Intel Core i3 K Version

[FireFox]

Wouldn't it have been pretty good to have a K-version of the Core i3

 

I wonder why they didn't do it, a Sandy Bridge Core i3 clocked at over 4.0Ghz surely would have been quite a potent little chip

 

 

[Levent]

yeah but that would kill the market margin of non K i5's

[FireFox]

Shouldn't be too bad, an unlocked Core i5 overclocked has pretty much the same performance as a Core i7 in games

[Levent]

Shouldn't be too bad, an unlocked Core i5 overclocked has pretty much the same performance as a Core i7 in games

actually if we compare i really think an unlocked i3 with 4 threads is pretty much enough for gaming

but i think i intel atleast should have limited multipliers like 20-24-28-32-36-40-42-45 even with these if price is ok i would go for an i3 if i were just play games (since there is no point of having i3 overclocked over 4.5ghz because of the expense of the cooling)

[Art Vandelay]

It would certainly take a chunk out of the FX-4300 and 6300 market. It might take a bit of a chunk out of the core i5 market, but that's doubtful. It would also be great for suicide runs.

[atomicmonkey101]

I would love to see intel come out with a low end (for them) K series i3. It would open up opportunities for cheaper intel builds that can still handle gaming well.

[Brandonsr]

My old i3 2120 was plenty for gaming, at least type of games I play. If they made a K version I would buy it.

[bennyino]

i think they could do that if it was only a dual core with no ht

[unidentical]

My guess would be the i3 chips are probably going to be lower down on the bins, where as the top end i5s and i7s will be pretty close to one another in terms of silicon quality. They probably just figured it's best to minimize the warranty returns.

 

Either that or an unlocked i3 would be too competitive with their premium chips and we wouldn't want that, now would we?

[TechFan@ic]

They intentionally did not offer unlocked i3 processors because such products would cannibalize sales of their i5 processors (non-hyperthreaded quad cores)

[Glenwing]

They intentionally did not offer unlocked i3 processors because such products would cannibalize sales of their i5 processors (non-hyperthreaded quad cores)

 

I doubt it would actually do that much.  A stock i5 destroys an i3 in gaming.  You could overclock the i3 but you can overclock the i5 too.

[Nit3Rid3R]

I would actually like a i3 k version, would be nice to see how far you can push it. 

[tabuburn]

Well with Haswell, any CPU will be overclockable with the adjustable BLK.

[Morfy]

Well with Haswell, any CPU will be overclockable with the adjustable BLK.

I would be interested in the source you have, this would be massive if it's true.

[Testbuilds]

yeah but that would kill the market margin of non K i5's

Well the i5s that could overclock didn't kill the i7s. And quad core i7s are hyper threaded, like i3s, but i5s aren't, so in non-gaming workloads, the 4 cores will be better than the 2 cores/4 threads by a wider margin than the 4 cores/8 threads will be better than the 4 cores/4 threads.

[tabuburn]

I would be interested in the source you have, this would be massive if it's true.

The default BCLK for Haswell parts will remain at 100MHz, however now you'll have the ability to select 125MHz or 167MHz as well.

Source: http://www.anandtech.com/show/6898/intel-details-haswell-overclocked-at-idf-beijing

 

BCLK is the base clock for the CPU. A CPU's actual frequency is the BCLK+Multiplier (ex: 3770K - 100MHz BCLK X 35x Multiplier = 3500MHz). Most known way of overclocking is adjusting the multiplier and voltage. But you can also overclock by adjusting the BCLK and voltage. Only K CPU's have that multiplier unlocked. So a 4770 (non-K) will be able to overclock if you do it like this: 125MHz BCLK X 35x Multiplier = 4375MHz.

 

Back in the day BCLK was adjustable but with the past few generations it was locked or just barely unlocked. The drawback with BCLK overclocking is that if you increase or decrease it, it also affects your RAM and PCI-e lane speeds as well. Haswell adds dividers for this so when you increase the BCLK for the CPU, it does not affect the rest.

 

Like all overclocking though, it is still subject to the silicon lottery.

