News has been going around that ASRock’s SKY OC feature will be removed from their motherboards via BIOS updates and this is true, models like the Z170 Extreme4 already has new BIOS ready for download that states “Remove SKY OC function.”
I had intended to have a feature article for ASRock SKY OC but it looks like Intel made the move to push motherboard vendors to remove the overclocking of non-K Skylake processors. This piece of news does not come as a surprise to me as I was at ASRock’s office about 2 weeks ago and I did get information that Intel wasn’t pleased with this feature.
Well, that’s not gonna stop goldfries from telling you what you’ll be missing from this. Let’s keep the lengthy wall of text away and get down to business.
Overclocking
I managed to get the Intel Core i3-6100 up to 4.5GHz with no voltage boost, BCLK set to 122Mhz and RAM speed at 2600Mhz. While my HyperX Savage DDR4 unit is 3000Mhz, it is unable to run at that speed with the said BCLK so the max I could reach was 2600Mhz.
Test Setup
| RAM | HyperX Savage DDR4 3000 |
| Motherboard | ASRock Z170 Pro4 |
| Power Supply | Cooler Master V700 |
| Operating System | Windows 10 64bit |
The Benchmarks
x264 – 10bit to 8bit Video Conversion
The source video is a 720p MKV file that is 90 seconds in duration. x264 settings at the slowest.
*Lower is better*
| Processor | Time Taken (seconds) |
| Intel Core i3-6100 @ 4.5Ghz 122Mhz BCLK | 265 |
| Intel Core i3-6100 | 315 |
Cinebench R15
Default settings
*Higher is better*
| Processor | CB |
| Intel Core i3-6100 @ 4.5Ghz 122Mhz BCLK | 463 |
| Intel Core i3-6100 | 400 |
WinRAR
Speed of archiving some almost 1GB worth of CR2 and MOV file.
*Lower is better*
| Processor | Time Taken (seconds) |
| Intel Core i3-6100 @ 4.5Ghz 122Mhz BCLK | 58 |
| Intel Core i3-6100 | 67 |
Temperature
X264 10bit to 8bit conversion was used to stress the card. Fan settings are at Auto. Room set to ~25c.
| Processor | Idle(°C) | Load (°C) |
| Intel Core i3-6100 @ 4.5Ghz 122Mhz BCLK | 38 | 75 |
| Intel Core i3-6100 | 28 | 50 |
What’s amazing is that the processor gained so much computing power with a simple feature and being a 51W processor it runs cooling despite being overclocked and using the stock cooler.
The Verdict
The ASRock SKY OC is a nice feature, easy to use and gains so much value out of an ordinary processor without one having to fork out extra for 3rd-party cooling system.
It’s just unfortunate that ASRock is removing this feature.
*HINT : The SKY OC feature remains as long as you don’t flash your BIOS!
