Asrock Makes Non-K Skylake CPU Overclocking Official With 'SKY OC' Z170 BIOS Update

by Kevin Carbotte December 15, 2015 at 8:55 AM - Source: Asrock

Yesterday we broke some exciting news about Asrock’s progress in overclocking non-K Skylake CPUs. The company demonstrated that it had made great strides in unlocking new-found potential in an i5-6600 Skylake processor while using a Z170 chipset motherboard. Today, ASRock released SKY OC, a new feature in the BIOS that allows anyone to do the same.

Asrock’s SKY OC is available on its Z170 motherboards and can be enabled with a simple BIOS update, which is available from the company’s website (See table below for links). It enables you to adjust the BCLK to overclock locked CPUs to their full potential. Asrock showed off CPU-Z screenshots of its i5-6600 overclock. The company also claimed to have attained a 60% overclock on an i5-6400, as well.

In our preview, Michael Justin Allen Sexton astutely noticed that Turbo Boost has been disabled on the i5-6600 overclock based on the clock speeds being attained. Asrock said that this is one of the limitations to overclocking non-K Skylake processors: Turbo Boost and C-State are disabled with SKY OC is applied. The company also explained that the integrated Intel graphics has to be disabled as well, meaning you’ll need a discrete GPU in the system.

The following motherboards are supported. You can find the link to their respective BIOS updates in the table.

Model	BIOS
Z170 OC Formula	L1.92
Z170 Extreme7+	L2.17
Z170 Extreme6+	L1.82
Z170 Extreme6	L1.82
Z170 Extreme4+	L2.01
Z170 Extreme4	L2.43
Z170 Extreme3	L1.61
Z170M Extreme4	L1.35
Z170 Pro4	L2.83
Z170 Pro4/D3	L1.74
Z170 Pro4S	L2.73
Z170M Pro4	L2.23
Z170M Pro4S	L2.23
Z170M-ITX/ac	L1.83
Z170A-X1/3.1	L1.31
Z170 Professional Gaming i7	L1.14
Z170 Gaming K6+	L1.93
Z170 Gaming K6	L1.92
Z170 Gaming K4	L2.23
Z170 Gaming K4/D3	L1.51
Z170 Gaming-ITX/ac	L1.54

Asrock said that SKY OC will work with i3, i5, i7 and Pentium non-K CPUs. Currently, only Z170 chipsets support the feature, but the company seemingly hinted at the possibility of that changing in the future: “…have faith in Asrock’s skillfull engineers, sooner or later, more Christmas gifts from Asrock are going to be delivered.”

______________________________________________________________________
Kevin Carbotte joined Tom’s Hardware in early 2015. He writes GPU and VR hardware reviews and contributes to the news channel in the areas of computer graphics, water cooling, VR and other immersive technology. Kevin’s personal interests include technology advancements, fast cars and collecting video games that he doesn't have time to play.

Follow Kevin Carbotte @pumcypuhoy. Follow us on Facebook, Google+, RSS, Twitter and YouTube.

About the author

Kevin Carbotte @pumcypuhoy

Kevin Carbotte is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He writes news and reviews of graphics cards and virtual reality hardware.

This thread is closed for comments

32 comments

Comment from the forums

Your comment

firefoxx04

Ouch. Not being able to use the intel graphics is a deal breaker for me. I wanted to go with a cheep i3 and overclock it a bit for use in a home server.. or even a 2d cad workstation that does not require a dedicated card.

I guess my server can run 'headless'. I prefer the overclock due to the demanding transcodes that plex does. No GPU makes it a paint to troubleshoot things if I cant remote in.
TechyInAZ

That is a bummer that you need to disable the IGPU. However, being able to overclock at all is pretty sweet! Good Job AsRock!
stampedea

Hey, losing the onboard video is no big deal. An HD5450 or similar is very very cheap, will work in a pcie 1x slot and let you use three monitors at once if you choose the right card.
s3alax

This is great news for system builders! Anyone keen on a budget Skylake build, check this link: http://bit.ly/1hAr1GH
junkeymonkey

at asrock news on this at the end it says

''While ASRock SKY OC breathes life into Intel® non K series CPUs, currently it is still exclusive to motherboards with Intel's Z170 chipset. But have faith in ASRock's skillful engineers, sooner or later more Christmas gifts from ASRock are going to be delivered.''

so recon that means maybe the same for haswell platforms down the road ??
Daniel Ladishew

This is a moot feature atm, as you can buy the 6600K for the same price as the 6600 if you have a Microcenter nearby. Even without that, Turbo boost, iGPU and not voiding your warranty is certainly worth a few extra $10 bills.
RedJaron

The iGPU limitation is likely just a side-effect of its clock tied to BCLK, meaning you have to disable it because it can't run that fast. A slight OC should let the iGPU remain on. Mild BCLK OCing has been done on locked chips for years. You were just limited in how far you could take it since the BCLK was tied to so many other buses so OCing it made those systems unstable. A BCLK of 103 - 104 MHZ is doable on most Z boards. A few of them can reach 108 MHz or so. Those are assuming the 1:1 strap being used.

The bigger news, I think, is when non-Z boards will allow BCLK adjustment. They can already do CPU multiplier adjustment, so having both mult and BCLK settings on a cheap board allows lots of low-level OCing on a tight budget.
junkeymonkey

now wonder if intel don't pull a Microsoft find some licensing infringements to sue over this ?? lol
RedJaron

I doubt it. If they did, they would have done it over H81, B85, and H97 boards that allowed CPU multiplier overclocking. Also, Z97 boards have allowed BCLK OCing for locked chips as well. If Intel couldn't or didn't sue then, they'd be hard-pressed to do so now.
junkeymonkey

but now its down to skylake availability what I hear

''TAIPEI, Taiwan, December 15, 2015 – Intel® Skylake K series CPUs are on every hardcore overclocker's wish list, due to the fact that they are the only ones with an unlocked multiplier that allows users to overclock the CPU frequency effortlessly. However, there seems to be a shortage of these ultra high performing processors lately''

now that's cutting into the price premium for a k ?? then maybe twice the sales from a guy goes for a non k until the k he wanted is accessible to him now he buys twice ..

i'll stick with haswell and see whats after skylake never cared for a cross over platform .. skylake [ddrr3/ddr4] is like 775 [ddr2/ddr3 ] was not hip on them as well

well anyway just something to ponder

enjoy
Gurbo

Quote:

at asrock news on this at the end it says ''While ASRock SKY OC breathes life into Intel® non K series CPUs, currently it is still exclusive to motherboards with Intel's Z170 chipset. But have faith in ASRock's skillful engineers, sooner or later more Christmas gifts from ASRock are going to be delivered.'' so recon that means maybe the same for haswell platforms down the road ??

No, haswell has the BCLK tied to things that don't take the OC very well. It means that you will see it in H170 boards (and maybe even lower) too.
mapesdhs

"Turbo Boost and C-State are disabled with SKY OC is applied."

Wow, it's like going back to the days of X58/P55. 8)

Now I wonder if this means we'll also be able to oc SkyLake-based XEONs?...
MichaelKanRS

Any other brand?
Gurbo

Now I wonder how many OC'd i3s we'll see in the next system builder marathon... it might get really interesting.
junkeymonkey

''Turbo Boost and C-State are disabled with SKY OC is applied."

Wow, it's like going back to the days of X58/P55. 8)

Now I wonder if these means we'll also be able to oc SL-based XEONs''

z170 don't support xeon due to its a cross over platform [ddr3/ddr4] just like I said about 775 don't/did not [at least on enthusiast boards ]

if you do know a z170 or a h170 that will link it ??

just to add some guys may not realize with skylake

http://www.kitguru.net/components/motherboard/anton-shilov/intel-prolonged-usage-of-ddr3-memory-at-default-voltages-can-damage-skylake/

as I said its a platform I would tend to skip . seems more limitations then benefit overall [opinion]
RedJaron

I'm not sure what you're trying to say here. I haven't seen any LGA1151 Xeons released yet.
Crypto_1

I would highly recommend making a disk image once you get this up and running so once MS patches windows to ban this you will have something to fall back on. Remember what happened to the Anniversary Pentium OCing on non-Z boards. One day a windows update just broke OCing on anything but a Z so tons of people who bought the pentium with a cheap board to oc on got screwed.
RedJaron

Got a reference on that? I can still OC the G3258 on Win8.1.
jasonelmore

Quote:

Ouch. Not being able to use the intel graphics is a deal breaker for me. I wanted to go with a cheep i3 and overclock it a bit for use in a home server.. or even a 2d cad workstation that does not require a dedicated card. I guess my server can run 'headless'. I prefer the overclock due to the demanding transcodes that plex does. No GPU makes it a paint to troubleshoot things if I cant remote in.

Quote:

This is a moot feature atm, as you can buy the 6600K for the same price as the 6600 if you have a Microcenter nearby. Even without that, Turbo boost, iGPU and not voiding your warranty is certainly worth a few extra $10 bills.

dude like 3% of people have a micro center nearby.. They dont have that many locations, and 20 States don't even have one.
junkeymonkey

@redjaron
''I'm not sure what you're trying to say here. I haven't seen any LGA1151 Xeons released yet. ''

seems you would know this by7 now ?? and then show me a 775 that did as well ??

Now Intel has made a slight change when it comes to compatibility of Xeon chips with consumer grade boards. Previously, Intel had allowed compatibility of Xeon processors on Z/H/Q series motherboards but they are now changing the support and excluding the 100-series chipsets from support of their new Xeon processors. Intel has their own slides showing that the Skylake Xeon chips will be compatible only with C232 and C236 boards while the BGA processors will be compatible with the C236 chipset based motherboards. It has been reported by Computerbase that most of the motherboard manufacturer’s stated that Intel has not yet communicated publicly with them if they mean to deliver a new BIOS that allows Xeon processor support but for now, Intel has made it very official that they are keeping support limited to the workstation focused, C230 series chipsets. If any one does try fit a Xeon chip inside their Z170 motherboard, then the processor will determine an invalid combination and the platform will simply not boot.

Read more: http://wccftech.com/intel-skylake-xeon-e31200-v5-greenlow-family-launched-workstation-chips-incompatible-100series-desktop-chipsets/#ixzz3uUstnl4O

like I was saying they had crossover memory controllers 775 had ddr2/ddr3 skylake ddr3/ddr4 as well and no xeon support, right ?? back then xeon was 771

so then the next chip had a full ddr3 memory controller [1156 ] and you got xeon support back on it ,right? just like today with 1151 split memory controller and no xeon
RedJaron

Monkey, if the 10-series chipset actually was incompatible with dual-mode memory controllers, explain how it can work with Skylake i3, i5, and i7 chips. They all support DD3L and DDR4. Some of the new mboards even have slots for both type of RAM modules.

IMNSHO, it was strictly a business decision because the E3-1230 chips have been cannibalizing some i7 sales. People that wanted 4C/8T performance but didn't need or care to OC could save money on the Xeon. With the changes in Skylake isolating the BCLK, you could likely take a $260 Xeon up to 4 GHz or beyond. The only people who would spend $100 more for the i7 in that situation are those who just want to chase clockrates, not those after actual real-world performance value.
junkeymonkey

ok if you say so . hide and watch the next chip won't be a split memory controller [full fledged ddr4] and see then xeon will have support just like before with 775 seeing you don't explain that deal on this as well ? same then as now .. split controller= no xeon then the next was full ddr3 controller and guess what ? xeon support

enjoy
mapesdhs

Pity about XEONs and newer chipsets if that's true, as there were all sorts of XEON options for older chipsets, including X58, P55, P67, Z68, Z77, X79, etc., though vendor support doess vary (Gigabyte was good for X58, Asrock's always been good in general, ASUS supports XEONs only on some of its boards; don't know about MSI and EVGA).

I've read of many who couldn't afford an i7 870 and just obtained the equivalent XEON instead, oc's just as well. For X58, Gigabyte's UD3R was popular because of its XEON support (I have one with an E5540, and an Asrock board with an X5570).
RedJaron

It's true. Intel only officially supports E3 Xeon v5 on C230 chipsets. ASRock's site doesn't list the chips as compatible on their boards ( at least the few boards I checked ).

Display All 32 comments

Display more comments

9 Things You Didn’t Know About Overclocking Competitions

Micron Smashes DDR4 Overclocking World Record With 5,726 MHz

Awesome UK Deal on AMD's Ryzen 5 2600 - Price Cut by 24%

5.7 GHz on 28 Cores: Overclocking the Intel Xeon W-3175