"K" Series Obsolete?

[Suffokation]

We are all aware of the latest BIOS updates from ASRock that essentially unlocks overclocking on any non K sku. Other Motherboard manufacturers have been quoted as do planning to do this aswell. With these plans in place, doesn't this make K sku's obsolete? What's the point in buy a $280 i5, when you can get a $200 one? This also makes Intel far more competitive as far as price/perf is concerned aswell.

[The Official Czex]

No... The BIOS updates only unlock BCLK OC' ing. Right?

[Godlygamer23]

Moved to CPUs, Motherboards, and Memory.

[AlwaysFSX]

That's only BCLK overclocking, not multiplier where the real magic happens. Plus non-k chips are lower binned ones which will not likely be able to OC far in the first place.

[thatguyyouknow75]

the issue is that they are less stable and will inevitably come with drawbacks and issues

[desertcomputer]

Well overclocking with base clocks require much more time and it can be more unstable. Also the fact they are not meant to be overclocked meaning the thermal of cpu would be quite bad if you dont have good cooler. 

[Suffokation]

No... The BIOS updates only unlock BCLK OC' ing. Right?

Point being?

[Swndlr]

K is nowhere near obsolete

[stconquest]

When you need to save that $50, sure grab a locked CPU.  But if you really want OC support, you geta K-Series.

[JebKerman]

BCLK is (probably) not as stable as ratio overclocking (not to haswell levels of course) and is more complex.

and there's always a chance that intel will do what they did with the G3258 or, more specifically the mojority of H81, B85, and H97 motherboards, essentially forced a bois update that disabled OCing.

[The Official Czex]

Point being?

 

 

Point being, BCLK overclocking is very risky business, is usually highly unstable, and requires beefy aftermarket coolers to pull decent performance at decent temps.

[Suffokation]

Point being, BCLK overclocking is very risky business, is usually highly unstable, and requires beefy aftermarket coolers to pull decent performance at decent temps.

Pair a 212, and an i3 and I gaurentee you'll get atleast 4GHz.

 

I might actually do it next week.

[TheRetiredSlave]

Technically the more direct equivalent to the i5-6600K would be the $230 i5-6600, not the $200 i5-6500. 

 

Anywhoo, base clock OC'ing isn't the same as multiplier overclocking. Since the base clock affects several things, you usually run into system instability much much sooner. It can usually help you squeeze a bit more performance out of a CPU, but you probably aren't going to push a non-K i5 to 4.5 Ghz using a BCLK OC (if the non-K i5 could even be stable at 4.5 on its own).

 

Edit: Was unaware that Skylake moved PCIe and chipset away from the base clock.. 

 

Edit: @coolkingler1 What, you haven't heard of the new i6's? Get with the program, noob!

[Godlygamer23]

Technically the more direct equivalent to the i5-6600K would be the $230 i6-6600, not the $200 i5-6500. 

 

Anywhoo, base clock OC'ing isn't the same as multiplier overclocking. Since the base clock affects several things, you usually run into system instability much much sooner. It can usually help you squeeze a bit more performance out of a CPU, but you probably aren't going to push a non-K i5 to 4.5 Ghz using a BCLK OC (if the non-K i5 could even be stable at 4.5 on its own).

BCLK overclocking affects the CPU, IGP, and RAM now. It no longer affects PCIe or the SATA ports.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/9848/bclk-overclocking-intels-non-k-skylake-processors-coming-soon

[astranger200]

Point being?

holy shit 1.632v on the core. ARE YOU CRAZY?

[Godlygamer23]

holy shit 1.632v on the core. ARE YOU CRAZY?

The CPU is running at nearly 5GHz. High voltage is to be expected.

[TheRetiredSlave]

BCLK overclocking affects the CPU, IGP, and RAM now. It no longer affects PCIe or the SATA ports.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/9848/bclk-overclocking-intels-non-k-skylake-processors-coming-soon

 

Interesting.. I hadn't read that.

