The story begins with a thread started by K404 in the HWBOT forums, about six months ago. Kenny noticed any core clock frequency over 999MHz would not result in any performance gain, even though GPU-Z would report higher frequencies. Over the course the thread, more users found this little bug to be hurting their overclocking experience as they were forced to go back to older and less performant drivers. In the beginning of this month, HWBOT staff member Christian Ney contacted Nvidia with the request to fix this bug. About twenty (20) days later, we found this in the release notes of the latest 320.18 driver release:

It seems that the clock frequency limitation has finally been resolved. So far, we are still waiting for the first users to confirm this. If you have a Fermi card and found the fix to be working, feel free to post in our forum thread. You can download the drivers and read more about this driver release at GeForce.com

Thanks Nvidia!

Over at the Kingpincooling forums, home of the two EVGA in-house overclockers TiN and K|npg|n, Chispy found a very interesting thread containing practically everything you need to know to prepare the GeForce GTX 780 for extreme overclocking. The process involves a new and updated version of the EVGA Epower Classified as well as a whole lot of "shrrr-shrrr". This is definitely not a guide for the weak-hearted people as modifying you card this way will void your warranty. Interesting nonetheless!

780 is in wild now, so we made something up here to have more fun with them. This guide is 100% applicable to bigger brother, TITAN as well, because both cards share same PCB from power delivery point of view, so for those who need - enjoy.

I'll skip regular vmods and other baby stuff in this guide, it was already posted on web, and for that new GTX780 is exactly same as Titan, so hold on, lets jump straight to serious stuff here.

One of most successful cards for using with zombie power was GTX 680. Relatively low power consumption and high performance was playing good together with added complexity of using external VRM. Desprite of voltage droop and not optimal current path that combo was still able to impress overclocking community by delivering over 1900MHz GPU clocks stable enough to break records in heavy 3D'11 benchmark. But now, with GK110 big brother we can say bye-bye to low power consumption. 7 billion of tiny mosfets dying from hunger, and we need to satisfy their needs if we want to get decent scores from card.

But in real world overclocking is not most important thing, so reference TITAN and GTX 780 are just good enough for their stock clocks and voltages, but nothing above. Few brave guys tried to prove that wrong, but were quickly taught 1000$ USD lesson of fried electronics.

So I had a clear task in front of me - we need some real stuff, something that can hold TITAN-class power drednought like a toy. And using experience we gained on GTX 580/680 CLASSIFIED designs, and my own observations on zombified GTX 580, GTX 590, GTX 680, GTX 690 with our good but now obsoleted 10-phase Volterra-based Untouchable I came up with digital-based IR VRM with 14-phases, just as our 680 CLASSIFIED VRM minus memory power and VGA-related stuff.

As I show later, I wanted to include few nice and useful features to make usage easier and better power delivery.

Taipei, Taiwan - 22th May 2013 - G.SKILL International Co. Ltd., the world’s leading manufacturer of extreme performance memory and superior solid-state storage, partners with Intel, ASUS, EVGA, GIGABYTE and MSI for a G.SKILL Official OC World Record Stage at Computex 2013, Nangang Exhibition Center - Booth IO118.

G.SKILL aims to take the latest G.SKILL extreme performance DDR3 memory to a whole new level; sets to break numerous overclocking world records using the upcoming 4th Gen Intel® Core™ unlocked processor and Z87 motherboards. Gathering the world’s finest overclockers from around the globe including Australia, Japan, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan and the United States, G.SKILL is ready to claim “The world’s fastest memory manufacturer” title once again.

For those who aren’t in Taipei for the biggest overclocking event this year, G.SKILL will be featuring a live stream video for worldwide audiences via G.SKILL website and Hwbot.org during Computex week. Hwbot.org will also be setting up a specific G.SKILL page for the professional overclockers to update their live benchmark results during event. Please refer to the following link: click

Full press release: http://hwbot.org/news/9578_g_skill_hosts_official_oc_world_record_stage_at_computex_2013

Event Timetable

• Time: June 4th – 7th , 9:00 - 18:00
• Place: Computex Taipei 2013, Nangang Exhibition Hall, Booth I0118
• Power supply: Cooler Master SPM2 1500W
• LN2 container: Kingpincooling

EK Water Blocks, Ljubljana based premium water cooling gear manufacturer, is proud to introduce EK-SF3D Inflection Point EVO, company's second product from the line of liquid nitrogen (LN2) evaporation coolers for competitive overclockers.

