ASRock's 102.9 MHz BCLK Magic - Xxbassplayerxx Wants Other Boards to Do It Too
The hardware industry has a love/hate relationship with (competitive/extreme) overclockers, we all know that. On the one hand, overclockers are the group of people most passionate about the depths of the product they sculpt. BIOS, hardware, compatibility, VRM, you name it - everything is closely looked at. On the other hand, it's also the group who is most vocal about potential problems of hardware. As one Product Manager working for a motherboard vendor puts it: "Overclockers are the [annoying] 1%, but they push us to improve our products every generation." Perhaps one of the most tiniest of details was recently discussed on the forum: achieving 102.9 MHz BCLK on locked Skylake processors, giving one vendor in particular an edge in the XTU 2xCPU rankings.
That vendor is ASRock. Based on the information provided in xxbassplayerxx's forum thread, it appears they dominate the XTU 2xCPU global rankings. For those who are not in the loop, there are two important things to know about this ranking. First of all, it is dominated by the locked Core i3 6320 Skylake processor which has a multiplier of 39x and is limited to approximately 102.9 MHz base clock frequency when overclocked. Secondly, the XTU benchmark is heavily affected by the lack of AVX instruction support when unlocking the overclocking capabilities of the Core i3 processors (more information here). That means the ranking is effectively capped by the limited base clock frequency. Now, here is where it gets interesting. When looking at the top-100 best results in the XTU 2xCPU category, 85 (!) results use ASRock. Quite remarkable considering that ASRock sits at about 12% market share of Z170 according to HWBOT statistics. Even more incredible - no other brand has representation among the results that score higher than 740 marks (ASUS, GIGABYTE and EVGA have minimum one entry at 740).
In a plea to the motherboard vendors, xxbassplayer writes "We need to petition the other manufacturers to unlock this! It ain't pretty for them." Whether the plea will see any response is doubtful. After all, this is (yet another) problem of a specific group within the 1% and affects no real-world applications or situations.
xxbassplayerxx says:
We need to petition the other manufacturers to unlock this! It ain't pretty for them
DrWeez says:
I have asked but no constructive answers
Rauf says:
Let's limit 2 core xtu to 4,00ghz instead. Easier and might make it (a little) fun.
Splave says:
I still cant do 742
xxbassplayerxx says:
Apparently it's mostly luck. Keep running 741 over and over again and it'll pop up at some point.
I believe XTU likes a fresh restart as well.
But it's crazy that the jump from 3850 12-12-12 to 4100+ 12-12-12 doesn't give that extra point by default
crustytheclown says:
it's a benchmark mostly uncore-memory capacity-memory timings oriented and less mem frequency.
Only in high cpu speed mem frequency makes sense and then not so much...
zeropluszero says:
I'm not joking it took me about 6 runs.
xxbassplayerxx says:
So we need to get Bull to run it on the mOCF at 4133 11-11-11. 743 at that point?
zeropluszero says:
my timings are loose. score doesnt improve with tighter timings.
xxbassplayerxx says:
Managed 738 on the Giga board. Here's to hoping in can manage 739 or 740. Anything above that is going to require more frequency.
I.nfraR.ed says:
Me neither.
Got 741 literally with the first run with B-Die, but 742 is not going to happen, unless I re-run it a whole day maybe...
xxbassplayerxx says:
My highest run every time so far has been immediately after a reboot.
KaRtA says:
Is the problem that the other manufacturers cannot do 102.9bclk but Asrock can? Surely the other manufacturers can raise the limit further somehow?
zeropluszero says:
I feel like if it could be done, someone would have done it.
but its ok, we have a $990 M8E package now.
Massman says:
Here's the embed table for the screenshot in OP
Top 100 XTU 2xCPU
Splave says:
Thinking about a noose if this 742 doesnt come soon Already cant stop drooling and mouth breathing...
steponz says:
Lamest points ever... lol
xxbassplayerxx says:
Hey guy with an LN2 board... put Giga on the map! 741 or 742! Beat Cookie :celebration:
steponz says:
Watching paint dry is more fun then doing 2 x core XTU.
xxbassplayerxx says:
Splave says:
could have painted mine and my neighbors house by now
steponz says:
Hahahahahahg
I.nfraR.ed says:
The position of Jupiter is not optimal.
zeropluszero says:
Only if you cant get 742
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