[SOLVED] Clock speed question

[rren]

let's pretend say a 7th gen i5 clock speed is 3.5Ghz does this mean it's faster than 10th gen i7 3.0Ghz? No matter what gen of cpu is if a cpu's clock speed is bigger number than it's faster even if it's from 5 year ago? thanks I'm learning.

 

[rgd1101]

by ghz yes. by performance depend. it is single thread application. or multi-cores?

 

[hotaru.hino]

let's pretend say a 7th gen i5 clock speed is 3.5Ghz does this mean it's faster than 10th gen i7 3.0Ghz? No matter what gen of cpu is if a cpu's clock speed is bigger number than it's faster even if it's from 5 year ago? thanks I'm learning.

Clock speed is still not the sole indicator of performance.

• The two processors you offered as an example have differing core/thread counts. For multithreaded tasks, the i7 is going to steamroll the i5 simply because the i7 can process four times the amount of threads.
• If it's single core performance at those speeds, then i5 may still win out considering the 10th generation is simply another iteration of the 6th generation. So single core performance hasn't really improved much.

If you were to compare say an AMD processor against an Intel one, then you can definitely say "don't use clock speed to compare the two." The only proper way to compare hardware is to look at benchmarks people have done on them, with more weight on benchmarks that used the processor's default settings.

 

[geofelt]

The performance per clock did not change significantly between 7th gen and 10th gen intel.
That will change with11th gen where some 20% better performance per clock has been leaked.

Then, also, is the issue of turbo where performance of a single core can be increased if conditions like thermals and load are right.
For example, a i5-7600 with a base clock of 3.5 can turbo up to 4.1
But a i7-10700 processor with a base clock of 2.9 can turbo up to 4.8

The K suffix processors can be overclocked.
As a rule, you can increase the performance on all cores by some 25% if you get a good chip and have a good cooler.

 

[Mr.Spock]

clock speed is one thing, IPC's are another.

if each gen is faster by 12-18% over the previous then you can see how a newer processor can have a marked speed advantage despite having a slightly lower clock vs one 4 gens older.

 

[rren]

by ghz yes. by performance depend. it is single thread application. or multi-cores?

We'll just say single core for both, single and multi app for both?

 

[rren]

The performance per clock did not change significantly between 7th gen and 10th gen intel.
That will change with11th gen where some 20% better performance per clock has been leaked.

Then, also, is the issue of turbo where performance of a single core can be increased if conditions like thermals and load are right.
For example, a i5-7600 with a base clock of 3.5 can turbo up to 4.1
But a i7-10700 processor with a base clock of 2.9 can turbo up to 4.8

The K suffix processors can be overclocked.
As a rule, you can increase the performance on all cores by some 25% if you get a good chip and have a good cooler.

If it's just base clock alone does that mean the i5-7600 3.5ghz is faster than i7-10700 2.9ghz right? If I'm using a application that mostly utilize a single core like Revit so it's better to get the i5 right?

 

[geofelt]

If it's just base clock alone does that mean the i5-7600 3.5ghz is faster than i7-10700 2.9ghz right? If I'm using a application that mostly utilize a single core like Revit so it's better to get the i5 right?

A reasonable way to compare processors is to look up their passmark ratings.
For example, a i5-7600 has 4 threads and a rating of 6631. That is when all 4 threads is fully utilized.
The single thread rating is 2482
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i5-7600+@+3.50GHz&id=2920

By comparison, a i7-10700 has 16 threads and a rating of 17458/2942
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7-10700+@+2.90GHz&id=3747

By any metric, the i7 is a much more competent processor.

 

[rren]

A reasonable way to compare processors is to look up their passmark ratings.
For example, a i5-7600 has 4 threads and a rating of 6631. That is when all 4 threads is fully utilized.
The single thread rating is 2482
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i5-7600+@+3.50GHz&id=2920

By comparison, a i7-10700 has 16 threads and a rating of 17458/2942
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7-10700+@+2.90GHz&id=3747

By any metric, the i7 is a much more competent processor.

Thankyou for the knowledge. I'm very thick headed got more confused now. So even if the i7-10700 2.9ghz base clock for single core is still a little bit faster than i5-7600 3.50ghz based on real life benchmark test? So never look at the spec # alone.

 

[geofelt]

Thankyou for the knowledge. I'm very thick headed got more confused now. So even if the i7-10700 2.9ghz base clock for single core is still a little bit faster than i5-7600 3.50ghz based on real life benchmark test? So never look at the spec # alone.

Exactly.