All three boards in today’s competition offer voltage levels in excess of what most users actually need, but competitors who use liquid nitrogen cooling will be happy to see these ultra-high limits.
| BIOS Frequency and Voltage settings (for overclocking) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Asus Rampage III Extreme | Gigabyte X58A-UD9 | MSI Big Bang XPower | |
| CPU Base Clock | 100-500 MHz (1 MHz) | 100-600 MHz (1MHz) | 100-600 MHz (1 MHz) |
| CPU Multiplier | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| DRAM Data Rates | BCLK x6-x18 (x2) | BCLK x6-x18 (x2) | BCLK x6-x16 (x2) |
| PCIe Clock | 100-200 MHz (1 MHz) | 90-150 MHz (1 MHz) | 100-190 MHz (1 MHz) |
| CPU Vcore | 0.85-2.30 V (6.25 mV) | 0.50-1.90 V (6.25 mV) | 0.90-2.30 V (6.25 mV) |
| Uncore Voltage | 1.20-2.50 (6.25 mV) | 1.075-2.015 V (20 mV) | 1.20-1.83 V (6.25 mV) |
| IOH Voltage | 1.11-2.20 V (13.25 mV) | 1.00-2.00V (20 mV) | 0.80-1.70 V (10 mV) |
| ICH Voltage | 1.11-2.00 V (13.25 mV) | 0.92-2.38 V (20 mV) | 1.10-2.00 V (10 mV) |
| DRAM Voltage | 1.21-2.50 V (13.25 mV) | 1.30-2.60 V (20 mV) | 1.20-2.50 V (1 mV) |
| CAS Latency | 3-11 Cycles | 5-15 Cycles | 4-15 Cycles |
| tRCD | 3-15 Cycles | 1-15 Cycles | 3-15 Cycles |
| tRP | 3-15 Cycles | 1-15 Cycles | 3-15 Cycles |
| tRAS | 3-31 Cycles | 1-31 Cycles | 9-31 Cycles |
Our air-cooled configuration and first-generation Core i7 processor limit us to a far more practical 1.45 V, a configuration we’ve maintained through several product generations to make comparisons of overclocking capabilities possible between articles.

This is the closest we’ve seen any three boards come to overclocking parity, indicating the true limit of our CPU at our chosen voltage. The actual difference is less than the 21 MHz we’d get from increasing the base clock by 1 MHz, so all three boards are tied within the “margin of error” for each board’s clock generator.

Base-clock capability is also essentially tied for all three boards, with Gigabyte’s 220 MHz setting coming in at an actual 219.8 MHz.

Memory is where things get a little trickier. MSI appears to lead in the average of three- and six-module speeds, but it’s hard to know exactly where it would have ended up had its 7x memory multiplier actually worked. That’s right, MSI’s memory overclock started at the DDR3-1600 setting rather than the DDR3-1866 setting used by its competitors, requiring a higher base clock to reach its memory overclocking limit.
- More Power!
- Features Comparison
- Asus Rampage III Extreme
- Rampage III Extreme BIOS
- Rampage III Extreme Utilities
- Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD9
- GA-X58A-UD9 BIOS
- GA-X58A-UD9 Overclocking Utilities
- MSI Big Bang-XPower
- Big Bang-XPower BIOS
- Big Bang-XPower Overclocking Utilities
- Test Settings
- Benchmark Results: Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Crysis
- Benchmark Results: DiRT 2 Demo, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call Of Pripyat
- Benchmark Results: Audio And Video Encoding
- Benchmark Results: Productivity
- Benchmark Results: Synthetic
- Overclocking
- Power, Heat, And Efficiency
- Conclusion
Ok, Hold on. Three Flagship LGA 1366 Boards and no overclocked power consumption results? These boards are obviously made for overclocking and those results would be very interesting to see.
The EVGA Classified SR-2 is based on the Intel 5520 chipset and uses Xeons, so it's not an X58 board technically speaking which is why it doesn't qualify.
If I could spend that much on a motherboard I'd have chosen the Rampage III Extreme, not only does it have good features it also has the best colour scheme. ^^
Does anyone know why I try to submit a comment it doesn't show up, and I have to use the forums instead to post a comment instead?
http://www.guru3d.com/news/quad-sli-on-asus-rampage-iii-extreme-is-not-possible/
Awesome, thanks. Manufacturers don't actually discuss this stuff.
Yeah... they are changing 1366 to some socket R... Well... At least I can look forward to these motherboards going down in price by next year when they go to Socket R's for performance than 1366's. I guess ill be happy with 1366's. Hopefully they go down by at least $100.
I don't like any of the motherboards PCI-e layouts. Its a top range board but only assumes to run 2 cards well. Then confuses the user by placing a bunch of half/quarter speed PCI-e slots. X8 on x16 lane is fine, but x4 is not.
While the SR2 is nice, I have no need for dual socket. As nice as it would be.
The only thing the UD9 is missing is three more DIMMs (9 total). I know some server boards have 9 DIMMs per CPU, why not any enthusiast boards?
I want the UD9, put 12GB RAM in it, two 5870's, a nice sound card and a nice NIC (when going extreme, may as well go the full way right?).
Too bad I quit my job and can't afford it now.
Can we ever expect 7/8 way SLI/CF drivers? I, for one, would love to use 7 single slot 5770's.
Also, no mention was made of the superior Intel Ethernet adapter in the R3E vs the crappy realtek ones in the other boards