This article is more than 1 year old

All aboard the Skylake: How Intel stopped worrying and learned to love overclocking

6th gen CPU and swanky Asus mobo on test

Punch the clock

An essential to a stable overclock is getting the balance between power delivery and heat correctly balanced. For the sixth-generation processors, Intel has taken a step back and returned the voltage regulator from being internally mounted in the CPU to being external and on the motherboard, thereby getting rid of some of the internal heat generation in one fell swoop.

The memory uses 100/133MHz steps, instead of the 200/266MHz steps of the Z97, which means much finer adjustments when it comes to overclocking the memory.

With the new processors comes Intel’s ninth-generation integrated GPU, in the form of the HD 530 graphics with a 350MHz base clock and a maximum frequency of 1150MHz. The core also supports three independent displays.

The new platform uses the latest 3.0 version of Intel’s DMI (Direct Media Interface) four-lane interface to connect the CPU to the chipset. This new version offers a huge jump in performance over the previous-generation 2.0 DMI, offering a point-to-point bandwidth of 8.0GT/s or 8GB/s, a massive rise over the 5.0 GT/s (2GB/s) of the 2.0 DMI.

Z170 chipset

To support the new processors at launch, there is the flagship Sunrise Point 100 series chipset – the Z170. The Z170 is the successor to the Z97 and, as mentioned earlier, it brings 40 per cent more high-speed I/O lanes than the previous chipset, with up to 20 PCIe 3.0 lanes and up to 10 USB 3.0 ports being supported.

Intel Skylake PCH - HSIO Port flexibility

HSIO Port flexibility – Skylake PCH. Click for a larger image

The chipset introduces a new Flex-I/O hub which Intel has called HSIO (High Speed Input/Output). This new hub is massive, supporting 26 ports compared to the 18 of the Z97. For each port there are a number of configurations, which allows plenty of scope for motherboard designers to work their magic. The first six HSIO ports are by default USB3.0, with two supporting super-speed interconnects, if required. The remaining 20 ports are split into groups of four PCIe lanes.

Intel’s Rapid Storage Technology now fully supports PCIe 3.0 and, to this end, the last three groups of four ports in the HSIO are for PCIe storage devices. This allows M.2/PCI Express devices to be built into RAID arrays, as long as the devices are connected via these lanes.

Memory support

Interestingly, the Z170 can support two types of memory: DDR4 up to 2133MHz and DDR3L (and only DDR3L) up to 1600MHz at 1.35 volts, although not both at the same time. Having these options gives motherboard manufacturers flexibility when it comes to designing boards for the mainstream and value market segments.

The one thing missing is any built-in support for USB3.1, Intel preferring to support Thunderbolt 3, so motherboard vendors will have to rely on third-party ICs to control any of the 10Gbps ports on a board.

Next page: Asus Z-170 Deluxe

More about

More about

More about

TIP US OFF

Send us news


Other stories you might like