[LoganDark]

Yeah. Intel advertises the ability to overclock, but that doesn't mean overclocking is in spec. It just means Intel allows you to run it out of spec if you so choose. The spec says you can set the clock multiplier, it doesn't say anything above the stock range will actually be stable.

[TylerE]

Plus almost always people are tweaking voltages and such also.

[LoganDark]

This article is about automatic / enabled-by-default overclocking, which isn't actually specified by Intel but is done by the motherboard manufacturers anyway. At least the "GAMING GAMING GAMING" oriented ones like MSI and friends.

As an example of motherboard manufacturers going outside specifications, my MSI motherboard has a built-in option to change BCLK, which is the clock reference for the entire PCIe bus. Changing it not only overclocks the CPU, but also the GPU's connection (not the GPU itself), as well as the NVMe SSD.

This was so not-endorsed by Intel that they quickly pushed microcode that shuts the CPU down if it detects BCLK tampering.

In response, MSI added a dropdown that allows you to downgrade the microcode of the CPU.

So yeah. Very not within specifications.