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- Date:
- Thursday , May 27, 2010
- Author:
- Kyle Bennett
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New Intel Unlocked Processors to Debut at Computex
Today we are getting a sneak peek at two new processors from Intel that are going to be officially launched at Computex next week. The Intel Core i5-655K and Core i7-875K processors are LGA 1156 parts that will not have multiplier locks. And that is a big deal for Intel. We show you what these processors are capable of.
Introduction
A long time ago in a processor market far far away, processors without multiplier locks were the norm. Enthusiasts enjoyed this era...until some jackasses started "remarking" processors. Basically, what happened was that criminals would "remark" the processors themselves as a higher speed processor then sell it as such. Intel did not like this and locked the multipliers on processors so that they could not be set to higher values (or lower values at that time) and sold by criminals as something these parts were not. After that, AMD followed suit as well as it had the same problems with remarking. This was understandable, but left the overclocker somewhat out in the cold at the time.
It was at this time we saw motherboard manufacturers pick up the ball and run with it. The entire overclocking market fell into the hands of the board makers. Since pushing front side bus speeds of processors was the only way left to overclock those parts, motherboards and the feature sets on those boards blossomed, and continue to do so today. While most of us were not happy with multiplier-locked processors at the time, the process likely pushed the motherboard features and quality levels forward at an advanced pace which we can be thankful for today.
Intel again started selling unlocked processors not too long ago, but only at an "extreme" premium; usually its ~$1000 processors. The latest being the six-core Core i7-980X Extreme Edition. A few years ago AMD somewhat dropped the ball with its lackluster Phenom architecture. At this time it knew it had less to offer to enthusiasts. I remember AMD coming to me and asking about selling unlocked Phenom processors. I thought it was a great idea that would gain the company new fans. AMD launched it "Black Edition" unlocked processors and it has done so at varying price points. It has done this with expensive processors, but it has done Black Edition processors that are very affordable as well. Checking Newegg today you can find 12 AMD Black Edition processors listed for sale starting at $54 and scaling to $310, with five of those Black Edition processors coming in under $100. There is no doubt that AMD has created and ruled the market of unlocked processors. I would suggest that 99% of the people purchasing a $1000 processor that is unlocked do not even know it has the capability, but almost all of those people buying Black Edition processors are aware of the feature and are buying Black Edition processors for that reason. Intel has now for a couple of years let AMD own this niche market, but that is soon coming to an end.
Why Unlocked?
So why buy an unlocked processor? Unlocked processors are easier to overclock and doing so usually isolates overclocking impacts to the CPU only and does not make changes in other related system clocks. You don't have to mess with a lot of settings in the bios; it is all very simple. Of course the seasoned overclocker can make use of an unlocked processor as well, but the fact is that motherboards have gotten so feature rich in the BIOS and overclocking arena that unlocked CPUs are not really needed by those tweakers.
Our Testing
What we are showing you below is fairly simple using a Thermalright TRUE air cooler with 1600 RPM fan. We used several different LGA 1156 / P55 motherboards, but we will discuss that more below. We overclocked the processors using the multiplier only at first. We found our stable overclocks. We did lock down the voltages manually in our BIOS so no "AUTO" voltage scaling was used like you might find when overclocking some boards. So the overclocks you will first see are purely multiplier overclocks. After that, we have given vCore bump to our processors as well as manipulated the multipliers and show you our stable results.
The Intel Core i7-875K
The new Intel Core i7-875K is the unlocked version of the Core i7-870 processor that currently sells for $580. It is a Lynnfield core built on a 45nm process technology.
The i7-875K is a quad core processor rated at 95 watts TDP. While this processor is not "hot" you will see that it becomes a struggle to air cool this processor once we start overclocking it.
With no voltages tweaks and adjusting the multiplier only, we were able to get our Core i7-875K processor up to a meager 3.2GHz. Obviously this is a situation where Intel's Turbo Boost Technology that is built into the processor is probably a better overclocker than the multiplier by itself.
