Issue 27 2013 rev 2.1 THE WORLD’S BEST OVERCLOCKING ONLINE MAGAZINE. FOREVER. Cover Feature ASUS RAMPAGE IV EXTREME BLACK EDITION Reviewed GIGABYTE GV- N78TGHZ-3GD Reviewed PowerColor R9 290 4GB OC Interview Mad “Mad 222” Tse Lifestyle Battlefield 4
THIS IS 2013! his, our final issue of 2013, comes just including GIGABYTE’s Z87X-OC and the over a month after Issue 26. Now I ASUS MAXIMUS VI Extreme. I’d think that Tknow why we don’t do this monthly, it if you ever needed any motherboards in is taxing in more way than one can imagine. your arsenal you need at least two of these, Alas I’m here again writing the last Ed’s possibly all of them. note for the year. Tired, excited for 2014 and Graphics card wise, well this epic battle looking forward to the New Year. between NVIDIA and AMD has brought us One of the things you will have noticed fantastic graphics cards and even better about this issue is that it’s on an entirely yet, prices. The pricing has been highly new platform. Those that have been with us contested largely because of AMD’s doing. for a while will find some familiarity with I’m appreciative of this and hope to see it. We decided to move to this new platform this happen going into 2014. It’s also good for several reasons which, not only include to see the 780 Ti come out with all guns speed, portability but by and large this blazing. It is certainly doing the job even makes for a better read and it’s one that though if you looked right now you’d find we hope you’ll enjoy. The magazine is still a few R9 290X cards at the top of most available on the older system but this is the HWBOT lists. I do suspect that many of one of the future and if you compare the two us are waiting for the KPC Edition cards you’ll easily see why. along with the Lightning and perhaps So what’s there to say about 2013? Well, the HOF card from GALAXY. These are it’s been a ride alright. So many things the three we will be watching out for and have happened in the OC world. From who knows. ASUS may pull a rabbit out of controversy, wins to sheer fail. It’s all been a hat and provide the community with a there. What kind of year would be it though if blistering 780 Ti of their own. If not we’ll there wasn’t come controversy surrounding settle for an epic 290X instead. Whatever HWBOT? It’s always at the center of it, but you prefer, this has been a good year for for good reason I’d imagine. Regardless graphics cards and it’s likely to get better of how you feel about the database, its going into 2014. employees or the community’s reliance on I had thought to say something about it, it is a venture that is necessary and it has memory vendors here at the end as there by numbers seen more participation now was so much to write about, but in the than in the last two to three years. So that end I figured it’s best to say nothing at all. has to count for something. This industry should hopefully pick up for Hardware wise, it’s been what I expected, them and as a result for us the end users. a new mainstream performance segment There haven’t been any must have sets of platform in the form of Z87 but what memory and the pricing has been anything really got me excited was Ivy-Bridge E. I but sensible for the high end 2933MHz+ kits. couldn’t have imagined that this platform Here’s to 2014 being better on both fronts. would produce such incredible scores. In closing, I’d like to thank all the readers Interestingly enough, this chipset has also for their support. We are a little light this produced what is in my humble opinion the issue, but hey we’ll be back with even more best motherboard I’ve ever come across. content in Issue 28. Until then, do enjoy the Yes that’s the one on the cover and I’d not rest of your 2013 and we will see you all on have it any other way. Mind you we’ve had the flip side. some stunners this year, not limited to but [ Neo Sibeko - Editor ] Issue 27 | 2013 The OverClocker 3
THIS IS 2013! his, our final issue of 2013, comes just including GIGABYTE’s Z87X-OC and the over a month after Issue 26. Now I ASUS MAXIMUS VI Extreme. I’d think that Tknow why we don’t do this monthly, it if you ever needed any motherboards in is taxing in more way than one can imagine. your arsenal you need at least two of these, Alas I’m here again writing the last Ed’s possibly all of them. note for the year. Tired, excited for 2014 and Graphics card wise, well this epic battle looking forward to the New Year. between NVIDIA and AMD has brought us One of the things you will have noticed fantastic graphics cards and even better about this issue is that it’s on an entirely yet, prices. The pricing has been highly new platform. Those that have been with us contested largely because of AMD’s doing. for a while will find some familiarity with I’m appreciative of this and hope to see it. We decided to move to this new platform this happen going into 2014. It’s also good for several reasons which, not only include to see the 780 Ti come out with all guns speed, portability but by and large this blazing. It is certainly doing the job even makes for a better read and it’s one that though if you looked right now you’d find we hope you’ll enjoy. The magazine is still a few R9 290X cards at the top of most available on the older system but this is the HWBOT lists. I do suspect that many of one of the future and if you compare the two us are waiting for the KPC Edition cards you’ll easily see why. along with the Lightning and perhaps So what’s there to say about 2013? Well, the HOF card from GALAXY. These are it’s been a ride alright. So many things the three we will be watching out for and have happened in the OC world. From who knows. ASUS may pull a rabbit out of controversy, wins to sheer fail. It’s all been a hat and provide the community with a there. What kind of year would be it though if blistering 780 Ti of their own. If not we’ll there wasn’t come controversy surrounding settle for an epic 290X instead. Whatever HWBOT? It’s always at the center of it, but you prefer, this has been a good year for for good reason I’d imagine. Regardless graphics cards and it’s likely to get better of how you feel about the database, its going into 2014. employees or the community’s reliance on I had thought to say something about it, it is a venture that is necessary and it has memory vendors here at the end as there by numbers seen more participation now was so much to write about, but in the than in the last two to three years. So that end I figured it’s best to say nothing at all. has to count for something. This industry should hopefully pick up for Hardware wise, it’s been what I expected, them and as a result for us the end users. a new mainstream performance segment There haven’t been any must have sets of platform in the form of Z87 but what memory and the pricing has been anything really got me excited was Ivy-Bridge E. I but sensible for the high end 2933MHz+ kits. couldn’t have imagined that this platform Here’s to 2014 being better on both fronts. would produce such incredible scores. In closing, I’d like to thank all the readers Interestingly enough, this chipset has also for their support. We are a little light this produced what is in my humble opinion the issue, but hey we’ll be back with even more best motherboard I’ve ever come across. content in Issue 28. Until then, do enjoy the Yes that’s the one on the cover and I’d not rest of your 2013 and we will see you all on have it any other way. Mind you we’ve had the flip side. some stunners this year, not limited to but [ Neo Sibeko - Editor ] Issue 27 | 2013 The OverClocker 3
26 REGULARS 3 - Editor’s note FEATURES 6 – Q + A with Mad “Mad 222” Tse 12 – ASUS RAMPAGE IV EXTREME Black Edition 34 – Soap Box The Overclocker is REVIEWS published by OCL-Media (cc). 18 – GALAXY GTX 780 HALL OF FAME Editor Neo Sibeko 20 – GIGABYTE Z87X-OC Force Art Director 22 – GIGABYTE GV-N78TGHZ-3GD Chris Savides 24 – KINGSTON Hyper X Genesis Marketing & Sales Jayda Wu 10th Anniversary Edition 16GB Kit Contributors 26 – PowerColor R9 290 4GB OC Dane Remendes Pieter-Jan \"Massman\" 30 – AMD Radeon R9 290X Plasier For editorial and marketing please contact: LIFESTYLE [email protected] 36 – Battlefield 4 or [email protected] 41 – Prolimatech MK-26 Black Edition 42 – OCZ Vertex 450 256GB SSD 43 – Cooler Master Nepton 280L 42 28 4 The OverClocker Issue 27 | 2013
26 REGULARS 3 - Editor’s note FEATURES 6 – Q + A with Mad “Mad 222” Tse 12 – ASUS RAMPAGE IV EXTREME Black Edition 34 – Soap Box The Overclocker is REVIEWS published by OCL-Media (cc). 18 – GALAXY GTX 780 HALL OF FAME Editor Neo Sibeko 20 – GIGABYTE Z87X-OC Force Art Director 22 – GIGABYTE GV-N78TGHZ-3GD Chris Savides 24 – KINGSTON Hyper X Genesis Marketing & Sales Jayda Wu 10th Anniversary Edition 16GB Kit Contributors 26 – PowerColor R9 290 4GB OC Dane Remendes Pieter-Jan \"Massman\" 30 – AMD Radeon R9 290X Plasier For editorial and marketing please contact: LIFESTYLE [email protected] 36 – Battlefield 4 or [email protected] 41 – Prolimatech MK-26 Black Edition 42 – OCZ Vertex 450 256GB SSD 43 – Cooler Master Nepton 280L 42 28 4 The OverClocker Issue 27 | 2013
QA with with Mad “Mad 222” Tse Country Name and City: Hong Kong, China. What language(s) do you speak? Cantonese, Mandarin, English. Your nickname “mad222”, how did that come about? 222 sounds =easy easy easy in Cantonese; mad222=easy to get mad. When did you start overclocking seriously or rather competitively for points? Is overclocking solely for competitive purposes or do you take part in it for “fun” mainly? I started overclocking about 8 years ago and began to participate in We know you mostly bench NVIDIA competitions since the development graphics cards, but what are your of my first OC Team in 2008. Yes, I thoughts on the Radeon R9 290X? mainly do it for fun. Frankly, not bad at all if ATI can spend more time on polishing its Which is your favourite benchmark drivers. I like the idea of core unlock if any and what is your least on certain GPU die batches. It’s favourite and why? always fun to unlock something with I like all kinds of 3D & 2D surprising bonus. benchmarks except those with heavy silicon torture. You have been overclocking with a lot of the guys at HKEPC. Do you You’ve been doing a lot of work with mainly bench with them or do you GALAXY lately, how did you get have other people you regularly together with the company and why bench with? do you prefer to work with them I do bench with HKEPC team mates, over any other vendor? but I bench alone most of the time. I started to associate with Galaxy in a competition organized by them What are your two favourite back in 2009. Galaxy is a growing motherboards at the moment for the company that insistently aims to Z87 and the X79 platform? promote and advocate the concept of Asus Z87 M6E & ASRock Z87M OCF; “Overclocking” if you will. Asus R4E & R4BE. Any great scores you can tell us What is the most supportive about that you’ve achieved using the memory vendor for you and new 780Ti HOF? overclocking? Ah... you will get the surprises in Team, Corsair and Geil at the time. moment. 6 The OverClocker Issue 27 | 2013 Issue 27 | 2013 The OverClocker 7
QA with with Mad “Mad 222” Tse Country Name and City: Hong Kong, China. What language(s) do you speak? Cantonese, Mandarin, English. Your nickname “mad222”, how did that come about? 222 sounds =easy easy easy in Cantonese; mad222=easy to get mad. When did you start overclocking seriously or rather competitively for points? Is overclocking solely for competitive purposes or do you take part in it for “fun” mainly? I started overclocking about 8 years ago and began to participate in We know you mostly bench NVIDIA competitions since the development graphics cards, but what are your of my first OC Team in 2008. Yes, I thoughts on the Radeon R9 290X? mainly do it for fun. Frankly, not bad at all if ATI can spend more time on polishing its Which is your favourite benchmark drivers. I like the idea of core unlock if any and what is your least on certain GPU die batches. It’s favourite and why? always fun to unlock something with I like all kinds of 3D & 2D surprising bonus. benchmarks except those with heavy silicon torture. You have been overclocking with a lot of the guys at HKEPC. Do you You’ve been doing a lot of work with mainly bench with them or do you GALAXY lately, how did you get have other people you regularly together with the company and why bench with? do you prefer to work with them I do bench with HKEPC team mates, over any other vendor? but I bench alone most of the time. I started to associate with Galaxy in a competition organized by them What are your two favourite back in 2009. Galaxy is a growing motherboards at the moment for the company that insistently aims to Z87 and the X79 platform? promote and advocate the concept of Asus Z87 M6E & ASRock Z87M OCF; “Overclocking” if you will. Asus R4E & R4BE. Any great scores you can tell us What is the most supportive about that you’ve achieved using the memory vendor for you and new 780Ti HOF? overclocking? Ah... you will get the surprises in Team, Corsair and Geil at the time. moment. 6 The OverClocker Issue 27 | 2013 Issue 27 | 2013 The OverClocker 7
How feasible is it for you to get access to LN2 where you live and how much is it? Easily accessible, but way too expense. It costs some HKD 50 per litre. How often do you have overclocking sessions in a month? It’s around 4-5 times a month. A few hours per session after work. What are you currently overclocking? Galaxy Geforce GTX 780 HOF & Galaxy Geforce GTX760 HOF as pre- test preparations for GOC 2013. Any hardware you’re looking forward to buy in 2014? Z97 motherboard, for sure, can’t wait to get a touch on it. What is your favourite graphics card and platform to date? Galaxy Geforce GTX780 HOF + Intel Ivy-e + Asus X79 R4BE. What is your single greatest or most memorable overclocking achievement? Galaxy Geforce GTX780 HOF clocked 1933/1922. http://www.3dmark. com/3dm11/7243265 Issue 27 | 2013 The OverClocker 9
How feasible is it for you to get access to LN2 where you live and how much is it? Easily accessible, but way too expense. It costs some HKD 50 per litre. How often do you have overclocking sessions in a month? It’s around 4-5 times a month. A few hours per session after work. What are you currently overclocking? Galaxy Geforce GTX 780 HOF & Galaxy Geforce GTX760 HOF as pre- test preparations for GOC 2013. Any hardware you’re looking forward to buy in 2014? Z97 motherboard, for sure, can’t wait to get a touch on it. What is your favourite graphics card and platform to date? Galaxy Geforce GTX780 HOF + Intel Ivy-e + Asus X79 R4BE. What is your single greatest or most memorable overclocking achievement? Galaxy Geforce GTX780 HOF clocked 1933/1922. http://www.3dmark. com/3dm11/7243265 Issue 27 | 2013 The OverClocker 9
