why does CPUs/CPU cores seem to be capped at 3 – 4 Ghz since almost a decade?

Question

why does CPUs/CPU cores seem to be capped at 3 – 4 Ghz since almost a decade?

In: 1368

Answer 1

We(intel specifically) learned the hard way that past a certain clock frequency(bout 3GHZ) going any higher will lead to unacceptable levels of heat and power draw(semi conductors actually ~~increase~~ lower electrical resistance as temperature rises):.

instead they figured that improving the instructions sets and having more cores at a lower clock was more efficient.

this was the main reason why the later pentuim 4’s while with impressive clock speeds were actually underperforming vs the Athlons of the time because this clock speed was wasted on an inneficient instruction pipeline(the step the CPU needs ot execute an instruction safely) and were drawing too much power and getting too hot ot achieve this.

EDIT: corrected a goof.