Cpu Grades...????

[Gecko_2000]

I heard from a prof that there are grades to CPU's. Like Grade A,B,C and so on. Grade A being best, and B and C worse. Grade A has"0-5% errors" "B has 5-20%" and crap like that. I was wondering if this is true and how would you be able to tell. Thanks alot YOU GUYS RULE!!!!

 

[jihiggs]

there are different steppings "grades" that determin how fast they will run. errors? i dont know about that. if there were more errors with lower grade chips, the difference in speeds wouldnt be linear, it would have to have a significant curve to it.

my computer is so fast, it completes an endless loop in less than 4 seconds!

 

[Crashman]

No, they are all tested to the same specs. Here's what they do in theory:
1.) They test a CPU at a given speed and voltage, if it fails, they lower the clock speed until it quits failing, then lable it at that speed.
2.) Processors have to meet thermal guidelines also. Some processors will run at a given voltage but be hot. It almost seems certain that these will be assigned a lower clock speed as well.

I hear that CPU's are "batch tested" for speed. I'm not so sure about that. But if they are batch tested, it would be required to take a large sample and set the whole batch at the lowest speed applicable to that sample, with some margin of error.

The letters you see assigned to various processors refer to core revisions. During the production of a given processor, people will study things like "what part runs the hottest" or "what part is most likely to fail at a certain speed", then they will make very minor design changes to fix these problems, so that subsequent revisions run cooler and clock higher.

As far as I know the CPU testing is on a "Pass/Fail" system, where CPU's that fail even at the lowest speeds are scrapped.

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

 

[Gecko_2000]

Thanks! Does it matter where you buy your parts? Where is a good place? TigerDirect has decent prices but do "you get what you pay for" when it comes to Comp parts?

 

[Bahumut]

The product, not the site or location you get it from dictates its quality. Buy brands that you trust and products that you've researched.

Note: Some of the cheaper sites also take forever to deliever and can be hard to deal with. I haven't heard many complaints about www.Tigerdirect.com. You might want to check out www.NewEgg.com as well.

Pain is the realization of your own weakness.

 

[knowan]

I always check pricewatch.com, and then look up the vendor on resellerratings.com. As for which product is best, that's what sites like tomshardware.com and anandtech.com are for.

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Knowan likes you. Knowan is your friend. Knowan thinks you're great.

 

[Crashman]

You rarely get what you pay for with computer parts. And that has little to do with the vender.

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