EK-SF3D Inflection Point EVO is a high performance universal CPU liquid nitrogen evaporation cooler, the result of a joint venture between Petri 'SF3D' Korhonen, legendary overclocker and extreme evaporation cooler designer from Finland, and EK design & engineering team. The product is made of electrolytic grade nickel plated copper in order to provide the necessary mass to even out the temperature fluctuation. Excellent weight to surface area ratio ensures confident controll over temperatures. Precise and rapid response at any working temperature is what this product is all about - even when cooling the hottest CPUs on the market. Top extension is made from black anodized high quality aluminium alloy.

The key feature that makes Inflection Point EVO evaporation cooler stand out from the pack is the new, socket specific revolutionary mounting system enclosure, making it easier for beginners to dive into the world of extreme overclocking while the veterans will surely appreciate the even clamping force.

EK-SF3D Inflection Point EVO key features:

• Air-tight micro climate area inside the CPU evaporation cooler's hold-down enclosure
• Perfect mount every time you install the evaporation cooler
• Heating elements used to heat up the inside of the enclosure as well as the circuit board itself to keep the motherboard's VRM capacitors as warm as possible
• Fast remount turn-around - it takes less than a minute to swap out a CPU - perfect for binning the best CPU
• Improved contact surface fits Intel's concave IHS of the CPU pefectly thus further improving the performance of the unit
• less insulation needed than with any other solution on the market.

Technical data:

• Capacity: 230mL
• Weight (empty): 1470g
• Operational range: -196°C to +80°C

Enclosed:

• EK-SF3D Inflection Point EVO
• Acetal hand-grip mounting nut with pre-installed 10W thin-foil heater
• Gelid GC-Extreme 3.5g thermal grease

The product is readily available for purchase through EK Webshop & Partner Reseller Network and comes with Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) of 149.95€ incl. VAT. Each socket-specific mounting mechanism costs 39.95€ incl. VAT. At the moment only Intel LGA-115x variant is readily available for purchase while LGA-2011- and AMD variant will follow by mid June.

When we highlighted the Waterproof Coating feature of ASRock's upcoming Z87 motherboards a couple of weeks ago, we saw a lot of enthusiasts respond positively to the news. It seems that although it is probably not so useful for daily practice - who is this terrible watercooling builder with enormeous spills and leakage? - power users are fascinated by the idea of a water condensation proof motherboard.

In a video on YouTube, ASRock shows an Z87 OC Formula running water across the PCB. The monitor behind the board runs 3DMark06 smoothly. Whether this is a legit feature is a question enthusiasts will be able to answer once the boards hit the retail market. To be continued, for sure!

In the meantime, enjoy this video. "This is amazing!"

It looks like Computex will be very interesting for the memory speed addicts amongst the overclocking crowd. As a screenshot from the CPU-Z application leaked through - the source remains anonymous, we can see the magical barrier of DDR3-4000 has been broken! The fact that this screenshot has not made it public or, well, to a press release indicates this overclocking result was achieved on an upcoming platform. But which platform?

After all not only Intel is launching a new micro-architecture in the next month, AMD is as well. They are releasing the new Richland-based APU soon. We all know how strong Llano was for memory overclocking - Christian Ney still has the overall DDR3 record set at DDR3-3900MHz (reference) - and so far it is unclear whether the new AMD platform is capable of beating that. In any case, the DDR3-4K is true as it has been confirmed by multiple sources that will be the new target for memory overclockers.

The frequency was reached with a single stick of single sided Hynix MFR memory.

Although the high-end components computer store Tones.BE is mainly active in the Benelux region, the shop is widely known around the world for its continued support of the Madshrimps overclocking team and the overclocking workshops. The team at Tones has definitely the same amount of madness as the Shrimps. Just have a look at how they say goodbye to the Intel 3rd Generation Core platform and prepare for something new. Hilarious!

TechPowerUp announced GPU-Z 0.7.1, the latest version of the popular graphics subsystem information, monitoring, and diagnostic tool. Version 0.7.1 adds support for new GPUs, and an experimental feature that lets you investigate power-capping on some of the newer generations of NVIDIA GPUs (needs GeForce 319.xx or later drivers). To begin with, GPU-Z 0.7.1 introduces support for NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce GTX 780 and GeForce GTX 770 graphics cards, along with support for AMD's new Radeon HD 8000M, HD 8000G, and HD 8000D series GPUs/IGPs, including the HD 8310G, HD 8410G, HD 8450G, HD 8510G, HD 8550G, HD 8610G, and HD 8650G; and a few exotic GPUs, such as GT 730M, GT 750M, GTX 780M, GRID K1, GRID K2, and HD 7730.

DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp GPU-Z 0.7.1 | TechPowerUp GPU-Z 0.7.1 ASUS ROG Themed

The change-log follows.

• Added support for NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770, GTX 780, GTX 650 Ti OEM, GT 640 (GK208), GT 630 (GK208), GT 730M, GT 750M, GTX 780M, GRID K1, GRID K2
• Added support for AMD Radeon HD 7730, HD 8310G, HD 6480G, HD 8410G, HD 8450G, HD 8510G, HD 8550G, HD 8610G, HD 8650G
• Fixed BIOS reading on GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost
• Added experimental sensor readout to show reason for power capping on recent NVIDIA cards
• Fixed clock readings on some older NVIDIA cards
• Improved detection for future NVIDIA cards

For those who are following our Computex 2013 Overclocking thread at the forums it's not a big surprise when we title "Overclocking Madness" in this news post. So far, we have listed 47 overclockers attending the IT tradeshow in Taipei, Taiwan and that number is still going up. In terms of overclocking events and demonstration, we have eight listed events before, during and after Computex being hosted this year. Not all are open for participation and some require RSVP but most of them are available to any HWBOT user who wants to check it out.

Next month's overclocking madness kicks off with a 4th Generation Intel Core Processors (we all know by now) Haswell overclocking competition as a joint effort between Corsair and Intel. The competition features not only a cash prize purse of USD $20,000 - a vast amount compared to previous live overclocking events - but also direct competition between the various ODMs. Of course, all vendor employees will compete under a pseudonym team. Whom can we expect? Well, it is a list of big names: 8 Pack, Hicookie, Pt1t, Dinos22, Mad222, Der8auer and so on. In total, we expect ten teams to participate although the official invitational only lists fifteen overclockers so far. For example, Slamms and AndreYang who are allegedly going to form the ASUS team are not on the list yet. According to the full size invitation, (click on the image on top) attendants will not only get a lot of overclocking, but also food and drinks!

The competition starts on Monday June 3 1PM and finishes at 6PM, giving the competitors five hours to get the top score. Overclocking-TV will be present to cover the event as is yours truly, Massman, but merely assisting Corsair's Jake "Cpt.Planet" Crimmins as judge. As far as I know, there is still place at the venue. For more information, check out the Eventbrite page or follow up on behind-the-scenes information of the Corsair/Intel and all other overclocking stuff in our official Computex 2013 Overclocking forum topic.

Have fun all!

Moscow, Russia (15 May, 2013) — ASUS sums up the qualification results for ASUS Open Overclocking Cup 2013. Established in 2012, ASUS Open Overclocking Cup was a local event at first, contended for by the best overclockers of Russia and Ukraine. In 2013 the Cup’s scope has expanded to include enthusiasts from Europe and CIS countries. The best 13 teams will challenge each other in the finals to be held on October 5, 2013, in Moscow at the Krokus-Expo center as part of the Igromir 2013 expo.

The Greek duo Aristidis and Steleras have become the winners of the ASUS Open Overclocking Cup 2012 qualifications, proving their reputation of recognized masters of extreme overclocking. Relying on their vast experience and excellent hardware tweaking skills, they set a new world record in 3DMark Fire Strike. Using an ASUS Maximus V Extreme mainboard and an ASUS GTX Titan graphics card overclocked to 1730/1753 MHz, they scored a record 14744 marks!

Full press release: http://hwbot.org/news/9544_asus_open_overclocking_cup_2013_qualification_results

EK Water Blocks, Ljubljana based premium water cooling gear manufacturer, is proud to introduce EK-SF3D Triple Point EVO, company's first product from the line of liquid nitrogen (LN2) evaporation cooler for competitive overclockers. Used in conjunction with up to four Module Adapters this unit allows extreme overclocking of virtually any (DDR-)SDRAM memory module (of any generation).

EK-SF3D Triple Point EVO is a product of joint venture between Petri 'SF3D' Korhonen, legendary overclocker and extreme evaporation cooler designer from Finland, and EK design & engineering team. The product is made of electrolytic grade nickel plated copper in order to provide the necassery mass to even out the temperature fluctuation. Top extension is made from high quality POM Acetal - with it's poor thermal conductivity it is better at preventing unwanted condensation formation that many overclockers are not fond of.

