What To Make Of Motherboard Cpu Overclocks?

[Nick63]

This is not an accusation, but I am curious about some overclock reports on Haswell at a review sight. There are two motherboards tested and they say one makes 4900mhz and the other 4960mhz. Both are using good water cooling, but it seems well above what I have heard people are getting . Any thoughts, and are the links to the tests allowed?

 

[Denithor]

Links are allowed.

 

[Nick63]

Then here are the two different motherboards. They may well be using the same processor, if so it is special it seems.

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/5587/gigabyte-z87x-oc-intel-z87-motherboard-review/index4.html

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/5591/asus-maximus-vi-hero-intel-z87-motherboard-review/index4.html

 

[Concillian]

Silicon lottery... The review sites are sent cherry, top 5-10% CPUs so don't expect 4900 MHz from every haswell.

Motherboards are only going to offer ±50 to maybe ±100 MHz difference from worst to best on the same cooling.

 

[Nick63]

Sounds like one in a million.

 

[Concillian]

From [H]ardOCP Haswell review & Overclocking article:

From all the feedback that I am getting through motherboard makers about Haswell overclocking, the basic thread at this time in terms of getting "high overclocks" seems to be, "You need to have a good CPU." ASUS has tested a couple hundred Haswell processors at this time and this is ASUS’ specific feedback from that overclock testing.

- 70% of CPUs can clock to 4.5GHz
- 30% of CPUs can clock to 4.6GHz
- 20% of CPUs can clock to 4.7GHz
- 10% of CPUs can to 4.8GHz
Overall you will find most CPUs capable of reaching 44x to 45x with varying levels of voltage.

These ASUS results were obtained with sealed water cooling systems that are comparable to a Corsair H80/H100 configuration or extremely efficient air cooling with 120mm push/pull fans while applying a maximum core voltage of 1.275v under full thread load conditions.

Take a look at the voltage in the article... 1.37v? So probably not one in a million, but you have to have solid cooling and a willingness to REALLY push things hard. Most people aren't willing to run 50% more wattage for that last 200 MHz.

 

[Nick63]

Thanks for the info. So a really good processor pushed very hard with really good cooling. OK.

 

[coffeejunkee]

Thanks for the info. So a really good processor pushed very hard with really good cooling. OK.

It's probably a very good cpu yeah, but also notice that despite the H100 temps hit 100 degrees in less than a minute, and that's not even running a real stress test like Prime/LinX. Also, there is no guarantee this cpu is actually stable, there might be hundreds of whea errors, but they don't show those.