Are you currently participating in the HWBOT Pro OC Cup and if so, how is it going for you and your team? No, I haven’t competed for any HWbot contest for a while. How is the overclocking scene in Hong Kong? Is it growing or pretty much the same as it has always been? It’s pretty much the same as before. Anything you’d like to see changed in the overclocking community right now? I would like to see more and more OC enthusiasts who really enjoy overclocking with true skills receive more support from different vendors. Any other insights you would like to share with the community regarding overclocking, hardware or anything related? Keep doing what you think is the best way to move the community move forward What do you do outside of overclocking that you spend as much time on as you do overclocking? I spend most of the time with my family Do you have any advice for upcoming competitive overclockers trying LN2 for the first time? Don’t be scared, keep pouring! Issue 27 | 2013 The OverClocker 11
Are you currently participating in the HWBOT Pro OC Cup and if so, how is it going for you and your team? No, I haven’t competed for any HWbot contest for a while. How is the overclocking scene in Hong Kong? Is it growing or pretty much the same as it has always been? It’s pretty much the same as before. Anything you’d like to see changed in the overclocking community right now? I would like to see more and more OC enthusiasts who really enjoy overclocking with true skills receive more support from different vendors. Any other insights you would like to share with the community regarding overclocking, hardware or anything related? Keep doing what you think is the best way to move the community move forward What do you do outside of overclocking that you spend as much time on as you do overclocking? I spend most of the time with my family Do you have any advice for upcoming competitive overclockers trying LN2 for the first time? Don’t be scared, keep pouring! Issue 27 | 2013 The OverClocker 11
RRP: $499.99 | Website: www.asus.com ASUS RAMPAGE IV EXTREME Black Edition EDITOR’S CHOICE OC Hero Award AWARD competitive way you look Test Machine and others not, at it, we can say have gone from a that from within • INTEL Core i7 4960X neglected and frowned the community, • CORSAIR Dominator upon sub culture, to easily greatness has been Platinum 4x4GB DDR the most addressable group of brought fourth and it is 2666MHZ C10 individuals within the computing not evident in any other • EVGA GTX 780 Classified space. Every other group is addressed product so much as it is • Corsair LS 240GB SSD out of necessity, spoken to as a whole in the Rampage IV Black • Cooler Master Silent Pro M2 1500W and largely dictated to a far larger Edition. • Windows 7 64-bit SP1 extent than we are. As Shamino’s last board BIOS 0208 With overclockers we may believe at what is hopefully potentially, at least at ROG, our wishers are not granted, we are not, but potentially the what we have here is peerless, not given a platform to speak and greatest ROG motherboard unparalleled work. Not to take most importantly, regardless of what that will ever be, at least in anything away from the rest of his may have started about as a it is we request, it is never met with the near future. As many of us all the team responsible for making regular review of the Rampage IV our expectations, if it is met at all. know, it takes an individual familiar this board happen, but we see the TExtreme Black Edition. However, How easily it would be to forget then, with the community, with the needs characteristics of a motherboard during the course of this review, just how far we have traversed this of the community or rather wants, to here, that leap out at us speaking a something had changed as it has now DIY landscape with vendors. To them, produce a board that resonates with single name. That of Shamino, and if turned into our cover feature. At the overclockers have become a painful us. It is very easy to see this because this be his swan song, it must be said time of planning this issue, there were necessity. After all, while it is true that out of the top four or maybe even five that there is no better way to make an so many things we wanted to cover there is space for gaming orientated vendors that are in any way concerned exit, or at least we couldn’t possibly to end 2013 with, but when the RIVE motherboards and such. There are about overclocking, each and imagine a better way. Black Edition showed up; well, let’s only so many things you can add to a every one of them has employed or Years ago, a moniker on ROG boards just say it put everything else into motherboard or graphics card short consulted an overclocker somewhere read, “rock solid, heart touching” and perspective. It’s truly amazing what a of an actual game that would make in their component design. Some have as trite as that was. When dealing with single product or component rather said component gaming centric. fared better than others, while others, this board in particular, that is exactly can achieve and how it can shape the A name alone would not do the trick, not afforded the voice they should what comes to mind. This is the one many more things outside the scope of yet here we are, many years later and rightfully have, have still managed to to keep well past its relevance, years its use. several generations of ROG products make miracles happen. Others are after we have a new platform, this We as overlockers, some to call upon. We find ourselves looking there in spirit only, but whichever 12 The OverClocker Issue 27 | 2013 Issue 27 | 2013 The OverClocker 13
RRP: $499.99 | Website: www.asus.com ASUS RAMPAGE IV EXTREME Black Edition EDITOR’S CHOICE OC Hero Award AWARD competitive way you look Test Machine and others not, at it, we can say have gone from a that from within • INTEL Core i7 4960X neglected and frowned the community, • CORSAIR Dominator upon sub culture, to easily greatness has been Platinum 4x4GB DDR the most addressable group of brought fourth and it is 2666MHZ C10 individuals within the computing not evident in any other • EVGA GTX 780 Classified space. Every other group is addressed product so much as it is • Corsair LS 240GB SSD out of necessity, spoken to as a whole in the Rampage IV Black • Cooler Master Silent Pro M2 1500W and largely dictated to a far larger Edition. • Windows 7 64-bit SP1 extent than we are. As Shamino’s last board BIOS 0208 With overclockers we may believe at what is hopefully potentially, at least at ROG, our wishers are not granted, we are not, but potentially the what we have here is peerless, not given a platform to speak and greatest ROG motherboard unparalleled work. Not to take most importantly, regardless of what that will ever be, at least in anything away from the rest of his may have started about as a it is we request, it is never met with the near future. As many of us all the team responsible for making regular review of the Rampage IV our expectations, if it is met at all. know, it takes an individual familiar this board happen, but we see the TExtreme Black Edition. However, How easily it would be to forget then, with the community, with the needs characteristics of a motherboard during the course of this review, just how far we have traversed this of the community or rather wants, to here, that leap out at us speaking a something had changed as it has now DIY landscape with vendors. To them, produce a board that resonates with single name. That of Shamino, and if turned into our cover feature. At the overclockers have become a painful us. It is very easy to see this because this be his swan song, it must be said time of planning this issue, there were necessity. After all, while it is true that out of the top four or maybe even five that there is no better way to make an so many things we wanted to cover there is space for gaming orientated vendors that are in any way concerned exit, or at least we couldn’t possibly to end 2013 with, but when the RIVE motherboards and such. There are about overclocking, each and imagine a better way. Black Edition showed up; well, let’s only so many things you can add to a every one of them has employed or Years ago, a moniker on ROG boards just say it put everything else into motherboard or graphics card short consulted an overclocker somewhere read, “rock solid, heart touching” and perspective. It’s truly amazing what a of an actual game that would make in their component design. Some have as trite as that was. When dealing with single product or component rather said component gaming centric. fared better than others, while others, this board in particular, that is exactly can achieve and how it can shape the A name alone would not do the trick, not afforded the voice they should what comes to mind. This is the one many more things outside the scope of yet here we are, many years later and rightfully have, have still managed to to keep well past its relevance, years its use. several generations of ROG products make miracles happen. Others are after we have a new platform, this We as overlockers, some to call upon. We find ourselves looking there in spirit only, but whichever 12 The OverClocker Issue 27 | 2013 Issue 27 | 2013 The OverClocker 13
will be one worth owning. It is nothing short of a crowning achievement for a platform that went from frustrating to outright challenging and dare we say loads of fun. This is assuming though you’re on a semi functional board. As we’ve stated time and time again, X79 motherboards have been by and large less than adequate and most time atrocious, with the exception of a few, mainly this board’s predecessor or lesser version (one could not have imagine describing the RIVE as a “lesser” version of anything) and far more recently the X79 Dark (with the most modern BIOS versions). So just how much better is this board than every other board and perhaps even over and above the All results were obtained at 4625MHz on an un-optimized Windows 7 64-bit. These are our figures, yours may vary so only use these as a RIVE? Well, consider the following. guideline for a similarly configured system. Note that we used a 125MHz BClk* to keep the numbers consistent with other X79 motherboards. While every motherboard vendor was celebrating memory frequency records, on the Z87 platform, this Motherboard Cinebench 11.5 3DMark11 Super Pi 8M Aida 64 Copy Aida 64 Latency BIOS Version motherboard was the only board ASUS RIVE Black Edition 14,11 14559 1.26.783 72865 46,6 Bios 0208 to claim such a record on what just Physics: 17090 has to be the incorrect platform. The incredible speeds were not only impressive, but consider the following EVGA X79 Dark 14,1 14442 1.28.093 64928 50 Bios 2.05 as well if you will. The said 4GHz Physics: 16841 clock was achieved with all channels populated. That is with four sticks of memory in quad channel. To this ASUS X79-Deluxe 14,1 14330 1.28.047 30526 47,8 Bios 0403 record, to this feat there was not a Physics: 16092 single rebuttal from any other vendor producing any other board. The quiet that followed this achievement was and remains unprecedented. At a time where every MHz gained in memory frequency warranted a press release, educated in overclocking the said results via a profile from which we tweak and marvel at. Perplexing as this board is at being a gaming the exhaustive memory tweaking this one achievement is so far ahead platform by using this board, it helps then tuned for efficiency. well, is that the RIVE Black Edition motherboard, what best way to options, the CPU tuning functions, of anything else for the chipset that we you at every turn gain the maximum Many may frown upon the use of not only presents itself as the best promote that rather than packing the power delivery on the board or heard, read and saw nothing close to overclocks and efficiency possible. said profiles and would rather seek overclocking motherboard we have a triple A title with it? Moreover, it anything else. The bottom line is; it. We didn’t even record any attempts. Unlike any other competing board, it out the correct or ideal settings ever seen, but it so happens to be packages the best version of the this is the greatest motherboard Not to take anything away from the is not taking pot shots in the dark. The themselves through an arduous the greatest gaming motherboard entire Assasin’s Credd legacy into ever made. It is so finely executed Maximus VI Impact, which holds the RIVE Black Edition is predictable, it is process of trial and error. However, around as well. This is not achieved the package. If you’ve read this far it should be a study for all future record, but again there’s no need for consistent and best of all, its results we do believe that that the joy of through gimmicks, no but in a simple and are contemplating the gaming motherboards. There are no us to spell out the common factor are repeatable time and time again. overclocking is not in its difficulty but and direct way. You will receive your machine build of your life. In other further accolades we could shower between these two achievements. In our own testing, it would be in traversing the road to your desired network traffic shaping NIC, but with it words your “ultimate” (at least for upon this board even if we wanted This kind of dominance is ever more untrue to say that we spent no less milestone the simplest and more some of the best audio you will find on your budget) gaming rig, simply to, had we still used a numeric pronounced than when the original than a full 24 hours straight optimizing efficient way possible. Moreover, the any motherboard right now. There’s buy this motherboard and be done rating system this would be a Rampage IV Extreme showed up two a single set of memory for operation truth is not many of us will be able no denying the fact that ASUS knows with it. Think not of alternatives, perfect score. There’s nothing else years ago. on this board. This was not because to optimize memory the same way audio, very well actually. With some of potential replacements, nothing like it. We here at TheOverclocker So what then would it