Instead, the giant is cracking down on re-marketers, who take chips and relabel them for a faster speed. In fact, quality, not design, determines how fast a processor can run. After a chip comes off the manufacturing line, each is tested to determine its maximum MHz rating, and then sold at a level below that to help guarantee that the chip works properly. A 300MHz Pentium II processor for instance, can run at higher frequencies, but may become unstable, causing software to run incorrectly. But the average user can wring an extra 10 or 20 percent more speed out of their processor without running into problems, say overclockers.
Most processors have a safety margin.
Pabst, who overclocks his PC, estimates that perhaps as many as 500,000 of his readers overclock their processors. Pabst's site and others, such as The Brotherhood of the CPU , give detailed instructions on the technique for the curious user. They do warn that taking the chip speed up too high is a danger. The problem AMD and Intel face comes when grey marketeers, playing off the safety margin, replace the factory label with a faster speed, allowing them to sell the chips at a higher price. The user who buys a 266MHz chip labelled 300MHz sets the motherboard accordingly.