Monday, December 14th 2015
Rejoice! Base Clock Overclocking to Make a Comeback with "Skylake"
Since Intel fully integrated the core logic (northbridge) with its processors, overclocking them by tinkering with the base-clock (BClk, the primary clock domain from which the CPU's clock speed is set using multipliers), became unstable, as it was used as a cadence for other key components on the chip, such as iGPU and PCIe root-complex. Apparently, with its 6th generation Core "Skylake" processors, Intel has de-linked base-clock from other clock domains, re-enabling overclocking using BClk, which is particularly helpful on non-K (upwards multiplier locked) SKUs.
Some of the first motherboards that enable BClk overclocking on Skylake CPUs come from Supermicro, the server/workstation motherboard maker that's dipping its toes into DIY enthusiast platforms these days. "Dhenzjhen," an overclocker from the Philippines struck gold by achieving a 5.00 GHz overclock on a Core i3-6320 dual-core chip, using a Supermicro C7H170-M motherboard (which is driven by an Intel H170 chipset). Shortly after news of this feat broke, ASRock fired an email to the press, stating that its Z170 Extreme7+ motherboard is able to support 4.50 GHz clocks on a Core i5-6600 quad-core chip, using an experimental BIOS. ASRock is validating this BIOS internally, and hopes to release it "very soon."
Source:
The TechReport
Some of the first motherboards that enable BClk overclocking on Skylake CPUs come from Supermicro, the server/workstation motherboard maker that's dipping its toes into DIY enthusiast platforms these days. "Dhenzjhen," an overclocker from the Philippines struck gold by achieving a 5.00 GHz overclock on a Core i3-6320 dual-core chip, using a Supermicro C7H170-M motherboard (which is driven by an Intel H170 chipset). Shortly after news of this feat broke, ASRock fired an email to the press, stating that its Z170 Extreme7+ motherboard is able to support 4.50 GHz clocks on a Core i5-6600 quad-core chip, using an experimental BIOS. ASRock is validating this BIOS internally, and hopes to release it "very soon."
89 Comments on Rejoice! Base Clock Overclocking to Make a Comeback with "Skylake"
it even when further than this.. some chips simply to fit the market pricing structure had perfect good working parts crippled to fill in the lower price slots.. this was what the game was all about.. basically the same product being clocked different and sold to different market segments..
i had one of the first core 2 chips available in this country.. sold with a clock speed 3 gig.. i was soon benching mine at 4.5 gig.. this was what overclocking used to be about.. and maybe what its going back. :)
its wasnt really overclocking.. it was more running the chip closer to the speeds it was really capable of instead of the makers pretend figure..
trog
As to how far this reaches board-wise, I actually hope to see only Z170 boards with support, but the original SuperMicro board was H170. I do think options to adjust things need already exist within the board's BIOS. It works fine on my Z170 GAMING K6+, but multiplier adjustments are not available and the best results are from disabling turbo (obviously).Things are quite varied when it comes to a SKU. I have seen 6700K, for example, with stock voltage of 1.230 V - 1.325 V, and 24/7 air-cooled clocking abilities from 4.4 GHz to 5 GHz.
The non-K chips have very similar clockspeeds as their K-chip counterparts, but the biggest difference is a drop of 30W from the TDP. You are right that results between each will be very similar, but in the grand scheme of things, the non-K CPUs might end up on top, based on what I've had in my hands (which is a very limited number (<20 still) of Skylake chips).
So they will shut it down somehow asap.
Edit: Only Z170 boards will work as most H based boards dont come with an external Clock-Generator for BCLK afaik..
So is it something in the non-K CPUs that prevent the BIOS from changing the BCLK on boards that otherwise support that?
This should also mean there is a good chance people could bump those 6700HQ laptop chips up via windows...hmmmm maybe I don't need a 6820HK
regardless of crappy softlocks and "buy this promo code to update your cpu" stuff, intel will still profit big time so its a win-win
thx dhenzjhen
The point of bclk overclocking is to get better value out of cheap options.
I hope Zen is just good enough to make Intel do something, anything to give better value to their expensive products.
All hail the core+cache unlocked Denebs and overclocked-on-any-board Wolfdales/Conroes, the kings of value xD
Wow I'm so happy, I wanted to get the ASRock H170M Pro4 the only board with display port (apart for the pricy ROG) in the m-ATX form factor.
I haven't seen much real world results from cache in any (intel)platform. Only in a couple of hwbot benchmarks does it matter too...
For bclk only, you won't see any increases really on z170 since it isn't associated with any other bus.