Article ID: 000038047 Content Type: Maintenance & Performance Last Reviewed: 10/24/2023

Why Is the Base Frequency of the Intel® Processor Slightly Different upon Changing Motherboards?

Environment

Intel® Core™  Desktop Boxed Processors 

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Summary

Explains the relationship between the base frequency of the processor and the motherboard.

Description

Upon changing motherboards, the base frequency of the processor is slightly different (for example, from 3.58 GHz and 3.6 GHz). Why is this happening?

Resolution

The processor base frequency is dependent on the motherboard clock generator. Changing the motherboard with the same processor could result in the base frequency varying slightly due to different motherboard configurations.

The base frequency of the processor= (Clock speed for motherboard) X (internal CPU clock rate).