LN2-test: Asus Crosshair III Formula

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05-23-2009, 05:33 AM
Sampsa

LN2-test: Asus Crosshair III Formula

Hi,

I got a retail version of Asus Crosshair III Formula motherboard fresh from production line. This motherboard is based on AMD 790FX chipset and should be optimized for extreme-overclocking. I tested it yesterday with 10 liters of LN2 and Phenom II X4 AM3 ES CPU.

http://plaza.fi/s/f/editor/images/cf3_oc.jpg

According to Asus: Crosshair III Formula is designed without any PCIEx lane switches which is a big advantage when you aim to have the best possible trace layout for performance, stability and overclockability. Trace optimization is a big part of this board as well as other ROG boards.

I ran 3DMark05 and 3DMark06 with one and two ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2. Both cards were with default BIOS and stock cooling so I just adjusted clocks to 800/950 from CCC. Corsair Dominator DDR3-1866 C8 2 GB kit was running at 7-6-6-18 1T settings 900 MHz with 2,12V. No problems with memory (I used outer slots).

http://plaza.fi/s/f/editor/images/c3f_oc1.jpg

http://plaza.fi/s/f/editor/images/c3f_oc2.jpg

http://plaza.fi/s/f/editor/images/c3f_oc4.jpg

http://plaza.fi/s/f/editor/images/c3f_oc5.jpg

ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 CrossFireX (800/950):

http://plaza.fi/s/f/editor/images/05..._multicard.png

3DMark05 multicard: 46783 (#4 in hwbot)

http://plaza.fi/s/f/editor/images/06..._multicard.png

3DMark06 multicard: 35924 (#4 in hwbot)

Both of the results are 2nd highest AMD scores just behind Kingpin.

Some thoughts:

- For some reason I was not able to get the system to boot NB @ 4,5 GHz at all so I had to run tests at ~4,275 GHz :mad:

- TweakIt works great with keyboard. I was able to adjust Bus Speed during 3DMark06 precisely between 1 MHz intervals. TweakIt is more accurate than AMD's overdrive and helped me to finish 3DMark06 @ 6300 - 6244 MHz. I had to lower CPU clock for GT3 and GT4 :up:

- This board definitely seems to be optimized for extreme-overclocking. System was stable @ 6,3 GHz for hours.. with M4A79T Deluxe system was stable closer to 6,2 GHz than 6,3 GHz :up:

- I ran completely out of LN2 40 seconds before GT4 ended when I was hunting down 36k :mad: Temperature dropped to -175C and 06 crashed 20 seconds before finishing the test. Despite not breaking 36k I'm pretty happy with the results :toast:
05-23-2009, 05:46 AM
Zeus

Thanks for the nice review on this (very nice) board Sampsa. :up:

What else can you change with tweak it besides ht bus? Vcore, Vdimm, VNB perhaps?

Your results are awesome, it seems this board clocks the ram very well.

Can you say this board is better than th M4A79-T for overclocking in general?
05-23-2009, 05:46 AM
bazx

Sampsa what would you say was the problem with the NB

just a poor part or some settings

good to see a real attempt @ and AMD m/b what ever the problems
05-23-2009, 05:52 AM
Sampsa

Quote:

Originally Posted by bazx

Sampsa what would you say was the problem with the NB

just a poor part or some settings

Unfortunately I don't know, might be a NB multiplier issue. Now when I think more clearly I should have played more with Bus Speed. I had a couple of hiccups in the beginning so I settled to NB @ 4275 MHz when I got the system up and running. Didn't have too much LN2 to waste so.. this was pretty good first test with the board :)
05-23-2009, 05:56 AM
Sampsa

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zeus

What else can you change with tweak it besides ht bus? Vcore, Vdimm, VNB perhaps?

Can you say this board is better than th M4A79-T for overclocking in general?

Yes, you can adjust several voltages with TweakIt on the fly.

I have to say M4A79-T is already a very good AM3 motherboard for overclocking but Crosshair III Formula felt little bit more stable when running with extreme-cold/extreme-clocks. For normal user.. I don't think there is a big difference :shrug: If the price is no issue and you want the best, go for C3F.
05-23-2009, 06:00 AM
Vivi

sick board.. WOW. its freaking awesome.

wd sampsa. Looking forward to some more, i think i'l go for this setup + retail 955. instead of i7
05-23-2009, 06:22 AM
msimax

nice runs sampsa:up:
05-23-2009, 06:46 AM
Solarfall

sick 3dmark scores sampsa especially the 06 is very impressive :up: keep em comming
05-23-2009, 07:17 AM
dinos22

i love this TweakIt feature
kicks arse
05-23-2009, 12:22 PM
dbius

Impresssive! Congrats!!! :clap:
05-23-2009, 12:58 PM
[XC] gomeler

Great board and results. I can't wait to get a Crosshair III, looks sick!
05-23-2009, 05:19 PM
nut311

nice board and nice run:up:

i cant wait this board
05-23-2009, 05:21 PM
k|ngp|n

Sick results, I love this board really. Pete H. stole mine :D
05-23-2009, 11:42 PM
Sampsa

Quote:

Originally Posted by k|ngp|n

Sick results, I love this board really. Pete H. stole mine :D

What?! I though he was in love with his DFI LanPary JR board :D
05-23-2009, 11:53 PM
Lightman

Sick! Sick! Sick!

