What are G0s?

[toughwimp11]

I'm sorry if this is a stupid question but everyone keeps mentioning the Q6600 G0 and other G0 proccessors, and I'm confused as to what G0 refers to. can someone please clarify it for me?

 

[Acanthus]

G0 is a new stepping of processor for the core series.

In the new stepping they alter the layout of the core and make minor improvements that eliminate errata (minor hardware problems) and improve yields.

A G0 stepping processor will run slightly cooler and possibly overclock better than an older B3 stepping core.

At stock speeds, there will be no difference in performance at all, just slightly (i cant stress slightly enough) lower cpu temps.

 

[eelw]

It's referring to the stepping or the revision of the chips. Fine tunes or minor code changes are made as problems or errors are discovered. So in the most recent stepping on the C2D and C2Q, thermal changes have been made to reduce heat production. Less heat = greater potential to overclock.

 

[supaxi]

Hi,

I'm not in the IC business, but, I believe that the G0 stepping is a structural change to the processor design that requires a physical change the process mask. Several minor design bugs have been corrected and the new design draws less power (105 to 95) W. You will see SLACR on the a G0 intel box. Overall, it's probably not a big deal but if you were going to choose between one or the other at the same price, might as well get a G0.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I"ll add this. My understanding, from consulting the Intel web-site and the specs posted at various resellers, is nevertheless consistent with the remarks posted by others here.

But for the changes they cite as design improvements, the G0 processor also sports the specification of running at 1,333 Mhz FSB. So the question remains -- "How much farther does a Q6600 (for instance) in the G0 stepping over-clock above that promised FSB setting?"

Right now, you can, without a lot of trouble, run up a B3 stepping to 1,333 Mhz FSB, but you're lucky to get the processor to 3.1 Ghz on air cooling. Remarks on other active threads suggest some rather stark increases in VCORE and resulting core temperatures to get from 3.0 to 3.1.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Whoops. I could be wrong about G0 "guaranteed" to run at 1,333FSB. I thought I saw that somewhere. Definitely Penryn will run at that speed, but I see ASUS cross-referencing the G0 stepping to show it spec'd at 1066 FSB.

Sorry.

 

[BenchZowner]

Originally posted by: supaxi
Hi,

I'm not in the IC business, but, I believe that the G0 stepping is a structural change to the processor design that requires a physical change the process mask. Several minor design bugs have been corrected and the new design draws less power (105 to 95) W. You will see SLACR on the a G0 intel box. Overall, it's probably not a big deal but if you were going to choose between one or the other at the same price, might as well get a G0.

SLACR is the sSpec number for the Q6600.
It's the last 5 digits found in the product code on the package sticker.

http://www.intel.com/support/p...s/sb/img/c2d_label.jpg

The Q6700 are G0 only.

The sSpec numbers for all processors can be found on Intel's site.

http://processorfinder.intel.com/Default.aspx

 

[toughwimp11]

thanks, this really clarified everything