Uncore: an introduction

As already mentioned on the previous page: the memory controller is now integrated inside the processor. Although the term integrated memory controller seems perfectly suitable for this part of the processor, Intel decided differently. Apparently, the thinktank inside Intel couldn't come up with anything other besides uncore ... which basically comes from un-core, or non-core.

Now, the uncore serves as gate between the memory banks and the processor core, so increasing the frequency should have quite a nice impact on the performance, especially in memory-related applications. Also, since i7 now has a triple channel memory configuration, increases in performance should be more noticeable since the bandwidth throughput of three memory banks is higher than that of two banks.


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Although the performance increase is not spectacular, we see that a higher Uncore frequency has a significant effect on the performance in 3D: over 5% increase with an elevated Uncore by 44%.

The biggest advantage of overclocking the Uncore frequency is not the performance, however, but the support for higher clocked memory. Since the Uncore frequency has to be at least two times the frequency of the memory, an increased Uncore will lead you to higher memory clock frequencies.