Some Chinese retailers have started selling so-called Intel IPO PCs featuring out-of-the-box performance enhancements. The aim is to offer users an overclocked machine that retains its warranty, and hopefully 24/7 stability too. This makes it a nice option for both enthusiasts and novice users.
Short for Intel Performance Optimisation, IPO is a set of tweaks announced back at CES 2025, giving OEM and system integrators a guideline in order to boost their pre-built machines’ performance. Among these, we have CPU frequency and voltage adjustments, memory speed and latency tuning, not to forget looser power limits.
While overclocking can be an option to unlock extra performance, it does come with some drawbacks. For instance, stability may vary from app to app, demanding a lot of testing and going so far as to cause irreparable damage to the hardware. For these reasons, OEMs wanting to sell IPO-branded machines must obey strict stability and performance requirements, which include using voltages below 1.35v and passing stress tests.
One brand claimed that its Intel IPO PC delivered 10% higher gaming performance. However, it’s unclear if these results included Intel APO (Application Optimisation) which dynamically adjusts CPU resource allocation based on workload demands to further boost performance.
@unikoshardware on X shared the specs of a product following the IPO recommendations, offering:
- P-cores at 5.4GHz up from 5.2GHz
- E-cores at 4.9GHz up from 4.6GHz
- Ring at 4GHz up from 3.9GHz
- NGU at 3.1GHz up from 2.6GHz
- D2D at 3.1GHz up from 2.1GHz
- PL1 power limit at 280W up from 125W
- PL2 power limit at 350W up from 250W
- Memory frequency at 8,400MT/s up from 8,000MT/s
Now, while these are not exceptional compared to what you can get with a long and tedious manual tuning, they should run on all machines without causing unreliability. Seeing how Intel had a hard time with the instability issues that plagued its 13th- and 14th-Gen processors, we understand that it tries to avoid repeating the same mistakes.
Lastly, the part that will interest many is pricing. These IPO PCs range from ¥9,099 (£950) for a Core i5-14600KF, RTX 4060 Ti 8GB, and 16GB of DDR5-6800 RAM config and up to ¥19,099 (£1,994) for a Core i7 14700KF, RTX 5080, and 32GB of DDR5-6800. But most importantly, the CPU warranty has been extended to five years, giving users peace of mind.