be that we we had any difficulties running the that Shamino could. It will always that expertise poured into this board, of the sort. It is far from being Magazine, pay our greatest would single out as the throw down set at spec and far beyond, no. It was be laudable to try, but the reality is we instantly have a motherboard that cheap, but it is far ahead of respects to the team behind this argument for why this has to be the simply an exercise that allowed us that many of us do not have it in us is not only dual purpose, but possibly anything else, more so than the board and more importantly Peter definitive X79 motherboard, perhaps to marvel at just how far one could to tune memory to that degree with a leader in both applications. It is price would suggest. “Shamino” Tan, for time and time the quintessential overclocking take a single set of memory on the that level of understanding. Thus, most certainly the leader when it As for the rest of us, it is simply again producing products that motherboard or all? Well, the answer X79 platform while making it useable it is best to use the profiles spring comes to overclocking of any kind, a matter of owing our X79 CPUs at pushed the industry forward there is very complicated. You’d have without resorting to LN2 for example. board if possible and go forth from be it you employ air, liquid, dry ice least a single run on the Rampage and made us marvel at what to literarily go on for pages to list all Not only did the RIVE Black Edition, there. There aren’t many starts that or LN2 cooling. There’s not a better IV Extreme Black Edition. You’ll was possible with focus and an these reasons, however, much like match all our previous attempts on will be better than those provided alternative right now and the odds are, never really know the maximum unyielding dedication to perfection. we said before with the MAXIMUS VI other Z87 boards, but we were able within the BIOS. there will never be for the remainder potential of your CPU or memory kit This board much like the man will Extreme, and others. It’s the simplicity to do with all four sticks of memory There are an insane number of of this platform’s life. until you have them on this board. and should live on the tongues and in which overclocking takes place with installed. When we needed 3,000MHz features that we could go into but For the gamers who are looking to There is no other board that will minds of overclockers for years the Rampage IV Extreme Black Edition from a quad channel 2,666 C10 set, that would be pointless. It’s best to justify this purchase, consider the bring you this close to the edge to come. It’s unconceivable how that is mind boggling. No matter your the RIVE Black Edition rose to the think of the RIVE Black Edition as the Assasin’s Creed: Black Flag coupon this conveniently. You could write magnificent it is. experience level, not only are you challenge and instantly delivered the original board, with even more to as well. After all, as proficient as it down to the OC-Panel, perhaps [The Overclocker] 14 The OverClocker Issue 27 | 2013 Issue 27 | 2013 The OverClocker 15
will be one worth owning. It is nothing short of a crowning achievement for a platform that went from frustrating to outright challenging and dare we say loads of fun. This is assuming though you’re on a semi functional board. As we’ve stated time and time again, X79 motherboards have been by and large less than adequate and most time atrocious, with the exception of a few, mainly this board’s predecessor or lesser version (one could not have imagine describing the RIVE as a “lesser” version of anything) and far more recently the X79 Dark (with the most modern BIOS versions). So just how much better is this board than every other board and perhaps even over and above the All results were obtained at 4625MHz on an un-optimized Windows 7 64-bit. These are our figures, yours may vary so only use these as a RIVE? Well, consider the following. guideline for a similarly configured system. Note that we used a 125MHz BClk* to keep the numbers consistent with other X79 motherboards. While every motherboard vendor was celebrating memory frequency records, on the Z87 platform, this Motherboard Cinebench 11.5 3DMark11 Super Pi 8M Aida 64 Copy Aida 64 Latency BIOS Version motherboard was the only board ASUS RIVE Black Edition 14,11 14559 1.26.783 72865 46,6 Bios 0208 to claim such a record on what just Physics: 17090 has to be the incorrect platform. The incredible speeds were not only impressive, but consider the following EVGA X79 Dark 14,1 14442 1.28.093 64928 50 Bios 2.05 as well if you will. The said 4GHz Physics: 16841 clock was achieved with all channels populated. That is with four sticks of memory in quad channel. To this ASUS X79-Deluxe 14,1 14330 1.28.047 30526 47,8 Bios 0403 record, to this feat there was not a Physics: 16092 single rebuttal from any other vendor producing any other board. The quiet that followed this achievement was and remains unprecedented. At a time where every MHz gained in memory frequency warranted a press release, educated in overclocking the said results via a profile from which we tweak and marvel at. Perplexing as this board is at being a gaming the exhaustive memory tweaking this one achievement is so far ahead platform by using this board, it helps then tuned for efficiency. well, is that the RIVE Black Edition motherboard, what best way to options, the CPU tuning functions, of anything else for the chipset that we you at every turn gain the maximum Many may frown upon the use of not only presents itself as the best promote that rather than packing the power delivery on the board or heard, read and saw nothing close to overclocks and efficiency possible. said profiles and would rather seek overclocking motherboard we have a triple A title with it? Moreover, it anything else. The bottom line is; it. We didn’t even record any attempts. Unlike any other competing board, it out the correct or ideal settings ever seen, but it so happens to be packages the best version of the this is the greatest motherboard Not to take anything away from the is not taking pot shots in the dark. The themselves through an arduous the greatest gaming motherboard entire Assasin’s Credd legacy into ever made. It is so finely executed Maximus VI Impact, which holds the RIVE Black Edition is predictable, it is process of trial and error. However, around as well. This is not achieved the package. If you’ve read this far it should be a study for all future record, but again there’s no need for consistent and best of all, its results we do believe that that the joy of through gimmicks, no but in a simple and are contemplating the gaming motherboards. There are no us to spell out the common factor are repeatable time and time again. overclocking is not in its difficulty but and direct way. You will receive your machine build of your life. In other further accolades we could shower between these two achievements. In our own testing, it would be in traversing the road to your desired network traffic shaping NIC, but with it words your “ultimate” (at least for upon this board even if we wanted This kind of dominance is ever more untrue to say that we spent no less milestone the simplest and more some of the best audio you will find on your budget) gaming rig, simply to, had we still used a numeric pronounced than when the original than a full 24 hours straight optimizing efficient way possible. Moreover, the any motherboard right now. There’s buy this motherboard and be done rating system this would be a Rampage IV Extreme showed up two a single set of memory for operation truth is not many of us will be able no denying the fact that ASUS knows with it. Think not of alternatives, perfect score. There’s nothing else years ago. on this board. This was not because to optimize memory the same way audio, very well actually. With some of potential replacements, nothing like it. We here at TheOverclocker So what then would it be that we we had any difficulties running the that Shamino could. It will always that expertise poured into this board, of the sort. It is far from being Magazine, pay our greatest would single out as the throw down set at spec and far beyond, no. It was be laudable to try, but the reality is we instantly have a motherboard that cheap, but it is far ahead of respects to the team behind this argument for why this has to be the simply an exercise that allowed us that many of us do not have it in us is not only dual purpose, but possibly anything else, more so than the board and more importantly Peter definitive X79 motherboard, perhaps to marvel at just how far one could to tune memory to that degree with a leader in both applications. It is price would suggest. “Shamino” Tan, for time and time the quintessential overclocking take a single set of memory on the that level of understanding. Thus, most certainly the leader when it As for the rest of us, it is simply again producing products that motherboard or all? Well, the answer X79 platform while making it useable it is best to use the profiles spring comes to overclocking of any kind, a matter of owing our X79 CPUs at pushed the industry forward there is very complicated. You’d have without resorting to LN2 for example. board if possible and go forth from be it you employ air, liquid, dry ice least a single run on the Rampage and made us marvel at what to literarily go on for pages to list all Not only did the RIVE Black Edition, there. There aren’t many starts that or LN2 cooling. There’s not a better IV Extreme Black Edition. You’ll was possible with focus and an these reasons, however, much like match all our previous attempts on will be better than those provided alternative right now and the odds are, never really know the maximum unyielding dedication to perfection. we said before with the MAXIMUS VI other Z87 boards, but we were able within the BIOS. there will never be for the remainder potential of your CPU or memory kit This board much like the man will Extreme, and others. It’s the simplicity to do with all four sticks of memory There are an insane number of of this platform’s life. until you have them on this board. and should live on the tongues and in which overclocking takes place with installed. When we needed 3,000MHz features that we could go into but For the gamers who are looking to There is no other board that will minds of overclockers for years the Rampage IV Extreme Black Edition from a quad channel 2,666 C10 set, that would be pointless. It’s best to justify this purchase, consider the bring you this close to the edge to come. It’s unconceivable how that is mind boggling. No matter your the RIVE Black Edition rose to the think of the RIVE Black Edition as the Assasin’s Creed: Black Flag coupon this conveniently. You could write magnificent it is. experience level, not only are you challenge and instantly delivered the original board, with even more to as well. After all, as proficient as it down to the OC-Panel, perhaps [The Overclocker] 14 The OverClocker Issue 27 | 2013 Issue 27 | 2013 The OverClocker 15
Summary This is our first experience with Galaxy’s HOF GPUs and as the saying goes. First impressions last and this has been a fairly good one. Actually, it’s All results were obtained at 4625MHz on an un-optimized Windows7 64-bit. These are our results, yours may vary so been a little better than only use these as a guideline for a similarly configured system. expected if only because there is true intention behind the card and it’s Graphics Card 3DMark Fire Catzilla: 3DMark11 HWBOT Unigine Hitman:Absolution not just marketing and Strike 1080p Heaven Xtreme (Ultra 4xAA) sales solely. The card GALAXY GTX 780 Hall 10883 14697 15787 3390,746 75,76 is genuinely made with Of Fame OC overclockers in mind 1.3GHz GPU /6.4GHz Graphics: Hardware: Graphics: and it isn’t any harder to Memory 11979 14132 15924 put under cold than the other top 780 cards on the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 10196 15414 15317 3261,555 75,56 market. The GPU clocks Titan OC are there under LN2 that’s 1175MHz/6.8GHz Graphics: Hardware: Graphics: for sure. For those that are Memory 11528 14880 16922 looking at just air cooling, well you’ll face some GALAXY GTX 780 Hall 9800 13080 14453 3052,971 66,95 problems with the LEPIDA GALAXY GTX 780 Default Graphics: Hardware: Graphics: memory used as it just Of Fame doesn’t clock as well as 12578 14354 10648 Hynix or Samsung GDDR5, HALL OF FAME Value Award NVIDIA GeForce GTX 8960 13483 13729 3032,096 69,81 but fear not because even if you’re just tweaking the TITAN GPU core, there’s plenty Graphics: Default Graphics: Hardware: of overclocking headroom 9952 14474 13060 left for you to play with. Visually, it’s one of the RRP: $539.99 | Website: www.galaxytech.com OC Hero Award best if not the best as it dukes it out with the MSI GTX 780 Lighting. to 78’C. This is to be expected THE PERFORMANCE ( make up for it. If you’re buying This is unfortunate, but hardly The White PCB besides being unusual should Test Machine though when pushing clock AIR OC) this card solely for your a party stopper. We finally lend itself well to case speeds past the 1.3GHz mark. Air overclocking on this card gaming purposes then you’re have another vendor catering mods or anybody wanting • INTEL Core i7 4960X As with other 780s on the is a typical GTX 780 affair. in luck because 1,215MHz for for extreme overclocking to show off their beastly • EVGA X79 Dark (v2.05) market, the card makes use of Cards do vary in overclocking example doesn’t need any GPU and that can only mean good graphics card. If there was • CORSAIR Dominator the CHiL CHL8318 controller potential, but suffice to say adjustments at all. You simply things for us all. Do keep in a matching water block Platinum 4x4GB DDR with I2C Bus support. The this particular sample faired set the clock and start running mind though that overclocking for it, we can imagine 2666MHZ CL10 8+2phase PWM may seem to pretty well when it came to the your benchmarks or games. of any graphics card is not it would even be more • ADATA SX910 128GB SSD be on the low side especially GPU clocks. Disabling Turbo simply a matter of attaching enticing. So, ultimately we • Cooler Master Silent Pro M2 THE EXTREME have an impressive piece 1500W considering that competing will always help the situation a GPU pot and clocking the of kit here. If it weren’t • Windows 7 64-bit SP1 (FW cards have as much