Overclocking
| BIOS Frequency and Voltage settings (for overclocking) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Row 0 - Cell 0 | ASRock FM2A88X+ Killer | Asus A88X-Pro | Gigabyte F2A88X-UP4 | MSI A88X-G45 Gaming |
| Reference Clock | 100-136 MHz (1 MHz) | 80-300 MHz (1 MHz) | 100-200 MHz (1 MHz) | 90-190 MHz (0.1 MHz) |
| CPU Multiplier | 14-63x (1x) | 8-63x (1x) | 8-79x (1x) | 8-63x (1x) |
| DRAM Data Rates | 800-2400 (266.6 MHz) | 800-2400 (266.6 MHz) | 800-2400 (266.6 MHz) | 800-2400 (266.6 MHz) |
| CPU Vcore | 0.60-1.55V (6.25 mV) | 0.80-1.90V (6.25 mV) | 0.80-2.30V (6.25 mV) | -0.10 to +0.50 (10 mV) |
| CPU NB | 0.60-1.55V (6.25 mV) | 0.80-1.75V (6.25 mV) | 0.80-2.10V (6.25 mV) | -0.10 to +0.50 (10 mV) |
| A88X Voltage | 1.10-1.40V (10 mV) | 1.10-1.40V (100 mV) | 1.00-1.50V (10 mV) | 1.35-1.80V (10 mV) |
| DRAM Voltage | 1.17-1.80V (5 mV) | 1.35-2.14V (5 mV) | 1.10-2.62V (10 mV) | 1.10-1.40V (10 mV) |
| CAS Latency | 5-16 Cycles | 5-16 Cycles | 5-16 Cycles | 5-16 Cycles |
| tRCD | 5-19 Cycles | 2-19 Cycles | 2-19 Cycles | 2-19 Cycles |
| tRP | 5-19 Cycles | 5-19 Cycles | 5-19 Cycles | 5-19 Cycles |
| tRAS | 15-42 Cycles | 8-42 Cycles | 8-42 Cycles | 8-42 Cycles |
Most of the boards in today’s test reached 4.6 GHz, except for Asus’ A88X-Pro at a similar 4.55 GHz.
Maximum reference clock could be important to memory overclockers who’ve already exceeded the Kaveri architecture's top 24x DRAM multiplier, or to anyone who somehow ends up with a multiplier-locked APU. Asus, Gigabyte, and MSI are closely matched in this capability.
Asus tops our memory overclocking tests even after also topping our stock-speed memory bandwidth tests. Performance and stability are definitely a killer combo.
MSI's firmware automatically attempted to tighten memory timings when we reduced memory clock rate, even though our frequency reductions were an attempt to recover from failed boots. The A88X-G45 Gaming might have been able to reach a slightly higher DRAM clock with more manual timing adjustments. On the other hand, our most recent tests show that data rates beyond DDR3-2133 provide no performance benefit to recent platforms.
