Intel’s processor architecture Sandy Bridge has shown that both CPU and GPU performance is on a whole another level among processors. Enthusiasts have been questioning the overclocking potential, but a candle has been lit in the media darkness and it shows Sandy Bridge being capable of 6.5 GHz and more.
More of you know the story by now. Intel has baked in the clock generator for Sandy Bridge into the 6 series chipsets. There it not only contorls the processor bus but also other system buses like PCI Express, USB, etc.
This makes bus overclocking quite tricky and Intel is said to reply with K models with unlocked multipliers. Earlier on there were rumors of a maximal multiplier of 57x. This would limit the theoretic maximal clock frequency to 5.7 GHz, without manipulating the BCLK frequency (bus speed).
Intel Core i7-2600K overclocked to 5.0 GHz
Over at Asian forum coolaler.com a user has posted screens that implies that Sandy Bridge will support multipliers up to 65x, which should take processors up to 6.5 GHz, well above the previsouly feared limit.
Would Intel’s new chipsets be capable of atleast 10% higher BLCK frequency it would in theory make it possible for Sandy Bridge to reach 7.1 GHz with the right cooling.
On top of the good news about Sandy Bridge’s overclocking potential the processor shows impressive IPC performance where it clearly outperforms earlier architecture at the same frequency.
Source: Coolaler.com via Hwbot.org
