Nexus 7's processor question

[Guest timfimjim]

This might be a simple question to answer but...

The new transformer pad infinity has been announced with the same processor as the nexus 7, only it's clocked at 1.6ghz instead of 1.3ghz.

Can anyone tell me why it's clocked higher on the transformer than the nexus?

And also, does this mean that overclocking the nexus 7 CPU should in theory be stable at 1.6ghz?

[Guest Pondlife]

There's roms on xda clocked at 1.7 maybe even 1.8 not sure how stable they are, but it could make it run hotter and lower battery life, not seeing a need to OC it atm

Oops not 1.8 yet anyway.

Edited July 26, 2012 by Pondlife

[Guest timfimjim]

Yeah I have seen the overclocking kernel threads but I was wondering why they're not clocked at the same speed in factory.

Unless they are different versions of the same processor or something like that...

[Guest Fursty Ferret]

It's a balance between battery life and speed. The Infinity is about 50% bigger than the Nexus 7. which means the battery capacity is about 2-3 times as much, along with a much greater ability to radiate waste heat.

Hence, the slower clock speed in the Nexus 7. Having said that, it's remarkably tolerant to undervolting so I think you could probably get away with running it at 1.6GHz with minimal extra heat generation or battery life impact.

[Guest chrisbarker]

I was under the understanding that in these things there is usually a volume/yield consideration.

The manufacturing process turns out chips of varying quality, if your tablet is going to be rated at 1.6ghz then there is a lower yield than say at 1.3ghz as the variation in the process may make the chips unstable at higher speed. Therefore although it may be possible to over clock and get away with it, it may be that the Nexus 7 chips are from the stock of chips that weren't rated to go higher for some reason.

I may have it arse about tit but this is how I always understood it, chips rated higher are rarer and therefore more expensive.

Edited July 27, 2012 by chrisbarker

[Guest cjb110]

If you read AnandTech's review, you'll see they republish the Tegra 3 models.

Basically the Nexus has the cheapest of the 3 models, with the lowest speed, (due to manufacturing defects more than anything else, as

chrisbaker said, the process of manufacturing often gives them varying quality, and they all try to make the most of this!)

But tbh on a tablet usage model, 400mhz is not likely noticeable.

So this is not like the HP Touchpad which was shipped underclocked, but like any CPU/GPU that is 'binned', *some* users might be able to overclock it.

Edited July 28, 2012 by cjb110

[Guest the juggernaut]

its called speed binning but also how much you could overclock by depends on something called the 'silicone lottery' some overclock really well and others don't but it does also involve how quickly you can get rid of excess heat this is all the same as in the computer processor industry but it is the same concept