News Intel closes base clock loophole in latest microcode update

What a shocker!

I bet nobody saw that coming.

If AMD were even remotely in the running, Intel would be happy to let this slide.

 

Only AMD are in the running because without overclocking the I3 6100 is quite slow when threading compared to the FX 6300 which overclocks to gain back some of the massive IPC difference and when threading still beats the overclocked I3 6100.

When overclocked the I3 came close but still doesn't outright beat the FX 6300 and costs more. At stock speed? I think I will go back to recommending the FX 6300 with a £45 MATX board that does overclock some.

If Intel wanted AMD gone completely? yeah, unlock an I3 job done game over. Without it though? it's either a lame 2 core Haswell that's practically useless in any of the more recent threaded games or straight to a fortune for the unlocked I5.

I bought one of those Pentium Anniversary things and all it did in gaming was stutter like a dog. Most notably in GTAV, it was completely useless.

 

I know it's possible to mod BIOS firmware and swap out the option ROM's so wouldn't it be possible to replace the new microcode with one from an older BIOS, granted you'd lose out on the fixes from the newer microcode so you'd have to check and see what else the new microcode fixes, that is if you can find any details about what the newer code fixes.

 

If it was designed to do it, it isn't overclocking.

 

Pardon?

 

I guess he is refering to overclocking of old. Such as the pencil mod.

 

Aha - I think you're right.

 

Well I think he is more referring to that overclocking is increasing the clock of a CPU past its recommended design point. So if you have a cpu that is designed to overclock, you technically aren't overclocking anymore since the cpu is designed to run at a range of clock speeds.

 

Ergo it's not designed to do it - so it's overclocking (by my understanding, anyway)

 

That is rather like tuning a car engine for more power but, not exceeding the engine's design limits and then saying it is not tuned.

 

Intel does not care for AMD period anymore, If they did they would of backed off a bit and let them fake catch up or breach some anti trust laws to give them some cash.

ARM prevents Intel having a exploitable monopoly.

Overclocking has always been about going beyond the limits, Thats the whole point. These K chips just made life easier.

 

This has been in the works by Intel for some time, hopefully it helps AMD. Competition is good!

 

Competition might be good, but this move from Intel is bad for consumers as they'll just end up having to give Intel more money for the equivalent level of performance they could have had from an overclocked i3 or i5.

 

Fully with you on this
That's what I liked about this - it was more back to the roots of overclocking.

 

Overclocking still works on the latest ASRock OC Formula BIOS with the new microcode.

I've not tested it, but it says to press X on boot and it enables their Sky OC feature. I guess it reboots and injects a different microcode ... I've not tried it myself.

 

To be fair though B your not likely to be OC'ing a lesser chip with a board like that

 

There's an i3 6320 in mine at the moment. I'm going after that elusive 741/742 dual core XTU score.

So far I've got 740 with some extremely quick RAM training and tuning, but I have the weekend to get those scores up to where I want to be.

 

The only reason Intel began to permit motherboard manufacturers to allow a person to get more performance from CPUs was AMD. Intel does not actually care about giving their consumers more for their money - except for the presence of AMD.

Remember the Intel 386 33MHz? It was around for at least 18 months. In those days AMD manufactured Intel CPUs. AMD decided to "one up" Intel and introduced their 386 40MHz. Intel responded by trashing the 386 series and produced the 486 and stopped their alliance with AMD. That move forced AMD to begin searching for a method to keep up with Intel - and so it is to this day.

Back to the point. I agree that Intel should permit consumers to do whatever they pleased with their CPUs, including getting more performance, unfortunately Intel does not concur, except with their more expensive products.

Intel wants your money.

 

AMD produced 486 CPUs, as did Cyrix.

Intel took the Pentium route, AMD went K5 and Cyrix produced the truly terrible 586.