Benchmark Results: 3DMark And PCMark
Factory-overclocked graphics cards give the microATX system a huge performance advantage in 3DMark, which gives us the illusion that it's 3.8 GHz stock processor (running that fast because Asus' UEFI settings sneakily make it so) thrashes the full-sized SBM build’s 4.5 GHz overclock.
We noted that the full-sized system’s cards could not be overclocked by a noticeable amount beyond their stock 772 MHz setting. But the liquid-cooled cards shoot all the way up to 950 MHz with complete stability. A huge 4.75 GHz CPU frequency pushes the microATX machine’s performance even further, making it absolutely unapproachable in 3DMark by the ATX machine.
A small bump in SSD performance gives the microATX build a similarly small bump in its overall PCMark score. A better overclock is worth around three times as much performance leadership.
Overclocking doesn’t help these single-SSD machines, though older System Builder Marathon systems have realized better storage scores from improved (software-based) RAID performance.