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Intel Pentium 4 LGA775 Overclocking June 30, 2004 |
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Summary: Last week we showed you the performance of Intel's 3.6GHz and 3.4GHz Extreme Edition at default clock speeds, today we're cranking both of these chips up, and a retail Pentium 4 540 (3.2GHz) to see how high they go (hint: a 700MHz+ overclock was reached)! In addition, we've also played around with DDR2-600, to see what performance improvements, if any, it brings. Finally, we've also highlighted a few of the hottest 925X motherboards on the market right now, Gigabyte and ASUS' offerings both boast dual Gigabit LAN, integrated 802.11g Wi-Fi, IEE-1394b, and support for up to 8 Serial ATA devices among their list of features. Check out these new chips and motherboards in this article!
 Introduction | Page:: ( 1 / 14 ) |
Intel has implemented an artificial lock on its latest chipsets which limits CPU overclocking to just 10% over the processor’s stock clock frequency. Once you overclock your processor’s clock beyond 10%, the system shuts off or resets itself. This cycle continues until you reduce your overclock to 10% of the processor’s default frequency.
This has upset many hardware enthusiasts who enjoy dabbling with processor overclocking. Often times you can purchase a slower processor and overclock it to perform similarly or even outpace Intel’s fastest processor offering, or take a flagship chip to unprecedented clock speeds. With just a little knowledge on processor fundamentals and good cooling, you can overclock your processor by 25% or more with just a few keystrokes!
This wouldn’t be the first time Intel has attempted to stifle processor overclocking. In 1998, Intel implemented a locked clock multiplier on its processors for the first time with the 333MHz Pentium II. This was employed to reduce processor remarking, a practice where some unscrupulous vendors will purposely take a system equipped with a slower processor, overclock it, and sell the system as if it were configured with a faster CPU. Even more recently, AMD has integrated a locked multiplier on its own Athlon 64 chips.
But just as a few motherboard manufacturers found ways to implement Intel’s Performance Acceleration Technology in their 865 products, a feature that was supposed to be unique to Intel’s high-end 875 chipset, a select group of motherboard manufacturers have figured out how to get around Intel’s latest clock lock. ABIT, ASUS, Gigabyte, and MSI have all devised ways to get around the lock, and have actually added a few extras beyond just bus speeds to entice their respective boards even further. MSI touts that their 925X Neo Platinum is “Over spec up to FSB1066 support” while ASUS is quick to claim DDR2-600 support in their P5DA line.
In this article we’ll explore the overclocking potential of Intel’s Pentium 4 3.4GHz Extreme Edition, Pentium 4 560 (3.6GHz) and Pentium 4 540 (3.2GHz). The Extreme Edition and Pentium 4 560 are both engineering samples with unlocked clock multipliers, but we decided to leave the multipliers at their default settings in order to simulate a processor you’d buy on the shelf. The Pentium 4 540 is a real bona fide retail processor complete with locked clock multiplier, so it should give you a slight indication of the overclocking potential of these chips, and boy did it overclock, hitting well over 3.8GHz in our testing!
We’ll also take an in-depth look at the 925X motherboards from ABIT, ASUS, and Gigabyte that allow these processors to be clocked to their maximum potential. Along the way we’ll also experiment with DDR2 memory clocked at 600MHz.
| AA8 DuraMAX | Page:: ( 2 / 14 ) |
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With ABIT’s long tradition of providing boards tailor made for hardware enthusiasts and gamers, it’s no surprise to see that their AA8-DuraMAX is one of a handful of 925X motherboards that circumvents Intel’s latest clock lock, they do after all, have one of the best BIOS teams in the business.
For enhanced cooling, ABIT has brought back their overclocking strips, which flank the top and left half of the LGA 775 CPU socket. ABIT has also revised their OTES North Bridge cooling, OTES AeroFlow has been designed to not only cool the North Bridge, but also supply air to the graphics card and surrounding components.
