Unlocking i5s to 4c/8t

[jhu]

I am still reading the thread, but over the week I was gone they apparently lost hyperthreading on the chip.

You mean people who upgraded their chip to have HT suddenly don't have HT anymore? BTW, didn't Intel stop this processor upgrade program when Sandy Bridge was released?

 

[crashtech]

I am still reading the thread, but over the week I was gone they apparently lost hyperthreading on the chip.

Have to believe (if it wasn't all an elaborate put-on) that the chip had some kind of "defect" that closed a circuit and allowed HT to be enabled, for a while, til the thing electromigrated open again.

 

[Burpo]

I didn't see anything elaborate about it. Was BS from the beginning..

 

[crashtech]

I didn't see anything elaborate about it. Was BS from the beginning..

Maybe so. The OP sure sounded earnest during the part I read, and one of the linked videos was very interesting.

 

[Dufus]

Zir_blazer has the guys theory perfect. We know some parts are lasered/fused but the HT and unlocked multiplier options are not stored in the CPU. The chips load the exact same microcode for 3570, 3570k, 3770, and 3770k.

Had an old C2D that lost it's extra half multi (IDA) if no microcode loaded and IIRC one of the SNB processors needed a certain revision of microcode or higher for AES-NI to be supported even though it was shared across different models that had no problem supporting AES-NI.

Microcode is one of Intels big secrets so a mystery as to what it is capable of other than fixing errata.

 

[ShintaiDK]

I didn't see anything elaborate about it. Was BS from the beginning..

^^ This.

 

[Matt1970]

Have to believe (if it wasn't all an elaborate put-on) that the chip had some kind of "defect" that closed a circuit and allowed HT to be enabled, for a while, til the thing electromigrated open again.

That would be my guess.

 

[Bubbleawsome]

You mean people who upgraded their chip to have HT suddenly don't have HT anymore? BTW, didn't Intel stop this processor upgrade program when Sandy Bridge was released?

No, the special chip lost HT after being removed and replaced back into the same mobo. Still runs 5.7Ghz at 1.6v and 5Ghz at well under though.

That would be my guess.

I guess I would agree. Sucks though.

 

[Burpo]

Conspiracy theory: Intel tracked it down & zapped it back to normal :biggrin:

 

[Bubbleawsome]

The chip is back! The HT disabled itself a while back but it was re-enabled ~5 days ago. (I missed it) The kicker is that it was when the chip was rebooted with the same memory set that it originally enabled HT on even though they are different actual sticks. (AFAICT)
The man working on this mystery (Gamester333) has been on vacation but everyone is waiting to see what he says.

 

[Chicken76]

Would Intel really make such a mistake as to allow an i5 to essentially become an i7?

Enabling HT would not turn an i5 into an i7. There are also 2 MB of L3 cache that are going to be nearly impossible to enable on i5s.

 

[Burpo]

Don't confuse them with facts.. Come on, this is entertaining

 

[Lepton87]

Enabling HT would not turn an i5 into an i7. There are also 2 MB of L3 cache that are going to be nearly impossible to enable on i5s.

That's why I said "essentially". That extra cache is good for a few percent extra performance at most, on average it's hardly measurable something on the order of 2-3%.

 

[DrMrLordX]

The chip is back! The HT disabled itself a while back but it was re-enabled ~5 days ago. (I missed it) The kicker is that it was when the chip was rebooted with the same memory set that it originally enabled HT on even though they are different actual sticks. (AFAICT)
The man working on this mystery (Gamester333) has been on vacation but everyone is waiting to see what he says.

Interesting. It will be more interesting if this process can be reproduced on a different processor on a different system.