Intel Readying X299 Microcode Update to Enhance "Cascade Lake-X" Overclocking

[btarunr]

Intel is readying a microcode update specially for its X299 Express chipset, to enhance the overclocking capabilities of its 10th generation Core i9 XE "Cascade Lake-X" processors. News of the update was put out in an MSI press release that speaks of the company encapsulating the new microcode in BIOS updates for its entire socket LGA2066 motherboard lineup.

"To enhance the overclocking capability for the newly launched Intel Core X-series Processors (Intel Core i9-10980XE, 10940X, 10920X, 10900X), Intel will provide a new microcode update," the statement from MSI reads. Besides "overclocking capability," the new microcode also helps to "maximize the overall performance" of "Cascade Lake-X" processors," says MSI. The company does not describe what specifically these changes are. The microcode update will be released to end-users as BIOS updates by motherboard manufacturers, so be on the lookout for one, if you're using "Cascade Lake-X."



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[dj-electric]

I'm getting really tired of Cascade lake X being treated like some new product in the market that has to suddenly get odd updates like this.

By now, there's just about 0 new information that could get me and many other users excited about what we can do with our X299 hardware.
There's nothing that we can do today with it we couldn't two years ago with 7980XE.

The only benefit i see with those kinds of "updates" is for media to pump more Intel stuff out in a desperate attempt to grab attention from AMD.

You lost, Intel. I'm really really sorry. Get Jim and the guys working and finish building your 7nm facilities in the locations where they work on it right now (USA,IRE,ISR).
Back to basics, back to what made you successful in the past.

Until then, please don't bother us like a salesman chasing us down the street, trying to convince us to buy your stuff over and over.

Signed, a day 0 X299 user who has genuinely grown tired of how you treat media and customers with product launches.

 

[E-curbi]

@ dj-electric - Agree 100% Intel is looking extremely mediocre and lackluster (ineffectual and incapable) at this point in time, when considering the HEDT and the High Core Count (HCC) platforms.

The $2000 ROG Dominus and EVGA SR-3 motherboards and $3000 Intel Xeon W-3175X 28Core CPU, wiped off the map of significance by the incredible AMD 3960X 24C at less than half the price, AMD showing off it's amazing gains in IPC.

Kinda feel bad for this enthusiast (last pic below) who's waiting at the edge of his seat over at the EVGA forums already purchased his Intel W-3175X still awaiting the EVGA SR-3 to launch.

If EVGA sells even (20) SR-3s I'd be surprised, when the Asus Zenith II Extreme and AMD TR3 3960X make so much more sense and costs $3000 less.

ROG Zenith II Extreme | ROG Zenith | Gaming Motherboards｜ROG - Republic of Gamers｜ROG Global

ASUS ROG Zenith II Extreme AMD TRX40 E-ATX HEDT motherboard (sTRX4, Ryzen Threadripper 3, 16 Power Stages, 5 x M.2, PCIe 4.0, Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax), 10 Gbps LAN, SATA, USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Type-C, RGB)

www.asus.com

--------

Just wait until 2020 when AMD will most likely dominate all the single threaded benchmarks as well.


disclaimer: I own and enjoy both Intel and AMD performance parts, and am therefore excluded from any form of fanboyism. just kidding ... lol


Go AMD!


24C vs 28C:

 

[wurschti]

I'm getting really tired of Cascade lake X being treated like some new product in the market that has to suddenly get odd updates like this.

By now, there's just about 0 new information that could get me and many other users excited about what we can do with our X299 hardware.
There's nothing that we can do today with it we couldn't two years ago with 7980XE.

the new one is Intel's special snowflake, because they have no other better model on the HEDT desktop. They need to make noise somehow.

 

[phanbuey]

@ dj-electric - Agree 100% Intel is looking extremely inept at this point in time, when considering the HEDT and the High Core Count (HCC) platforms.

The $2000 ROG Dominus and EVGA SR-3 motherboards and $3000 Intel Xeon W-3175X 28Core CPU, wiped off the map of significance by the incredible AMD 3960X 24C at less than half the price, AMD showing off it's amazing gains in IPC.

Kinda feel bad for this enthusiast (last pic below) who's waiting at the edge of his seat over at the EVGA forums already purchased his Intel W-3175X still awaiting the EVGA SR-3 to launch.

If EVGA sells even (20) SR-3s I'd be surprised, when the Asus Zenith II Extreme and AMD TR3 3960X make so much more sense and costs $3000 less.

