Posted on Saturday, June 23 2012 @ 21:38 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
This week TechARP discusses the CPU Differential Amplitude BIOS feature,
you can learn about it
over here.
This is an Intel Core i7-specific BIOS option. It allows you to increase the amplitude of the differential clock signals to increase their noise immunity.
As clock speed increases, so does the noise level. If the noise level is high enough to be mistaken for a proper clock signal, this results in errors in the data transmitted. Thus, it is important for the differential clocks to generate a clock signal with sufficient amplitude (voltage difference) to avoid noise from introducing errors.
When set to Auto, the CPU will use the default differential amplitude of 610 mV.
When set to 700mV, the CPU will use an increased differential amplitude of 700 mV.
When set to 800mV, the CPU will use an increased differential amplitude of 800 mV.
When set to 900mV, the CPU will use an increased differential amplitude of 900 mV.
When set to 1000mV, the CPU will use an increased differential amplitude of 1000 mV.
Increasing the CPU differential amplitude increases the noise immunity of the processor's reference clocks and indirectly increases the overclockability of the processor. Thus, if you face problems overclocking the processor, try increasing the CPU differential amplitude.
