| BIOS Frequency and Voltage settings (for overclocking) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ASRock FM2A85X Extreme6 | Asus F2A85-V Pro | ECS A85F2-A GOLDEN | |
| Reference Clock | 100-136 MHz (1 MHz) | 90-300 MHz (1 MHz) | 90-200 MHz (1 MHz) |
| CPU Multiplier | 14-63x (1x) | 8-63x (1x) | 5-63x (1x) |
| DRAM Data Rates | 800-1866 (266.6 MHz) | 800-2400 (266.6 MHz) | 800-2400 (266.6 MHz) |
| CPU Vcore | 0.60-1.55V (6.25 mV) | 0.68-2.08V (6.25 mV) | 1.50-1.98V (20 mV) |
| CPU NB | 0.60-1.55V (6.25 mV) | 0.50-1.90V (6.25 mV) | 1.30-1.80V (20 mV) |
| A85X Voltage | 1.10-1.40V (100 mV) | 1.10-1.40V (10 mV) | 1.11-1.21V (~35 mV) |
| DRAM Voltage | 1.17-1.80V (5 mV) | 1.35-2.135V (5 mV) | 1.20-2.01V (10 mV) |
| CAS Latency | 5-14 Cycles | 5-16 Cycles | 5-14 Cycles |
| tRCD | 5-19 Cycles | 2-19 Cycles | 2-19 Cycles |
| tRP | 5-19 Cycles | 5-19 Cycles | 5-19 Cycles |
| tRAS | 15-40 Cycles | 8-42 Cycles | 8-42 Cycles |
| BIOS Frequency and Voltage settings (for overclocking) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Gigabyte F2A85X-UP4 | MSI FM2-A85XA-G65 | Sapphire Pure Platinum A85XT | |
| Reference Clock | 100-200 MHz (1 MHz) | 90-190 MHz (1 MHz) | 100-300 MHz (1 MHz) |
| CPU Multiplier | 8-79x (1x) | 8-63x (1x) | 16-58x (1x) |
| DRAM Data Rates | 800-2400 (266.6 MHz) | 800-2133 (266.6 MHz) | 800-2133 (266.6 MHz) |
| CPU Vcore | 0.80-2.10V (6.25 mV) | 1.20-1.90V (12.5 mV) | 1.20-1.70V (6.25 mV) |
| CPU NB | 0.80-2.10V (6.25 mV) | 1.00-1.50V (12.5 mV) | 1.20-1.54V (6.25 mV) |
| A85X Voltage | 1.00-1.40V (10 mV) | 0.91-1.51V (~11.5 mV) | 1.10-2.30V (10 mV) |
| DRAM Voltage | 1.10-2.62V (10 mV) | 1.29-2.01V (15 mV) | 1.30-2.30V (10 mV) |
| CAS Latency | 5-16 Cycles | 5-16 Cycles | 5-14 Cycles |
| tRCD | 2-19 Cycles | 2-19 Cycles | 2-19 Cycles |
| tRP | 5-19 Cycles | 5-19 Cycles | 2-19 Cycles |
| tRAS | 8-42 Cycles | 8-42 Cycles | 8-40 Cycles |
Some motherboards have far broader frequency ranges than others, but a 300 MHz reference clock limit on Sapphire’s motherboard is about as realistic as a 300 MPH speedometer on a Honda Civic. PCIe and integrated GPU overclocking limits are far more restrictive.

Asus, ASRock, and Gigabyte support our 45 x 100 MHz setting, with the difference between each vendor's board attributable to reference clock rounding errors.

Gigabyte reaches the highest reference clock with its integrated GPU intact. The second-place Asus F2A85-V Pro achieves a 156 MHz base clock with full CPU stability, but reference clocks over 130 MHz destabilize the APU’s integrated Radeon HD engine. Similar problems on the PCIe bus would affect graphics cards in a similar manner.

The F2A85-V Pro take top honors in memory overclocking, allowing us to use its highest 24x memory multiplier with four DIMMs installed. ASRock doesn't support a high memory ratio, but the board is able to reach a high data rate through increases in reference clock.
- AMD's Answer To Ivy Bridge-Based Core i3
- ASRock FM2A85X Extreme6
- FM2A85X Extreme6 Firmware
- Asus F2A85-V Pro
- F2A85-V Pro Firmware
- ECS A85F2-A Golden
- A85F2-A Golden Firmware
- Gigabyte F2A85X-UP4
- F2A85X-UP4 Firmware
- MSI FM2-A85XA-G65
- FM2-A85XA-G65 Firmware
- Sapphire Pure Platinum A85XT
- Pure Platinum A85XT Firmware
- Test Settings And Benchmarks
- Benchmark Results: Battlefield 3
- Benchmark Results: F1 2012
- Benchmark Results: Skyrim
- Benchmark Results: Audio And Video Encoding
- Benchmark Results: Adobe Creative Suite
- Benchmark Results: Productivity
- Benchmark Results: File Compression
- Power, Heat, And Efficiency
- Overclocking
- Of Six Socket FM2 Boards, Two Rise To The Top
Create a new thread in the UK Article comments forum about this subject
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0 Hideswamprat , 26 November 2012 18:26Does the hybrid crossfire thingymajig work (and if so how well) on the desktop APUs? It could be an interesting addition to the discrete graphics 'conundrum' by keeping some of the graphics value of the APU
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0 Hidespare_flash , 28 November 2012 04:16Ha, I followed the link expecting to read an article about a motherboard that would hold 6 processors. I need new glasses.
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0 HideMacheri , 31 March 2013 08:18Does is it really influence the performance? It's nice to have some more connectors but doesn't worth paying 60$ more for an expensive motherboard like these.