Core 2 Quad Q8200 O/C Performance And Efficiency
Intel Quad-Core Test Settings | ||
---|---|---|
Default Settings | Overclock Settings | |
CPU | Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 2.33 GHz 4 MB L2 Cache, 1.16V | 2.69 GHz, (7x 384 MHz)1.29V core, 1.40V FSB |
RAM | DDR3-1333 CAS 9-9-9-24, 1.50V | DDR3-1536 CAS 6-6-5-16, 1.65V |
Motherboard | MSI P45 Diamond LGA-1366, P45/ICH10R, BIOS 1.5 (10/10/2009) | |
Graphics | Zotac GeForce GTX260² 576MHz GPU, 999 MHz Shader, 896MB GDDR3-2484 | |
Hard Drive | Western Digital VelociRaptor WD30000HLFS 300 MB, 10,000 RPM, 16 MB Cache | |
Sound | Integrated HD Audio | |
Networking | Integrated Gigabit LAN | |
Software | ||
Operating System | Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate x64 SP1 | |
Graphics | GeForce 182.08 Desktop |
A stock FSB clock that was already near the processor’s limit made this the most disappointing overclocking experience we can remember since National Semiconductor’s Cyrix MII. Its measly 15% gain felt like a tremendous achievement, however, considering the great effort required to reach a 2.69 GHz clock frequency.
Sandra Arithmetic and Multimedia show CPU performance gains of 14 to 15 percent.
A memory bandwidth increase of 19% looks much better, but isn’t as noteworthy in a CPU overclocking guide.
Low core voltage plus high FSB voltage brings a significant penalty in power consumption, even though performance gains were mediocre at best.
An efficiency loss of 9% results from a ratio of performance to power consumption for the overclocked configuration.