Benchmarks
Test system
CPU: Intel Core i5 4670K
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-Z97X-Gaming 7
RAMs: Kingston HyperX Blu DDR3 1600 MHz 9-9-9-27(2*4 GB)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Seidon 120V with push pull configuration
Graphics card: Sapphire Radeon HD 6770 1 GB DDR5
Hard disk(s): Seagate ST500DM002(primary) and Western Digital WD10EARS(storage)
Power Supply: Corsair GS 700 2013 edition
Monitor: Dell S2240M
Chassis: Open test bench table
Software: Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate x64 Service Pack 1 and all updates till then.
OS Installation, benchmarks:
The OS installation went without any issues.The power profile was set to high performance mode to prevent power saving states triggering while benchmarks. Windows update was run and I made sure it was completely updated.
Please note that these benchmarks are not an absolute measure of the motherboard performance but a measure of the platform performance. Overclock potential however is a measure of the motherboard quality and performance.I don’t have much to tell here. We will compare scores at stock and overclocked conditions.
Testing methodology: CPU performance and memory performance were tested with well known benchmarking software such that scores can be compared also. Relative performance is shown at stock and overclocked settings and then compared. The benchmarks were run at least twice to verify the consistency
Benchmarks(stock performance):
Cinebench R11.5:
Scores 6.52 points.
Cinebench R15:
580 points.
AIDA CPU Queen:
AIDA CPU Photoworxx:
AIDA CPU AES:
AIDA cache and memory benchmark:
Super Pi 1.5, 32M:
wPrime 1.55, 1024M:
Benchmarks(overclocked performance):
CPU Clock : 4.7 GHz (47*100MHz), Voltage: 1.29V, VRIN = 2.05V
Memory clock 2400 MHz(24*100 MHz) DDR3 12-13-12-30 1T @ 1.65V
NB Clock : 4.4 GHz(44*100 MHz)
The CPU was a very good overclocker with respect to core clock. The IMC was also good and it had no issues handling the 1600 MHz RAMs at 2400 MHz with complete stable operation.
Validation: CPU-Z Validator 4.0
Cinebench R11.5:
It scores 8.06 points! That improved a lot. We will do an analysis after the benchmarks.
Cinebench R15:
719 points. That increased a lot!
AIDA CPU Queen:
AIDA CPU Photoworxx:
AIDA CPU AES:
AIDA cache and memory benchmark:
Memory bandwidth increased a lot and we can say that Intel platform performance scales very good with higher memory clocks.
Super Pi 1.5, 32M:
wPrime 1.55, 1024M:
Analysis:
Cinebench R11.5: Stock: 6.52, Overclocked: 8.06. Performance gain: 23.62%(approx)
AIDA CPU Queen: Stock: 36483, Overclocked: 45091. Performance gain: 23.59%(approx)
AIDA CPU Photoworxx: Stock: 15023, Overclocked: 21410. Performance gain: 42.51%(approx)
AIDA CPU AES: Stock: 16796, Overclocked: 20757. Performance gain: 23.58%(approx)
For the rest, there is appreciable difference and performance increases proportionately in all the benchmarks. Super Pi and WPrime benchmarks are also finished appreciably faster after overclock.
System performance is very good, lot of difference in stock and overclocked performance and especially, the memory bandwidth improved a lot after overclocking the memory and the NB.
Maximum overclock
Okay these are the maximum frequencies that I was able to achieve with the system. Please note that with these settings, the system was not 100% stable but stable enough for validating. Also note that every CPU/RAM is different and will overclock differently even if the model numbers are same.
Validation: CPU-Z Validator 4.0
I was very close to 5 GHz on the core but I could not get it stable to boot at that frequency.
Temperatures
There were no thermal issues faced with the system. The CPU temperatures were less than 70 degree C at maximum load at stock settings. Overclocking the CPU led that to be around 80 to 92 degree C. The chipset temperature stayed around 48 degree C.