ROG Zenith II Extreme | ROG Zenith | Gaming Motherboards｜ROG - Republic of Gamers｜ROG Global

ASUS ROG Zenith II Extreme AMD TRX40 E-ATX HEDT motherboard (sTRX4, Ryzen Threadripper 3, 16 Power Stages, 5 x M.2, PCIe 4.0, Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax), 10 Gbps LAN, SATA, USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Type-C, RGB)

www.asus.com

--------

Just wait until 2020 when AMD will most likely dominate all the single threaded benchmarks as well.


disclaimer: I own and enjoy both Intel and AMD performance parts, and am therefore excluded from any form of fanboyism. just kidding ... lol


Go AMD!


24C vs 28C:

View attachment 137769


View attachment 137770
View attachment 137771

I cant wait till mid range 4th gen raisins. It's going to be a good time to upgrade. A 4600 is on my shortlist

 

[R0H1T]

I cant wait till mid range 4th gen raisins.

You mean Ryzen

 

[E-curbi]

the new one is Intel's special snowflake, because they have no other better model on the HEDT desktop. They need to make noise somehow.

At $3000 (selling for $3100), the Intel Xeon W-3175X 28Core CPU - doesn't even deserve a participation trophy. lol

 

[fancucker]

Say what you will but the new CCL-X line represent excellent mainstream/HEDT straddling options, and the higher overclocking headroom adds to the allure. AMD fans are too busy desperately trying to negate a phenomenally priced product

 

[heflys20]

Say what you will but the new CCL-X line represent excellent mainstream/HEDT straddling options, and the higher overclocking headroom adds to the allure. AMD fans are too busy desperately trying to negate a phenomenally priced product

You're a persistent one, arent you? Lol.

 

[Tsukiyomi91]

Also grew tired at what Intel has been doing. I too moving to AMD platform around 2020.

 

[EarthDog]

Its curious for me to see people throw around words like "inept" when really the issue is price and power consumption. Performance in both single and multithreaded are fairly close in a core for core/thread for thread comparison


What I deem "inept" was bulldozer and piledriver compared to intel at the time. Woeful single core and multithreaded performance, and, iirc, higher power use. Calling these new Intel chips inept is offputting at best, a blatant lie at worst. Really, it's just as polarizing as fancucker's POV as well.

 

[fancucker]

You're a persistent one, arent you? Lol.

AMD's high latency, clunky design only succeeded because of intel's arrogance and bad luck. They have multiple new uarchs that put AMD to shame and yes Willow Cove is 2 years away, but make no mistake, the traditional, highly efficient monolithic design will prevail. Let AMD stuff as many chiplets conceivable. The barely perceptible performance increments in Zen 3 will finally equal ST skylake performance, albeit at a lower freq. A commendable achievement for a company that was once teetering on the edge of a cliff.

 

[heflys20]

AMD's high latency, clunky design only succeeded because of intel's arrogance and bad luck. They have multiple new uarchs that put AMD to shame and yes Willow Cove is 2 years away, but make no mistake, the traditional, highly efficient monolithic design will prevail. Let AMD stuff as many chiplets conceivable. The barely perceptible performance increments in Zen 3 will finally equal ST skylake performance, albeit at a lower freq. A commendable achievement for a company that was once teetering on the edge of a cliff.

Riiigghhhttt...Got you.

 

[Vayra86]

AMD's high latency, clunky design only succeeded because of intel's arrogance and bad luck. They have multiple new uarchs that put AMD to shame and yes Willow Cove is 2 years away, but make no mistake, the traditional, highly efficient monolithic design will prevail. Let AMD stuff as many chiplets conceivable. The barely perceptible performance increments in Zen 3 will finally equal ST skylake performance, albeit at a lower freq. A commendable achievement for a company that was once teetering on the edge of a cliff.

At first, I thought this was sarcasm, then you confirmed it was not with the above post, and yet, I still hope this was all sarcasm.

If its really not, you need to get your head & cognitive skills checked out. And fast! IPC wise, Zen is now ahead of Intel in most workloads, and if you still believe monolithic is going to be cost effective going beyond 10 or 7nm... man. I still really hope it was sarcasm.

 

[fancucker]

At first, I thought this was sarcasm, then you confirmed it was not with the above post, and yet, I still hope this was all sarcasm.