as a and as such we were able to OVERCLOCKING (LN2) GPU. You’ll get somewhere for the EVGA GTX 780 331.58) 16-phase circuit, but that finish a slew of Benchmarks The most notable scores with that but not anywhere Classified, it’d be neck and shouldn’t be an issue at all as at 1306MHz. Not necessarily produced with this card near where you should be. So neck with the MSI GTX 780 the card is able to provide up the highest we’ve seen but are from Computex 2013. be mindful that once again Lightning as the fastest to 480A to the GPU. As shown certainly respectable. The only At Galaxy’s booth, several you’ll need an LN2 BIOS GTX 780 cards money HARDWARE by some results, the GPU is as down side is the memory which noteworthy and high calibre (easily available on the net can buy. However, being As with most GTX 780s catering equally capable of hitting those wouldn’t really do anything overclockers (including but through a Google search) at comparable to a graphics to enthusiasts and overclockers, high clock speeds as other more than 1652MHz (SDR) or at not limited to OC-Windforce, the very least and a few mods. card that costs $80 more the HOF features a somewhat cards which on paper may the most 1700MHz if you kept Mad 222 and Duck_san) took However it’s nothing any is an honour in itself. It elaborate cooler featuring seemingly provide more power. the GPU clock standard. That to conquering various 3DMark self-respecting overclocker also happens to be the several heat pipes (four to be Rounding it all up is the usual is however, nothing to do with benchmarks. Throughout can’t figure out. (While we cheapest OC orientated exact) combined with a vapour dual BIOS system, operated GALAXY or their engineering the entire week several wrote this, Mad 222 managed 780 on the market and for that it certainly deserves chamber design to help keep via a spring switch at the rear efforts, but the ELPIDA records were broken and an impressive 21832 in our praise. the GPU cool. How well this of the card. When pressed a memory which just doesn’t where they were not, the 3DMark11. Not present on the works obviously depends on secondary BIOS with a high come to the party. We aren’t scores were very impressive BOT, but a valid score verified your environment but in our GPU clock profile is used, but sure if there are any cards none the less. Looking at by Futuremark. That was with Would you buy it? fairly warm testing environment, with that comes a much higher that use different memory, but the screenshots you can the GPU core clocking in at Most certainly, there is we never saw temperatures fan speed (set to 100%) and suffice to say this clock should see that, the GPU clocks are an insane 1,933MHz. If that absolutely no reason passing 68’C. With that said, noise of course. The other BIOS in theory improve under cold there for sure, sometimes, doesn’t speak to the quality to skip out on this one, when increasing VDDC and is the normal mode, with the even if it’s by a small margin. it’s the memory that isn’t of the card in question, then especially at the new price clocks together you may see inherent OC that GALAXY set Failing that rest assured that coming to the party as we nothing else will. ) of the all GTX 708 cards temperatures as high as 74 (1006MHz base). the GPU core will definitely observed with air cooling. [ The Overclocker ] 18 The OverClocker Issue 27 | 2013 Issue 27 | 2013 The OverClocker 19
Summary This is our first experience with Galaxy’s HOF GPUs and as the saying goes. First impressions last and this has been a fairly good one. Actually, it’s All results were obtained at 4625MHz on an un-optimized Windows7 64-bit. These are our results, yours may vary so been a little better than only use these as a guideline for a similarly configured system. expected if only because there is true intention behind the card and it’s Graphics Card 3DMark Fire Catzilla: 3DMark11 HWBOT Unigine Hitman:Absolution not just marketing and Strike 1080p Heaven Xtreme (Ultra 4xAA) sales solely. The card GALAXY GTX 780 Hall 10883 14697 15787 3390,746 75,76 is genuinely made with Of Fame OC overclockers in mind 1.3GHz GPU /6.4GHz Graphics: Hardware: Graphics: and it isn’t any harder to Memory 11979 14132 15924 put under cold than the other top 780 cards on the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 10196 15414 15317 3261,555 75,56 market. The GPU clocks Titan OC are there under LN2 that’s 1175MHz/6.8GHz Graphics: Hardware: Graphics: for sure. For those that are Memory 11528 14880 16922 looking at just air cooling, well you’ll face some GALAXY GTX 780 Hall 9800 13080 14453 3052,971 66,95 problems with the LEPIDA GALAXY GTX 780 Default Graphics: Hardware: Graphics: memory used as it just Of Fame doesn’t clock as well as 12578 14354 10648 Hynix or Samsung GDDR5, HALL OF FAME Value Award NVIDIA GeForce GTX 8960 13483 13729 3032,096 69,81 but fear not because even if you’re just tweaking the TITAN GPU core, there’s plenty Graphics: Default Graphics: Hardware: of overclocking headroom 9952 14474 13060 left for you to play with. Visually, it’s one of the RRP: $539.99 | Website: www.galaxytech.com OC Hero Award best if not the best as it dukes it out with the MSI GTX 780 Lighting. to 78’C. This is to be expected THE PERFORMANCE ( make up for it. If you’re buying This is unfortunate, but hardly The White PCB besides being unusual should Test Machine though when pushing clock AIR OC) this card solely for your a party stopper. We finally lend itself well to case speeds past the 1.3GHz mark. Air overclocking on this card gaming purposes then you’re have another vendor catering mods or anybody wanting • INTEL Core i7 4960X As with other 780s on the is a typical GTX 780 affair. in luck because 1,215MHz for for extreme overclocking to show off their beastly • EVGA X79 Dark (v2.05) market, the card makes use of Cards do vary in overclocking example doesn’t need any GPU and that can only mean good graphics card. If there was • CORSAIR Dominator the CHiL CHL8318 controller potential, but suffice to say adjustments at all. You simply things for us all. Do keep in a matching water block Platinum 4x4GB DDR with I2C Bus support. The this particular sample faired set the clock and start running mind though that overclocking for it, we can imagine 2666MHZ CL10 8+2phase PWM may seem to pretty well when it came to the your benchmarks or games. of any graphics card is not it would even be more • ADATA SX910 128GB SSD be on the low side especially GPU clocks. Disabling Turbo simply a matter of attaching enticing. So, ultimately we • Cooler Master Silent Pro M2 THE EXTREME have an impressive piece 1500W considering that competing will always help the situation a GPU pot and clocking the of kit here. If it weren’t • Windows 7 64-bit SP1 (FW cards have as much as a and as such we were able to OVERCLOCKING (LN2) GPU. You’ll get somewhere for the EVGA GTX 780 331.58) 16-phase circuit, but that finish a slew of Benchmarks The most notable scores with that but not anywhere Classified, it’d be neck and shouldn’t be an issue at all as at 1306MHz. Not necessarily produced with this card near where you should be. So neck with the MSI GTX 780 the card is able to provide up the highest we’ve seen but are from Computex 2013. be mindful that once again Lightning as the fastest to 480A to the GPU. As shown certainly respectable. The only At Galaxy’s booth, several you’ll need an LN2 BIOS GTX 780 cards money HARDWARE by some results, the GPU is as down side is the memory which noteworthy and high calibre (easily available on the net can buy. However, being As with most GTX 780s catering equally capable of hitting those wouldn’t really do anything overclockers (including but through a Google search) at comparable to a graphics to enthusiasts and overclockers, high clock speeds as other more than 1652MHz (SDR) or at not limited to OC-Windforce, the very least and a few mods. card that costs $80 more the HOF features a somewhat cards which on paper may the most 1700MHz if you kept Mad 222 and Duck_san) took However it’s nothing any is an honour in itself. It elaborate cooler featuring seemingly provide more power. the GPU clock standard. That to conquering various 3DMark self-respecting overclocker also happens to be the several heat pipes (four to be Rounding it all up is the usual is however, nothing to do with benchmarks. Throughout can’t figure out. (While we cheapest OC orientated exact) combined with a vapour dual BIOS system, operated GALAXY or their engineering the entire week several wrote this, Mad 222 managed 780 on the market and for that it certainly deserves chamber design to help keep via a spring switch at the rear efforts, but the ELPIDA records were broken and an impressive 21832 in our praise. the GPU cool. How well this of the card. When pressed a memory which just doesn’t where they were not, the 3DMark11. Not present on the works obviously depends on secondary BIOS with a high come to the party. We aren’t scores were very impressive BOT, but a valid score verified your environment but in our GPU clock profile is used, but sure if there are any cards none the less. Looking at by Futuremark. That was with Would you buy it? fairly warm testing environment, with that comes a much higher that use different memory, but the screenshots you can the GPU core clocking in at Most certainly, there is we never saw temperatures fan speed (set to 100%) and suffice to say this clock should see that, the GPU clocks are an insane 1,933MHz. If that absolutely no reason passing 68’C. With that said, noise of course. The other BIOS in theory improve under cold there for sure, sometimes, doesn’t speak to the quality to skip out on this one, when increasing VDDC and is the normal mode, with the even if it’s by a small margin. it’s the memory that isn’t of the card in question, then especially at the new price clocks together you may see inherent OC that GALAXY set Failing that rest assured that coming to the party as we nothing else will. ) of the all GTX 708 cards temperatures as high as 74 (1006MHz base). the GPU core will definitely observed with air cooling. [ The Overclocker ] 18 The OverClocker Issue 27 | 2013 Issue 27 | 2013 The OverClocker 19
All results were obtained at 4600MHz on an un-optimized Windows7 64-bit. These are our figures; yours may vary, so only use these as a guideline for a similarly configured system. Motherboard Cinebench 11.5 3DMark11 Super Pi 8M Aida 64 Copy Aida 64 Latency INTEL DZ87KLT-75K 10,05 12793 1.26.206 32753 32 Physics: 12724 GIGABYTE Z87X-OC 10,15 14098 1.25.904 33698 41,1 Physics: 12677 GIGABYTE Z87X-OC Force 10,15 13899 1.25.993 33728 42 Physics: 12690 Hardware Award much welcomed feature that result in the Z87X-OC Force than the previous Z77X-UP7 should be on all boards with which as you’ve seen is with none of the drawbacks such a chip. exactly double the price of and all the advances made GIGABYTE Z87X-OC Force however is that if you’re going the Z87X-OC. Do we believe by GIGABYTE since then. The conundrum here that these changes justify the It definitely has a place in to use one graphics card, then you would be better served price premium? On paper they GIGABYTE’s pantheon of probably do as every additional motherboards. Overall this RRP: $399.99 | Website: www.gigabyte.com by the Z87X-OC. If you want component GIGABYTE places is a solid motherboard that to overclock four graphics on the motherboard costs will serve many to most cards, then you should ideally money, thus there’s no way overclockers well enough to the ultimate overclocking a necessity of course, but move to the X79 platform. The this board costs the company warrant its pricing. For the Test Machine board for the Z87 platform. consider that if you are problem here though, is that the same as the Z87X-OC. more discerning competitive It features many things going to be overclocking and GIGABYTE, much like all the Does this additional spend on overclocker though, you may • INTEL Core i7 4770K that you will not find on the tweaking memory. There are other vendors save for one, the user side though still be better served by the • CORSAIR Dominator cheaper board including or going to be plenty of times doesn’t necessarily have a result in a significantly better Z87X-OC. Platinum 2x4GB DDR primarily 4-way SLI support. when you can’t POST the competent board for the X79 motherboard? That answer [The Overclocker] 2666MHZ C10 More than that though, the system because of overly platform. Thus, this situation for us is not necessarily. • Corsair Force LS 240GB OC Force provides you with aggressive timings or invalid as a matter of circumstance There are cases where this • Cooler Master Silent Pro M2 dual LAN capabilities, Wi- settings. Sorting through this necessitates the existence of board will be a must have and 1500W • Windows 7 64-bit SP1 Fi and Bluetooth support, on the Z87X-OC as a result will the Z87X-OC Force. for whatever reason the G1. • Bios Version F8b an additional 4 SATA ports be much quicker than it is on It’s one of those situations Sniper 5 is not an option at Summary and superior audio via the the OC-Force. where we understand where all. In such a situation then improved ALC898 chip as To offset the absence of the vendor needs to be and you should definitely buy this The GIGABYTE Z87X- ast issue we had the opposed to the older ALC892 all these features though, what the user requires. board. However, the G1 Sniper OC-Force is something great opportunity of on the OC board. GIGABYTE has, as mentioned Those points however, don’t 5 will provide you with better of a mix between the Lputting the Z87X-OC The form factor has also previously, added 4-way SLI necessarily intersect. audio (significantly better G1.Sniper 5 and the through its paces and finding changed for the OC Force to support via the familiar PLX In what almost seems audio) and you’ll get the dual purist Z87X-OC Force. On paper that is killer it to be the most impressive that of the E-ATX standard as switching chip. How useful a point to compensate for NIC support (a better solution combination to have GIGABYTE motherboard to the board is 2cm longer. You’ll this is on the Z87 platform this, GIGABYTE in addition via a Killer E2200 controller) but in practice you’re date. Despite having to prove be hard pressed to notice is debatable as the 4770K to the features mentioned as well. So ultimately the probably still better off itself against two other pure that as the board is literarily simply lacks the horsepower earlier provides a third OC Force’s job is not made with buying these two overclocking motherboards, packed with components. required to keep four high end party Marvell controller for difficult by competing bards separately. Still, the Z87X-OC came across What you may find peculiar graphics cards working at four additional SATA 6Gbps products from others vendors the Z87X-OC Force is one as the champion of though is that despite costing their optimum performance. ports, bringing the total drive but, by its own stable feature packed premium motherboards, which should twice as much, in the context As always though, this support to 10. For the liquid mates that are thoroughly overclocking board. be GIGABYTE’s pride and joy. If of overclocking, this board switching IC will rob you of cooling enthusiast, GIGABYTE featured in very specific ways you didn’t read that review, you has fewer OC buttons than performance if you’re using a provides a hybrid liquid/active causing an overlap with Would you buy it? can find it here. the Z87X-OC. The OC Force single graphics card. To that fan cooling solution for the what the OC Force is offering. Yes, if we couldn’t get This issue we were greeted is missing the mem-safe, end, GIGABYTE provides an PWM area of the board and the An odd position this the Z87X-OC Force or the with the bigger, grander settings lock, clear battery additional 16X full length PCIe switching chip. motherboard finds itself G1.Sniper 5 version of the Z87X-OC. This and direct to BIOS buttons. slot that’s wired directly to the All these additions and in in then. Technically it’s a board is supposed to be None of these buttons are CPU. This is a sensible and some cases subtractions sublime. Thoroughly better 20 The OverClocker Issue 27 | 2013 Issue 27 | 2013 The OverClocker 21
