Silicon Lottery

[Acerpwns]

What exactly IS the "Silicon Lottery"? I have some assumptions but not sure, could someone explain it to me?

[Mush Brain]

Enter 10 numbers, hope to win.

[Recon97]

It's like maybe you get best manufactured CPU which remains very cool at idol or load compared to other CPU s.

[nikolaizombie1]

It's basically the chance you have a good overclocking video card or cpu.

You have a a video card that can go up too 1.6 ghz if you lucky but if your not you can get a card that can't overclock at all

The same goes for cpu's btw

[Maheshvara]

Computer chips are made from Silicone, and it depends on their "quality" if you get a good chip that can OC well, be it a GPU or a CPU. So it depends on your luck

 

Well, manufacturers can bin it, like 8320 vs 8350 or 4670k vs 4690k (it's solder was also changed, but it's also higher binned)

 

Hope this explains it

[TheGamingBarrel]

Computer chips are made from Silicone, and it depends on their "quality" if you get a good chip that can OC well, be it a GPU or a CPU. So it depends on your luck

 

Well, manufacturers can bin it, like 8320 vs 8350 or 4670k vs 4690k (it's solder was also changed, but it's also higher binned)

 

Hope this explains it

Silicone... Butts

[Volbet]

Not every CPU is born equal. Due to the complexity of the manufacturing, every CPU (or GPU for that matter) is a bit different from other CPUs.

This results in binning at the factory. Some CPUs become I7s, some become I5s ect. 

 

At the user level, it usually means to tell how well a CPU overclocks.

The better the silicone, the better the overclock.

You can get I7 CPUs that won't overclock at all (losing the silicone lotter), and you can get I7 CPUs that will overclock to 4,5GHz on the stock voltage (winning the silicone lottery)

[MegaDave91]

No manufacturing process is perfect and producing a silicon wafer is no different. So when you "win" the silicon lottery, you've got a nice piece of silicon, and vice versa when you "lose" the silicon lottery.

[Maheshvara]

Silicone... Butts

Want to OC them To make them firmer, better shaped, bigger if they're a little small

[Acerpwns]

Not every CPU is born equal. Due to the complexity of the manufacturing, every CPU (or GPU for that matter) is a bit different from other CPUs.

This results in binning at the factory. Some CPUs become I7s, some become I5s ect.

At the user level, it usually means to tell how well a CPU overclocks.

The better the silicone, the better the overclock.

You can get I7 CPUs that won't overclock at all (losing the silicone lotter), and you can get I7 CPUs that will overclock to 4,5GHz on the stock voltage (winning the silicone lottery)

alright well what're the odds of getting a cpu that cant OC and one thay can OC to 4.7 at stock? (Just threw a random number)

[Acerpwns]

Not every CPU is born equal. Due to the complexity of the manufacturing, every CPU (or GPU for that matter) is a bit different from other CPUs.

This results in binning at the factory. Some CPUs become I7s, some become I5s ect.

At the user level, it usually means to tell how well a CPU overclocks.

The better the silicone, the better the overclock.

You can get I7 CPUs that won't overclock at all (losing the silicone lotter), and you can get I7 CPUs that will overclock to 4,5GHz on the stock voltage (winning the silicone lottery)

binning at the factory?

[MegaDave91]

alright well what're the odds of getting a cpu that cant OC and one thay can OC to 4.7 at stock? (Just threw a random number)

No one (aside from Intel) but maybe JJ from Asus can tell you. If you buy a K series  CPU, all you can do is hope for the best.

[Acerpwns]

No one (aside from Intel) but maybe JJ from Asus can tell you. If you buy a K series CPU, all you can do is hope for the best.

SHIEEETTT i just bought a 4690k... uff

[MegaDave91]

SHIEEETTT i just bought a 4690k... uff

So overclock and find out your cpu's limits.

 

It does seem rare (although possible) an unlocked cpu will not overclock at all; most will a little bit. 

[Bsmith]

the fact that silicon isn't always exactly the same when produced for your CPU/GPU, this causes small difference's between the maximum clock speed it can handle, this diffrence hwoever only becomes noticable when overclocking your cpu/gpu, because manufactures keep their chips within safe range, for a longer life time and a more stable product.

 

 

alright well what're the odds of getting a cpu that cant OC and one thay can OC to 4.7 at stock? (Just threw a random number)

 

that is hard to tell, if let's say the stock clock is a  4.0GHZ then the chance you can't OC it to 4.7ghz without the right cooling is pretty big, but if you can do let's say 4.5ghz on air then you basicly have won the lottery, 4.7ghz would be pretty easy on watercooling in that case.

[Maheshvara]

SHIEEETTT i just bought a 4690k... uff

That CPU is higher binned, since it's Haswell Refresh, so you're, somewhat safe  

[Volbet]

alright well what're the odds of getting a cpu that cant OC and one thay can OC to 4.7 at stock? (Just threw a random number)

I have no idea about the chance. The last time i bothered about the silicone lottery was in the Athlon 64 days.

Most people these days get CPUs that are in the same OC range, so the chance of getting either extreme is probably slim.

You can of course increase you chances of winning (or losing) by hunting certain batch numbers. But the time and effort is not worth it in my opinion.

 

binning at the factory?

Yes, that is a very common practice.

It would be way to expensive for Intel to throw every malfunctioning I7 CPU in the garbage bin. If one or two of the core don't meet the speed or voltage requirement, they simply disable them and call it an I3 or Pentium.

That why you could unlock cores on the old AMD Phenom CPUs.

[Acerpwns]

I have no idea about the chance. The last time i bothered about the silicone lottery was in the Athlon 64 days.

Most people these days get CPUs that are in the same OC range, so the chance of getting either extreme is probably slim.

You can of course increase you chances of winning (or losing) by hunting certain batch numbers. But the time and effort is not worth it in my opinion.

Yes, that is a very common practice.

It would be way to expensive for Intel to throw every malfunctioning I7 CPU in the garbage bin. If one or two of the core don't meet the speed or voltage requirement, they simply disable them and call it an I3 or Pentium.

That why you could unlock cores on the old AMD Phenom CPUs.

ah thanks, everything's somewhat clear now... when the rest of my PC arrives I'll see how good of an OC'er this chip is