Intel X38 Tango - Is High FSB Overclocking Worth It?
by Rajinder Gill on February 26, 2008 3:30 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
E8500 FSB/VMCH Polka Party
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The voltages shown in these tables are the minimum we can expect to use to keep each configuration completely stable. Games like Crysis represent one of the toughest system loads we have ever seen from a program. The redline E8500 results at 500 FSB are not completely stable due to Crysis, even though we can pass a myriad of other stress tests.
The ability to run other games and video/audio/office applications generated a mixed bag of results, but these same applications ran perfectly fine at the 9x/9.5x multipliers. However, we would recommend the 9x multiplier for everyday operation as the voltages required (plus increased thermal outputs) to ensure stability at the 9.5x multiplier are a greater penalty than the very slight increases in application performance.
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We also checked the overclocking ability of the Maximus Extreme with 4GB of memory. The total load capacitance of four memory modules limits the X38 chipset to a 2N command rate over DDR3-1600 speeds at CAS 7. A slight bump in VMCH is required to hold things together with 4GB of memory in comparison to 2GB.
Now that we have this base data, let's take a quick look at why using a tRD setting of 6 in the 440-470FSB region makes so much sense with dual-core CPUs like the E8400/E8500.
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AndyKH - Thursday, February 28, 2008 - link
When reading the article, I didn't find any info on how you adjusted tRD. I thought such adjustments weren't available in the BIOS except for certain X48 boards from ASUS (unless you resorted to FSB strap settings that might limit memory ratios). Is this setting beginning to show up on X38 boards as well?Rajinder Gill - Thursday, February 28, 2008 - link
There is a full BIOS guide for this board here (part of the full review).. 'Transaction Booster' is the function.http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3172&am...">http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3172&am...
regards
Raja
Aurhinius - Thursday, February 28, 2008 - link
I'd be interested to see something like this done with a Max formula board. Takes the X38 and pairs it with DDR2 rather than DDR3 which is still out of sensible reach for most people due to price.Then you can compare memory performance and settings on the same chipset with the two types of memory. Throw a quad in to the mix as well.
It's also going to illuminate any benefits (if there are any) of moving to an X48 platform from an X38.
Keep up the great work. These articles are a world apart from anything else I have seen and has people thinking how they evaluate their systems at all levels of experience.
Well done!
Rajinder Gill - Thursday, February 28, 2008 - link
A DDR2 version will be incoming, as well as X48 asap. We have a few reviews to get done first, but will try to incorporate this form of testing into them..regards
Raja
Zak - Wednesday, February 27, 2008 - link
Nicely written indeed but I gave up on overclocking, the real life benefits are not worth the effort. My 3GHz C2D runs at 3.6GHz easily with Tuniq Tower. Do I notice any difference in games? Photoshop? Nope. I used to get more excited about o/clocking I guess it passed with age:) Good luck to everyone though:)Z.
Nickel020 - Tuesday, February 26, 2008 - link
I quite like the recent articles, that kind of quality infos & analysis is very rare.I also liked the inclusion of some real world benchmarks, although the tRD article was great, I was missing some benchmarks demonstrating the real world effects.
Only thing is that DDR3 is still not an issue for most people, but the article is still well worth reading since since it explains underlying factors that affect performance.
menting - Tuesday, February 26, 2008 - link
the author questions why some memory manufacturers sell CAS9 DDR3-1900 as "performance memory" even though it means it has pitiful cas latency. The reason is that "performance" cannot be judged by cas latency alone. Sure with a low latency you can get a burst of data quicker, but with back to back reads on a memory, a higher clock speed is better. So it all depends how you want to look at it and how applications make use of the memory.Rajinder Gill - Tuesday, February 26, 2008 - link
Hi,I would still rather buy performance parts that scale to Cas 7 at ddr 1800 than Cas 9 at DDR 1900+. The FSB/tRD and VMCH requirements just don't make intelligent sense. Then we have the 2N command rate to play with when we begin to scale much past DR-1900. I would call it a lose-lose situation.
regards
Raja
Griswold - Tuesday, February 26, 2008 - link
Disco Stu likes the style of this article!Samus - Tuesday, February 26, 2008 - link
An unusually written article if I've ever seen one ;)