All results were obtained at 4600MHz on an un-optimized Windows7 64-bit. These are our figures; yours may vary, so only use these as a guideline for a similarly configured system. Motherboard Cinebench 11.5 3DMark11 Super Pi 8M Aida 64 Copy Aida 64 Latency INTEL DZ87KLT-75K 10,05 12793 1.26.206 32753 32 Physics: 12724 GIGABYTE Z87X-OC 10,15 14098 1.25.904 33698 41,1 Physics: 12677 GIGABYTE Z87X-OC Force 10,15 13899 1.25.993 33728 42 Physics: 12690 Hardware Award much welcomed feature that result in the Z87X-OC Force than the previous Z77X-UP7 should be on all boards with which as you’ve seen is with none of the drawbacks such a chip. exactly double the price of and all the advances made GIGABYTE Z87X-OC Force however is that if you’re going the Z87X-OC. Do we believe by GIGABYTE since then. The conundrum here that these changes justify the It definitely has a place in to use one graphics card, then you would be better served price premium? On paper they GIGABYTE’s pantheon of probably do as every additional motherboards. Overall this RRP: $399.99 | Website: www.gigabyte.com by the Z87X-OC. If you want component GIGABYTE places is a solid motherboard that to overclock four graphics on the motherboard costs will serve many to most cards, then you should ideally money, thus there’s no way overclockers well enough to the ultimate overclocking a necessity of course, but move to the X79 platform. The this board costs the company warrant its pricing. For the Test Machine board for the Z87 platform. consider that if you are problem here though, is that the same as the Z87X-OC. more discerning competitive It features many things going to be overclocking and GIGABYTE, much like all the Does this additional spend on overclocker though, you may • INTEL Core i7 4770K that you will not find on the tweaking memory. There are other vendors save for one, the user side though still be better served by the • CORSAIR Dominator cheaper board including or going to be plenty of times doesn’t necessarily have a result in a significantly better Z87X-OC. Platinum 2x4GB DDR primarily 4-way SLI support. when you can’t POST the competent board for the X79 motherboard? That answer [The Overclocker] 2666MHZ C10 More than that though, the system because of overly platform. Thus, this situation for us is not necessarily. • Corsair Force LS 240GB OC Force provides you with aggressive timings or invalid as a matter of circumstance There are cases where this • Cooler Master Silent Pro M2 dual LAN capabilities, Wi- settings. Sorting through this necessitates the existence of board will be a must have and 1500W • Windows 7 64-bit SP1 Fi and Bluetooth support, on the Z87X-OC as a result will the Z87X-OC Force. for whatever reason the G1. • Bios Version F8b an additional 4 SATA ports be much quicker than it is on It’s one of those situations Sniper 5 is not an option at Summary and superior audio via the the OC-Force. where we understand where all. In such a situation then improved ALC898 chip as To offset the absence of the vendor needs to be and you should definitely buy this The GIGABYTE Z87X- ast issue we had the opposed to the older ALC892 all these features though, what the user requires. board. However, the G1 Sniper OC-Force is something great opportunity of on the OC board. GIGABYTE has, as mentioned Those points however, don’t 5 will provide you with better of a mix between the Lputting the Z87X-OC The form factor has also previously, added 4-way SLI necessarily intersect. audio (significantly better G1.Sniper 5 and the through its paces and finding changed for the OC Force to support via the familiar PLX In what almost seems audio) and you’ll get the dual purist Z87X-OC Force. On paper that is killer it to be the most impressive that of the E-ATX standard as switching chip. How useful a point to compensate for NIC support (a better solution combination to have GIGABYTE motherboard to the board is 2cm longer. You’ll this is on the Z87 platform this, GIGABYTE in addition via a Killer E2200 controller) but in practice you’re date. Despite having to prove be hard pressed to notice is debatable as the 4770K to the features mentioned as well. So ultimately the probably still better off itself against two other pure that as the board is literarily simply lacks the horsepower earlier provides a third OC Force’s job is not made with buying these two overclocking motherboards, packed with components. required to keep four high end party Marvell controller for difficult by competing bards separately. Still, the Z87X-OC came across What you may find peculiar graphics cards working at four additional SATA 6Gbps products from others vendors the Z87X-OC Force is one as the champion of though is that despite costing their optimum performance. ports, bringing the total drive but, by its own stable feature packed premium motherboards, which should twice as much, in the context As always though, this support to 10. For the liquid mates that are thoroughly overclocking board. be GIGABYTE’s pride and joy. If of overclocking, this board switching IC will rob you of cooling enthusiast, GIGABYTE featured in very specific ways you didn’t read that review, you has fewer OC buttons than performance if you’re using a provides a hybrid liquid/active causing an overlap with Would you buy it? can find it here. the Z87X-OC. The OC Force single graphics card. To that fan cooling solution for the what the OC Force is offering. Yes, if we couldn’t get This issue we were greeted is missing the mem-safe, end, GIGABYTE provides an PWM area of the board and the An odd position this the Z87X-OC Force or the with the bigger, grander settings lock, clear battery additional 16X full length PCIe switching chip. motherboard finds itself G1.Sniper 5 version of the Z87X-OC. This and direct to BIOS buttons. slot that’s wired directly to the All these additions and in in then. Technically it’s a board is supposed to be None of these buttons are CPU. This is a sensible and some cases subtractions sublime. Thoroughly better 20 The OverClocker Issue 27 | 2013 Issue 27 | 2013 The OverClocker 21
All results were obtained at 4625MHz on an un-optimized Windows7 64-bit. These are our results, yours may vary so only use these as a guideline for a similarly configured system. Graphics Card 3DMark Fire 3DMark 3DMark11 3DMark Catzilla: 1080p HWBOT Heaven Strike Fire Strike Vantage Extreme Extreme GIGABYTE GV-N78TGHZ- 12290 6238 17509 56289 16427 3821,779 3GD OC Graphics: Graphics: Graphics: GPU Score: Hardware: 1297MHz GPU /7.8GHz 13744 6421 18065 57760 16532 GIGABYTE GV-N78TGHZ- 11617 5941 16834 54177 15690 3639,79 3GD Graphics: Graphics: Graphics: GPU Score: Hardware: 12908 6133 17285 55619 15775 EDITOR’S CHOICE AWARD Overclocked Radeon R9 11051 5578 16188 51576 12595 3502,696 290X Graphics: Graphics: Graphics: GPU Score: Hardware: GIGABYTE GV-N78TGHZ-3GD 1125MHz GPU /6GHz 12435 5788 16587 52189 12147 RRP: TBA | Website: www.gigabyte.com only shipped in its reference load temperatures peaked at As stated previously, for your GIGABYTE 780Ti GHz Edition. least voiding your warranty. Test Machine form. The 780 Ti, is being offered to 68 to 71’C depending on the load competitive overclocking Out the box performance is Should you need additional • INTEL Core i7 4960X NVIDIA’s partners as single GPUs, on it. endeavours, it is best you look phenomenal making this the performance for competitive • ASUS Rampage IV Extreme thus we have come to cards such Turning the card over, we see for another GTX 780 Ti, but for fastest graphics card we have overclocking purposes, then Black Edition (0208) as this one from GIGABYTE. GIGABYTE has added some your gaming needs there isn’t ever had the opportunity to perhaps you should consider • CORSAIR Dominator At this point you’ve probably class and function by way of a better GTX 780 Ti that we test. The numbers are more one of the other cards that are Platinum 4x4GB DDR3 read through several GTX 780 a back plate to the can think of. than compelling and be it geared more specifically to 2666MHZ CL10 Ti reviews online or in print. So card. This plate did get warm Clock speeds is where you’re gaming at 1080p or overclocking. For your gaming • Corsair Force LS 240GB SSD typical or rather reference Ti during load, but that was to GIGABYTE have been UHD resolutions, this is the purposes however, GIGABYTE’s • Cooler Master Silent Pro M2 performance is familiar to you. be expected as it was aiding in particularly aggressive, graphics card you should GV-N78TGHZ is near perfect. It 1500W It may be small sometimes but keeping the graphics card cool, delivering a boost clock of consider over and above all runs cool, hardly audible and it’s • Windows 7 64-bit SP1 (FW none the less, the 780 Ti has acting as a large heat sink to 1150MHz out the box. Not others (dual GPU solutions incredibly fast. GIGABYTE’s best 331.82) claimed back the crown for the components on the back only is this a higher clock withstanding) as we doubt if graphics card to date by far. NVIDIA as the vendor with the of the GPU. In addition to than on any other there will be any other vendor [ The Overclocker ] VIDIA’s release of the fastest GPU on the market. this cooling, this back plate GIGABYTE graphics card, but with a 780 Ti clocked this high. GTX 780 Ti was what we If however, that isn’t enough increases the structural rigidity of it’s a mighty 23.9% higher than Our attempts at further Nhad waited for and you are in search of the graphics card, preventing it what NVIDIA will provide you increasing the clock speed Summary since the introduction of the even more performance. Then from flexing under the weight of with on the reference GTX on this graphics card were GTX TITAN. It was no secret that this particular model from the Windforce cooler. 780 Ti. Even more impressive quickly curbed. We managed an GIGABYTE has managed GK110 still had some unused GIGABYTE is going to be what On the PCB, GIGABYTE though, is that the real clock additional 82MHz, on the core, to make the fastest single silicon space, but we were you need. As you would expect, have not done too much to under gaming and benchmark and 800MHz on the memory GPU graphics card to unsure if there would ever be GIGABYTE has gone with a enhance the power delivery, but conditions is even higher at an before things became unstable. date with the GV-N78TGHz. a SKU that utilized the full core new PCB with enhanced power instead opted for an 8-phase astonishing 1215MHz. At these That’s a mere 6% overclock on With such a high clock logic. The GTX 780 Ti does that in circuitry, a BIOS with a higher PWM as opposed to the 6-phase frequencies, the performance the core, but do consider that speed and impressive a way, but not entirely. As many of power limit and obviously of design on the reference card. differences between this card it’s 6% on top of the 23.9% you cooling capabilities, you know, the GTX 780 Ti is great importance, their latest To really overclock the GTX and the reference 780 Ti are buy the card with. Providing it delivers cracking gimped where it comes incarnation of the Windforce 780 Ti with liquid nitrogen or made vividly clear. additional cooling to the graphics performance that has yet to be matched by to compute performance. For 3X cooler. As it stands this is perhaps dry ice, you may need While the reference GTX 780 card didn’t help, thus our any other. There is little to the most part or in almost all GIGABYTE’s latest version and some additional power, but that Ti is a fast card, just a little conclusion is that you’re likely no incentive for looking contexts, the reduced double- by far the most impressive. isn’t the focus of this card. This faster than the Radeon R9 in need of more VDDC voltage. elsewhere for your gaming precision performance The claim is that it has model is purely for gaming and 290X, GIGABYTE’s 780 Ti GHZ Unfortunately GIGABYTE”s own needs. has no bearing on gaming up to 450Watts of cooling delivering the most cost effective Edition card, simply distances software will limit you to 1.21V performance. Thus, there are performance. A high figure but efficient configuration itself away from the 290X by much like all other voltage very few situations or if any and one we can’t really test but possible for this GPU. This some margin. To put this into control software. There are Would you buy it? where the TITAN will outperform nonetheless are compelled to also happens to be where this perspective, you will notice several ways to get around this, the GTX 780 Ti. give some credibility to. After all, card earns its high price tag that an overclocked Radeon but we would caution you about Yes, without hesitation! More importantly for the 780 it really did keep this particular and manages to impress us R9 290X is slower in all this as you do run the risk of Ti, is that unlike the TITAN which graphics card very cool, where thoroughly at the same time. tests, when compared to the damaging the card or at the very 22 The OverClocker Issue 27 | 2013 Issue 27 | 2013 The OverClocker 23
All results were obtained at 4625MHz on an un-optimized Windows7 64-bit. These are our results, yours may vary so only use these as a guideline for a similarly configured system. Graphics Card 3DMark Fire 3DMark 3DMark11 3DMark Catzilla: 1080p HWBOT Heaven Strike Fire Strike Vantage Extreme Extreme GIGABYTE GV-N78TGHZ- 12290 6238 17509 56289 16427 3821,779 3GD OC Graphics: Graphics: Graphics: GPU Score: Hardware: 1297MHz GPU /7.8GHz 13744 6421 18065 57760 16532 GIGABYTE GV-N78TGHZ- 11617 5941 16834 54177 15690 3639,79 3GD Graphics: Graphics: Graphics: GPU Score: Hardware: 12908 6133 17285 55619 15775 EDITOR’S CHOICE AWARD Overclocked Radeon R9 11051 5578 16188 51576 12595 3502,696 290X Graphics: Graphics: Graphics: GPU Score: Hardware: GIGABYTE GV-N78TGHZ-3GD 1125MHz GPU /6GHz 12435 5788 16587 52189 12147 RRP: TBA | Website: www.gigabyte.com only shipped in its reference load temperatures peaked at As stated previously, for your GIGABYTE 780Ti GHz Edition. least voiding your warranty. Test Machine form. The 780 Ti, is being offered to 68 to 71’C depending on the load competitive overclocking Out the box performance is Should you need additional • INTEL Core i7 4960X NVIDIA’s partners as single GPUs, on it. endeavours, it is best you look phenomenal making this the performance for competitive • ASUS Rampage IV Extreme thus we have come to cards such Turning the card over, we see for another GTX 780 Ti, but for fastest graphics card we have overclocking purposes, then Black Edition (0208) as this one from GIGABYTE. GIGABYTE has added some your gaming needs there isn’t ever had the opportunity to perhaps you should consider • CORSAIR Dominator At this point you’ve probably class and function by way of a better GTX 780 Ti that we test. The numbers are more one of the other cards that are Platinum 4x4GB DDR3 read through several GTX 780 a back plate to the can think of. than compelling and be it geared more specifically to 2666MHZ CL10 Ti reviews online or in print. So card. This plate did get warm Clock speeds is where you’re gaming at 1080p or overclocking. For your gaming • Corsair Force LS 240GB SSD typical or rather reference Ti during load, but that was to GIGABYTE have been UHD resolutions, this is the purposes however, GIGABYTE’s • Cooler Master Silent Pro M2 performance is familiar to you. be expected as it was aiding in particularly aggressive, graphics card you should GV-N78TGHZ is near perfect. It 1500W It may be small sometimes but keeping the graphics card cool, delivering a boost clock of consider over and above all runs cool, hardly audible and it’s • Windows 7 64-bit SP1 (FW none the less, the 780 Ti has acting as a large heat sink to 1150MHz out the box. Not others (dual GPU solutions incredibly fast. GIGABYTE’s best 331.82) claimed back the crown for the components on the back only is this a higher clock withstanding) as we doubt if graphics card to date by far. NVIDIA as the vendor with the of the GPU. In addition to than on any other there will be any other vendor [ The Overclocker ] VIDIA’s release of the fastest GPU on the market. this cooling, this back plate GIGABYTE graphics card, but with a 780 Ti clocked this high. GTX 780 Ti was what we If however, that isn’t enough increases the structural rigidity of it’s a mighty 23.9% higher than Our attempts at further Nhad waited for and you are in search of the graphics card, preventing it what NVIDIA will provide you increasing the clock speed Summary since the introduction of the even more performance. Then from flexing under the weight of with on the reference GTX on this graphics card were GTX TITAN. It was no secret that this particular model from the Windforce cooler. 780 Ti. Even more impressive quickly curbed. We managed an GIGABYTE has managed GK110 still had some unused GIGABYTE is going to be what On the PCB, GIGABYTE though, is that the real clock additional 82MHz, on the core, to make the fastest single silicon space, but we were you need. As you would expect, have not done too much to under gaming and benchmark and 800MHz on the memory GPU graphics card to unsure if there would ever be GIGABYTE has gone with a enhance the power delivery, but conditions is even higher at an before things became unstable. date with the GV-N78TGHz. a SKU that utilized the full core new PCB with enhanced power instead opted for an 8-phase astonishing 1215MHz. At these That’s a mere 6% overclock on With such a high clock logic. The GTX 780 Ti does that in circuitry, a BIOS with a higher PWM as opposed to the 6-phase frequencies, the performance the core, but do consider that speed and impressive a way, but not entirely. As many of power limit and obviously of design on the reference card. differences between this card it’s 6% on top of the 23.9% you cooling capabilities, you know, the GTX 780 Ti is great importance, their latest To really overclock the GTX and the reference 780 Ti are buy the card with. Providing it delivers cracking gimped where it comes incarnation of the Windforce 780 Ti with liquid nitrogen or made vividly clear. additional cooling to the graphics performance that has yet to be matched by to compute performance. For 3X cooler. As it stands this is perhaps dry ice, you may need While the reference GTX 780 card didn’t help, thus our any other. There is little to the most part or in almost all GIGABYTE’s latest version and some additional power, but that Ti is a fast card, just a little conclusion is that you’re likely no incentive for looking contexts, the reduced double- by far the most impressive. isn’t the focus of this card. This faster than the Radeon R9 in need of more VDDC voltage. elsewhere for your gaming precision performance The claim is that it has model is purely for gaming and 290X, GIGABYTE’s 780 Ti GHZ Unfortunately GIGABYTE”s own needs. has no bearing on gaming up to 450Watts of cooling delivering the most cost effective Edition card, simply distances software will limit you to 1.21V performance. Thus, there are performance. A high figure but efficient configuration itself away from the 290X by much like all other voltage very few situations or if any and one we can’t really test but possible for this GPU. This some margin. To put this into control software. There are Would you buy it? where the TITAN will outperform nonetheless are compelled to also happens to be where this perspective, you will notice several ways to get around this, the GTX 780 Ti. give some credibility to. After all, card earns its high price tag that an overclocked Radeon but we would caution you about Yes, without hesitation! More importantly for the 780 it really did keep this particular and manages to impress us R9 290X is slower in all this as you do run the risk of Ti, is that unlike the TITAN which graphics card very cool, where thoroughly at the same time. tests, when compared to the damaging the card or at the very 22 The OverClocker Issue 27 | 2013 Issue 27 | 2013 The OverClocker 23
All results were obtained at 4625MHz s on a normal install of Windows 7 64-bit. These are our results, yours may vary so only use these as a guideline for a similarly configured system. Memory AIDA 64 Read AIDA 64 Write AIDA 64 Copy AIDA 64 SuperPi 8M Frequency Timings Latency Kingston Hyper X Genesis 57112 41267 53923 61,2 1.29.513 2133 10-11-11-28-2T Kingston Hyper X Genesis 10th 60941 43658 57247 60,2 1.29.590 2400 11-13-13-30-2T 2400MHz 4x4GB 40535 2600 12-14-14-36-2T 35797 52,3 1.30.044 38340 Anniversary Edition 16GB Kit RRP: $225.99 | Website: www.kingston.com respective benchmarks with meticulously testing for stability. competence to overclockers only the XMP profile loaded. Merely adjusting the primary will provide you with the leg The RIVE Black edition has timings didn’t help us because room and performance that you this ability to make all sets of this set proved particularly may need for your overclocking Test Machine That was a long time ago this set on the Z87 platform, memory appear better than they sensitive to several secondary pursuits. This Genesis kit is thus though and since then Kingston but it is four sticks and we do would on other motherboards settings. After hours of testing relegated to that which would • INTEL Core i7 4960X has had various successes and happen to have a particularly thus, you must assume that the each setting, we were finally probably suit gamers rather • ASUS Rampage IV Extreme challenges. Much like most useful platform for quad numbers we have here are not able to settle on a 2,600MHz than competitive overclockers. Black Edition (0208) memory vendors, the DRAM channel kits. If there is ever a worst case scenario but are configuration that was not only At the time of writing we didn’t • AMD Radeon R9 290X industry has been both kind and going to be a motherboard that typical on what to expect on an stable but would cold boot every have a price but if the kit retails • Corsair Force LS 240GB SSD of late very challenging. For us would push a set to its limits, it equivalently competent board. time. At these settings, we lost for anything around the $250 • Cooler Master Silent Pro M2 on the receiving end, we’re still would have to be the Rampage We have often seen 2400MHz out on the AIDA 64 performance to $260 mark then it should 1500W • Windows 7 64-bit SP1 holding on to our DIMMS with IV Extreme Black Edition kits reach speeds past the and just about in everything make for a worthwhile purchase (Catalyst 13.11) PSC chips and such, patiently and thus we tested on this 2,600MHz mark and typically else, but we did decrease the for the above mentioned waiting for the day where we motherboard to see just how far hit 2800MHz, albeit with some memory latency substantially. demographic. may have champion memory we could go. dubious timings. Still we had Our SuperPi 8M score suffered [The Overclocker] ingston Hyper X memory again reminiscent of the BH5/ We started at 2133MHz and high hopes for this kit, but but it wasn’t as dramatic as one is likely the oldest BH6 and perhaps even TCCD attempted to tighten the settings unfortunately we hit our limit would have initially thought, Kenthusiast series we of old. Until that day, kits such as much as we could. With the at 2,600MHz. Please note that given in particular that we had know of. Not surprising given as we have here are what we tightest primary timings set to we had to drop our BClk back gone from 11-13-13-30 to 12- Summary that Kingston is possibly the may expect from Kingston or at 10-11-11-28-2T, our memory to 100MHz for this multiplier, 14-14-36. At the end, the ideal oldest manufacture of high least on the lower end of their was not able to go lower much as we couldn’t test the typical settings for this RAM seem to be Depending on pricing speed DRAM. For all intents product range. more than that. We could not 2,666MHz. The numbers we 2,400MHz. From here one can this may be a kit well and purposes, experienced Kingston marked off this kit post at C9 thus we promptly recorded are slightly lower than tune other settings to squeeze worth the purchase overclockers will remember as their anniversary addition, moved on to the next divider they would be with the CPU out even more performance for a gaming machine. a set of Kingston Hyper X celebrating exactly 10 years available to us which was at 4625MHz, but for the most from the RAM. For overclockers, you may want to look at the memory at some point in their of the Hyper X brand. If such 2400MHz. Starting with the XMP part they do represent fairly As far as overclocking Predatoror Beast Series overclocking history. This is engraving means anything to profile, we measured typical accurately what the memory is memory is concerned, there instead. particularly true of the BH5 DDR you, you’ll appreciate having a results for this configuration. capable of. are definitely better options memory era. Most of us will limited edition set of memory. Some tuning was in order for At the 2,600MHz frequency, we on the market from Kingston remember just how pervasive We however are exclusively the secondary and tertiary had to sacrifice on the primary which recently announced their Would you buy it? the Hyper X 2x512MB 2-2-2- focused on the performance or timings which yielded much timings and resort to the Raw 2,800MHz Predator kit. This If we couldn’t find the 5 Memory was and virtually at least in how far we can push improvement, but for the most MHz profile in the motherboard set along with the other Beast Beast or Predator kits, everyone was operating these in this set of memory before it part the numbers you see here BIOS. From there, we lowered SKUs that have displayed some perhaps at 500MHz or higher. gives in. Usually we would test are only those reported by the each setting individually, 24 The OverClocker Issue 27 | 2013 Issue 27 | 2013 The OverClocker 25
All results were obtained at 4625MHz s on a normal install of Windows 7 64-bit. These are our results, yours may vary so only use these as a guideline for a similarly configured system. Memory AIDA 64 Read AIDA 64 Write AIDA 64 Copy AIDA 64 SuperPi 8M Frequency Timings Latency Kingston Hyper X Genesis 57112 41267 53923 61,2 1.29.513 2133 10-11-11-28-2T Kingston Hyper X Genesis 10th 60941 43658 57247 60,2 1.29.590 2400 11-13-13-30-2T 2400MHz 4x4GB 40535 2600 12-14-14-36-2T 35797 52,3 1.30.044 38340 Anniversary Edition 16GB Kit RRP: $225.99 | Website: www.kingston.com respective benchmarks with meticulously testing for stability. competence to overclockers only the XMP profile loaded. Merely adjusting the primary will provide you with the leg The RIVE Black edition has timings didn’t help us because room and performance that you this ability to make all sets of this set proved particularly may need for your overclocking Test Machine That was a long time ago this set on the Z87 platform, memory appear better than they sensitive to several secondary pursuits. This Genesis kit is thus though and since then Kingston but it is four sticks and we do would on other motherboards settings. After hours of testing relegated to that which would • INTEL Core i7 4960X has had various successes and happen to have a particularly thus, you must assume that the each setting, we were finally probably suit gamers rather • ASUS Rampage IV Extreme challenges. Much like most useful platform for quad numbers we have here are not able to settle on a 2,600MHz than competitive overclockers. Black Edition (0208) memory vendors, the DRAM channel kits. If there is ever a worst case scenario but are configuration that was not only At the time of writing we didn’t • AMD Radeon R9 290X industry has been both kind and going to be a motherboard that typical on what to expect on an stable but would cold boot every have a price but if the kit retails • Corsair Force LS 240GB SSD of late very challenging. For us would push a set to its limits, it equivalently competent board. time. At these settings, we lost for anything around the $250 • Cooler Master Silent Pro M2 on the receiving end, we’re still would have to be the Rampage We have often seen 2400MHz out on the AIDA 64 performance to $260 mark then it should 1500W • Windows 7 64-bit SP1 holding on to our DIMMS with IV Extreme Black Edition kits reach speeds past the and just about in everything make for a worthwhile purchase (Catalyst 13.11) PSC chips and such, patiently and thus we tested on this 2,600MHz mark and typically else, but we did decrease the for the above mentioned waiting for the day where we motherboard to see just how far hit 2800MHz, albeit with some memory latency substantially. demographic. may have champion memory we could go. dubious timings. Still we had Our SuperPi 8M score suffered [The Overclocker] ingston Hyper X memory again reminiscent of the BH5/ We started at 2133MHz and high hopes for this kit, but but it wasn’t as dramatic as one is likely the oldest BH6 and perhaps even TCCD attempted to tighten the settings unfortunately we hit our limit would have initially thought, Kenthusiast series we of old. Until that day, kits such as much as we could. With the at 2,600MHz. Please note that given in particular that we had know of. Not surprising given as we have here are what we tightest primary timings set to we had to drop our BClk back gone from 11-13-13-30 to 12- Summary that Kingston is possibly the may expect from Kingston or at 10-11-11-28-2T, our memory to 100MHz for this multiplier, 14-14-36. At the end, the ideal oldest manufacture of high least on the lower end of their was not able to go lower much as we couldn’t test the typical settings for this RAM seem to be Depending on pricing speed DRAM. For all intents product range. more than that. We could not 2,666MHz. The numbers we 2,400MHz. From here one can this may be a kit well and purposes, experienced Kingston marked off this kit post at C9 thus we promptly recorded are slightly lower than tune other settings to squeeze worth the purchase overclockers will remember as their anniversary addition, moved on to the next divider they would be with the CPU out even more performance for a gaming machine. a set of Kingston Hyper X celebrating exactly 10 years available to us which was at 4625MHz, but for the most from the RAM. For overclockers, you may want to look at the memory at some point in their of the Hyper X brand. If such 2400MHz. Starting with the XMP part they do represent fairly As far as overclocking Predatoror Beast Series overclocking history. This is engraving means anything to profile, we measured typical accurately what the memory is memory is concerned, there instead. particularly true of the BH5 DDR you, you’ll appreciate having a results for this configuration. capable of. are definitely better options memory era. Most of us will limited edition set of memory. Some tuning was in order for At the 2,600MHz frequency, we on the market from Kingston remember just how pervasive We however are exclusively the secondary and tertiary had to sacrifice on the primary which recently announced their Would you buy it? the Hyper X 2x512MB 2-2-2- focused on the performance or timings which yielded much timings and resort to the Raw 2,800MHz Predator kit. This If we couldn’t find the 5 Memory was and virtually at least in how far we can push improvement, but for the most MHz profile in the motherboard set along with the other Beast Beast or Predator kits, everyone was operating these in this set of memory before it part the numbers you see here BIOS. From there, we lowered SKUs that have displayed some perhaps at 500MHz or higher. gives in. Usually we would test are only those reported by the each setting individually, 24 The OverClocker Issue 27 | 2013 Issue 27 | 2013 The OverClocker 25
All results were obtained at 4625MHz on an un-optimized Windows7 64-bit. These are our results, yours may vary so only use these as a guideline for a similarly configured system. Graphics Card 3DMark Fires 3DMark Fire Strike 3DMark11 3DMark Catzilla: 1080p HWBOT Heaven Strike Extreme Vantage Extreme PowerColor R9 290 OC 10631 5221 15814 50445 11637 3361,51 1150/1450 Graphics: Graphics: 5365 Graphics: GPU Score: Hardware: 11962 16735 50555 11682 AMD R9 290X 9867 4935 14837 48990 10700 3105,931 Graphics: Graphics: 5079 14803 GPU Score: Hardware: 10959 48432 10723 EVGA GTX 780 Classified 9703 4887 14451 49382 12558 3025,615 Graphics: Graphics: 4965 Graphics: GPU Score: Hardware: 10528 14322 49053 12628 PowerColor R9 290 OC 9324 4676 14066 45927 10503 2824,9 Value Award 4GB Graphics: Graphics: 4790 Graphics: GPU Score: Hardware: 10274 13820 44687 10143 PowerColor R9 290 4GB OC For us as enthusiasts and RRP: $399.99 | Website: www.powercolor.com been shown to go the distance overclockers who regularly buy same way as the 290X and under air and LN2 cooling quite have the same mods as it is regularly. Not a fair comparison GPUs priced above the $500 identical to the 290X. (So much as such but a valid one, because mark, it is easy to forget that so that some 290 cards have between different vendor relatively quiet. More so than we it is typical of what most users for most people, this is as far “unlocked” to 290X cards via a Test Machine offerings. So essentially could have ever thought it would would buy when they consider as their budgets will allow. Yet simple BIOS flash). • INTEL Core i7 4960X what we bring to you here be. There simply wasn’t any purchasing a GTX 780 as this kind of performance at this In closing, the R9 290 OC may • ASUS Rampage IV Extreme is a reference card review noise while we tested the card reference cards comparisons price was unheard of prior to not be the fastest graphics card Black Edition (0208) of the AMD R9 290 GPU. The and as stated earlier, the clock are for the most part irrelevant. the R9 290. money can buy, but it does offer • CORSAIR Dominator only difference here is that speeds remained consistent. At $550 it is significantly more Overclocked, the PowerColor unquestionable value for money. Platinum 4x4GB DDR PowerColor has seen it fit to It is only when we increased expensive but for that you do get card obviously produced even Thermals and the rest aside, 2666MHZ CL10 ship their card with a slight the fan speed from the default better performance. This was better numbers, exceeding you’re not going to find better • Corsair Force LS 240GB SSD overclock, more specifically a profile to anything above 60% what surprised us, more than those of the R9 290X (also value in any other high end card. • Cooler Master Silent Pro M2 25MHz overclock. Everything where the noise levels became anything. As we read through reviewed in this issue) which Thus, if the PowerColor R9 290 1500W else about the card though unbearable. the first batch of reviews for the retails for as much as the OC is deserving of any praise • Windows 7 64-bit SP1 remains that which AMD showed Under normal circumstances R9 290, the numbers that we Classified card. Attaining from us, it is the Value award. (Catalyst 13.9 B11) off and has been providing to though, there would be no observed were slightly different these clock speeds however $400 has never delivered this its other partners. A 25MHz need to do this despite the than those that were reported means turning up the fan much power before. overclock is not going to high load temperature. If the on several sites. speed and thus having to deal [ The Overclocker] o say AMD’s Hawaii GPUs make a significant different in GPU is able to operate at that For instance, there wasn’t with the excessive noise issue, have been anything but performance but having that temperature and not result in a single benchmark that we however it isn’t anything that Tcontroversial would be at least would perhaps help decreased performance, then ran where the R9 290 was an aftermarket cooler cannot an understatement. At least separate the PowerColor card we see no need to set a higher faster than the classified. fix (you may for example opt for Summary in a gaming sense especially from the rest. Even better fan speed. Overclocking will The PowerColor card was the Prolimatech MK-26 Black because of the new Mantle API. though or more meaningful obviously require you to do so, between 4 to 7% slower, Edition which is reviewed in PowerColor has given us This is AMD’s game changer than the slight overclock is but in a gaming context, this Catzilla withstanding, where this issue). However do keep a reference R9 290 card and if it does take off, it would how this particular card didn’t isn’t necessary at all given that the NVIDIA GPUs have proved to in mind that you’re going to be with a slight overclock make for a very interesting GPU have a dynamic clock speed you’re only ever going to get be particularly adapt. With that spending another $90 to $100 on but has not charged extra landscape. The incentive from dependant on temperature. noise for it and nothing else. said, we have to be mindful of the this depending on the cooler you for it. If you’re going to AMD’s perspective for doing this Load temperatures were very At $400, the closest card to price difference between these opt for. However, even at $500 be buying an R9 290 card is sensible but how that works high at 94’C however the clock this from NVIDIA would be the two cards before we come to any you’re still getting some brilliant you may as well purchase for us as end users remains speed remained at 975MHz. GTX 770, however it’s obvious conclusion regarding the value performance because once this one as there aren’t any others that can claim to be seen. No matter how it’s This is great if only you’re that this GPU will not be able to of this card. $400 means that if again, nothing else will be faster to be faster. At $400 it’s a spun, we have been here before guaranteed performance that compete with the R9 290, thus that’s all you have for investing in at that price. steal for the performance in the mid to late 90s and this is matches that of the AMD press we had to instead compare it a graphics card, you’re looking at In a competitive overclocking that you get. no different in practice. cards and because of the minute with the many custom GTX 780 this card or a GK104 based GPU. context, virtually everyone who That however is specifically overclock the performance is cards on the market. In this Against the R9 290, there is no has bothered with the Hawaii to do with gaming which is actually better for the most part. particular case we compared it GK104 GPU that can match it. GPUs has gone with the 290X, Would you buy it? primarily what this card is for. Oddly enough, despite what we to the EVGA GTX 780 Classified. It’s just not going to happen and so there isn’t much we could The absence of customised had read before purchasing A GPU that, like many, features this is where the real value of report on for the overclockers Sure. Its value roposition designs has left very little room our PowerColor sample for an out-the-box overclock, the R9 290 is. It’s what it offers on the 290, but suffice to say is phenomenal. for variance in overclocking this review, this card remained custom PCB, and cooler has at the price. it should scale in exactly the 26 The OverClocker Issue 27 | 2013 Issue 27 | 2013 The OverClocker 27
All results were obtained at 4625MHz on an un-optimized Windows7 64-bit. These are our results, yours may vary so only use these as a guideline for a similarly configured system. Graphics Card 3DMark Fires 3DMark Fire Strike 3DMark11 3DMark Catzilla: 1080p HWBOT Heaven Strike Extreme Vantage Extreme PowerColor R9 290 OC 10631 5221 15814 50445 11637 3361,51 1150/1450 Graphics: Graphics: 5365 Graphics: GPU Score: Hardware: 11962 16735 50555 11682 AMD R9 290X 9867 4935 14837 48990 10700 3105,931 Graphics: Graphics: 5079 14803 GPU Score: Hardware: 10959 48432 10723 EVGA GTX 780 Classified 9703 4887 14451 49382 12558 3025,615 Graphics: Graphics: 4965 Graphics: GPU Score: Hardware: 10528 14322 49053 12628 PowerColor R9 290 OC 9324 4676 14066 45927 10503 2824,9 Value Award 4GB Graphics: Graphics: 4790 Graphics: GPU Score: Hardware: 10274 13820 44687 10143 PowerColor R9 290 4GB OC For us as enthusiasts and RRP: $399.99 | Website: www.powercolor.com been shown to go the distance overclockers who regularly buy same way as the 290X and under air and LN2 cooling quite have the same mods as it is regularly. Not a fair comparison GPUs priced above the $500 identical to the 290X. (So much as such but a valid one, because mark, it is easy to forget that so that some 290 cards have between different vendor relatively quiet. More so than we it is typical of what most users for most people, this is as far “unlocked” to 290X cards via a Test Machine offerings. So essentially could have ever thought it would would buy when they consider as their budgets will allow. Yet simple BIOS flash). • INTEL Core i7 4960X what we bring to you here be. There simply wasn’t any purchasing a GTX 780 as this kind of performance at this In closing, the R9 290 OC may • ASUS Rampage IV Extreme is a reference card review noise while we tested the card reference cards comparisons price was unheard of prior to not be the fastest graphics card Black Edition (0208) of the AMD R9 290 GPU. The and as stated earlier, the clock are for the most part irrelevant. the R9 290. money can buy, but it does offer • CORSAIR Dominator only difference here is that speeds remained consistent. At $550 it is significantly more Overclocked, the PowerColor unquestionable value for money. Platinum 4x4GB DDR PowerColor has seen it fit to It is only when we increased expensive but for that you do get card obviously produced even Thermals and the rest aside, 2666MHZ CL10 ship their card with