If its not, you need to get your head & cognitive skills checked out. And fast!

Wanna know whats not sarcasm? The fact that people are reporting different boost frequences for the two 3950x chiplets...literally having major disparities in silicon quality within the cpu

 

[R0H1T]

Say what you will but the new CCL-X line represent excellent mainstream/HEDT straddling options, and the higher overclocking headroom adds to the allure. AMD fans are too busy desperately trying to negate a phenomenally priced product

Right, for anyone who wants more PCIe lanes 2920/50x has got you covered. Want 10980ish performance without moving to HEDT, get a 3950x & as for the top of the line on anything less than enterprise ~ there's 3960x-3990x

The only place where these new chips makes sense is if you already have x299 & are moving to a higher core count say from 6-10 cores. AMD has them beat in perf/$ + perf/W + PCIe lanes aside from being more future proof & not a dead end platform!

 

[E-curbi]

Its curious for me to see people throw around words like "inept" when really the issue is price and power consumption. Performance in both single and multithreaded are fairly close in a core for core/thread for thread comparison


What I deem "inept" was bulldozer and piledriver compared to intel at the time. Woeful single core and multithreaded performance, and, iirc, higher power use. Calling these new Intel chips inept is offputting at best, a blatant lie at worst. Really, it's just as polarizing as fancucker's POV as well.

I stand corrected.

Initial post edited for magnitude and degree (and structure and relation).

 

[Vayra86]

Wanna know whats not sarcasm? The fact that people are reporting different boost frequences for the two 3950x chiplets...literally having major disparities in silicon quality within the cpu

So, it was sarcasm after all? Glad we got that straightened out, saves you an ignore

Different chiplets have different performance caps... gee. I thought all silicon was equal and lottery was never a thing! (sarcasm!)

 

[fancucker]

So, it was sarcasm after all? Glad we got that straightened out, saves you an ignore

Different chiplets have different performance caps... gee. I thought all silicon was equal and lottery was never a thing! (sarcasm!)

It wasn't sarcasm and it reflects deceit in AMD's desperate advertising (knowing the significance of clock frequencies for the consumer), and their inability to guarantee a consistent performance within the product, let alone across manufacturing

They should've lowered the boost clocks. Intel still guarantees a more consistent boost clock across its products. Let's not even mention how crappy the 3900X chiplets are and the availibility. Why try to pick up 3950X from a 1000 dollar scalper when you can get this?

And the 3950X of course has a major node advantage...if CCL-X descended to Intel's 10nm process or TSMC 7 it would blow the ryzens out of the water

 

[EarthDog]

I stand corrected.

Initial post edited for magnitude and degree (and structure and relation).

They aren't incapable either, they are plenty capable.. but, I'm done splitting hairs on the Intel hate (deserved or not).

Cheers.

 

[Vayra86]

It wasn't sarcasm and it reflects deceit in AMD's desperate advertising (knowing the significance of clock frequencies for the consumer), and their inability to guarantee a consistent performance within the product, let alone across manufacturing

They should've lowered the boost clocks. Intel still guarantees a more consistent boost clock across its products. Let's not even mention how crappy the 3900X chiplets are and the availibility. Why try to pick up 3950X from a 1000 dollar scalper when you can get this?

I believe AMD covered that disparity already with an AGESA? But yes, that statement does and did hold water, they could have been more conservative; as in -50mhz across the board. If that's what gets your panties in a bunch, wew... I'll take it any day over Intel's underestimated TDPs, but I guess you like your OC's on boiling point instead. I'd buy two, because these will degrade quite a bit faster than you may want.

I think you will find the net conclusion wrt boost and turbo on both CPU and GPUs is that we've reached a point where this gets messy, VERY messy, because clocks can be altered more rapidly and dynamically than they ever could. In both camps, Intel and AMD, different tricks are employed to cap out performance. But they're both tricks. While AMD may not always get its specced boost, Intel can never sustain it.

And the 3950X of course has a major node advantage...if CCL-X descended to Intel's 10nm process or TSMC 7 it would blow the ryzens out of the water

Teehee, yeah IF... more like WHEN. That's the million dollar question, isn't it. So far the best they could do is their eternal 4c8t CPU on 10nm, and then they axed it. 7nm? Do I hear crickets?

