Now you can overclock even a 'locked' Intel Skylake processor

[ahhming]

This was made possible by a BIOS update from ASRock that enables BCLK, or base clock, overclocking with any Skylake CPU on its Z170 motherboards. Owners of ASRock motherboards will be the first to benefit, but other motherboard manufacturers are probably not too far behind.

When Techspot tested this out on an ASRock Fatal1ty Z170 Gaming K6+ motherboard, they managed to boost the Intel Core i3-6100 processor to an impressive 4.7GHz, up from the base speed of 3.7GHz. This was done solely by increasing the base clock (they achieved a high of 127MHz) as the Core i3-6100 CPU is technically still ‘locked’, which means that the CPU multiplier is fixed at 37.

Source:

http://www.techspot.com/review/1108-intel-locked-skylake-cpu-bclk-overclocking/

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/skylake-base-clock-overclocking,30752.html

http://www.techradar.com/sg/news/computing-components/processors/even-intel-s-cheap-skylake-cpus-can-be-ramped-up-with-serious-overclocking-1311110

http://hexus.net/tech/news/mainboard/88898-locked-skylake-cpus-can-overclocked-bios-update/

[Sakkura]

Not really news, and Intel will likely deactivate it with a microcode update through Windows Update (inb4 linux master race).

[pwn_intended]

Hasn't this been around since haswell and not news at all?

 

EDIT: BCLK overclocking HAS been allowed on non-K cpu's before haswell, and was removed for haswell from what I just quickly gathered.

[TheGrim123321]

Coolio, I'll just buy a unlock processor tho.

[AllHokage]

Been around for a while I believe anyway...

[mikat]

Not really news, and Intel will likely deactivate it with a microcode update through Windows Update (inb4 linux master race).

that would be really sad, inb4 disable windows update.

[Sakkura]

Hasn't this been around since haswell and not news at all?

 

EDIT: BCLK overclocking HAS been allowed on non-K cpu's before haswell, and was removed for haswell from what I just quickly gathered.

 

BCLK overclocking was always "allowed", but the Skylake feature allowing it to scale beyond 3-4% was disabled on locked CPUs.

[mikat]

Coolio, I'll just buy a unlock processor tho.

there is no unlocked i3

[TheGrim123321]

there is no unlocked i3

I don't plan on overclocking any i3's. I'll wait till I can afford an i7, then buy an unlocked one.

[pwn_intended]

BCLK overclocking was always "allowed", but the Skylake feature allowing it to scale beyond 3-4% was disabled on locked CPUs.

Ahh, i see. Thanks for the clarification.

[The_Stig]

Old-ish news. I don't think that this is important unless the lower-range boards can do it too. After all, what the point of buying a i3 and a Z170 motherboard when you could get a i5 and a H or B series motherboard for almost the same price (unless you plan on upgrading in the future).

[Sauron]

I thought you could already change bclk on z motherboard, even with "locked" cpus.

[Lays]

Not really news, and Intel will likely deactivate it with a microcode update through Windows Update (inb4 linux master race).

 

 

It's BIOS level, they'd need to force the motherboard makers to revert their changes that have been made to the BIOS to unlock the stuff in the first place, even then the damage has been done, people already have the BIOS.

 

@ahhming Asrock isn't the first people to do this, Asus also has it & so does Supermicro.

 

 

I thought you could already change bclk on z motherboard, even with "locked" cpus.

 

Only to ~102.95, 103 was instant BSOD on these "locked" skylake cpus.

[Sakkura]

It's BIOS level, they'd need to force the motherboard makers to revert their changes that have been made to the BIOS to unlock the stuff in the first place, even then the damage has been done, people already have the BIOS.

 

No, they can force a microcode update through Windows if necessary (and if Microsoft plays along). That will override the BIOS in this regard.

[Lays]

No, they can force a microcode update through Windows if necessary (and if Microsoft plays along). That will override the BIOS in this regard.

 

Is it really worth the trouble? 

 

I'd venture to bet that sales on these chips has gone up a lot, intel has such a big market share I'm sure this will probably help them rather than damage them.  I'd think they're getting tons of positive media out of this, probably boosting sales even more.

 

For serious overclockers this is a great thing, there's TONS of dual core benchmark records that haven't been broken in YEARS because of intel locking stuff down like this, so everybody over on hwbot is snagging these CPU's up to go and get boatloads of points. (There was literally dual core records on hwbot from the  1366 days that hadn't been broken by new haswell or skylake stuff before this unlocking stuff)

I know lots of people from hwbot have already bought lots of them to bin, I wouldn't be surprised if there were more people as well.

[Sakkura]

Is it really worth the trouble? 

 

I'd venture to bet that sales on these chips has gone up a lot, intel has such a big market share I'm sure this will probably help them rather than damage them.  I'd think they're getting tons of positive media out of this, probably boosting sales even more.

 

They didn't mind cracking down on it last time. And while the sales of these cheaper non-K chips may increase, the sales of the more expensive K chips may suffer.

[Megahurt]

I thought you could already change bclk on z motherboard, even with "locked" cpus.

Nope, only the unlocked CPUs had the option of changing the BCLK independently from everything else.

[Clyne]

This happened before..., a buddy of my got his locked(non k) 2600 on a Z68 board to 4.4ghz (somewhere around that range).

[Clyne]

that would be really sad, inb4 disable windows update.

Intel already did it with the G3258 with Windows 10, but it was more of disabling overclocking on non z boards.

[NumLock21]

SuperMicro did it first then Asrock and Asus followed

[Dabombinable]

Hasn't this been around since haswell and not news at all?

 

EDIT: BCLK overclocking HAS been allowed on non-K cpu's before haswell, and was removed for haswell from what I just quickly gathered.

Though the 3.3GHGz base clock that I managed on my i5 4440 was good, didn't need turbo boost then.

[Sakkura]

This happened before..., a buddy of my got his locked(non k) 2600 on a Z68 board to 4.4ghz (somewhere around that range).

 

Sandy/Ivy Bridge was different, because there were no locked Core i5s or i7s on the desktop. They were either the fully unlocked K CPUs or the "limited unlocked" non-K CPUs. My Core i5-3450 (stock 3.1-3.5 GHz) is sitting at 3.9 GHz without any change to the BCLK.

[Uwillparish]

They'll just remove it later anyways, thanks Microsoft for making my h81m-k not able to over clock my g3258

[MageTank]

They'll just remove it later anyways, thanks Microsoft for making my h81m-k not able to over clock my g3258

That's why i disabled automatic updates with the Group Policy Editor. Don't need my G4400 going back down to 3.3ghz after tasting 4.6. For overclockers, getting the professional edition of windows 10 is a must all around.