Max1024 has just released a new article in his History of Overclocking series. This time featuring UK's finest Ian Parry aka 8Pack. This is part1 of maybe one of the most controversial overclockers in the scene. The article is in Russian, therefore Google translate is your best friend ofc :)

(click picture to go to the article)

Professional overclocking did not immediately enter Ian Parry's daily life. Before starting his professional career as an overclocker, 8Pack was a professional bodybuilder and his daily routine was connected more with training in the gym and playing sports. Later he began to work in this direction as a personal trainer.

(Click picture to go to the article)

In an interview with kitguru.net, Ian Parry shared the numbers of his physical activity while he was preparing for the competition. “Usually, when I competed in bodybuilding competitions and prepared, I squeezed about 8-10 repetitions of a barbell with four pancakes on each side (about 185 kg, including the bar), squat with five pancakes on each side, with a bar it is about 220 kg , did about 6 of these reps. Press from the shoulders - 60 kg with each hand, and so on...

Thanks for another in-depth article Maxim !

The G.Skill Tweakers Contest is entering the final leg for Stage2 with less than 9 days to go.

While most of the Extreme overclockers still seem to in hibernation mode, the ambient clockers are battling it out for the top spots, with already over 23 entries. Pushing their air or watercooled rigs in the memory sensitive PYPrime benchmark.

Current leader from Norway: Arni90, followed closely by Kansai from France and by a wider margin Midnight703 from the United States.

Don't forget, at the end of the year we will have an overal G.Skill Tweakers Contest Winner for an additional prize.

These are the current Ambient and Extreme leaderboards:

G.SKILL Announces New High-End Trident Z Royal Elite Series DDR4 Memory

(14 April 2021) – G.SKILL International Enterprise Co., Ltd., the world’s leading manufacturer of extreme performance memory and gaming peripherals, is announcing a new addition of high-performance DDR4 memory kit series to the renowned Trident Z family – the Trident Z Royal Elite series. Featuring a meticulously sculpted crystalline pattern across the polished surface of the aluminum heatspreader, the Trident Z Royal Elite also retains the patented full-length crystalline light bar and 8-zone RGB lighting of the Trident Z Royal to enhance the aesthetics of any high-end PC system build. Representing the upper echelon of DDR4 performance, the G.SKILL Trident Z Royal Elite will be available at speeds of DDR4-3600 to DDR4-5333 at launch.

Crafted for Magnificence

Evolved from the luxury-class design elements of the Trident Z Royal, G.SKILL is introducing the all-new Trident Z Royal Elite series that features a magnificent multi-faceted crystalline design across the reflective aluminum heatspreader. After more than a year of development in crafting the perfectly-sized crystalline pattern and sculpting the 3D structure onto a solid piece of aluminum, each Trident Z Royal Elite heatspreader is painstakingly chiseled with 76 total facets to bestow the ultimate luxury aesthetic to any PC build. Available in gold or silver colors, Trident Z Royal Elite modules also inherited the iconic full-length crystalline light bar for a dazzling refractive display of RGB lighting.

Enduring Legacy of High Performance

Continuing the ongoing G.SKILL legacy for fast DDR4 memory performance, the Trident Z Royal Elite offers high-class memory specifications that range from DDR4-3600 to DDR4-5333 and offers 16GB (8GBx2) to 64GB (32GBx2) in kit capacity at launch. Each memory kit is constructed from hand-screened memory IC chips and tested for compatibility across a wide range of motherboards to ensure stability and high-frequency overclocked performance. For a list of specifications available at launch, please refer to the chart below:

Availability

Trident Z Royal Elite DDR4 memory kits will be available via G.SKILL worldwide distribution partners in May 2021.

Stage 2  of the G.Skill Tweakers Contest kicking off the 1st of May !!

Thanks to the great turn up last time, we continue the G.Skill Tweakers Contest with Stage 2, featuring PYPrime 2B. This memory benchmark is developed by overclocker Monabuntur and integrated by Mat in his BenchMate benchmarking tool.

Stage 2 will run from the 1st of May till the 31st of May 2021 in 2 seperate classes: one for ambient overclockers and another dedicated one to the subzero overclockers.

Below you can find the specific competition pages and forum threads for each class:

• Competition page for ambient overclockers of the Rookie, Novice and Enthusiast class
• Forum thread for the ambient overclockers
  
  
• Competition page for extreme overclockers of the Apprentive, Extreme and Elite class
• Forum thread for the sub zero overclockers.

The official competition background by DaQuteness can be downloaded here (click). A small installation guide and tutorial how to submit can be found in each of the above mentioned forum threads.