Bundled with the evaporation cooler itself are the two (2) EK-SF3D Triple Point Module Adapter heatsinks. Each of these items are made of CNC machined high quality aluminium and feature black anodized finish. Heat transfer between the memory module and aluminium heatsink adapter and copper base of the EK-SF3D Triple Point EVO is ensured by the use of enclosed Gelid GC-Extreme TIM (grease).

Full Press Release: http://hwbot.org/news/9538_ek_releases_its_first_ln2_evaporation_cooler

As interesting Intel's processor launches may be, the (unofficial) launch procedures hardly ever change. As usual, we got the first real review from the United States performed by Tom's Hardware Guide - not Anandtech, surprisingly - and the first retail samples are leaking through in the east. Usually, we would see the first retails popping up in China but this time it seems Taiwan made the holeshot. Who else than Coolaler could managed to get his hands on a pair of brand-new Core i7 4770K CPUs. From the pictures posted at Facebook, we can clearly see the new design of the processor box as well as distinguish the batch code: Malay L306B332. For overclocking results we will probably still have to wait a bit, but I doubt we will have to wait for the launch at Computex.

... now where is that shop ...

Another quick news post to highlight the two new benchmarks we added to our database yesterday. The first benchmark is one that you all know: WinRAR. When you open the WinRAR application, go to the tools section and click on benchmark (short key is alt+b). For about 30 seconds, WinRAR will test the compression performance of your system. After the benchmark completes, you will find a resulting KB/s performance index highlighted in the WinRAR benchmark dialog box.

At the moment of writing, the database contains 58 benchmark results and has Daniz185 from Indonesia holding the #1 spot in the hall of fame with a Core i7 3930K clocked at 4960 MHz resulting in a score of 16962 KB/s.

Using "Benchmark" command you may compare performance of RAR compression algorithm on different computers.

This command generates random data, which contain specially introduced redundancy increasing load to processor and memory. Then data are passed through RAR compression and decompression algorithms and output of decompression algorithm is compared with source data. If any difference found, WinRAR reports "Errors found - Yes" in the command window. Such errors may indicate hardware problems like unreliable memory. Also WinRAR displays a size of processed data and compression speed, current and resulting, in kilobytes per second. You may use the resulting speed value to compare RAR performance in different conditions. For example, "Benchmark" command may be helpful, when you need to choose a new computer and wish to know which one will compress data faster. Only the general compression algorithm in "Best" mode with 4096K dictionary is called, all additional filters and algorithms are disabled, so it measures performance of core RAR compression on worst case like data.

Using "Multithreading" option you can compare performance of usual single threaded and multithreaded (optimized for multiprocessor architectures) versions of RAR compression algorithm. Depending on results, you can enable or disable multithreading in General settings dialog dialog.

It takes some time to fill the compression dictionary, which is empty in the beginning. Until it is done, the speed value is inconsistent, so the command window starts to display the current speed only a few seconds after activating. Resulting speed is displayed when at least 10MB of source data are processed, collected statistics is enough to get an accurate result and current speed changes are near zero. After the resulting speed has been set, it is not changed more. Though source data are random, their redundancy level and other parameters are always the same. So this command will report practically the same current speed regardless of execution time, provided that system load is not changing.

"Benchmark" command is never finished automatically, you need to cancel it manually. It does not use the hard disk, all operations are performed in memory.

The second benchmark we have added is probably a bit less known. It is an image rendering benchmark from 2011 and goes by the name of FryBench. The benchmark might be considered an alternative to Cinebench R11.5 as it scales in a similar way. The multi-socket processor platforms will rule the hall of fame without any doubt, but it should be interesting to see who and how grabs the lead in the consumer grade product categories. This benchmark does not seem to have a working homepage anymore, but you can freely download it from Guru3D.

At the moment of writing, the database contains 16 FryBench benchmark results and has Sea Sheperd from Switzerland holding the #1 spot in the hall of fame with a quad socket configuration of 4x Opteron 6276 clocked at 4000MHz resulting in a score of 1min 43sec.

The HWBOT staff hopes you enjoy the two additions to the benchmark suite. Who knows, perhaps the benchmarks will end up getting medals and points in the future!

Again spread via Facebook, we found another overclocking attempt of the upcoming Core i7 4770K Haswell. John Lam and Mad222 from HKEPC shared a video of one of their overclocking attempts. The CPU was briefly clocked at 6.4GHz using 1.445V vCore. This frequency is most likely not very stable since we just see the frequency quickly pop up on CPU-Z and the testing is part of "near voltage and temperature threshold" theory. This same theory was used to clock the Core i7 3770K to 6928MHz with only 1.488V.

In any case, it's an interesting video!