[MaxPC] Retail Corei7 is more powerful than origionally reported

1916 Views 24 Replies 22 Participants Last post by zooterboy, Mar 5, 2009

Lord Xeb

Discussion Starter · Mar 5, 2009

Right off the press:

If youâ€™ve tried to research the differences between Intelâ€™s top-end Core i7-965 Extreme Edition and the midrange 940 and budget 920 parts, youâ€™re probably as confused as us. And we even have direct access to Intel. But the technical differences between these parts are enormously important for system builders when you consider the price disparity -- $1000 for a Core i7-965 compared to under $300 for a Core i7-920.

What we do know is that the Core i7-965 has unlocked multipliers going up and down (although we have to point out that we have not seen any motherboards with multipliers that let you actually set it higher. You can only do that by increasing the Turbo Mode ratio......)

..............So whereâ€™s the mystery? We recently acquired a retail, boxed Core i7-920 CPU. It was used for a photo shoot and was subjected to extreme heat and smoke damage and had a set of car jumper cables clamped to it. Dead right? Actually no. The processor functions fine but in messing with it, we discovered that the memory ratios were unlocked. Set the RAM at DDR3/1600 and it actually runs at that speed! What the hell? Did we somehow find the secret to unlocking Intelâ€™s Core i7 â€" just hook it up to car jumper cables? We wish.

Read from teh soruce for the rest of the info.

1 - 20 of 25 Posts

Diabolical999

· #2 · Mar 5, 2009

Quote:

did we somehow find the secret to unlocking intel's core i7 - just hook it up to car jumper cables?

lol.

Don't know what to think about this one...

The sheer raw voltage from a car's jumper cables would/should fry the sh/t out of it. Especially considering that meer static electricty can. ...And here Intel are telling people not to exceed a certain amount on the mobo, lol.

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superon

· #3 · Mar 5, 2009

Hmmm, interesting-- looks like Intel is caving in to the enthusiasts and OCers who were pissed when it was first announced that corei7 and i5 CPUs would be difficult to overclock unless you bought the extreme editions. (probaly to memory manufacturers as well).

Drizzt5

· #4 · Mar 5, 2009

So 920's secretly have unlocked multipliers?

Good..... I think.

Lazman1

· #5 · Mar 5, 2009

im confused
they zapped it and the memory ratios were unlocked. Last time i checked they were unlocked and i could change them without zapping my core i7 920

lolhax

· #6 · Mar 5, 2009

Thats fancy, so production parts have unlocked QPI settings now, thanks to some unnamed 'customers'. Thanks!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lazman1

View Post

im confused
they zapped it and the memory ratios were unlocked. Last time i checked they were unlocked and i could change them without zapping my core i7 920

'Zapping' them had nothing to do with it, that was just for some photoshoot they did. They're still production samples, expected behavior.

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Choggs396

· #7 · Mar 5, 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lazman1

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im confused
they zapped it and the memory ratios were unlocked. Last time i checked they were unlocked and i could change them without zapping my core i7 920

Read the article:

Quote:

After talking with Intel as well as some back channel contacts we had, we learned that the memory multipliers on production CPUs are unlocked. The reason our CPUs had locked multipliers, we were told by Intel, was because they are engineering sample chips. Engineering sample parts are pre-production CPUs provided to the media, OEMs, motherboard makers and various other hardware vendors to test and bring up components. These CPUs, we were told, are locked.

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Arkanor

· #8 · Mar 5, 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Diabolical999

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lol.

Don't know what to think about this one...

The sheer raw voltage from a car's jumper cables would/should fry the sh/t out of it. Especially considering that meer static electricty can. ...And here Intel are telling people not to exceed a certain amount on the mobo, lol.

Static electricity is often a hundred thousand volts or more, jumper cables on a car battery is 12v.

That's not to say I would willingly put 12v across my 1.1v logic devices, by any means.

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mcnaryxc

· #9 · Mar 5, 2009

I think it would be beneficial for this to be included to lessen the confusion:

Quote:

Ultimately we donâ€™t know why Intel decided to do it this way but at least the results helps out the budget buyer and frankly, makes the budget parts even more attractive. So, to sum up, Core i7-920 and Core i7-940 parts have:

* Locked multipliers so you cannot exceed their rated top speed (without overclocking the base clock).
* Locked Turbo Mode multipliers so you cannot make fine-grained adjustments to the Turbo Mode features.
* Have unlocked QPI speeds but are officially rated for 4.8GT/s.
* Have unlocked memory multipliers so you can select from 1066/1333/1600/1866 and up.

The multiplers are locked, but the memory multipliers are unlocked. Just to avoid confusion.

wolf2009

· #10 · Mar 5, 2009

I'm not even sure if they rally put car jumpers on that proc, or they are just kidding.

anyways good to see this from Intel, certainly makes Core i7 more desired

og4tcm

· #11 · Mar 5, 2009

LoL, I'd personally rather experience a static elec shock than jumper cables hooked up to my hands... thats just me though.

Blameless

· #12 · Mar 5, 2009

Anyway, I doubt hooking jumper cabled to the CPU did anything to it. Electricity would just pass through the IHS, which has enough conductive material to not even get warm.

This MaximumPC article is a giant load of BS.

Those multipliers should never have been locked in the first place (and I doubt they actually were). My i7 920 doesn't have locked QPI or memory ratios, and I don't know of any that do.

These guys are idiots, their CPU was unlocked from the get go, they just never tested it before their non-abuse.

I'd bet that they were using locked pre-release chips before hand, or someone flashed the BIOS on their motherboard before this new chip was installed.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Diabolical999

View Post

lol.

Don't know what to think about this one...

The sheer raw voltage from a car's jumper cables would/should fry the sh/t out of it. Especially considering that meer static electricty can. ...And here Intel are telling people not to exceed a certain amount on the mobo, lol.

A static zap is several hundred to many thousands of volts, much more raw voltage than a 12 or 24v car battery.

A lot more current coming from a car battery though. Not that it matters when none of it would pass through the actual CPU anyway.

Clamping jumper cables to an IHS equipped CPU is like holding on to a grounded flag pole when lighting strikes it. You won't be hurt because the pole is a vastly superior conductor.

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Lord Xeb

Discussion Starter · #13 · Mar 5, 2009

They are kidding. MPC has a sense of humor.

Ihatethedukes

· #14 · Mar 5, 2009

Why do I care? Ram speed means next to nothing. If they unlocked multipliers then I'd be happy.

d3v0

· #15 · Mar 5, 2009

Wow, did someone get hit on the head by a very large rock before making this article?

thunder_2008

· #16 · Mar 5, 2009

Now if they could just unlock the i7s' prices in response to the new depression?

Drizzt5

· #17 · Mar 5, 2009

This article confuses me

pz i'm out..... -_-

Lord Xeb

Discussion Starter · #18 · Mar 5, 2009

>....> *mouth is shut* It doesn;t me much.

003

· #19 · Mar 5, 2009

This is old news. To sum it up, Maximum PC just found out that the engineering sample i7 CPUs had locked DRAM multipliers, and retail parts do not. Move along folks, nothing to see here.

NCspecV81

· #20 · Mar 5, 2009

this article is confusing.

However, ALL i7 es chips were locked @ 1333mhz on the ram. Retail chips gained the ability to select memory dividers other than 1333mhz.

1 - 20 of 25 Posts

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