Intel are hitting back at gamers who overclock their CPUs

Intel are hitting back at gamers and enthusiasts that have overclocked non K line CPUs. However, is this is a step too far by Intel and how will it leave gamers feeling about this?

[ShadowKnight]

Interesting article. Intel would be making a mistake if they do this.

[solvemymaze]

Thanks, I agree! What goes up must come down and the greed of them could be their downfall.

[SunnyZ]

I welcome you into the realm of hardware DLC!

Everyone gets the same hardware to save on manufacturing costs.
But only certain parts of your hardware are available.
To unlock the overclocking bonus, you must download some new software that costs money, AKA DLC.

[solvemymaze]

I couldn't agree more. It is the same as DLC on a disk.

[DragonKnight]

Intel's funeral. They don't get to dictate what consumers do with their hardware. They'll learn that the hard way I suppose.

[DarkOcelet]

They will indeed learn when AMD strikes with a cheaper and a better CPU.

[Shinuz]

Seriously amd have been slacking behind way too much in the cpu department.

[uth11]

Eh, they've been locked in this battle for over 30 years, for which AMD has only ever been ahead for brief periods. I don't think they're too worried especially as AMD isn't looking so healthy financially these days

[Kleptic]

yeah this isn't at all related to AMD...this is actually a situation more related to how noncompetitive AMD is in the cpu space, and Intel trying to not cannibalize a 'premium' line of cpu's by overclocking cheaper units.

Intel has the instructions locked up for the time being...AMD has no chance of releasing truly competitive cpu's against intel until those standards are gone...and my guess is that won't happen until a court gets involved, as its only gotten worse over the past decade...

[Back-to-Back]

"They will indeed learn when AMD strikes with a cheaper and a better CPU."

If history shows us one thing, its that AMD cpu's are vastly inferior to Intel.

[solvemymaze]

They're well on their way with this. It'll be interesting to see how this backfires on Intel.

[Eidolon]

Their octa-core cpus can barely keep up with Intel's quad-core and they have much higher power consumption.

[nitus10]

The article is mainly about ASRock and other Z170 motherboard manufactures releasing BIOS updates that allow none "K" Skylake processors to be over-clocked.

Personally I have no issue with people who like to over-clock however if the processor is damaged is Intel really libel to replace that processor?

I do have a Skylay Core i7-6700 processor and have no interest in over-clocking however I would not be impressed if as a result of the latest BIOS update my processor exceeded it's specifications which is 3.4GHz to 4GHz (turbo) and was destroyed in the process since I am only using the normal Intel heat-sink.

Be that as it may since the latest BIOS update my processor can easily hit but not exceed 4GHz and I am not doing anything out of the ordinary. I have not noticed any problems with overheating so I think I am ok.

Under normal operating conditions my processor runs at 800MHz through 2.5GHz with my core temperatures being around 22 to 40 deg C and my fans (3 off) are so quiet I can't hear them unless I put my ears next to the case.

[endi123]

Bad Intel! Bad, bad intel!
No cookies for you!!!

[Duke19]

The dominant force in the industry getting greedy? Imagine that.

On the plus side, this will end up being a good thing for AMD

[garrettbobbyferguson]

Good thing for AMD until they mess it up again somehow. They really need to step up their driver/software support. Some users of E:D were having BSODs when performing a function that you have to perform throughout the game. The cause of this BSOD was AMD CPUs.

[Duke19]

Yeah, I mean my last few builds have always gone intel and am not advocating for AMD cpu's right now at all.. just saying some more competition is always good, even if its just from the leader stumbling a bit

[TimelessDbz]

AMD for cheap pc gamers and they are usually the first to have an issue or bugs with their game. I don't see how people buying amd

[Back-to-Back]

Yup gamers cheap out on AMD cpus and gpu's and then complain when things go wrong. If you call yourself a pc gamer the real master race is Intel and nVidia.

[TimelessDbz]

You speak nothing but the truth.

[tee_bag242]

I have a 5820k and a 980ti, but what you wrote is pure fanboy BS.

[Tzuno]

Here you go people Intel's real face.

[dreadz74]

You guys know that AMD is releasing anew line of powerful Cpu's right? The Zen line is going to more powerful you guys are not up to date on AMD keep sleeping like Intel until it's too late.

[solvemymaze]

I can't wait to see how AMDs CPUs work out in this one. It could be an industry changer.

[suli5595]

I have an i7-6700K so I don't give a shizzzzzzz

[conanlifts]

Same. I got mine a few days ago with my new pc. Seems capable and supposedly has a 4ghz boost. Still, i dont think they should stop people from overclocking if that's what they wish.

