Intel's Core i7 CPUs have been on the market for a while now and have proven to be popular with enthusiasts and gamers looking to build new computers. Like Intel's other processor familiar, the Core i7 line includes standard parts and a high-end Extreme Edition with unlocked multipliers and other features.
Maximum PC reports that the price premium for the Core i7 965 Extreme Edition may be even less worthwhile after a recent discovery it made. According to Maximum PC, it was told by Intel that one key difference in the 965 and the other Core i7 parts was that the QPI on the 940 and 920 i7 CPUs was locked to a maximum of 4.8GT/s and memory ratios were locked.
As it turns out, Maximum PC stumbled upon an unpublicized feature of production 940 and 920 Core i7 parts. According to the publication, it had verified on three previous 920 and 940 CPUs that there was no access to Turbo Modes and that QPI was locked to 4.6GT/s along with locked memory settings.
However, Maximum PC says that it recently purchased a boxed Core i7 920 CPU, fired it up, and found that the CPU had unlocked memory ratios. What the publication learned is that the memory ratios on production CPUs are unlocked and that the engineering sample CPUs actually have locked ratios. Not only can you change memory ratios on the boxed CPUs, but QPI can be adjusted to 6.4GT/s as well. However, the multipliers are still locked for the clock frequency and access to Turbo mode is locked.
Intel's official response was, "We made a marketing decision to unlock them for the launched product due to requests from some of our customers."
hyeah: :tongue:
