Massman & Leeghoofd Overclocking:
So, for a long time I wasn't interested in Sandy Bridge-E because it's basically the same architecture like Sandy Bridge and it has the same annoying overclocking problems. Just like with Sandy Bridge, you'll just have to test a lot of CPUs to find a good one (or be very lucky). Last night, I drove too
Leeghoofd's place to have one quick test with the platform before it was launched so I would at least have some hands-on experience with it. It was quite a long bench session: from 8PM untill ~3AM ... but of course a lot of fun!!
Setup:
- Core i7 3960X (ES)
- MSI GTX 580 Lightning (x5)
- Sabertooth X79
- Dominator GTX8
- AX1200 PSU
- Inflection Point CPU pot
- Ryba Fat GPU pot
OC Results:
- CPU clock: 5320MHz
- MEM clock: DDR3-2240 CL9-11-10
- VGA clock (3way): 910/1150 and 925/1150
- VGA clock (single): 1450/1200 Vantage and 1500/1200 3D11
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3DMark Vantage - Performance: 44589 marks with GeForce GTX 580 [-155.0 degrees °C under load] at 1450/1200MHz
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3DMark11 - Performance score: 12034 marks with GeForce GTX 580 [-155.0 degrees °C under load] at 1500/1200MHz
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3DMark Vantage - Performance score: 62985 marks with 3x GeForce GTX 580 at 925/1200MHz
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3DMark11 - Performance score: 19094 marks with 3x GeForce GTX 580 at 910/1150MHz
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3DMark06 score: 40409 marks with 3x GeForce GTX 580 at 925/1200MHz
Pictures:
Conclusion:
So, as expected, Sandy Bridge-E is nothing too special aside from the +5% we can easily get in benchmarks such as Vantage and 11. Aside from those two benchmarks, this chip isn't so interesting for overclockers and even with a gem Gulftown you can get close to the performance of an average Sandy Bridge-E. In Vantage, a 5300MHz Sandy Bridge-E will deliver similar performance like a 6000MHz Gulftown; if you're lucky and find a 5500+ chip, you're safe.
Like I've told some people already: I hate the fact that I care so much about the +5% performance gain we can get by using Sandy Bridge-E. Fact is, however, that it's much easier to get a competitive score with this new chip than with the old one ... it's almost as easy like benching Sandy Bridge.
Fyi, compare between 3x580 Vantage GT and SBE:
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62919 with 6000 i7 990X
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62958 with 5300 i7 3960X
Maxed out GPU completely, need to find better CPU, should probably try the R4E, GTX8 needs to be clocked higher. We'll see.
Team Sweden Overclocking
Once again it was time to travel to Sweden and have some first touch with new hardware. This time it was obviously SB-E chips + X79 motherboards (ASUS Rampage IV Extreme)
There was Sampsa and me from Finalnd. Henry, Öjvind and new Marcus from Sweden + Thomas Melzer from Intel and Marcus Hultin from Asus. These are the best guys around, cause they always find time to organize this event, even they are very busy with other things.
So, we have35 ES SB-E chips. 400 liters of ln2 and a lot of other hardware. All did what they liked to do there. I focused on binning chips with Henry and we went through 15 chips with no luck. Then this new Marcus took one chip from tray and started to test it. It was the best of them all, but still far far away from the best we have seen lately. So, i guess this new guy passed his first test. He have the only useful feature for overclocker --> golden hand.
I did some 3D tests with that chip and I used 2 x MARS II cards, just to make sure, that the setup is ridiculous enough. Yeah, my most limited resource is still time, not hardware like some have thought. So haters can suck my extra large.....
Here are some pictures and scores:
Inflection point pot can be connected to normal socket with LGA 2011, so you dont need any backplate. Just put some armaflex behind mobo and you are fine.
and scores not worth to mention:
So, the ones who will have motivation to push, do it!