[suli5595]

4GHz Boost????? Come on you're doing it wrong bro!!! If I want to go ham with it I clock it up to 5GHz, but I run it on a stable 4.7GHz lol.

[conanlifts]

Yep i am certainly doing it wrong. It's my first pc in over a decade ( only owned it a week) and havent tried to overclock anything yet. By 4ghz i meant my 6700k is 3.4ghz with a 4ghz boost wnable as standard. No ovrrclocking done.

[suli5595]

Oh no, you better take care because what you have isn't an i7-6700K but the i7-6700, yours is stock 3.4 GHz and boostable to 4GHz, while the K variation is stock 4GHz and boostable up to 5GHz or so. Be careful not to overwork your processor because what you have isn't the K variation.

[conanlifts]

Ah, okay thanks for that. Like i said it's my first pc in over a decade. Luckily i dont need to overclock anything yet, it is being used with a gtx 970. This should be enough for a while until the next wave of gpus have landed and settled. The beauty of changing from console to pc is remasters no longer matter, everything is remastered now. It also means have a big back catalogue of games to try.

[suli5595]

Yeah you're right, all these remasters don't matter anymore, besides quantum break just got announced on pc today!

[Razuel]

is this strictly opinion based off gossip? I don't see a source.

[FlyingFoxy]

5820k here so doesn't bother me in the least, this reminds me of when it was possible to buy some GPU's and unlock parts of it. I had an ATI 9500 Non Pro card a long time ago and used software to unlock it to a 9500 Pro, it was definitely faster in games but had one problem: some textures had a flashing chessboard effect. It didn't happen in all games but it was an issue still.

Anyway my point with PC stuff, usually it's better to get what you should for the cash, don't skimp and hope to unlock something for better performance.

I spoke to a guy at Digital Foundry and even he recommended a 5820k over a 6700k now, he says even the Division is using 12 threads!

[tee_bag242]

Yep. 5820k FTW

[nitus10]

You are quite right the Intel 6 Core i7-5820K does support 12 threads while the 4 Core i7-6700 and 4 Core i7-6700k only support 8 threads. Of course you are going to pay more for the performance improvement and if you don't have a Z170 motherboard you will not be able to use it.

If you are building a new machine then there would not be any issue except for cost but if you are upgrading you will need to replace not only your processor and motherboard but possibly your memory (you should consider 16GB DDR4 3200 minimum) as well.

Of course if you really want to be future proof you could consider a Intel 8 Core i7-5960X with a 20MB cache and 16 threads it's a steal at approximately double the price.

Actually no matter how powerful a PC you build there will always be someone who will build a more powerful one and usually within the hour. :-)

[itisallaboutps]

I have an I5 6600k and I have no issue with non ks being oc. Good for them honestly. This just makes me want to go for amd even more. And i wished i would have waited for zen.

[VJGenova]

Intel CPUs >>>>> AMD CPUs. It's not even close. All this means is I will continue to buy top of the line CPUs every 3 years or so. NBD.

[Devil1870]

i already decided that my next cpu and gpu will be AMD

nvidia fucked consumers over with the GTX970 debacle and tried to screw over AMD with their GameWorks software

and now intel is screwing over the consumers?

jesus these companies are greedy.

[solvemymaze]

I agree. They're some mighty greedy bastards

[Revvin]

It's not like they are blocking over clocking of all CPU's. If every motherboard manufacturer did as ASRock did you would have a lot of inexperienced users trying to overclock their hardware and having chips fail which would be a PR nightmare for Intel.

[nitus10]

You are spot on. Even though I do have an Intel 4 Core i7-6700 (not the "k" model) and the latest Z170 motherboard update I find that I can easily go into turbo mode which is 4GHz (should be 3.4GHz). Fortunately it is capped and I can't go any higher otherwise my Intel heat sink may not cope with the heat generated.

Actually the recommendation when you do a BIOS update is to reset to the default settings and only change what you need to change. I kept the defaults since I am not into over-clocking.

Even though I can easily go into turbo mode I have not noticed any heating issues since my processor normally sits between 20 deg C (idle and web surfing) and 35 deg C (VLC, simple and emulated games, photo editing, etc) although I can hit about 60 deg C with video translation.

My clock frequency does vary between 800MHz and 2.5GHz under normal usage but can on occasion hit 4GHz.

As you have mentioned it would be a PR nightmare for Intel if people who did not have the "k" model processor to accidentally over-clock and destroy their processor although I do know it does have thermal protection, still you never know if it will trip in time.

[DJ]

Intel made a pricing error. Big woop. Just get a core i7.

[Deeke]

Intel isn't hitting back at GAMERS, it's hitting back at manufacturers that literally went against its advisory regulations.