ASRock's leaked Base Frequency Boost hacks Intel overclocking limits, enabling non-K CPU and non-Z mobo overclocking: will the i3-10100 trounce the Ryzen 3 3100X?

A leaked slide, purportedly from an ASRock presentation on Intel 400 series motherboards, claims that the company's Base Frequency Boost (BFB) tech will enable overclocking on non-K Comet Lake CPUs and non-Z 400 series motherboards. If true, this might allow budget Intel i3-10100 users to trounce the AMD Ryzen 3 3100 through BFB overclocking.

BFB apparently works by increasing the TDP of locked processors to their maximum PL1 value. For 65W processors like the i3-10100, this would mean an increase to 125W. According to the slide, BFB can overclock some processors like the i7-10700 by as much as 900 MHz.

Til date, one of the key advantages of buying Ryzen hardware was that AMD allows overclocking on everything apart from bargain-basement A320 motherboards. ASRock's BFB tech appears to offer remarkable advantage considering how Intel locks overclocking to premium K-series CPUs running on expensive Z-series motherboards.

However, Intel has been known to crack down on any attempts to overclock its non-K CPUs. It remains to be seen whether ASRock will actually be allowed to support BFB.