a slight the fan speed from the default better performance. This was better numbers, exceeding you’re not going to find better • Corsair Force LS 240GB SSD overclock, more specifically a profile to anything above 60% what surprised us, more than those of the R9 290X (also value in any other high end card. • Cooler Master Silent Pro M2 25MHz overclock. Everything where the noise levels became anything. As we read through reviewed in this issue) which Thus, if the PowerColor R9 290 1500W else about the card though unbearable. the first batch of reviews for the retails for as much as the OC is deserving of any praise • Windows 7 64-bit SP1 remains that which AMD showed Under normal circumstances R9 290, the numbers that we Classified card. Attaining from us, it is the Value award. (Catalyst 13.9 B11) off and has been providing to though, there would be no observed were slightly different these clock speeds however $400 has never delivered this its other partners. A 25MHz need to do this despite the than those that were reported means turning up the fan much power before. overclock is not going to high load temperature. If the on several sites. speed and thus having to deal [ The Overclocker] o say AMD’s Hawaii GPUs make a significant different in GPU is able to operate at that For instance, there wasn’t with the excessive noise issue, have been anything but performance but having that temperature and not result in a single benchmark that we however it isn’t anything that Tcontroversial would be at least would perhaps help decreased performance, then ran where the R9 290 was an aftermarket cooler cannot an understatement. At least separate the PowerColor card we see no need to set a higher faster than the classified. fix (you may for example opt for Summary in a gaming sense especially from the rest. Even better fan speed. Overclocking will The PowerColor card was the Prolimatech MK-26 Black because of the new Mantle API. though or more meaningful obviously require you to do so, between 4 to 7% slower, Edition which is reviewed in PowerColor has given us This is AMD’s game changer than the slight overclock is but in a gaming context, this Catzilla withstanding, where this issue). However do keep a reference R9 290 card and if it does take off, it would how this particular card didn’t isn’t necessary at all given that the NVIDIA GPUs have proved to in mind that you’re going to be with a slight overclock make for a very interesting GPU have a dynamic clock speed you’re only ever going to get be particularly adapt. With that spending another $90 to $100 on but has not charged extra landscape. The incentive from dependant on temperature. noise for it and nothing else. said, we have to be mindful of the this depending on the cooler you for it. If you’re going to AMD’s perspective for doing this Load temperatures were very At $400, the closest card to price difference between these opt for. However, even at $500 be buying an R9 290 card is sensible but how that works high at 94’C however the clock this from NVIDIA would be the two cards before we come to any you’re still getting some brilliant you may as well purchase for us as end users remains speed remained at 975MHz. GTX 770, however it’s obvious conclusion regarding the value performance because once this one as there aren’t any others that can claim to be seen. No matter how it’s This is great if only you’re that this GPU will not be able to of this card. $400 means that if again, nothing else will be faster to be faster. At $400 it’s a spun, we have been here before guaranteed performance that compete with the R9 290, thus that’s all you have for investing in at that price. steal for the performance in the mid to late 90s and this is matches that of the AMD press we had to instead compare it a graphics card, you’re looking at In a competitive overclocking that you get. no different in practice. cards and because of the minute with the many custom GTX 780 this card or a GK104 based GPU. context, virtually everyone who That however is specifically overclock the performance is cards on the market. In this Against the R9 290, there is no has bothered with the Hawaii to do with gaming which is actually better for the most part. particular case we compared it GK104 GPU that can match it. GPUs has gone with the 290X, Would you buy it? primarily what this card is for. Oddly enough, despite what we to the EVGA GTX 780 Classified. It’s just not going to happen and so there isn’t much we could The absence of customised had read before purchasing A GPU that, like many, features this is where the real value of report on for the overclockers Sure. Its value roposition designs has left very little room our PowerColor sample for an out-the-box overclock, the R9 290 is. It’s what it offers on the 290, but suffice to say is phenomenal. for variance in overclocking this review, this card remained custom PCB, and cooler has at the price. it should scale in exactly the 26 The OverClocker Issue 27 | 2013 Issue 27 | 2013 The OverClocker 27
The OC Show Your Overclocking talk-show The OC Show Concept overclocking records, benchmark sense to share our content to the discussions, and maybe even a TOC readers first.\" Of course this As The Overclocker moved to a tiny bit of industry gossip. \"This is video is also hosted on the OCTV new publishing platform, Neo long overdue\" says Tim, \"but now YouTube channel, and can be (editor-in-chief) informed us it is that OCTV and HWBOT are both shared and embedded by now possible to embed videos in located in Taiwan, setting up this everyone. the magazine. He suggested to kind of initiative is much easier.\" embed an OCTV video in each HWBOT and OCTV have In This Episode magazine. The response from collaborated on several OCTV was very positive, and In the first episode of The OC productions in the past. The OC quickly the idea rose to do a bi- Show we talk about the upcoming Show marks as a first long-term monthly chit-chat talk about live competitions of Galaxy and scheduled partnership. overclocking related topics. Kingston, as well as reflect back on those of ASUS, Corsair, and In each episode, Pieter (Massman Why TheOverclocker? MSI. We also address what next - HWBOT) and Tim (Xyala - OCTV) year will bring for HWBOT, and of \"TheOverclocker is today's main cover things that happened in the course reflect on Shamino leaving go-to magazine-style read for overclocking community. This the industry. overclockers and hardware includes upcoming events, new enthusiasts\" says Tim, \"it makes Discuss this episode: hardware releases, interesting url.hwbot.org/tosdiscuss
The OC Show Your Overclocking talk-show The OC Show Concept overclocking records, benchmark sense to share our content to the discussions, and maybe even a TOC readers first.\" Of course this As The Overclocker moved to a tiny bit of industry gossip. \"This is video is also hosted on the OCTV new publishing platform, Neo long overdue\" says Tim, \"but now YouTube channel, and can be (editor-in-chief) informed us it is that OCTV and HWBOT are both shared and embedded by now possible to embed videos in located in Taiwan, setting up this everyone. the magazine. He suggested to kind of initiative is much easier.\" embed an OCTV video in each HWBOT and OCTV have In This Episode magazine. The response from collaborated on several OCTV was very positive, and In the first episode of The OC productions in the past. The OC quickly the idea rose to do a bi- Show we talk about the upcoming Show marks as a first long-term monthly chit-chat talk about live competitions of Galaxy and scheduled partnership. overclocking related topics. Kingston, as well as reflect back on those of ASUS, Corsair, and In each episode, Pieter (Massman Why TheOverclocker? MSI. We also address what next - HWBOT) and Tim (Xyala - OCTV) year will bring for HWBOT, and of \"TheOverclocker is today's main cover things that happened in the course reflect on Shamino leaving go-to magazine-style read for overclocking community. This the industry. overclockers and hardware includes upcoming events, new enthusiasts\" says Tim, \"it makes Discuss this episode: hardware releases, interesting url.hwbot.org/tosdiscuss
All results were obtained at 4625MHz on an un-optimized Windows7 64-bit. These are our results, yours may vary so only use these as a guideline for a similarly configured system. Graphics Card 3DMark Fires 3DMark 3DMark11 3DMark Catzilla: 1080p HWBOT Heaven Strike Fire Strike Vantage Extreme Extreme AMD Radeon R9 290X OC 11051 5578 16188 51576 12595 3502,696 1125/1500 Graphics: Graphics: Graphics: GPU Score: Hardware: 12435 5788 16587 52189 12147 AMD Radeon R9 290X 9867 4935 14837 48990 10700 3105,931 Graphics: Graphics: Graphics: GPU Score: Hardware: 10959 5079 14803 48432 10723 EVGA GTX 780 Classified 9703 4887 14451 49382 12558 3025,615 Graphics: Graphics: Graphics: GPU Score: Hardware: 10528 4965 14322 49053 12628 AMD Radeon R9 290X very efficient and capable of custom cards with what can the few cards that are capable With the impending release graphics card. The R9 290X of unlocking to a full 290X core. is particularly adept at high resolution gaming and it only be significantly better If you can’t wait however and are looking for those 3DMark11 coolers, it may be hard to RRP: $599.99 | Website: www.amd.com just may be the GPU to go recommend this card outright, and Unigine Heaven Extreme with when you’re looking for but we aren’t sure when these pre-set records, you’ll be hard 1440p gaming and higher at vendor tuned models will be pressed to find another GPU LN2 for anything other than and at every other time, it is present. This isn’t because available in retail channels that handles those benchmarks Test Machine hardware points and/or cups. ever so underwhelming or just the competition doesn’t offer and as such, all we can go on as well as the 290X. Fortunately this isn’t the outright incapable of keeping competitive products but is how this GPU performs in its [The Overclocker] • INTEL Core i7 4960X case with the Radeon R9 this GPU comfortably cool. do consider that the only current guise. For Radeon fans • ASUS Rampage IV Extreme 290X. We’ve seen several The temperatures are often competitive graphics card this is an obvious purchase Black Edition (0208) scores already from several in the 94’C region which isn’t from the competition is $100 especially if you happen to buy • CORSAIR Dominator prominent overclockers or a problem as such, but the more. Ideally the Radeon R9 one of the cards that ship with Platinum 4x4GB DDR overclocking teams if you noise is. What happens is that 290X should be $549.99 but Battlefield 4. For everybody 2666MHZ CL10 Summary • Corsair Force LS 240GB SSD will. Thus far, the highest as the GPU heats up and after we’ve not found it in stock else though, this may be one • Cooler Master Silent Pro M2 core speed we’ve seen is about 15 minutes of gaming anywhere for this price and of those GPUs you just have to AMD produced a cracker 1500W 1500MHz as shown by Smoke (depending on the title) the the real price at the time of wait for to mature. Or at least of a GPU with the Radeon • Windows 7 64-bit SP1 on a couple of runs and card can get quite loud and writing was $600, which does in this particular case, wait for R9 290X. At the given price (Catalyst 13.9) submissions on HWBOT. An we are not talking moderate decrease the value aspect of 3rd party implementations. it makes a good case for impressive clock indeed, but noise levels here, but rather this card especially against the Besides the inevitable noise itself. The only kink it’s one that we suspect will get an unbearable acoustics. 780Ti. You will however have reduction, overclocking amour surprisingly is its ot too long after better with the custom cards Much like with the R9 290 in to decide for yourself if a $100 under LN2 should improve lesser brother the R9 290 we started on our that we had seen, just prior to this issue, this isn’t anything price premium is warranted significantly. It’s a matter of which is within spitting NPowerColor R9 290 publishing of this issue. that an aftermarket cooler by the 4 to 6% performance waiting for the Direct CUII, distance performance OC review, we received Unlike with the Radeon HD can’t fix, but we did find that gain. Regardless of what you Lightning and perhaps TOXIC wise but an entire $200 AMD’s Radeon R9 290X and 7970, the reference design the R9 290X did make more decide, what you should know cards. These will not only cheaper at the current thus, ours was a reverse on the R9 290X isn’t as solid, noise than the PowerColor by now regarding AMD GPUs offer some serious overclocks going price. Still, this is a decent graphics card for a experience when it came to but that is understandable R9 290. This is likely due is that, due to the ability to out the box, but they should fair price. AMD’s new line up. Prior to because the silicon costs to fan profile differences turn off Tessellation it’s very be able to take this GPU well these two graphics cards, a little bit more than it did rather than mechanical easy to get inflated benchmark beyond the 1500MHz we have we had received 280 and 270 with the Tahiti GPU and the differences. Regardless of scores. It’s a commonly seen thus far. Would you buy it? cards, but given that these cost cutting had to come what the reason may be, it used tweak for competitive Should you need a Hawaii are identical to the previous somewhere else, like the fairly is something that is an issue benchmarking, but sadly it based GPU right now, our We would wait for the generation offerings we didn’t low clocking GDDR5 memory and it is better addressed isn’t one that is used at all in a money would be on the R9 290. custom 290X cards feature them in the magazine. used and 6-phase PWM. sooner rather than later. gaming context. So be mindful It really is very close to the instead; as these will Moreover, there are few if any Where we do wish AMD had That aside, if you can get of the scores you may see 290X in performance and who make a good product competitive overclockers who done a better job is with the past the noise issue then when world records are being knows. You may even be lucky brilliant. were overclocking these on cooler. As it’s adequate at best you’ll be presented with a broken using the R9 290X. enough to find yourself one of 30 The OverClocker Issue 27 | 2013 Issue 27 | 2013 The OverClocker 31
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