New Formula One Overclocking Competition Announced
Time to put this 'out there'. We intend to start this soon. Here's what we have so far. What do you think?
It has become apparent that there is a new generation of elite overclockers who now have early access to cutting-edge hardware that has lifted them beyond the realms of traditional overclocking competition.
This idea has been discussed over the past several months but is now in a position to go ahead. It will be in addition to existing competitions and completely separate from them. It will be run by The Overclocker magazine, XS and HWBot.
We have been speaking to the industry over the past few months already but at Computex I visited virtually every manufacture who would be directly involved and got overwhelming support for it.
The Overclocker intends to create a Formula One style overclocking competition.
The purpose of this competition would be to drive computer technology forward by pushing its limits through overclocking. It will also naturally promote overclockers. It should also capture the imagination of all tech enthusiasts (not just overclockers) who will clearly benefit from seeing which hardware provides the very best performance. The manufacturers we have spoken to have all instantly recognised the halo effect of this: the manufacturer of the best products will sell more lower-end products too. This has been true to automotive racing for years.
We can discuss it to death if we’re not careful so hopefully the following will be clear, concise and not require major tweaking. This competition should start at the beginning of August.
1) For season one, there will be no limits whatsoever. Any limits that need implementing in future seasons will be reactionary to problems that may have occurred in previous seasons. One such example would be if the field finished in the exact order of processor power... we’d need to limit GHz the following season.
2) There will be two groups of teams: manufacturers and guest teams. For season 1 all teams will be invitational only. Manufacturer’s teams will be safe from relegation. However, the three, lowest-performing guest teams will be relegated. They will be replaced by the best three teams in an open qualifying competition. The relegated teams can compete in this.
3) At the beginning of each month an overclocking task will be set. Overclocking scores (with the usual validations) must be submitted by the end of the month according to the International Date Line. HWBot will hopefully manage this. We’re discussing the details.
4) The overclocking tasks used will be highly varied in order to cover as much hardware as possible and test the all-round skill of the overclockers.
5) The initial guest teams selected are done so according to perceived skill and influence on global overclocking. We naturally can’t include everyone and top overclockers will naturally be left out. The intention is that after three seasons we have a highly-competitive field which genuinely reflects the best of the best in terms of hardware and overclockers.
6) All kit used must be on sale by the beginning of the month of the task. If another team wants to buy it, it must be available. We do not want specially-manufactured components which have been built purely to win a race... unless it’s fully available to the public.
7) The first season will run for five months (with five tasks) and will start at the beginning of August.
Benchmarks
The first five benchmarks will be...
SuperPi 32M
SuperPi 8M (on an AMD platform)
3DMark Vantage
3DMark 06 on motherboard integrated graphics
Highest FSB
Season 1 Teams
Most of these have been agreed already. The limit is 14 teams to avoid lists getting too unwieldy. There are obviously going to be good people left out – contact The Overclocker or a team leader to claim an empty spot at one of the teams if you’re interested. This is purely invitational to avoid griping about who should be involved. Everyone can be involved down the line. Just not yet. If you want to fill vacancies in any of the below teams let us know quick!
Manufacturer Teams
Team Asus – TBC – TBC
Team Gigabyte – Hicookie – DeDaL
Team EVGA – k|ngp|n – Andre Yang
Team Biostar – pt1t – Bobelmagnifique
Team DFI – Massman – over@locker886
Team MSI – Bustah – Barron_Greenback
Guest Teams
Team Australia – dinos22 – Youngpro
Team USA – FUGGER – mikeguava
Team Greece – hipro5 – gprhellas
Team Finland – Sampsa – SF3D
Team Tom’s Hardware – TBC – TBC
Team China – Artkobe - Victorwang
Team Indonesia – Benny – Ekky
Team Russia – NeoForce - pofigist
Sponsorship
Each team is free to organise its own sponsorship. At present Corsair and Kingston are prepared to supply top-quality RAM to anyone that needs it. Power Supplies have also been promised by Antec, Corsair and Cooler Master. Galaxy is happy to supply graphics cards. All motherboard makers who make graphics cards should also help out. Contact Nick at the overclocker if you want to be put in touch with these people. We actively encourage competitors to get money for sponsoring their teams. For season two we should be able to provide agents for helping with this.
This has not been finalised and some people named may still be unaware of it. But we can't wait for everyone at this stage.
What do you all think?
Who should be in Team USA!?
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Originally Posted by The_Overclocker
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