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One additional feature ABIT will be providing for the AA8-DuraMAX is their 3rd Eye Technology. 3rd Eye is an external add-on module that provides hardware monitoring and overclocking, in addition, 3rd Eye can even be used to turn on your system or notify you when you receive new email/MSN! The unit sits on your desk, so you don’t have to look under your desk to see your system temperatures or overclock the processor. We saw a working prototype at Computex and came away highly impressed.
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ABIT’s AA8 BIOS provides everything you’d need to overclock your shiny new LGA-775 Pentium 4 processor. FSB options range from 200-300MHz in 1MHz increments. Since the memory bus and front-side bus operate asynchronously on 925X, you can adjust the memory multiplier accordingly. Memory options of 400MHz and 533MHz are available for DDR2, the PCI Express clock can also be adjusted. For PCI Express, ABIT provides clock speeds between 50MHz-255MHz in 1MHz increments, the most of any 925X motherboard we’ve seen. And for those of you with cards that are sensitive to PCI bus frequency, such as older SCSI cards, the AA8-DuraMAX also provides PCI bus speed adjustment, 33MHz, 36MHz, and 40MHz settings are included.
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In order to reach those high clock speeds, system components such as the processor, memory, and chipset often need a little more juice than the default settings provide. For this ABIT equips the AA8-DuraMAX with CPU voltage options ranging from 1.3625V-1.7125V in 0.025V increments. DDR2 options are also plentiful, with voltages of 1.8V-2.25V in increments of 0.05V. Finally, ABIT provides lots of options for North Bridge voltage, with settings from 1.5V all the way up to 2.05V again in increments of 0.05V. Also present in the “OC Guru” section of the ABIT BIOS is the power cycle statistics area, which tracks stats such as PC up time and the number of times the system has been reset.
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| ASUS P5AD2 | Page:: ( 3 / 14 ) |
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ASUS’ P5AD2 Premium Edition is loaded with a ton of features: Dual Gigabit LAN, IEEE-1394b, onboard 802.11g Wi-Fi, the P5AD2 Premium is even equipped with enough controllers to drive up to eight Serial ATA hard drives (and those are just some of the board’s goodies). Looking over the P5AD2 Premium’s spec list, if there’s a feature ASUS left out, we’d be hard pressed to find it.
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Unlike ABIT, ASUS relies on passive cooling for the P5AD2’s North Bridge. Fortunately, the heatsink seems to do a good job of keeping the chip cool, even after overclocking.
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But the P5AD2 isn’t just stuffed with features, ASUS has integrated a number of cool settings in the motherboard’s BIOS as well. You’ve got bus speed options ranging from 200MHz-400MHz, and a wealth of voltage options. CPU voltages range from 1.3875V-1.70V in increments of 0.0125V, giving enthusiasts a wide range of CPU voltages to choose from for Prescott processors. Chipset voltage is also adjustable, settings of 1.5V and 1.6V are present, as is memory voltage, with settings of 1.8V, 1.9V, 2.0V, and 2.1V. There’s even an FSB termination voltage setting in the board’s BIOS.
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For those extreme FSB clocks, the memory ratio can be adjusted to keep your RAM in check. Ratios of 2.0, 2.66, and 3.0 are provided, which will clock your memory at speeds of 400MHz, 533MHz, and 600MHz at 200MHz FSB. (As we mentioned earlier, ASUS fully stands behind their 600MHz memory setting.) The PCI Express frequency can also be manually locked to run at a particular frequency, clocks from 90-133MHz are available in BIOS.
In case you’re new to overclocking, ASUS also provides overclock profiles. The “overclock profile” setting will automatically adjust all settings needed for a CPU overclock of 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, or 30%. So if you’d like to try and overclock your processor by 20%, select the “Overclock 20%” overclock profile, and the P5AD2 BIOS will adjust all the necessary system parameters for you. There are also overclock profiles for FSB settings as high as 1066MHz, with DDR2 options at that FSB speed of 533MHz and 710MHz.
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One new feature ASUS has incorporated into the P5AD2’s BIOS is AI N.O.S. N.O.S (Non-Delay Overclocking System) dynamically adjusts the clock speed of the system processor based on load. Unlike other utilities from competing manufacturers, N.O.S. monitors CPU voltage draw rather than temperature. ASUS claims this allows their N.O.S. solution to react to load changes quicker than others.