Most straight shrinks don't seem to go well on 7nm so far. Radeon VII was hot. Navi is hot. If you think the density can go up with a straight shrink of CPUs that already run straight into 100C today... good luck

And that is one of the reasons Zen is a much stronger arch going forward than any monolithic one. Scalability, distribution of heat, cost and yield; Zen wins them all by miles from Core.

 

[R0H1T]

And the 3950X of course has a major node advantage...if CCL-X descended to Intel's 10nm process or TSMC 7 it would blow the ryzens out of the water

Funny this was never an issue when Intel was leading AMD across generations, even as late as Zen 2xxx

That's your opinion, you have absolutely 0 facts to back this up!

 

[Sybaris_Caesar]

I've been gone too long ftom tech forums instead lazing around in Reddit. So I forgot how Reddit downvotes hide the fanboy comments that isn't available in forums.

Cascade Lake X is a good value only and only if you have the the specific need case such as:
1) Higher than X16 lane PCie
2) Certified Thunderbolt support
2) Quad channel memory
3) AVX-512 acceleration
3) Specific softwares that are just better on Intel

Othetwise AMD left Intel no breathing room. The TR3s are chart-toppers and specs-santa clause. But if you just need CORES and only CORES, 3950X got you covered.

Kinda like first and 2nd gen Ryzen vs i7 iibh. You want absolute best get TR3. You want value HEDT get CCL-X. You want absolute value HCC get Ryzen 3950x.

 

[fancucker]

I believe AMD covered that disparity already with an AGESA? But yes, that statement does and did hold water, they could have been more conservative; as in -50mhz across the board. If that's what gets your panties in a bunch, wew... I'll take it any day over Intel's underestimated TDPs, but I guess you like your OC's on boiling point instead. I'd buy two, because these will degrade quite a bit faster than you may want.

I think you will find the net conclusion wrt boost and turbo on both CPU and GPUs is that we've reached a point where this gets messy, VERY messy, because clocks can be altered more rapidly and dynamically than they ever could. In both camps, Intel and AMD, different tricks are employed to cap out performance. But they're both tricks. While AMD may not always get its specced boost, Intel can never sustain it.



Teehee, yeah IF... more like WHEN. That's the million dollar question, isn't it. So far the best they could do is their eternal 4c8t CPU on 10nm, and then they axed it. 7nm? Do I hear crickets?

Most straight shrinks don't seem to go well on 7nm so far. Radeon VII was hot. Navi is hot. If you think the density can go up with a straight shrink of CPUs that already run straight into 100C today... good luck

And that is one of the reasons Zen is a much stronger arch going forward than any monolithic one. Scalability, distribution of heat, cost and yield; Zen wins them all by miles from Core.

A 4c processor that at 25W is shaming not only AMD, but some of Intel's previous i7 mobile offerings. Its a brilliant uarch

Funny this was never an issue when Intel was leading AMD across generations, even as late as Zen 2xxx

That's your opinion, you have absolutely 0 facts to back this up!

Everything is a conspiracy, AMD's online marketing campaign is more than successful. People forget that its a multi-billion dollar corporation seeking profit

I've been gone too long ftom tech forums instead lazing around in Reddit. So I forgot how Reddit downvotes hide the fanboy comments that isn't available in forums.

Cascade Lake X is a good value only and only if you have the the specific need case such as:
1) Higher than X16 lane PCie
2) Certified Thunderbolt support
2) Quad channel memory
3) AVX-512 acceleration
3) Specific softwares that are just better on Intel

Othetwise AMD left Intel no breathing room. The TR3s are chart-toppers and specs-santa clause. But if you just need CORES and only CORES, 3950X got you covered.

Kinda like first and 2nd gen Ryzen vs i7 iibh. You want absolute best get TR3. You want value HEDT get CCL-X. You want absolute value HCC get Ryzen 3950x.

And lo and behold, it provides superior value for peripheral I/O after AMD got greedy, and adobe premiere pro.

 

[EarthDog]

Pointing out a significant gain in IPC from AMD at 7nm vs Intel at 14nm is fanboyism?

That's simply stating the truth as it appears right now.

AMD jumps ahead and we say that, then Intel jumps ahead and we say that - how is either fanboyism if it's true?

Technology should move ahead as a product of healthy competition.

... we cannot applaud AMDs amazing IPC gains without hurting someone's feelings? What they've done is utterly remarkable not to mention totally astonishing.


I'm currently running (2) Intel platforms and it doesn't hurt my feelings if AMD jumps ahead. Go AMD!

Don't feed the trolls.