 

That does make you wonder where this will go in the future. I guess an important consideration is how stable will motherboards and CPUs that aren't binned for OC'ing perform with their settings tweaked like that. I've had my 4770K mildly OC'd for about 2 years without having touched it's settings, but will a non-K series chip be able to do the same reliably given that it's not binned for high clocks? 

 

Of course, people have been saying for years that a overclockable i3 could a very enticing value. I'd look into it on a budget rig for sure.

 

holy shit 1.632v on the core. ARE YOU CRAZY?

 

That screenshot was taken by a LN2 overclocker.. High voltages like that are the norm in that situation.

[MageTank]

Interesting.. I hadn't read that.

 

That does make you wonder where this will go in the future. I guess an important consideration is how stable will motherboards and CPUs that aren't binned for OC'ing perform with their settings tweaked like that. I've had my 4770K mildly OC'd for about 2 years without having touched it's settings, but will a non-K series chip be able to do the same reliably given that it's not binned for high clocks? 

 

Of course, people have been saying for years that a overclockable i3 could a very enticing value. I'd look into it on a budget rig for sure.

 

 

That screenshot was taken by a LN2 overclocker.. High voltages like that are the norm in that situation.

My theory is that future K SKU's will get exclusive instruction sets or features. Locking virtualization, so only K's and Xeons can use them, specific features such as TSX being reserved for K series, etc. It make's sense too, as most gamers and non-enthusiasts have no need for them anyways. 

[TheRetiredSlave]

My theory is that future K SKU's will get exclusive instruction sets or features. Locking virtualization, so only K's and Xeons can use them, specific features such as TSX being reserved for K series, etc. It make's sense too, as most gamers and non-enthusiasts have no need for them anyways.

That'd be an interesting change though.. As far as I'm aware, the current and previous K-series chips (on the LGA115x platform) haven't had VT-d while the non-K chips do have it.

[Flibbib]

Point being?

Yeah, like that's stable...

[96Evo]

Point being, BCLK overclocking is very risky business, is usually highly unstable, and requires beefy aftermarket coolers to pull decent performance at decent temps.

 

but my i5 6500 is running at 4.3GHz with hyper 212 evo and tempt is around 40-50C. Is that cooler beefy?

It is stable.

 

 

 

 

K series wont be obselete, they are for enthusiast and overclocker, it a chip design for overclock.

[FruitBasketSilex]

Point being, BCLK overclocking is very risky business, is usually highly unstable, and requires beefy aftermarket coolers to pull decent performance at decent temps.

Not really. I believe it was @Gofspar that pretty easily got to 4.8(might be 4.6ghz on an i3-6100, BCLCK at like 143.6 iirc. Bclck no longer being tied to the north bridge really helps stability. That was all on the stock cooler too.

[MageTank]

but my i5 6500 is running at 4.3GHz with hyper 212 evo and tempt is around 40-50C. Is that cooler beefy?

It is stable.

 

 

 

 

K series wont be obselete, they are for enthusiast and overclocker, it a chip design for overclock.

Is that Idle or under load? I highly doubt that i5 would remain under 50C under any real AVX2 or FMA3 loads (Prime95, LinX, etc unless you got a golden bin and have it running at like 1.2-1.25V. 

[96Evo]

Is that Idle or under load? I highly doubt that i5 would remain under 50C under any real AVX2 or FMA3 loads (Prime95, LinX, etc unless you got a golden bin and have it running at like 1.2-1.25V.

It was during stress test under full load for 10hrs

Yeah the vcore is 1.24

My 4790k at 4.5ghz with 1.18v

[MageTank]

It was during stress test under full load for 10hrs

Yeah the vcore is 1.24

My 4790k at 4.5ghz with 1.18v

I'm sorry, but any stress test that only makes a CPU hit 50C on a 212 evo is not stressful at all, nor will I personally call it stable. 5 minutes of AVX2 would have that i5 at 70C+, i assure you. Sadly, people still believe Prime95 kills CPU's.