Are all modern processors "unlocked" as they say?

[ShawnD1]

Historically locked has carried the problem where the FSB can only go so high. For example, my E6600 computer goes up to 340mhz bus, and past that it no longer detects certain hard drives. The CPU might be able to go a lot higher, but the motherboard just says no.

In my AMD systems that have locked multipliers, they don't seem to have this same limitation. While the reference speed goes up, I can lower the HT speed, I can lower the northbridge speed, and I can lower the ram speed. In a way, it seems like nothing is locked to the reference speed anymore, so the reference can go as high as I want and the only thing stopping me is when the CPU itself stops working.

Does this sound accurate or am I getting this wrong?

 

[aigomorla]

no locking has more to apply to the multiplier.

When something is locked, its multiplier is always locked.

And when i say locked, i mean you can not go up, unless its turbo on.

 

[Spikesoldier]

pretty much all CPU multipliers are locked nowadays. it has been like that for over a decade. the reason behind it is that a system builder can manually set a multiplier up a notch higher, neglect all the other variables, and watch the system post at:

i.e. piii 500 (100x5.0) when the whole time it was a piii 450 (100x4.5).

the system builder would then sell the system as a piii 500 and make a little extra money without the buyer any wiser unless he were to pop his head into the case and check it out beforehand.

it was these shady system builders that were also eating into intel's sales of higher-end SKU's and intel was the first to lock them. amd felt the same effect and also began to lock their chips shortly after becoming competitive again with the K7 and end users discovering a method to unlock chips anyway (see pencil trick).

 

[Ben90]

What you talked about in your OP is completely correct, although the title is misleading. Unlocked processors are those that allow a higher CPU multiplier than the default value.

Unless you have a black edition AMD CPU, both of your systems use locked CPUs, its just how they determine their speed is different. Modern Nehalem/Westmere use an even looser system than your AMD rig with nearly all multipliers running off the base clock.