Prizes for both the Ambient as the Extreme category Stage 2 winners are a G.Skill TridentZ Royal 32GB 4000C16 Dual Channel memory kit.

Good luck and have fun!!

Who else than Roman Hartung aka Der8auer would break the highest graphic card frequency ?

Previous records were achieved all on nVIDIA graphics cards and reached frequencies just above the 3GHz mark. While testing the "unlocked" AMD 6900XT Powercolor Liquid Devil Ultimate he reached, without any modifications on the card, an insane 3225MHz while looping Test 1 of UL Benchmarks TimeSpy.

Roman shared this "unlocked" bios for the 6900XT card series, but use at your own risk!

G.SKILL Announces New Extreme Speed Memory Kits Up to DDR4-5333 for Intel Z590 Platform

G.SKILL International Enterprise Co., Ltd., the world’s leading manufacturer of extreme performance memory and gaming peripherals, is elated to announce new extreme-speed DDR4 memory kits that push memory speed to the extreme limits on the latest Intel Z590 platform, including DDR4-5333 CL22 16GB (8GBx2), DDR4-4800 CL17 16GB (8GBx2), DDR4-4800 CL20 32GB (16GBx2), and DDR4-4600 CL20 64GB (32GBx2) under the Trident Z Royal, Trident Z RGB, and Ripjaws V series. These new DDR4 memory specifications offer a perfect choice for those pursuing extreme memory overclocking performance, building a powerful workstation, or for the ultimate gaming experience.

Ultimate Performance DDR4-5333 on the Intel® Z590 Platform

Dedicated to developing ever-faster extreme overclocking memory, G.SKILL is pushing the 16GB (8GBx2) kit capacity to a blistering speed of DDR4-5333. This demonstrates the remarkable memory overclocking support on the latest Intel Z590 platform, which has been validated on the ASUS ROG STRIX Z590-E GAMING WIFI, ASUS ROG MAXIMUS XIII APEX, and MSI MEG Z590I UNIFY motherboards with the latest Intel® Core™ i9-11900K processor, as shown in the screenshots below:

Maximizing Performance with Extreme Latency

In the pursuit of the tightest CL timing available at high memory frequencies, G.SKILL is launching a new specification running at DDR4-4800 with an extremely efficient CL17-19-19-39 timing in 16GB (8GBx2), built with high performance Samsung B-die ICs. Below is a screenshot showing the memory kit running on the ASUS ROG MAXIMUS XIII APEX motherboard with the latest Intel® Core™ i7-11700KF processor.

Go Beyond with High Capacity 32GB (16GBx2) at DDR4-5066

For a more spacious 32GB (16GBx2) kit capacity, G.SKILL is also launching a high-speed memory kit at DDR4-5066 CL20 for the Intel Z590 platform. This high-speed memory kit is also validated on the ASUS ROG MAXIMUS XIII APEX motherboard with the Intel® Core™ i9-11900K processor in the screenshot below.

64GB Ultra-High Kit Capacity at DDR4-4600

Completing this list of high performance memory kit releases for the latest Intel Z590 platform, is a ultra-high capacity memory kit of 64GB (32GBx2) at a speedy DDR4-4600 CL20. In the screenshot below, this colossal memory kit is validated on the ASUS ROG STRIX Z590-E GAMING WIFI motherboard with the Intel® Core™ i7-11700KF processor.

Availability & Specifications

These extreme high-speed memory specifications will be available via G.SKILL worldwide distribution partners in Q2 2021. For a list of specifications, please see the table below.

About G.SKILL

Established in 1989 by PC hardware enthusiasts, G.SKILL specializes in high performance memory, SSD products, and gaming peripherals designed for PC gamers and enthusiasts around the world. Combining technical innovation and rock solid quality through our in-house testing lab and talented R&D team, G.SKILL continues to create record-breaking memory for each generation of hardware and hold the no.1 brand title in overclocking memory.

Obijuan83 from Greece dethrones Romenian legend Poparamiro in the Apprentice League.

For those unaware about the Apprentice league it ranks all the subzero overclockers using chilled water up to dry ice (-78°C). Compare it with the F3000 versus Formula 1, the latter could be best be compared with the Extreme league.

Obijuan83's real name is Nikiforos, born in Greece in 1983. In his daily job he's a General Surgeon,  but at nite he tortures hardware to the limits on his self made Single stage cooling units.

The Obijuan83 nick name was derived from his own personal spelling of the Star Wars character Obi-Wan. The number 83 was related to his birth year. Do we need to mention Nikiforos is a huge Star Wars fan.

