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If you're a computer hardware enthusiast, you probably know that if you want to overclock your CPU,

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meaning run it at a higher speed, then it would be best to buy an unlocked processor.

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Now, as we explained in this video, an unlocked processor means that it has an unlocked multiplier.

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That is an adjustable number that the base clock of your processor gets multiplied by

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to determine the actual frequency it runs at. Now, all of AMD's modern desktop CPU offerings

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are unlocked, and so is Intel's K and X series.

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But Team Blue actually sells many CPUs

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that have locked multipliers, meaning that the user cannot adjust them.

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And the only way to overclock manually is to adjust the base clock, which can be quite tricky.

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You see, there isn't really any way to hack

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an Intel chip to unlock it. Unlocking a chip is a physical process

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that occurs at the factory on the die itself. So there's no code to try to break through

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on a non-K series chip. You can't unlock the multiplier, end of story.

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But it turns out that there are still other ways that motherboard manufacturers have used

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to boost performance unlocked chips. To find out more, we reached out to Nick Shee at ASRock,

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and we'd like to thank him for his contributions. Intel chips contain something called microcode,

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which you can think of as being similar to firmware.

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The microcode is what is fundamentally responsible for controlling the CPU's behavior,

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including what clock speeds it'll run at. Previously, there was a loophole in the microcode

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where it wouldn't check the processor's base clock against a hardware clock governor,

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allowing ASRock to come out with a feature called SkyOC

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that would allow users to crank up the base clocks really high for significant performance boosts,

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talking 30% in some cases. Now SkyOC worked with original non-K SkyLake CPUs,

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and users seemed to enjoy the feature. But Intel more aggressively locked down the ability

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for a user to make base clock adjustments shortly thereafter, meaning the feature basically died

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before it had much of a chance to see widespread adoption.

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However, a newer method has since appeared on the scene.

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ASRock calls it Base Frequency Boost, or BFB,

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while ASUS calls it ASUS Performance Enhancement.

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Even though Intel has placed restrictions on base clock overclocking on locked CPUs,

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what they didn't lock down is the chip's power limits.

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This means that your system will simply raise the power limit to 125 watts from 65.

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The CPU will detect this, understand that it has more thermal

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and power headroom to work with, and raise its own clock speeds accordingly.

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Now ASRock claims this method can bump your frequencies up by a gigahertz or even more,

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depending on what chip you're using. However, there are some important caveats.

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One is that since you're raising the power limit, you'll generate significantly more heat.

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So as with overclocking an unlocked CPU, you'll wanna make sure that you have a good cooler on hand.

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Another is that overall, you shouldn't expect to get the same caliber of results

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as you would with a CPU that has an unlocked multiplier from the factory.

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Although raising the power level will obviously make your chip faster

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than it would otherwise be, unlocked CPUs typically are the top of the range ones

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and are a better option for those who are chasing the ultimate in performance.

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The thing is Intel typically uses better quality silicon

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in these unlocked chips so that overclockers will have an easier time

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raising their speeds and setting records. So even though some of the cores in a lock chip

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might be amenable to having their rates adjusted, there might be others that simply aren't able to do it.

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So at the end of the day, solutions like BFB are more for people who want to get more performance

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out of a locked chip that they already own or they got for a super great deal

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as opposed to people who are looking to make a decision about what to buy.

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Besides, who knows when Intel's gonna pull the rug out from under us yet again.

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Thanks for watching guys. Like, dislike, check out our other videos,

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