Overclocking
| BIOS Frequency and Voltage settings (for overclocking) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ASRock FM2A85X Extreme6 | Asus F2A85-V Pro | ECS A85F2-A GOLDEN | |
| Reference Clock | 100-136 MHz (1 MHz) | 90-300 MHz (1 MHz) | 90-200 MHz (1 MHz) |
| CPU Multiplier | 14-63x (1x) | 8-63x (1x) | 5-63x (1x) |
| DRAM Data Rates | 800-1866 (266.6 MHz) | 800-2400 (266.6 MHz) | 800-2400 (266.6 MHz) |
| CPU Vcore | 0.60-1.55V (6.25 mV) | 0.68-2.08V (6.25 mV) | 1.50-1.98V (20 mV) |
| CPU NB | 0.60-1.55V (6.25 mV) | 0.50-1.90V (6.25 mV) | 1.30-1.80V (20 mV) |
| A85X Voltage | 1.10-1.40V (100 mV) | 1.10-1.40V (10 mV) | 1.11-1.21V (~35 mV) |
| DRAM Voltage | 1.17-1.80V (5 mV) | 1.35-2.135V (5 mV) | 1.20-2.01V (10 mV) |
| CAS Latency | 5-14 Cycles | 5-16 Cycles | 5-14 Cycles |
| tRCD | 5-19 Cycles | 2-19 Cycles | 2-19 Cycles |
| tRP | 5-19 Cycles | 5-19 Cycles | 5-19 Cycles |
| tRAS | 15-40 Cycles | 8-42 Cycles | 8-42 Cycles |
| BIOS Frequency and Voltage settings (for overclocking) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Gigabyte F2A85X-UP4 | MSI FM2-A85XA-G65 | Sapphire Pure Platinum A85XT | |
| Reference Clock | 100-200 MHz (1 MHz) | 90-190 MHz (1 MHz) | 100-300 MHz (1 MHz) |
| CPU Multiplier | 8-79x (1x) | 8-63x (1x) | 16-58x (1x) |
| DRAM Data Rates | 800-2400 (266.6 MHz) | 800-2133 (266.6 MHz) | 800-2133 (266.6 MHz) |
| CPU Vcore | 0.80-2.10V (6.25 mV) | 1.20-1.90V (12.5 mV) | 1.20-1.70V (6.25 mV) |
| CPU NB | 0.80-2.10V (6.25 mV) | 1.00-1.50V (12.5 mV) | 1.20-1.54V (6.25 mV) |
| A85X Voltage | 1.00-1.40V (10 mV) | 0.91-1.51V (~11.5 mV) | 1.10-2.30V (10 mV) |
| DRAM Voltage | 1.10-2.62V (10 mV) | 1.29-2.01V (15 mV) | 1.30-2.30V (10 mV) |
| CAS Latency | 5-16 Cycles | 5-16 Cycles | 5-14 Cycles |
| tRCD | 2-19 Cycles | 2-19 Cycles | 2-19 Cycles |
| tRP | 5-19 Cycles | 5-19 Cycles | 2-19 Cycles |
| tRAS | 8-42 Cycles | 8-42 Cycles | 8-40 Cycles |
Some motherboards have far broader frequency ranges than others, but a 300 MHz reference clock limit on Sapphire’s motherboard is about as realistic as a 300 MPH speedometer on a Honda Civic. PCIe and integrated GPU overclocking limits are far more restrictive.
Asus, ASRock, and Gigabyte support our 45 x 100 MHz setting, with the difference between each vendor's board attributable to reference clock rounding errors.
Gigabyte reaches the highest reference clock with its integrated GPU intact. The second-place Asus F2A85-V Pro achieves a 156 MHz base clock with full CPU stability, but reference clocks over 130 MHz destabilize the APU’s integrated Radeon HD engine. Similar problems on the PCIe bus would affect graphics cards in a similar manner.
The F2A85-V Pro take top honors in memory overclocking, allowing us to use its highest 24x memory multiplier with four DIMMs installed. ASRock doesn't support a high memory ratio, but the board is able to reach a high data rate through increases in reference clock.