Nikiforos performed his first overclock way back in 1997 on a Pentium II 400@497. In 2005 when studying for Doctor in Thessaloniki, he joined the Greek Team of Outofspecs.gr. A small team not only with a cool name but also with members like Unseen, Eleven, Hadji and Doom. Nikiforos is the one in the middle just below Vincent Lucido. He left the scene 2 years later. However in 2019 Obijuan83 made a return to the OC scene at HWBOT now with Hellas Overclocking Team. He especially wishes to thank Kostasandr, Tasos, Varachio and George O/C for the support to get him back up and running. Now I myself still remember pulling dozen of his scores as they were indeed done with the old school way of verification. 

This come back was his biggest challenge, as he no longer had a fan or even a spare memory stick, thus starting totally from scratch. After a lot of hardware hoarding and studying over the years, he now even makes his own Single Stage units. The HWBOT Discord users are for sure aquainted with the build logs of his little cooling beauties.

We asked him of his most rewarding score at HWBOT and he picked the 3DMark03 GeForce 7800 GTX score.

To get to the top of the Apprentice ranking, Obijuan83 focussed mainly on benching 2D for years. However lately he's popping up at the front page too with some strong 3D submissions.

He's a big fan of Intel's LGA775 & LGA1155 socket. He likes modern hardware too, but finds it less challenging to get HWBOT Boints with the latest expensive hardware.

Not only his Single Stage units are neatly build, also his daily setup received lots of attention.

He would love to see more people join the OC scene and make more people get hooked to this hobby. He appreciates the makeover HWBOT is going through this year and hope it will host more competitions amongst the different leagues. Well I can't tell everything yet , but there will be a lot of fun compos ahead in the upcoming months to keep you busy Nikiforos!

The HWBOT Challengers for 2021 are back.

Again 9 Divisions, though we opted to remove one of the older Intel legacies to host a Classic division with hardware dating from a few decades ago instead.

The Challengers are again split in three Rounds. Round 1 as previous year focussing on 2D only. Round 2 will be with focus on 3D Benchmarks

Round 3 will be the mix of both 2D and 3D. To make the competition more accessible, processor  speed limitations have been imposed. 

Competition Schedule is from 15th of February till the 15th of March.

Links to the 9 classes:

Division 1 Challengers 2021 Round 1

Division 2 Challengers 2021 Round 1 - 8 Cores

Division 3 Challengers 2021 Round 1 - 6 Cores

Division 4 Challengers 2021 Round 1 - 4 Cores

Division 5 Challengers 2021 Round 1 - 2 Cores

Division 6 Challengers 2021 Round 1 - AMD Legacy

Division 7 Challengers 2021 Round 1 - Intel Legacy

Division 8 Challengers 2021 Round 1 - LGA771/775

Division 9 Challengers 2021 Round 1 - Classic Platforms

Check out the specific hardware, benchmark and verification requirements at the competition pages.

Grab the Competition background here, awesome job DaQuteness!(click)

  HWBOT 2021 NEW STYLE RULES  

Another small step has been taken after the redistribution of the Global points last week. The New Style HWBOT rules are up in the benchmark list:

2D Benchmark list (click to open)

3D Benchmark list (click to open)

Memory (click to open)

Reference Frequency (click to open)

Disk Benchmark list (click to open)

Major goal was to simplify the rules, so they would be more accessible from Rookie to Elite level Overclockers.

• No more distinction will be made between bus clockable or non bus clockable setups. 
• Each benchmark has now properly listed OSses which are allowed, in regards of the hardware used
• Most rules include the Benchmark download links wherever possible
• Some benchmark require newer versions of the software: eg X265 Benchmark has been updated to v2.3 (HPET only)
• New screenshots have been made according the latest rules
• ...

Benchmarks which don't have the new Rules will be phased out as there is no more support or a newer version was released that completely messes up the existing ranking, a perfect example is Maxxmem.Other Benchmarks like the "with BenchMate" will be merged in the future.It is clear we are running out of memory specific benchmarks. We already highlighted the Maxmem issue, also AIDA64 is a nitemare, as the developers change the output with each new release version. So any ideas of a proper memory benchmark are welcome.

Similar benchmark is lacking for Storage. We will release the AS SSD 2.0 version, but there must be be other quality storage benchmarks out there, with of course proper support from its developers.I opened a forum thead to discuss the new rules, chime in if you have any tips, spot errors (yes I'm only human too) or want some stuff to be added/removed.

The old rules are still visible via the benchmark itself, this in case there should be a debate or you want to crosscheck stuff. End of next week this link will be updated to the new rule set.