Base clock overclocking to make its return with Intel Haswell?

by Hilbert Hagedoorn on: 01/15/2013 09:11 AM | source: | 14 comment(s)

German website hardCOREware speculates base clock overclocking (BClk) may return with the introduction of Intel's Haswell processor later this year. Base clock overclocking was severely limited with the introduction of Intel's Nehalem architecture, but it seems Haswell may reverse this because of Intel's focus on power efficiency.

Intel immediately discovered a design flaw in tying the L3 and CPU speeds together – if the GPU ever needed to access the L3 cache, the CPU speed would have to wake up as well. With Intel’s focus on power efficiency, this was a huge deal, which is why they will actually go back to individual clock speeds for the Uncore and CPU Core with Haswell.

This is pure speculation on my part, but it looks like the days of overclocking a locked CPU may be upon us again. By being able to manipulate the Uncore frequency separately from the CPU (and GPU) frequencies, there is a good chance that the lower end Haswell chips will become viable overclocking targets for enthusiasts once again. We may never see another 300a, but if we can have a $100 Haswell CPU running at similar frequencies to the $300 part, it will renew interest in overclocking for a lot of people.

Mufflore
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#4501059 Posted on: 01/15/2013 10:15 AM

I can see them locking the base clock now as well.

Cidious
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#4501143 Posted on: 01/15/2013 01:02 PM

I can also see a downside.. because right now about every Z77 motherboard is able to achieve somewhat the same overclocking results.. for example: Gigabyte Z77X-D3H is able to achieve about the same speeds as the much more expensive (120 euro vs 360 euro) Z77X-UP7 board.. if you are not thinking about N20..

So if you find a board that has all the features you need it should be enough for your overclocking needs anyway..

So right now I have a Z77X-D3H deluxe combined with a 3570K for about 350 euro together and great perfomance.. About the same performance if I would spend 200 to 400 more..

This will change because if we are going back to baseclock overclocking it all comes down to the motherboards again.. and you need a very expensive motherboard for some solid overclock results.. Pitty..

Mufflore
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#4501165 Posted on: 01/15/2013 01:24 PM

I'm not sure sure it will be that bad if you have an unlocked chip.
They would be nuts to remove the high multipliers now that they have shown its easy to implement.

schmidtbag
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#4501249 Posted on: 01/15/2013 02:48 PM

Last time I checked, wasn't it trying th NB to the CPU the reason why base clock was limited? I don't see why unlocking the L3 cache suddenly changes overclocking potential.

@cidious
Well, while you might need an expensive board to do a good overclock, at least a cheap one is able to do an OC as well. I haven't got any of intel setups involving newer generation CPUs yet so correct me if I'm wrong here but don't cheaper mobos not offer an ability to OC at all? Also, overclockable intel CPUs today are more expensive. With an overclockable base clock, you can still get better performance out of cheaper models.

Mufflore
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#4501259 Posted on: 01/15/2013 02:58 PM

The issue with cheaper boards is that cheaper (lower quality) silicon can be used on them.
This doesnt mean they 'will' be worse, but there is a higher probability.
Also the design of more expensive boards can allow higher frequencies to operate while receiving less interference and giving less interference out.

On Intel, Bclk clocking also overclocks the PCI-E, SATA etc buses.
So other things can also affect the stability of the overclock, but more stable signals and clocks, and less interference can help some kit achieve higher clocks.
But because of the linked clocks, Bclk will still be pretty limited imo.

StewieTech
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#4501266 Posted on: 01/15/2013 03:11 PM

I can see them locking the base clock now as well.

That would be the only thing negative about this.

cyclone3d
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#4502488 Posted on: 01/16/2013 10:35 PM

Base clock overclocking is already available again since LGA2011 was released.

Have my setup running at a 129bclk with my 3820 for a sweet 4.9Ghz.

If higher base clock overclocking is available on the new setup, that will be even nicer.

GhostXL
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#4502550 Posted on: 01/16/2013 11:42 PM

This is an interesting move, Back to Gen 1 i7 Oc'ing! Maybe with a twist?

macdaddy
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#4502552 Posted on: 01/16/2013 11:48 PM

isn't a the case that Intel moved all the motherboard controllers to the CPU that you see similar oc from low end to high end mobo. I say bring back base overclocking . I could play with it all day.

scoter man1
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