Efficiency
ASRock has the highest automatic overclock, but Asus manages to match its gaming performance with a higher memory multiplier.
Asus has the highest manual overclock at 47 x 100.5 MHz. However, because we had to step down to a 46x multiplier on Gigabyte’s board, we were able to push the base clock up to a higher 101.6 MHz base clock.
The performance advantage of super-fast memory is typically tiny but chartable, and we should also note that anyone seeking those tiny differences could chose to overclock Asus at a higher BCLK using the lower 46x multiplier, too.
Asus’ top manual overclock gives it a chartable lead in applications, while ASRock’s top auto-overclock is somehow matched by MSI. While part of that is most likely due to the impact of MSI’s HD Graphics 3000 overclock affecting Quick Sync-enhanced applications, we can’t help but wonder what's happening with that higher idle power state.
Combined performance places Asus’ and ASRock’s automatic overclocks on par with each other, while also showing a match between Asus’ and Gigabyte’s manually-overclocked performance. Asus looks like the true leader by doing well on both fronts, but the real reason to produce a combined score is for efficiency calculation.
No device is 100% efficient, but if we use the most efficient configuration as a 100% baseline, we can see how the highest-efficiency overclock still falls 16% behind it. Asus’ automatic overclock is the least efficient as a consequence of its gratuitously-increased voltage.