LN2-test: Asus Crosshair III Formula

[Sampsa]

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.



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).











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



3DMark05 multicard: 46783 (#4 in hwbot)



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

- 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

- 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

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

[Zeus]

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

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?

[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

[Sampsa]

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

[Sampsa]

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 If the price is no issue and you want the best, go for C3F.

[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

[msimax]

nice runs sampsa

[Solarfall]

sick 3dmark scores sampsa especially the 06 is very impressive keep em comming

[dinos22]

i love this TweakIt feature
kicks arse

[dbius]

Impresssive! Congrats!!!

[[XC] gomeler]

Great board and results. I can't wait to get a Crosshair III, looks sick!

[nut311]

nice board and nice run

i cant wait this board

[k|ngp|n]

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

[Sampsa]

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

What?! I though he was in love with his DFI LanPary JR board

[Lightman]

Sick! Sick! Sick!

Congrats Sampsa! As always fantastic scores!
I like the mobo as well!

[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

[LowRun]

Very good job there as usual

[Hazzan]

nice result Sampsa......thanks for sharing...my Crosshair III come to my house this weeks.... I will try later...

[cdawall]

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

oh and my crosshair II

[VoodooProphetII]

Well done Sampsa..... Great great results. Congrats.

[chuchnit]

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?

[ILikeCosmosS]

hmm i wonder what results you could get with direct dye cooling

[64NOMIS]

This is a very good board and fantastic results.

The board is solid and the on-the-fly frequency control is slick.

[carpo93]

congrats

[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