Congrats Sampsa! As always fantastic scores!
I like the mobo as well!
05-23-2009, 11:55 PM
Sampsa

Thanks everyone.. I would say the best I could do with this setup and LN2 is 47xxx in 05 and 36xxx in 06. Next I'll try LN2 cooled Quad SLI setup and Vantage :)
05-24-2009, 02:38 AM
LowRun

Very good job there as usual :up:
05-24-2009, 06:41 AM
Hazzan

nice result Sampsa......thanks for sharing...my Crosshair III come to my house this weeks....:up::up: I will try later...:):)
05-24-2009, 08:30 AM
cdawall

amazing results i wonder how much better this would clock than the pile of 790GX boards i have

oh and my crosshair II
05-24-2009, 09:36 AM
VoodooProphetII

Well done Sampsa..... Great great results. Congrats.
05-24-2009, 10:04 AM
chuchnit

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sampsa

Thanks everyone.. I would say the best I could do with this setup and LN2 is 47xxx in 05 and 36xxx in 06. Next I'll try LN2 cooled Quad SLI setup and Vantage :)

How are you going to run SLI on an AMD chipset?
05-24-2009, 10:15 AM
ILikeCosmosS

hmm i wonder what results you could get with direct dye cooling
05-24-2009, 10:18 AM
64NOMIS

This is a very good board and fantastic results.

The board is solid and the on-the-fly frequency control is slick.
05-24-2009, 10:24 AM
carpo93

congrats
05-24-2009, 10:53 AM
tiborrr

Woow, these new 955BE's are pure gold! Gotta get myself one, it's hard to keep up with you guys with my X3 720BE :shrug:
05-24-2009, 11:01 AM
SoF

wow sweet run sampsa :toast: i am just missing the 3rd pci-e on this board - everything else looks perfect. now get the LN2 truck at your bench room and hunt the 36k :D
05-24-2009, 01:39 PM
FlanK3r

great sampsa
05-25-2009, 02:49 AM
Sampsa

Quote:

Originally Posted by chuchnit

How are you going to run SLI on an AMD chipset?

for SLI tests I'm going to use my Asus M4N82 Deluxe motherboard which is based on nForce 980a chipset :)

I already did Vantage CPU air cooled:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=224569
05-25-2009, 04:04 AM
ZillaPct

Sampsa is first time that AMd have a serius mainboard and chipset, sin however, that to do Sli and Crossfire on AMD currently need two different mainboard......this is only limit.....but not necessarily Asus product this mainbaord in future :D:D

Good CPU and work :up:
05-25-2009, 05:50 AM
Zeus

Sampsa, can you tell me if this board has Load Line Calibration or Voltage Damper option in bios?
05-25-2009, 08:04 AM
Sampsa

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zeus

Sampsa, can you tell me if this board has Load Line Calibration or Voltage Damper option in bios?

Yes BIOS has Load Line Calibration option. I didn't measure the actual vcore with multimeter because I ran tests 00:00 -> 05:00 am but I'll do so later :)
05-25-2009, 08:42 AM
Mechromancer

These ROG boards are truly impressive. Nice results Sampsa!
05-25-2009, 09:01 AM
Vivi

Sampsa u rule man.
You just made me go for crosshair and 955 instead of i7 :)
05-25-2009, 09:04 AM
Gautam

Nice job Sampsa...36k is waiting for you. :D
05-25-2009, 09:13 AM
Sampsa

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gautam

Nice job Sampsa...36k is waiting for you. :D

This is my todo list:

01: 130k
03: 160k
05: 47k
06: 36/37k
Vantage: P40k

So lets see how it turns out :)
05-25-2009, 10:49 AM
Zeus

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sampsa

Yes BIOS has Load Line Calibration option. I didn't measure the actual vcore with multimeter because I ran tests 00:00 -> 05:00 am but I'll do so later :)

That was what i needed to hear! :D Thanks a lot man.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sampsa

This is my todo list:

01: 130k
03: 160k
05: 47k
06: 36/37k
Vantage: P40k

So lets see how it turns out :)

You better get busy man, i reckon you're gonna do 05 and 06 on AMD Phenom II?

Good luck!
05-25-2009, 11:19 AM
Tomasis

sampsa, I wish you good luck with todo list :)
05-26-2009, 03:49 AM
Kinc

Very nice first runs Sampsa! :toast: So close to 36k :p
05-26-2009, 04:10 AM
massman

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sampsa

This is my todo list:

01: 130k
03: 160k
05: 47k
06: 36/37k
Vantage: P40k

So lets see how it turns out :)

130k on an AMD setup?
05-26-2009, 04:15 AM
tiborrr

Must have been typo, i have never seen higher than mid 70k range result. My goal one day is to break into high 80k :D
05-26-2009, 04:22 AM
Kinc

Quote:

Originally Posted by tiborrr

Must have been typo, i have never seen higher than mid 70k range result. My goal one day is to break into high 80k :D

I think he intends to use Intel cpu's for 01 and vantage :D
05-26-2009, 04:31 AM
massman

Quote:

Originally Posted by tiborrr

Must have been typo, i have never seen higher than mid 70k range result. My goal one day is to break into high 80k :D

Score to beat: 71034 - http://hwbot.org/result.do?resultId=853040 :D
05-26-2009, 06:11 AM
Sampsa

Quote:

Originally Posted by massman

130k on an AMD setup?

Hehe sorry I wasn't clear enough. Of course I'll use the right CPU for each test. I just got new E8600 (Q822A435) and some D0 Core i7s to play with but that stuff belongs to diffent category :)
05-26-2009, 10:11 PM
Swingline(Red)

Any idea when this will be available in Canada?