Intel Details CPU Overclocking Mechanics And Shares Tips For Best Results

Overclocking used to be easy, man. Just move a jumper, fiddle with a DIP switch; did it boot? Hallelujah! Things haven't been that simple in a long time, but they've gotten even more complicated with the introduction of chiplet processors, and especially on Intel's tiled CPUs. Intel wants to make it clear to enthusiasts that the game has changed, and so it just put out a video titled "How Overclocking Really Works on Intel CPUs".

The video is apparently the first in a new series called The Blueprint, which, as familiar host Robert Hallock explains, will be relatively brief videos explaining specific concepts within Intel's technology. They're not "shorts," per se; they're not vertical videos—at least, this first one isn't—but at just over four and a half minutes, it's not exactly a feature film, either.

The video itself is a bird's-eye overview of how Intel's Core Ultra 200-series desktop CPUs are constructed, and to be frank, it doesn't have any new information for anyone who is already familiar with overclocking current-generation CPUs. However, it definitely could be instructional for anyone who hasn't messed about with one of the newer chips.


The gist of the video can basically be summed up in one sentence, so here it is: CPU overclocking is all but useless now; instead, focus on overclocking ring bus, fabric clocks, and memory clocks, because that's where the gaming performance bottleneck lies. Of course, we knew that, because that's exactly what Core Ultra 200S Boost Mode does. Obviously that doesn't cover all of the information in the video, and you should watch it if you're interested. Again, it's not even five minutes long.

A more cynical writer might remark that this is essentially teeing up the launch of the company's upcoming Core Ultra 200 Plus processors, which are otherwise known as Arrow Lake Refresh. Based on leaked benchmarks, it seems like ALR-R might have a decent little performance bump over the extant Core Ultra 200S parts, and we've theorized that this could be down to a jump in exactly the things Hallock is talking about in the video.


Intel hasn't announced a launch window for Arrow Lake Refresh yet, which has apparently lead some people to question if the parts are even coming out. Given that there have already been official confirmations and benchmark leaks of the new hardware, we can't imagine Intel would shelve the new silicon, but there is the fair question of why the company hasn't actually announced the parts for release yet. Hopefully we'll hear something official soon.