run with much less voltage

I thought they weren't related? You do know what a transistor is don't you? If your not going to play nice I'll just sling that back at you. Good day.

me not playing nice? sorry, but I do not understand what you mean?

 

[jimmysmitty]

damn, that was one long post...
sorry for that

I've seen longer.

 

[saint19]

This topic has been closed by SAINT19