• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

Gaming processors?

banja said:
I've read that the Sandy Bridge CPUs won't overclock due to the architecture. If this is so, it seems while they might be 10-20% faster than the current equivalent CPU at stock, will they perform worse than a healthily overclocked CPU from the current generation??
Click to expand...

As it stands the standard 1155 CPUs will not overclock in the way we normally do it (increasing the bus speed) as it uses a common bus that cannot be increased by more than a few %.

However, intel are releasing "K series" chips which come with unlocked multipliers - so these can be overclocked by raising the multiplier (and core voltage etc.). Going by past experience with Intel chips with unlocked multipliers - I would guess that it will be possible to overclock these chips very far - at least to the point where top-end air cooling is limiting the overclock.

According to their roadmap these chips will be at the same pricepoints as existing top-end i5 and i7 s1156 chips.
 
Last edited:
cmndr_andi said:
According to their roadmap these chips will be at the same pricepoints as existing top-end i5 and i7 s1156 chips.
Click to expand...

If the K series are all pricey, then overclocking as we know it is dead. The whole point for most overclockers is to take a budget part and make it run as fast or faster than a flagship part while saving £500 or more.

I was under the impression that the extreme editions would still cost far too much, but the K series would only have a moderate premium over the standard parts.
 
When I say top-end i5 and i7 I mis-spoke - it will be at the same price point as top end i5 (ie the £140 i5 760) and mid/high-end s1156 i7 (ie the £220 i7 870) respectively.

You are quite right that this will mean overclocking Intel chips will get more expensive if you have been spending less than £140 on CPUs in the past. However, if you have the budget for a system using an i5 760, then the price of overclocking should be the same as it is now.

You are quite right about the pricing of the K series - this won't be a chip that is 2-3x more expensive than its brethren due to an unlocked multiplier. For example the current-gen i5 655K (3.2GHz) was priced at $216 at launch, compared to the $176 i5 650 which has the same stock clockspeed but locked multiplier.

The sandy bridge i5 2500K is expected to cost about this much ($216) at launch - based on the roadmap. (However this figure will need to be adjusted for exchange rates, tax and inflation - and most likely some "UK pricing" thrown in too).
 
TBH I think the £200 mark is fair for an unlocked mainstream overclockers CPU, add a £50 cooler, and you still save at least £400 compared to a flagship model.
 
How long will we have to wait for the unlocked variants?

I have cash waiting for a new system, but I don't want to go for the new Sandy Bridge cpu if it's locked and actually gives me less performance than a nicely overclocked cpu from the current gen.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom