Intel is releasing a “free” overclocking tool called “200S Boost” for Intel Core Ultra 200 Series processors, which could lift performance by about 7 percent without voiding your warranty. Intel has yet to formally announce the technology, but the company’s announcement was spoiled by its partners, including Gigabyte, and by Tom’s Hardware, who obtained leaked firmware to test the new tool.
Editor’s Note: Intel has confirmed that the 200S Boost technology is now officially available.
According to Hot Hardware, the 200S Boost technology requires a Core Ultra 9 285K, a Core Ultra 7 265K or 265KF, or a 245K/KF chip; a qualified motherboard with an Intel Z890 chipset; and 8,000 MT/s RAM with an XMP profile. Although Hot Hardware suggests that all Z890 motherboards should be able to take advantage of the 200S Boost feature, not all will include the necessary optimizations to do so.
What the new Core 200S Boost feature does is simply overclock the chip’s memory and fabric speeds rather than adjust the clock speeds or power settings, Tom’s Hardware reports. Specifically, the NGU/SA fabric is now clocked at 3.2 GHz (up from 2.6 GHz) and the die-to-die communication fabric is now also clocked at 3.2 GHz (up from 2.1 GHz). The fact that Intel is doing this while still preserving its warranty coverage is somewhat remarkable.
Intel confirmed that the 200S Boost option is live, and offered the following detailed description below of what it does:
Whether or not you’ll be able to get Intel’s Core 200S Boost technology, however, is up to your motherboard manufacturer. When (if) they release a BIOS update for your board to include the new feature, you’ll need to go to any overclocking options provided by the BIOS and enable the new 200S Boost overclocking upgrade.
MSI, for example, offered this configuration guide below:
According to Intel, “the Intel 200S Boost overclocking profile is designed for one stick of Intel XMP memory per channel (“1DPC”) with memory speeds up to 8000 MT/s,” the company said. UDIMMs and CUDIMMs are both eligible. Modules from ADATA, Corsair, G.Skill, TeamGroup and V-Color have been tested for the 200S Boost technology.
Intel also listed some of the motherboards that have been tested to support 200S Boost. The company said that the list may not include others that have been tested to the 200S Boost specification.
Intel’s Arrow Lake-S desktop processors emphasized lower power, but at “parity” performance for games and an overall geomean that was expected to be lower than Intel’s 14th-gen parts. A “free” boost might not be able to make up that lack, but it’s an improvement.
Author: Mark Hachman, Senior Editor, PCWorld
Mark has written for PCWorld for the last decade, with 30 years of experience covering technology. He has authored over 3,500 articles for PCWorld alone, covering PC microprocessors, peripherals, and Microsoft Windows, among other topics. Mark has written for publications including PC Magazine, Byte, eWEEK, Popular Science and Electronic Buyers' News, where he shared a Jesse H. Neal Award for breaking news. He recently handed over a collection of several dozen Thunderbolt docks and USB-C hubs because his office simply has no more room.