Replies to post #5227 on Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD)

[j3pflynn]

kpf, MSI confirmed it in their e-mail response to Tom's. They didn't explicitly state it, but they confirmed Tom's lab's discovery on this page of his article:
(Note the sections I underlined)
http://www17.tomshardware.com/cpu/20030522/index.html
Quote from Tom's article:
The lab engineers made a curious discovery when taking a closer look at the 865 Neo 2 from MSI: the manufacturer had integrated an ingenious logic that increased the FSB clock from 6% to 8% when programs were run, which automatically led to overclocking the processor. The trick: with conventional tools, such as the popular WCPUID, Intel CPU Frequency Display, CPUZ and SiSoft Sandra 2003, the clock increase cannot be detected. Only a special tool was able to reveal the raised clock speed.


Official Statement from MSI Taiwan

"To the Editors of Tom' s Hardware,

We are writing in response to your article "Intel Rigs Up: P4 Series with FSB800"

Indeed what your lab engineer discovered is true.

MSI does plan to use the said "logic circuit" or "dynamic overclocking" as a feature for this board.

The reason why we haven't announced it to anybody yet is because we are in the process of doing internal testing and applying for a patent.

This feature should be available for high-end MSI motherboard in our next BIOS release.

MSI's "dynamic overclocking" (the feature name still has not been finalized as of this writing) feature is exactly what your article described."The manufacturer has incorporated an ingenious logic circuit that increases the FSB speed between 6 and 8 percent while programs are running; the processor is automatically overclocked. However, FSB and CPU speeds are only increased when applications are started or when benchmark programs have finished - subject to CPU usage reaching close to 100 percent. And this is really interesting: the overclocking does not show up using conventional benchmarking utilities such as WCPUID, Intel CPU Frequency Display, CPUZ or SiSoft Sandra 2003. You need a very specialized tool to reveal the increased bus speed."

The reason why the overclocking does not show up on well-known utilities such as WCPUID, Intel Frequency Display, CPUZ and SiSoft Sandra 2003 is because these programs cannot detect dynamic overclocking. That is why you need a special developer's tool to detect dynamic overclocking in realtime."