[eatthermalpaste]

Hi all,

I've been surfing around and comign to find a lot of anecdotal evidence around Batch # recently. It looks like the Batch # was definitely important maybe pre-2012 or 2013 or so, but recently makes little to no difference.

But I did find this abouto ne of the values in the batch #.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepping_level

states in there that:
Quote:

Typically, when an integrated circuit manufacturer such as Intel or AMD invests money to do a stepping (i.e. a revision to the masks), they have found bugs in the logic, have made improvements to the design that allow for faster processing, have found a way to increase yield or improve the "bin splits" (i.e. create faster transistors and hence faster CPUs), improve maneuverability to more easily identify marginal circuits, or reduce test time which can reduce the cost of testing the part.

So, my question is.. if the batch # doesnt matter that much then I'm thinking that the Stepping level/VID still DOES matter, so because of this.. it would pretty much mean that the Newest CPUs are the best CPUs?

And to add on to that, does anyone know what the Most RECENT Stepping revision code on the Batch # would be for an i7-5960X?

Is there a difference between the J batch / L batch / ???

 

[vs17e]

Quote:

Originally Posted by eatthermalpaste

it would pretty much mean that the Newest CPUs are the best CPUs?

iirc, there were some instances where the engineering sample chips sent out to reviewers would clock better than the actual chips upon release. I'm also not sure about the importance of batch numbers since there was always good and mediocre chips in every batch. There was a significant difference between chips produced in Costa Rica vs. Malaysia though back in the ivy bridge era.