Like other ASUS motherboards we’ve tested in the past, the P5AD2 features a “Turbo” performance mode setting, which cranks up the bus speed 10% for a little added performance. You can also disable Intel’s PAT feature in the 925X chipset via the “Hyper Path 2” setting.
| Gigabyte GA-8ANXP-D | Page:: ( 4 / 14 ) |
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Like ASUS’ P5AD2, the Gigabyte GA-8ANXP-D is designed from the ground up to appeal to the guy who wants it all and then some. The spec list is eerily identical, especially when you consider how few motherboard manufacturers have been able to differentiate themselves for 925X. The GA-8ANXP-D provides Dual Gigabit LAN, IEEE-1394b, onboard 802.11g Wi-Fi, and support for up to eight Serial ATA hard drives. Sound familiar to anyone?
The biggest differentiating factors between the two boards are Gigabyte’s highly respected dual power system which delivers eight-phase power circuitry and has been enhanced with the addition of a heat pipe for additional cooling performance, two extra DIMM sockets (although total memory size is unchanged), and 3 PCI Express x1 slots on the GA-8ANXP-D, versus two on the P5AD2 (which adds an extra PCI slot instead). The P5AD2 also provides two additional IDE RAID connectors for parallel ATA hard drives.
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Besides the heat pipe on the Universal Plus dual power system module, Gigabyte provides a flexible cooling solution on the 925X North Bridge. Like the ASUS P5AD2, the GA-8ANXP-D relies primarily on passive North Bridge cooling. A large aluminum heatsink sits atop the chip. But Gigabyte also provides an additional North Bridge cooling fan in the GA-8ANXP-D’s packaging which can be mounted on the North Bridge. This flexible solution appeases the enthusiasts, who want active cooling on the North Bridge, while at the same time providing backup in case the fan fails, and also pleases those who want to run their system as quietly as possible.
For convenient overclocking within Windows, Gigabyte also provides their Easy Tune 5 software with the GA-8ANXP-D.
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The GA-8ANXP-D’s BIOS provides bus speeds ranging from 200-355MHz in 1MHz increments, with the option of manual memory frequency adjustment like the ASUS and ABIT motherboards, ratios of 2.0 and 2.66 are standard. Voltages can also be adjusted in the GA-8ANXP-D BIOS. Memory voltage settings of 1.8V, 1.9V, 2.0V, and 2.1V are offered, while the PCI Express voltage can be tweaked to run at 0.1V, 0.2V, or 0.3V over default. Gigabyte had been toning down their CPU voltage ranges in comparison to other manufacturers, but all that goes out the door in the GA-8ANXP-D BIOS. Options range from 0.8375V-1.6V in increments of 0.0125V for Prescott processors. Considering that we only needed 1.5V to hit 3.96GHz on a Pentium 4 540 (3.2GHz), we think this should be plenty for most overclockers.
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Gigabyte’s CPU Intelligence Accelerator 2 (C.I.A. 2) is also present in the GA-8ANXP-D’s BIOS. C.I.A. 2 will dynamically adjust your processor’s clock speed depending on the system’s workload. For gaming and other processor-intensive applications such as video editing, C.I.A. 2 will automatically bump up your processor’s clock frequency. Once you’re finished, C.I.A. 2 will dynamically adjust your system parameters to more conservative levels. Settings of cruise, sports, racing, turbo, and full thrust are available.
