Overclocking

The GA-965P-DS3 offers an extremely wide range of voltage and frequency settings in very small steps, which seems almost ideal for overclocking. Particularly useful are memory voltages up to 2.575 V for extracting the highest possible memory speeds, in tiny 25 mV increments. Gigabyte supports all available memory ratios and the full range of latency settings.

Overclocking stability stopped at 337 MHz FSB at the CPU's default x10 multiplier, and we're still at a loss as to why, since lower-cost parts typically pushed this same part to 346 MHz. Worse still, some settings that booted on the first try failed to "cold boot" and required resetting the BIOS. Constant testing and resets eventually got the board to 348 MHz at a reduced CPU multiplier, but we expected much more from a board with 12 power phases.

Our Take

A wide variety of maladies may have caused our lower-than-expected overclock results - even possible shipping damage or the unforeseen "bum component". Since overclocking is so often "luck of the draw", we'll try not to read too much into these results.

Special Features

Gigabyte's SATA to eSATA to SATA adapter kits are a nice added touch. The GA-965P-QD6 also includes the same array of EasyTune 5 features, recovery tools, and software as the GA-965P-DS3.