Intel Gifts Gamers Core Ultra 200S Boost Overclocking With A Warranty

If you're the proud owner of an Intel Core Ultra 200-series CPU, rejoice, as there may be good gaming gains to be gotten from a new BIOS feature that Intel is rolling out. Intel's engineers dubbed the new feature the 200S Boost overclocking profile, and it promises to boost gaming performance without voiding your warranty.

This news is welcome to Core Ultra gamers everywhere, as despite the massive multi-threaded might of the Core Ultra chips, as inconsistent gaming performance has previously been a sore spot for the platform. Intel says the Boost profile should net significant clock speed uplifts in both the fabric and die-to-die connections, and claims that the benefits of these tweaks should "[result] in a performance boost for low-latency workloads like gaming."

There's no need to worry about these overclocking efforts nuking your speedy box of transistors, either, as Intel very clearly states that chips overclocked in this manner will still be covered by the default three-year warranty (for boxed chips). The short table below illustrates the expected gains with the Boost profile, should the components in your specific configuration all cooperate:

	Default Clock Speed	200S Boost profile
Fabric speed	2.6 GHz	Up to 3.2 GHz VccSA ≤ 1.20V
Die-to-die speed	2.1 GHz	Up to 3.2 GHz VccSA ≤  1.20V
RAM speed	6400 MT/s	Up to 8000 MT/s VDD2 ≤ 1.4V and VccSA ≤ 1.20V Module VDDQ and VDD ≤ 1.4V

The requirements for enabling the Boost profile are simple: a Core Ultra 200-series "K" chip sitting atop a motherboard with an Intel Z890 chipset, and fast RAM up to 8000 MT/s with a corresponding XMP profile. Both UDIMM and CDIMMs are supported, though Intel predictably notes that the profile was designed for setups with one DIMM per channel. The company says it has already tested the Boost profile with a handful of Z890 motherboards and 8000 MT/s kits from various vendors. Here's the full list of supported tested processors, for reference:

• Intel Core Ultra 9 285K
• Intel Core Ultra 7 265K and 265KF
• Intel Core Ultra 5 245K and 245KF

That said, Intel clearly states that "all Intel Z890 motherboards with the latest BIOS will have the option to run the 200S Boost profile," it also notes that "some motherboards may lack the necessary optimizations," meaning that at the end of the day, it's up to your motherboard manufacturer to test and implement the 200S Boost spec. Likewise, you can expect that only select RAM kits will be capable of netting maximum theoretical gains.

Instructions for enabling the Intel 200S Boost Overclocking profile are as follows:
1. Watch your motherboard maker's releases for a BIOS update for your board and then install it.
2. Go to the Overclocking section in the BIOS, and under the preset profiles, select "Intel 200S Boost." We expect this will be in the vicinity of the XMP profile option.
3. Restart your PC.
4. Check system stability. Intel suggests Cinebench as a stress test, and Intel XTU for monitoring voltages and temperatures.
If you're wondering what's the catch, there doesn't seem to be one. Intel spells out the usual common-sense warnings related to any overclocking effort: results may vary, and you'll be relying on your motherboard, RAM, and cooling solution to guarantee stability. Although there's no word on what's the expected increase in power draw, be sure you have a quality power supply for these experiments. And as luck would have it, we just recently published a guide for choosing the best PSU option for your system.