Intel is reportedly planning on releasing more unlocked desktop CPUs, particularly in the lower-tier segment of the market. At least, that’s what Robert Hallock, the VP/GM, Enthusiast Channel Business of the blue chipmaker said.
In an interview with German tech portal, PC Games Hardware, Hallock said that Intel wants to deliver “more and more unlocked SKUs over time”, and that overclocking shouldn’t just stay limited to buyers that have the disposable income to blow on top-shelf processors.
“What you will see is more and more unlocked SKUs over time. That is the goal. That should not be a feature that is exclusively reserved for the people paying the most amount of money. Not everyone can afford the most amount of money […] and that doesn’t make them any less enthusiastic than the person who can spend US$500 (~RM1,977) on a CPU. They are still PC enthusiasts, and they deserve the same level of features, and that is what we intend to deliver in our roadmap.”
Hallock’s view on the matter isn’t unfounded. While not quite in vogue as before, overclocking is still a viable method for DIY PC enthusiasts to eke that extra performance from their CPUs. Of course, overclocking does come with its own set of risks; overdo it or do it wrong, and you run the risk of burning out both CPU and motherboard. But that said, cocking up the undervolting process could potentially render your CPU useless and faulty.
Getting back on point, and to agree with Hallock on one point, reserving overclocking for a chipmaker’s top-tier SKUs, be it Intel or AMD, effectively locks out gamers that, as we said, are on a tight budget but still want to build a system with enough horsepower to eliminate potential bottlenecks, be it for work or gaming.
At current, there aren’t a whole lot of budget-friendly Arrow Lake-S desktop CPUs that can be overclocked; the Core Ultra 5 225 is currently one of the only SKUs that isn’t unlocked for overclocking, and there is now Core Ultra 3 segment. Sadly, AMD has Intel beat in this, as all of its SKUs are unlocked and overclockable, regardless of the “X” status in their names.
For another matter, Hallock did not say when we’d be seeing these new lower-tier, budget-friendly SKUs, or even the generation Intel plans on releasing them in. Speculation suggests that we could see this with the upcoming Nova Lake-S series, but again, the surgeon general’s warning on salt consumption applies here.
(Source: PC Games Hardware, Videocardz)
