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Bypassing Intel's Overclock Limit Reveals DDR2-667
BatonRogue writes "Slashdot posted a Tomshardware article talking about Intel's 10% overclock limit on their new chipsets not too long ago. The situation has just become even more interesting. AnandTech just posted a roundup of DDR2 memory that sheds some light as to why Intel may have implemented the lock. It seems that on the Abit board they tested, which supposedly bypasses the overclock limit, the first generation of DDR2-533 memory modules had no problems working at 667MHz. Could it be that Intel is keeping DDR2-667 support for yet another revision of their new chipsets even though the memory support is clearly here today?"
I seem to recall last week almost the exact same posting, however it was using AMD's name rather than Intel.
Anyone got any intel on that? (-;
Mike
Gamblers Forum
While I really dont like companies crippling the hardware I buy. Could you imagine a shovel that would stop you from moving sand too quickly ?
I have to say that if my systems are %10 slower but even %05 more reliable its a good trade off. I'm not saying that they are super unreliable now, given all that goes into making a computer behave and the number of suppliers involved. Its just that some of these machines are so fast that I there is no value to me personally in overclocking.
I think that businesses generally have enough to worry about with proper operation to not want to overclock their processors. If Intel is working with memory makers to insure stability they should be up front about it -- people would understand the overclocking then.
Overclocking adds another possible source of problems that most companies don't need.
Turn the question around. Instead of asking "why buy $1000 3.4 GHz chip instead of $500 3.2 GHz chip", ask this: how come Intel doesn't label that second chip "3.4 GHz" and sell it to you for $1000?
That would be $500 extra revenue for Intel. How come they don't do it?
Perhaps it's something to do with increased failure rates, warranty returns, and a negative hit on their reputation.
Intel grades their chips. They mark each chip with the speed that they feel comfortable selling with Intel's name and warranty.
If you want to overclock your chip, it's your chip; you bought it, you didn't license it with a stupid EULA! But the problem comes when another company (not Intel) buys a $500 chip from Intel, overclocks it, and then marks up the price and sells it in a system as if it were a $1000 chip. Intel gets nothing all the trouble, the cheater company gets the markup, and the end user gets the shaft.
That was hardly a deception. Intel sold chips with damaged Co-Processors as 486SXs. This allowed them to increase their chip yields, and make money on something that would have otherwise been garbage. That's not to say that some SXs didn't have working coprocessors that had been disabled. In those cases, Intel simply remarked DX chips to meet the demand for the SX line. (How many damaged chips can you manufacture?)
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Intel reliability standards call for infant mortality less than 500 units per million and a service life of 7-10 years depending on product. The goals of overclockers are very different.
Ever heard of a schmoo? It a contour graph of what frequencies a part will work at at a given voltage and frequency (and that's only at one set temperature). Ofthen is is very blob like and can have holes of instability or islands of stability. You need to pick product offerings that not only yield well, but are far enough on any contour line from the schmoo that you can test the part at a few values of voltage and frequency with confidence. Tester time is a bottleneck, and Intel test more than anyone else.
Yes, downbinning occurs for marketing reasons, but generally for economy products. Believe me, Intel and every company fights for yields at the top bin for every flagship product. Even when downbinning occurs, it is done to match actual yield to orders, not out of any desire to hold back.
So you can beleive the last three paragraphs or you can believe that Intel is being forced to slow the rate of product advangement by the Carlye Group. It's up to you.
This reminds me of a story an older IT guy told me years ago. He was in charge of several mini-computers in the 70s. The company who made the computer told him they could upgrade it when he needed more capacity. When he ordered the upgrade, the computer company sent a tech out to do it. The tech opened up a panel on the computer, cut one wire with a pair of clippers and closed the panel. I don't think they even had to reboot it.
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