Asus has just announced (by press release) that a function already available from Gigabyte was now supported: overclocking the GPU Core i3 and i5. At ASUS, we call it the GPU Boost, but there is so much to increase the frequency of HD Intel GMA.

Recall that the IGP for Intel is actually an improved GMA X4500 HD: 12 units of computation instead of 10, some architectural improvements and a dual decoder for H.264 encoded videos. Three versions exist, depending on the CPU: the Pentium G6950, PGI merely 533 MHz in the Core i3 and i5 XX0 it operates to 733 MHz, Core i5 661, the one sent to the press It operates at 900 MHz. It is therefore possible to change the frequency of the latter via the BIOS of the motherboard and the gains should be interesting with the Pentium G6950. Note that the chip even overclocked, is significantly less efficient than the IGP NVIDIA and AMD, although the gap is narrowing and that - for once - supported functions are numerous.

It remains to find interest in this type of manipulation: the Intel chip is slow and makes the game unusable in most cases and overclocking will only make the chip less slow ... For other functions (2D interface of OS, video decoding), the base frequency is sufficient. Note that most Asus boards based on a chip H55 or H57 are compatible unless - and this is logical - the P7H55: it lacks video outputs necessary to use the GMA processors.