ElI5: how is each CPU unique even tho they’re labelled the same? For example a Ryzen 9 5900X can be better than another Ryzen 9 5900X.
In: Technology
When they make the chips they aim for them all the be the top tier in the class they’re batching. But the scale and complexity is so enormous that microscopic defects can degrade quality.
So they test them chips.
All the chips that meet the criteria for Tier 1 gets batched into Tier 1
All the chips that meet the criteria for Tier 2 get batched into Tier 2, etc.
This might also include disabling cores or other functions.
There is a small range between tiers, so it’s possible for a chip to *just* fail Tier 1 to be batched with one that *just* passed Tier 2.
You can also end up with uneven defects – eg two cores might be fucked on a chip but everything else is near perfect – they’ll disable the cores and batch it with the chips with the reduced cores/performance, even though the rest of the chip is a higher quality.
You can also get weird cases where they’ll intentionally downgrade working cores/chip ratings when there’s good demand for the lower tier versions and they don’t want to flood the market with the higher tier versions and push down the prices of the whole product line.
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