[plekter]

Process node changes generally doesn't do anything for IPC - those are generally rather due to microarchitecture improvements, so I doubt the move to 5nm has anything to do with the IPC gain..?

[wmf]

The node shrink lets you afford more transistors that provide more IPC.

[plekter]

I agree with that - but if you take an unchanged core and manufacture it at a different node, then you won't see a change in IPC, which in my book makes it questionable to attribute IPC gains to the process node.