When you pour some voltage to this i7-875K processor it starts to shine. We could easily adjust the multiplier to 30 giving us a clock speed across all four cores of just over 4GHz under a full load. We did find that after about 20 minutes, the processor would fail with a hard reboot. As you can see our temps are very high in this screen shot with the 1600 RPM fan. I moved to a 2000 RPM fan and found the stability that we were looking for at 4GHz. Our core temps dropped back into the mid 70s with the extra air movement.
We tested here for just overnight with success under a full CPU load using Prime95. Our air cooling was getting to its limits though as you can see in the screen shot. We could move up one notch to a 31 multiplier but the processor quickly failed under a 100% load.
The Intel Core i5-655K
The new Intel Core i5-655K is the unlocked version of the Core i5-650 processor that currently sells for $185. It is a Clarkdale core built on a 32nm process technology.
The i5-655K is a dual core processor rated at 73 watts TDP, quite a bit cooler than our i7-875K above. As you might of guessed since this is a 600 series processor, it comes with Intel's integrated graphics technology which you can read more about here.
Without touching the voltage or anything else; we started to dial up the multiplier. We landed on a stable 29 multiplier giving us a 3.875GHz clock speed. Not bad for a fully stock setup at stock voltage.
From there we moved only the vCore up to 1.4 and saw what we could reach from there using our TRUE with 1600 RPM fan.
Our final stable clock speed was 4.4GHz with our core temps in the upper 60s. Not shabby at all. An extra 1.2GHz from our 32nm processor.
The Bottom Line
I did have some issues with motherboards using these processors correctly. I had a GIGABYTE P55A-UD6 that would not recognize the multipliers correctly. I am sure a BIOS bump will correct this. I had an MSI P55-GD65 that would not work the multipliers correctly until I updated the BIOS. When the processors are officially launched into the market we should see new BIOS to address these issues. It seems to all make sense seeing as LGA 1156 boards have never had an unlocked multiplier available to them in the open market.
I am sort of torn about this new offering from Intel. The overclocking results you have seen above should come as no surprise to you as awesome as they are. The reason for this is that Intel's locked processors already scale the BLCK incredible well which allows us to overclock the unlocked processors in similar fashion. Conversely, AMD's Phenom and Phenom II busses scale terribly in comparison so unlocked multipliers in AMD's corner is almost a must to be competitive with the true enthusiast. For the seasoned overclocker these unlocked Intel processors are really no big deal.
The models that Intel has decided to start with here are sort of bewildering to me. A dual core 600 series with integrated graphics? While I love the 600 series, I just do not see it as being worth the focus when it comes to unlocking the multiplier. It is just hard to send the enthusiast to a dual core processor for over $200. If you want dual core, go cheap, go AMD Black Edition and OC the hell out of it. As for the i7-875K, it looks like Intel's pricing is going to run about $350 at retail, possibly more. (Pricing slides are below.) I know a lot of companies think $$$$ when it thinks "enthusiast," but we all know "enthusiast" equals "performance and value." On the LGA 1156 platform, give me a Core i5-750 that is unlocked and I will be happy all day long with that for $200. Actually I am happy with a locked i5-750 so I guess it really makes no difference.
Again, this move by Intel is sort of bittersweet. Intel CPUs bus-scale so well, do we really need unlocked versions? No. We got over Intel locking its processors a long time ago; we don't need unlocked CPUs now as we have the right motherboards to deal with locked processors. Will this open up overclocking to more folks as a hobby? I am not sure. I do know for sure that unlocked processors make learning about overclocking and experiencing it easier. You can move forward with unlocked overclocking without any concerns of all the changes that happen when you start scaling the BCLK. So from that perspective, unlocked processors can certainly make it easier for the overclocking novice to enter the ring. Did Intel pick the right processors to unlock? Not from where I stand.
I am very happy to see Intel selling unlocked processors again, very much so. I am really not sure why I am happy about it though. I think maybe it is just the old overclocker yearning for days gone by, or maybe I am happy about seeing Intel putting "UNLOCKED" on the box giving a secret nod to the real enthusiasts that are responsible for suggesting people buy its products.
Discussion
Intel's "K" Presentation
Below you will find the accompanying presentation that came with our two slides we pulled out above to show you.
