Overclocking Results:

stock max. oc processor speed: 2.6 ghz 3.38 ghz multiplier / bus speed: 13x 200mhz 13x 260mhz if you're new to Overclocking and not sure what to do, check out these two excellent Guides for some pointers: Overclocking the CPU and Memory Overclocking the Videocard

Overclocking an energy efficient processor is somewhat akin to taking a Toyota Prius and supercharging the engine - a sightly redundant exercise. Nevertheless, overclocking continues to be the mainstream feature in every motherboard's sales pitch, so it's worthwhile to know what kind of headroom a 65W TDP processor like the 2.6GHz quad-core AMD Phenom II X4 910e actually has.

First thing's first, the dual channel Corsair XMS3-1600C9 memory used in the PCSTATS test system was configured to run in DDR3-800 MHz mode (from DDR3-1066) so it wouldn't hold the CPU back. The Phenom II X4 910e is not a Black Edition socket AM3 chip with unlocked multipliers, so that means we'll be overclocking by bus speeds alone.

With the chip installed into the trusty AMD 790FX-based Gigabyte GA-MA790FXT-UD5P motherboard, PCSTATS loaded up the BIOS and set about increasing the processor bus speed from 200MHz on up...

The Phenom II X4 910e CPU POST'd fine at 225MHz, 250MHz and 260MHz; an increase in CPU speed from 2.6GHz to 3.38GHz. Attempts were made for 260MHz bus and 280MHz bus, but while the PC would POST and begin to load Windows Vista it crashed or would BSOD half way through the boot process. No luck there. At the end of the day PCSTATS settled for a maximum overclock result of 260MHz bus, yielding a processor overclock of 3.38GHz - or put another way an increase of 780MHz over the stock 2.6GHz speed.

Prelude to Benchmarks

For this review PCSTATS is running the benchmark suite in both Microsoft Windows Vista and Microsoft Windows 7 operating systems. For the most part, benchmark results are not significantly different between the two operating systems, although certain tests do see advantages under Windows 7.

Over the following page we'll be running AMD's 2.6 GHz quad-core Phenom II X4 910e processor though PCSTATS standard set of gaming, productivity, and multi-threaded processor benchmarks. There are a wide variety of gaming and synthetic benchmarks here to illustrate what kind of performance boost users can expect from the latest quad-core socket AM3 AMD processor. Please take a moment to look over PCSTATS test system configurations before moving on to the individual benchmark results on the next several pages.

PCSTATS Test System Configurations

test system reference system #1 reference system #2 reference system #3 processor: amd Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition AMD Phenom II X4 910e Black Edition AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition AMD Phenom II X2 555 Black Edition AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition AMD Athlon II X4 635 AMD Athlon II X4 620 AMD Athlon II X3 435 AMD Athlon II X2 250 AMD Athlon II X2 240e Intel Core i5 750 Intel Core i7 920 Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 CPU Process Technology: 45nm 45nm 45nm 45nm Socket: Socket AM3 Socket LGA1156 Socket LGA1366 Socket LGA775 Clock Speed: 17x 200MHz = 3.4 GHz (965 BE) 16x 200MHz = 3.2 GHz(955 BE) 13x 200MHz = 2.6 GHz(910e) 14 x 200 MHz = 2.8 GHz (720 BE) 16.0x 200MHz = 3.2 GHz (555BE) 15.5x 200MHz = 3.1 GHz (550BE) 14.5x 200MHz = 2.9 GHz (AIIX4 635) 13x 200MHz = 2.6 GHz (AIIX4 620) 14.5x 200MHz = 2.9 GHz (AIIX3 435) 15x 200MHz = 3.0 GHz (AIIX2 250) 14x 200 MHz = 2.8 GHz (AIIX2 240e) 20x 133MHz = 2.66 GHz 20 x 133 MHz = 2.67 GHz 9.5 x 333 MHz = 3.16GHz (E8500) 9 x 333 MHz = 3.0 GHz (E8500) Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-MA790FXT-UD5P (AMD 790FX) Gigabyte GA-P55-UD6 (Intel P55) MSI X58 Platinum (X58 Express) MSI X48 Platinum (X48 Express) Videocard: ASUS ENGTS250 DK (Geforce GTS250) ASUS ENGTS250 DK (Geforce GTS250) ASUS ENGTS250 DK (Geforce GTS 250) MSI NX8800GTS-T2D320E (Geforce 8800GTS) Memory: 2x2GB Corsair XMS3-1600C9 DDR3 2x1GB Patriot PDC32G1600LLK DDR3 2x2GB Corsair XMS3-1600C8 DDR3 3x2GB Corsair TR3X6G1600C8D DDR3 2x1GB Patriot PDC32G1600LLK DDR3 Hard Drive: 74GB Western Digital Raptor WD740 Optical Drive: ASUS BC-1205PT-BD Power Supply: PC Power & Cooling TurboCool 750W Heatsink: Athlon64 K8 Reference Heatsink Intel Reference 1156 Heatsink Intel Reference 1366 Heatsink Intel Reference 775 Heatsink Software Setup: Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate AMD Catalyst 9.12 nVIDIA Forceware 195.62 Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate Intel 9.1.1.1019 nVIDIA Forceware 190.62 Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate Intel INF 9.1.0.1012 nVIDIA Forceware 182.08 Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate Intel INF 9.0.0.1008 nVIDIA Forceware 169.25 Benchmarks: System Benchmarks: SYSmark 2007 PCMark Vantage SiSoft Sandra 2009 Calculation B/M: Super Pi 1.5 wPrime 2.0 ScienceMark 2.3 Bibble 5 Rendering B/M: Cinebench R10 POV-Ray 3.7 Gaming B/M: 3DMark06 3DMark Vantage Cyrsis FEAR