Why do high core count CPU's often have low base clocks?

[jaysangwan32]

Hey guys,

This is probably a really beginner question, but why do high core count CPUs have low base clocks.

I would imagine a high core count CPU (like a xeon) with the clock of something like a 7700k would be a beast.

I know the 7900x and 7920x have higher clock speeds than a xeon, but even they have base clocks below 4 ghz.

Are thermals and power the main considerations as to why this is the case?

Thanks for the help!

[Lurick]

Thermals are pretty much the main reason. More cores using more power = more heat.

[just_dave]

1 minute ago, jaysangwan32 said:

Hey guys,

This is probably a really beginner question, but why do high core count CPUs have low base clocks.

I would imagine a high core count CPU (like a xeon) with the clock of something like a 7700k would be a beast.

I know the 7900x and 7920x have higher clock speeds than a xeon, but even they have base clocks below 4 ghz.

Are thermals and power the main considerations as to why this is the case?

Thanks for the help!

Well, intel's chips are very bad. When you have 6, 8 or 10 core you should keep the clocks down to manage good thermals and consumption, these chips supposed to be for multi-threaded workloads.

Intel nailed the worst combination for multicore processors. High clocks + bad tim + inefficient architecture.

[PCGuy_5960]

1 minute ago, Lurick said:

Thermals are pretty much the main reason. More cores using more power = more heat.

And power consumption

[Mira Yurizaki]

One reason has to do with thermals. More cores means more transistors, which means more heat generated per core if kept at the same speed as lower core count processors.

 

Another reason, and I'm speculating, may have to do with communication. Cores have to remain coherent with each other, so they don't repeat work or stomp on another's results. Faster speeds mean less tolerance to missing something if they need to sync up, especially at farther distances.

[jaysangwan32]

3 minutes ago, PCGuy_5960 said:

And power consumption

 

4 minutes ago, Lurick said:

Thermals are pretty much the main reason. More cores using more power = more heat.

 

3 minutes ago, dave_k said:

Well, intel's chips are very bad. When you have 6, 8 or 10 core you should keep the clocks down to manage good thermals and consumption, these chips supposed to be for multi-threaded workloads.

Intel nailed the worst combination for multicore processors. High clocks + bad tim + inefficient architecture.

Makes sense, thanks for the help!

[（嗜杀本性）狼队 女 梅]

7 minutes ago, Lurick said:

Thermals are pretty much the main reason. More cores using more power = more heat.

 

5 minutes ago, PCGuy_5960 said:

And power consumption

LCR is also one reason and cross talk electrical conductivity,
More grouped transistors next to each other closer to each other has a high potency of causing micro errors because of the electricity,
Heat, Size, Power, And the tech isn't just there yet, Also just producing such chips is hard for them to have a 100% success rate of making things like that, there's a fail rate of making small sized dyes + chemicals solutions etc.
That's why you have I1 I2 I3 I4 I5 I6 I7 I9, I1 being the waste product of the failed chips.

Also heat causes problems with electronics a chip will work better when cool, "writing/reading/compute" etc errors.