Sign in with
Sign up | Sign in

Overclocking

Extreme P55: Four LGA 1156 Motherboards Over $250
By

The following is a list of settings each motherboard is capable of providing for your overclocking demands.

BIOS Frequency and Voltage settings (for overclocking)
 Asus
Maximus III Formula
Asus
P7P55D-E Premium
EVGA
P55 Classified 200
MSI
Big Bang-Trinergy
CPU Base Clock80-500 MHz (1 MHz)80-500 MHz (1 MHz)133-300 MHz (1 MHz)100-600 MHz (1 MHz)
CPU MultiplierYesYesYesYes
DRAM Data RatesBCLK x6 - x12 (x2)BCLK x6 - x12 (x2)BCLK x6 - x12 (x2)BCLK x6 - x12 (x2)
PCIe Clock100-200 MHz (1 MHz)100-200 MHz (1 MHz)80-200 MHz (1 MHz)90-190 MHz (1 MHz)
CPU Vcore0.85-2.10V (6.25mV)0.85-2.10V (6.25mV)1.00-2.30V (6.25mV)0.90-2.10 (6.25mV)
Uncore Voltage1.01-2.00V (13.25mV)1.10-1.90V (6.25mV)1.05-2.00V (25mV)0.48-2.09V (16mV)
PCH Core1.01-1.35V 13.25mV)1.05V, 1.15V1.05-2.625V (25mV)0.45-1.95V (15mV)
DRAM Voltage1.21-2.50V (13.25mV)1.20-2.50V (12.5mV)1.20-2.60V (10mV)0.93-2.43V (15mV)
CAS Latency3-11 Cycles3-11 Cycles3-15 Cycles4-15 Cycles
tRCD3-15 Cycles3-15 Cycles3-15 Cycles3-15 Cycles
tRP3-15 Cycles3-15 Cycles3-15 Cycles3-15 Cycles
tRAS3-31 Cycles3-31 Cycles9-63 Cycles9-31 Cycles


While all of today’s motherboards offer fairly aggressive voltage levels, we keep ours consistently moderate to prevent CPU damage.

The top-three motherboards provide identical overclocking capabilities, proving the maturity and consistent quality of these high-end products. Any difference of less than 22 MHz is nothing more than a “rounding error” when a 22x multiplier is used.

Moderate voltage levels don’t lend themselves to record-breaking base clocks, but the EVGA P55 Classified 200 still stands out by achieving good results from our modest effort.

MSI surprised us with a super-high DRAM data rate at mild 1.65V DIMM and 1.30V Uncore settings. Increasing the configuration to four modules handed the average lead back to Asus.

Ask a Category Expert

Create a new thread in the UK Article comments forum about this subject

Example: Notebook, Android, SSD hard drive

Display all 4 comments.
This thread is closed for comments
  • 0 Hide
    Raptorial , 21 January 2010 16:25
    The only thing for me is: why did you not test 2 VGA cards? Two of the boards use a NF200 chip, now you won't see the results from this...

    Whyle this is why the EVGA and MSI are expensive.

    I wouldn't be surprised if the MSI P55-GD80 performs better with 1 VGA card then its expensive brother.
  • 0 Hide
    LePhuronn , 22 January 2010 04:18
    I'm still going 1366 simply because for what I do I prefer 12GB RAM over 8GB - that's honestly the only reason now.
  • 0 Hide
    Anonymous , 23 January 2010 20:26
    You should have tested this against a 150$ board and a 50$ board. That would have been interesting.
  • 0 Hide
    Redsnake77 , 28 January 2010 20:20
    When are you gonna do the three card crossfire / SLI review comparing the msi and evga P55 boards with X58? There's seems little relevance to reviewing these cards at all without including a 3 card metric, as that is their primary function. You wouldn't spend double the amount on either of these two boards otherwise.