Intel Microcode Update to Help Overclocking Cascade Lake CPU’s Released

[Peter_Brosdahl]

Intel has released a new microcode update. The surprising thing is that it’s not related to any of the exploits or vulnerabilities that have been reported on in the last few years. This time around it’s actually to help with overclocking X299 based Core X series CPU’s. One of which, the Intel Core i9 10980XE, our own Dan Dobrowolski recently reviewed and can be seen here. Other CPU’s included for this update are:

• Core i9 10940x
• Core i9 10920x
• Core i9 10900x

This microcode update is specifically designed for voltage-based overclocking. It’ll be interesting to hear what improvements users experience with it. In a way it's almost like an extra gift from Intel at the end of the year in giving some potentially extra performance.

 

[David_Schroth]

ASUS is looking into this for us and we'll hopefully get a copy of the BIOS soon to try it out!

 

[Dan_D]

ASUS is looking into this for us and we'll hopefully get a copy of the BIOS soon to try it out!

I was just about to say this. I'm not sure how this microcode update can help, but I'm hoping it does. I think if we could get these things to 4.9GHz or 5.0GHz somewhat reliably, it would be a more attractive option for some people. That is, it would be nice if you could get closer to 9900K levels of gaming performance while still having the multi-threaded capabilities offered by 18c/36t.