[Morfy]

Source: http://www.anandtech.com/show/6898/intel-details-haswell-overclocked-at-idf-beijing

 

BCLK is the base clock for the CPU. A CPU's actual frequency is the BCLK+Multiplier (ex: 3770K - 100MHz BCLK X 35x Multiplier = 3500MHz). Most known way of overclocking is adjusting the multiplier and voltage. But you can also overclock by adjusting the BCLK and voltage. Only K CPU's have that multiplier unlocked. So a 4770 (non-K) will be able to overclock if you do it like this: 125MHz BCLK X 35x Multiplier = 4375MHz.

 

Back in the day BCLK was adjustable but with the past few generations it was locked or just barely unlocked. The drawback with BCLK overclocking is that if you increase or decrease it, it also affects your RAM and PCI-e lane speeds as well. Haswell adds dividers for this so when you increase the BCLK for the CPU, it does not affect the rest.

 

Like all overclocking though, it is still subject to the silicon lottery.

 

 

Source: http://www.anandtech.com/show/6898/intel-details-haswell-overclocked-at-idf-beijing

 

BCLK is the base clock for the CPU. A CPU's actual frequency is the BCLK+Multiplier (ex: 3770K - 100MHz BCLK X 35x Multiplier = 3500MHz). Most known way of overclocking is adjusting the multiplier and voltage. But you can also overclock by adjusting the BCLK and voltage. Only K CPU's have that multiplier unlocked. So a 4770 (non-K) will be able to overclock if you do it like this: 125MHz BCLK X 35x Multiplier = 4375MHz.

 

Back in the day BCLK was adjustable but with the past few generations it was locked or just barely unlocked. The drawback with BCLK overclocking is that if you increase or decrease it, it also affects your RAM and PCI-e lane speeds as well. Haswell adds dividers for this so when you increase the BCLK for the CPU, it does not affect the rest.

 

Like all overclocking though, it is still subject to the silicon lottery.

I love to see that they separated the lanes, it was stupid before, with the 2nd and 3rd gen cores, this will bring a massive change in OC-ing, thanks fot the source.

[Glenwing]

If you could do that why buy an i5? Its all just part of Intel's business plan

For the 4 physical cores.

[TechFan@ic]

I doubt it would actually do that much.  A stock i5 destroys an i3 in gaming.  You could overclock the i3 but you can overclock the i5 too.

Well tell that to Intel, because that's what they actually believe, in fact I heard a couple of reviewers (including Linus) say this at one point in the past.

If Intel believe that then they must've done a TON of cost/benefit analysis.

[TechFan@ic]

Source: http://www.anandtech.com/show/6898/intel-details-haswell-overclocked-at-idf-beijing

 

BCLK is the base clock for the CPU. A CPU's actual frequency is the BCLK+Multiplier (ex: 3770K - 100MHz BCLK X 35x Multiplier = 3500MHz). Most known way of overclocking is adjusting the multiplier and voltage. But you can also overclock by adjusting the BCLK and voltage. Only K CPU's have that multiplier unlocked. So a 4770 (non-K) will be able to overclock if you do it like this: 125MHz BCLK X 35x Multiplier = 4375MHz.

 

Back in the day BCLK was adjustable but with the past few generations it was locked or just barely unlocked. The drawback with BCLK overclocking is that if you increase or decrease it, it also affects your RAM and PCI-e lane speeds as well. Haswell adds dividers for this so when you increase the BCLK for the CPU, it does not affect the rest.

 

Like all overclocking though, it is still subject to the silicon lottery.

AMD CPUs, are still overclocked this way even ones with locked multipliers, AMD doesn't call it BCLK though, it's called CPU Buss Frequency & it does the exact same thing as BCLK.

[tabuburn]

AMD CPUs, are still overclocked this way even ones with locked multipliers, AMD doesn't call it BCLK though, it's called CPU Buss Frequency & it does the exact same thing as BCLK.

Yup. BCLK is just a shortened version for Bus Clock which is pretty much synonymous with AMD's Bus Frequency.