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Overclocked Memory Breaks Core i7 CPUs
arcticstoat writes "Overclockers looking to bolster their new Nehalem CPUs with overclocked memory may be disappointed. Intel is telling motherboard manufacturers not to encourage people to push the voltage of their DIMMs beyond 1.65V, as anything higher could damage the CPU. This will come as a blow to owners of enthusiast memory, such as Corsair's 2.133MHz DDR3 Dominator RAM, which needs 2V to run at its full speed with 9-9-9-24 timings."
I understand the mindset, obligatory car analogy here, but it is not something I've ever done. Shopping for hardware has become a bit of a mine field lately, as most of the top tier motherboard and RAM manufacturers offer a *ton* of options for boosting the juice to various things all over the motherboard. They advertise this as a feature. I'm glad for those folks who like to go faster. It does make things a bit tricky having to check the RAM voltage, against what the motherboard can handle, and the processor will take, and hoping it all works. I'd like it if Asus and Gigabyte could maybe come up with a 'Get off my lawn!' series for us folks who like stock voltages, and wear onions on our belts.
Well the downsizing of the cpu transistors make them "faster" but also more fragile.
To be more specific overvolting is not a problem for the transistor itself but it is a problem for the interconnections due to the effect of Electromigration http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromigration.
The interconnections of latest CPUS are so thin that +0.15 could mean a lifespan cut of 50% or more. While higher values could mean a lifespan of months instead of years!
Its true that overclocking was always said to be a dangerous practice while actually till 1-2 years ago wasn't (with a proper cooling), but now we are using something that can be less and a hundred atoms wide!
Actually intel is frightened that a too common "high" overvolting pratices could make their CPU seem less reliable (well they are but is a intrisic problem not an intel fault)
Unluckily Murphy was right.
I've never noticed it in gaming, but matching the latency to the CPU timing can noticeably affect video encoding. Changing my ram from stock 3-3-3-5 to it's full supported 2-2-2-3 decreased encoding time significantly with no other changes to the machine.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
No, they're lower binned parts that couldn't make "enthusiast" OR normal speeds at 1.5 volts.
They crank up the voltage and re-rate them at a higher speed, and slap on ridiculous cooling (heat spreaders, heat pipes, built in fans).
They KNOW these pieces will fail at high rates, so they jack up the price and call it gamer/enthusiast RAM. When the return rates start to drop off, they start issuing rebates to move remaining stock.
Actually if you apply too much voltage to the gate of CMOS transistor you can exceed the breakdown voltage of the gate oxide which, as I recall, scales with oxide thickness which itself scale inversely with process node. So actually "overvolting" can be a problem for the transistors, although I admit I don't know if electromigration or oxide breakdown dominates as a failure mechanism given the minor voltage changes we are talking about here.