While the focus of today’s article is power-draw increase due to overclocking, a few users won’t be satisfied unless they see the actual performance increase. For that, we repeated the full benchmark set from our previous motherboard round-up.
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Test System Configuration
CPU
Intel Core i7-870 (2.93 GHz, 8.0MB Cache)
Motherboard
Asus P7P55D v1.02G, BIOS 0606 (09/03/2009)
Overclock 1
4.28 GHz at 194.7 MHz Base Clock, 1.448V Full Load
Overclock 2
3.77 GHz at 171.5 MHz Base Clock, 1.248V Full Load
Overclock 3
4.04 GHz at 183.6 MHz Base Clock, 1.344V Full Load
CPU Cooler
Thermalright MUX-120
RAM
Kingston KHX2133C9D3T1K2/4GX (4GB) DDR3-2133 at DDR3-1600 CAS 8-8-8-24
Western Digital VelociRaptor WD3000HLFS, 300GB 10,000 RPM, SATA 3Gb/s, 16MB cache
Sound
Integrated HD Audio
Network
Integrated Gigabit Networking
Power
Corsair CMPSU-850HX 850W, ATX12V v2.2, EPS12V
Software
OS
Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate x64
Graphics
Nvidia GeForce 190.62 WHQL
Chipset
Intel INF 9.1.1.1014
Thermalright’s MUX-120 cooler is barely big enough to cool our fully-overclocked i7-870 processor at 1.45V under the stress of eight Prime95 threads, even with an ambient temperature of 22 degrees Celsius.
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Benchmark Configuration
3D Games
Crysis
Patch 1.2.1, DirectX 10, 64-bit executable, benchmark tool Test Set 1: High Quality, No AA Test Set 2: Very High Quality, 8x AA
Far Cry 2
Patch 1.03, DirectX 10, in-game benchmark Test Set 1: High Quality, No AA Test Set 2: Ultra High Quality, 8x AA
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky
Clear Sky Benchmark version Test Set 1: High Preset, DX10 EFDL, No AA Test Set 2: Ultra Preset, DX10 EFDL, 4x MSAA
World in Conflict
Patch 1009, DirectX 10, timedemo Test 1: High Details, No AA / No AF Test 2: Very High Details 4x AA / 16x AF
Audio/Video Encoding
iTunes
Version: 8.2.1.6 x64 Audio CD ("Terminator II" SE), 53 min Default format AAC
Lame MP3
Version: 3.98.2, wave to MP3 Audio CD "Terminator II" SE, 53 min
TMPEGEnc 4.0 Express
Version: 4.7.3.292 Import File: Terminator 2 SE DVD (5 Minutes) Resolution: 720x576 (PAL) 16:9
FYI: Power consumption of switching cmos silicon increases with the square of voltage, and linear with frequency. The increases shown here seem to be in line with that, rather than the stated decrease in voltage regulator efficiency (which certainly does decrease, but probably much less).
dan__gFYI: Power consumption of switching cmos silicon increases with the square of voltage, and linear with frequency. The increases shown here seem to be in line with that, rather than the stated decrease in voltage regulator efficiency (which certainly does decrease, but probably much less).
Can you turn that into a more accurate estimate than 200W to 240W, where all that can be proven is that it's "high, but less than 240W"?
Are your power consumption measurements of the cpu, dc power or wall socket power? If they are the latter, which I suspect they are, then you have to factor in the power supply efficiency, as 150w socket, means 150w DC.
I would be great to see how the more popular i7 860 or at least i5 750 scale with the voltage.
I don't think i7 870 is a popular choice because of it's price (people would go for socket 1336)
Thanks for article.
For me - This and previous articles have convinced me to game at stock, w/ tb+ settings on, and a high end GPU card and the i5 is most appropriate for my usage. I need to condition myself to turn off the computer esp. when noone is home.
Although Thomas labels Asrock as "succeeds" I will not buy their motherboards, you'll never know what else this company ignores in the bios, and do you think they would fix that issue if it weren't for THG? After how many failing boards?
cyberkuberiahbut some of us would rather give some extra beans and go 920 , and have dual pcie2.0 x16 . a few extra watts doesn't matter too .I agree with you 110%... :D
Also, I would like to see the voltage scaling using the i5 750, as mentioned by bucifer
A few extra watts being "used" is fine. A few extra watts being "wasted" is something else entirely.
I don't see a howling difference on these overclocks either. If I bought an i7, that probably means I'd have little reason to OC it.
While ASRock seems to be taking a "successive approximations" approach to improving their products, the ones I've bought so far have all been solid, but any OC has been mild.
And, once again (even if it isn't quite epic), MSI = FAIL.