| Test conditions | Page:: ( 5 / 14 ) |
System Setup
Intel Pentium 4 3.2GHz
Intel Pentium 4 3.6GHz LGA-775
Intel Pentium 4 3.4GHz Extreme Edition LGA-775
ASUS P45AD2 Premium Edition (925X)
1GB Micron DDR2 SDRAM
ATI RADEON X800 XT
Driver version ATI 6.14.10.6451
250GB Maxtor Hard Drive Maxline III SATA Hard Drive w/16MB Cache
Windows XP Professional SP1
DirectX 9.0b
Benchmarks
Lock On: Modern Air Combat (Mig-29 custom demo)
Call of Duty (demo0032 custom demo)
Quake III: Arena version 1.32 (fscrusher demo)
Unreal Tournament 2004 (T3 custom demo)
IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles (The Black Death track)
Splinter Cell (FS custom demo)
Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness (Beyond3D custom demo)
Halo: Combat Evolved (stock benchmark)
| Call of Duty | Page:: ( 6 / 14 ) |
Call of Duty – OpenGL
| IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles | Page:: ( 7 / 14 ) |
IL-2 Sturmovik: FB - OpenGL
| Lock On: Modern Air Combat | Page:: ( 8 / 14 ) |
Lock On: Modern Air Combat – Direct3D
| UT 2004 | Page:: ( 9 / 14 ) |
Unreal Tournament 2004
| Splinter Cell | Page:: ( 10 / 14 ) |
Splinter Cell – Direct3D
| Tomb Raider | Page:: ( 11 / 14 ) |
Tomb Raider – Direct3D
| Halo | Page:: ( 12 / 14 ) |
Halo – Direct3D
| Far Cry | Page:: ( 13 / 14 ) |
Far Cry – Direct3D
| Conclusion | Page:: ( 14 / 14 ) |
We were able to hit 4GHz out of our Pentium 4 560 (3.6GHz) and 3.96GHz from a retail Pentium 4 540 CPU (3.2GHz) with stock Intel boxed cooling. The Pentium 4 560 required 1.45V of juice, while the 540 needed 1.5V for complete stability. We actually were able to overclock both chips (and the Pentium 4 3.4GHz Extreme Edition), another 50MHz and run a few benchmarks, in the case of the Pentium 4 540 we were able to complete all our tests but Halo, which would lock up after a few runs. With a good aftermarket cooler, we actually think we could have hit even higher clock speeds!
Based on this, we wouldn’t be surprised if the Pentium 4 520, 530, and 540 turned out to be popular choices among enthusiasts. The 520 officially sells for $178, while the 530 and 540 are priced at $218 and $278 respectively. The Prescott core these chips are based on appears to top out around 4GHz, ensuring good overclocking potential.
DDR2-600 brought minimal performance gains in our testing. Until Intel cranks up the Pentium 4’s system bus, the added bandwidth just doesn’t appear to be necessary. If the rumors of a bus increase to 1066MHz are true, all indications are many of today’s 925X motherboards will be ready, just as several 845PE motherboards could be safely overclocked to the 800MHz FSB first introduced by 875P and 865.
The ABIT AA8-DuraMAX, ASUS P5AD2 Premium, and Gigabyte GA-8ANXP-D all look like excellent early candidates for LGA-775 overclocking. All three of these boards are able to circumvent Intel’s clock lock in the 925X chipset and provide a ton of bus options to choose from as well as voltage settings, two ingredients that are crucial to successful overclocking. Each also has a unique feature set that will appeal to different segments of the enthusiast crowd.
With ABIT’s 3rd Eye technology, the AA8-DuraMAX brings overclocking to a whole new level – the top of your desk! With its large, clear LED readout, you can constantly monitor critical parameters such as CPU temperature and voltages, you can even turn on your system without having to reach around your desk.
The ASUS P5AD2 Premium and Gigabyte GA-8ANXP-D both provide more features than 90% of the 925X motherboards on the market. You’ve got dual Gigabit LAN, IEEE-1394b, 8 Serial ATA drive support, and 802.11g WiFi all built-in to both motherboards. ASUS provides a little more legacy support, with one extra PCI and extra parallel ATA connectors, while Gigabyte contrasts ASUS by providing one extra PCI Express connector. Both motherboards provide dynamic overclocking technology, auto-reboot functionality after an unsuccessful overclock and a wealth of other cool features.
The bottom line is you’d have a hard time going wrong with any one of these motherboards. ABIT, ASUS, and Gigabyte have all done their homework, and have come up with pretty compelling solutions for 925X, and fortunately, there’s plenty of headroom on the platform for some good overclocking. Sounds like a fun time to us!