Intel to stop non-K Skylake CPUs from overclocking

Overlocking is more than just an enthusiast’s pastime; it’s an inexpensive way to garner more performance from your hardware components.

Given the absurd prices PC hardware is currently going for locally, thanks to the Rand’s spectacular nose dive, overclocking has become an attractive alternative.

It’s almost certainly a less expensive route than having to buy new hardware, keeping your machine relevant for a longer period of time – giving you the chance to whether the price boom storm.

It also gives the average consumer more time to save up appropriately and invest in slightly better components, increasing the longevity of their investment.

And while GPU overclocking will continue to be an easy proposition for one and all, CPU overclocking is about to get that much more difficult – if it wasn’t already.

In a statement to PC World, Intel confirmed that a forthcoming update would put a halt to overclocking a good deal of their Skylake range.

The latest update provided to partners includes, among other things, code that aligns with the position that we do not recommend overclocking processors that have not been designed to do so. Additionally, Intel does not warranty the operation of the processor beyond its specifications.”

Essentially, Intel wants overclocking to be offered as the unique property of the processors marketed as such; in other words, the more expensive option.

We’ve known for a little while now that Intel has been posturing to put an end to such overclocks.

The reason they were possible in the first place was a series of tweaks made to motherboards, via their manufacturers, that allowed customers to boost the base clock (BCLCK) of non-K CPUs.

But it seems like those days are over, for now at least. Intel may change their tune in the future, but not anytime soon.

You may be lucky to stumble upon a motherboard yet to receive the update, but it’d likely have to be a motherboard currently sitting on a retailer’s shelves. We can’t imagine very many motherboard manufacturers denying Intel’s request.

At the end of the day, Intel doesn’t even recommend customers overclock their “K” series of CPUs, even if they’re ridiculously good at overclocking.

Besides, until AMD provides some worthwhile competition—come on Zen—Intel has a pretty tight lock and key on the market, so they really don’t need to worry about forcing consumers to purchase the more expensive variant if they should want overclocking capabilities.

It’s not like we could afford a new Skylake CPU anyway. Have you seen the cost of hardware these days?

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