Maximum PC

Apparently, the next-gen Intel CPUs will have every bus speed tied to the base clock. (Overclockers.com link)

This is bad because:



I expect some really pricey motherboards aimed at overclockers for the next-gen platform.

yeah, pretty depressing. The worst part is that there's no engineering reason for doing this, Intel is specifically trying to limit OCs. In fact, someone leaked a presentation slide where Intel shows all the work they did to stop overclockers.

This isn't the first time that I've heard something like this ... I'll believe it when I see it.

Hopefully, the leak is wrong or Intel changes their mind.

Wow! I thought Intel had already learned their lesson about overclocking back in the 90s. How quickly we forget, huh?

I forgot to add that if Intel releases multiplier unlocked chips, e.g. the K-suffix i5 655K and i7 875K, then that will probably be the go-to method of overclocking. Unfortunately, this will mean that there will probably be a significant premium you'll pay for the feature - at least, more significant than the current premium.

Edit: More rumors on Sandy Bridge from The Inq. Apparently, only 2 "K" chips, and both are TOTL of the i5 and i7 classes. Notably missing is a hexa-core.

Leave it to Intel. This is the only reason why I want AMD to survive and to do well.

Me too.

Hey Intel:





Ted

Lesson? Do you think that the lack of overclocking will hurt their sales? History shows the opposite.

First, overclockers are an insignificant market-share.
Second, enthusiasts in general are a small market.

Now, consider what happens when someone posts the generic 'help me build a PC' thread. Often, they'll be told that a core i5 7-series build is more than enough power for their needs. A gamer, for instance, will get far more bang-for-their-buck from an OCed i5 running over 4GHz than a more expensive CPU from the i7 line.

In other words, overclocking encourages a small market share to spend less money .. and that's about it.