The HWBoints algorithm was brought into life to assign a score to an overclocking effort. The points are based on how well you score compared to other overclockers, and how many competitors there are. For example, you will receive much more points for being first with a popular Intel Core7 i920, than a more exotic Intel Xeon 5540 server processor.
3DMark11 - Performance submission with a Radeon HD 6870 changed from hardware rank 8 to 9.