speed binning

I've heard this mentioned alot of late...what exactly is it???

testing batches and getting the highest performers out..

That's the general idea but not always in effect...every chip whether memory or CPU i s"baked" on a wafer with many of them....technically they are all the same but have slight variations. Companies use various methods to rate or "speed bin" them but..lets say AMD bakes a wafer with...1000 CPUs a 2400,2600, 2800, and 3000 50% only run 2400 with their safety margin of error. 25% run 2600 15% 2800 and 10% 3000. They receive orders for 50% 2400..but 35% 2600 and 15% for 3000 and 2800s...well some of the 3000 or 2800s now get labelled as 2600. That is somewhat why some steppings seem to perform better plus being from onw batch if the quality is high then all the CPUs usually have similar headroom.

ahhh i see, so is that why a 3200+ should theoretically (spelling?) perform the same as a 3500+ (once multi is lowered on the 3500) but in practice a 3500+ will actually be a better overclocker? because its the "cream of the crop" so to speak, thanx!

That's if they aggressively bin, but I think it is a soft binning. I am not convinced they do bin by testing many chips. They probably bin based on position on the wafer and then test a tiny fraction of those chips later when they are assembled to assure that they can be sold as a high end CPU and if not they scale down the pr#. With the millions of CPUs they make they only test a small fration and then try to ensure that all the high end CPUs get ddone right.

It pretty much costs AMD the same money to make a 3000 as it does a 3500. I bet they test a lot of chips when they start a stepping and then only a few

Binning is when you make a number of chips, and then for each chip decide what its max speed is (within a margin of error). That chip is then set up for that speed and sold as that speed.

Other factors can come into it - for example a shortage of low speed CPUs may mean some may be rated at a lower speed that they can do.

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?p=3569567#post3569567

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