Intel to Stunt Overclocking on Sandy Bridge CPUs

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This could be the end of the line...

Are you a fan of Intel CPUs but also love overclocking? Then there may be a reason to not look forward to the upcoming Sandy Bridge. 

According to slides shown by Hong Kong-based HKEPC's YouTube channel, Sandy Bridge will have a single single internal clock generator issuing the basic 100MHz base clock that'll run for the USB, SATA, PCI, PCI-E, CPU cores, Uncore, and RAM.

The clock generator will be a part of the P67 chipset and will transmit via to DMI bus to the CPU. This means that the user won't be able to tweak the CPU speed without affecting the entire system.

Bit-tech claims to have spoken to one of its Taiwanese motherboard sources, and early tests show that even upping the base clock by a measly 5 MHz caused the USB to fail and SATA bus to corrupt.

We're sure that motherboard makers are doing everything they can to come up with a way around this, which could make for a huge competitive point that'll cater to the enthusiast market.

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
108 Comments Comment from the forums
  • welshmousepk
    :LOL:

    hear that? thats the sounds of 10 million people suddenly becoming AMD buyers...
    Reply
  • Load of *****, i cant see any benefit to this except to monatise an already lucrative market and to bend their consumers over and pay PAY for the privilege of OC'ing
    Reply
  • one-shot
    They said the same about Bloomfield/1366 i7s being unable to overclock, too.

    Does anyone remember this?

    http://news.softpedia.com/news/Intel-No-Overclocking-for-Mainstream-Nehalems-84019.shtml

    I'll believe it when I see it.
    Reply
  • nord_musician
    In first place.. Why would people bother to get a Sandy Bridge motherboard?
    Reply
  • pcworm
    darn.. the abusive intel
    trying to sell their 900$ chips when 250$ (i7 920)can easily be overclocked to reach that potential (no more)..
    Reply
  • L0tus
    Brilliant move.

    Somebody give these guys a Nobel prize!

    /sarcasm
    Reply
  • CTPAHHIK
    There is always option two -> AMD
    Reply
  • welshmousepk
    in further news, intel today announced they are allowing for only a single RAM slot on their new mobos, No PCI expansion slots, and no longer supporting aftermarket coolers.


    they are also creating a new oATX spec, using an octagonal shape only supporting dodecahedronic case, built specifically by a guy named borris who works in accounting.
    Reply
  • Syndil
    OC'ing is pointless anyway, and it has been for years. Flame away.
    Reply
  • welshmousepk
    ^ obvious troll is obvious.
    Reply