The Wonderful Journey in the world of ROG RealBench

[Zka17]

I recently got my hands on an Asus Maximus V Extreme and a 3770k. Lately I was benching on the RIVE, so I kinda forgot how to tweak the Z77 platform... I have decided that I will start tweaking/re-learning and checking the results with ROG RealBench! :cool:

It proved to be a very exciting experience, so I'm willing to share it... 🙂

The objective was to get as high score as possible in RB, but keep the tweaking as simple as possible - I was curious primarily about this platform's and CPU's performance... more serious tweaking will come later...

Let's start with the hardware:
Mobo: Asus Maximus V Extreme - stock cooling
CPU: Intel Core i7-3770k - it is a used, de-lidded & re-lidded specimen (TIM has been changed in it), watercooled (chiller)
RAM: GSkill TridentX, 2x4GB, 2600MHz, 10-12-12-31 2T, 1.65V - stock cooling
SSD: Samsung 830, 128GB - for OS and applications
HDD: some small laptop platter - for data
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate - with all the updates installed
VGA: GeForce Titan - stock cooling (has no importance in this experiment)

ROG RealBench is the newest version to date: v1.1

As it can be seen, the only watercooled part is the CPU... it's connected to my chiller and the coolant temp was set to 65F/18.33C, while the room temp was 23C...

The OS is running in Diagnostic Mode, Realbench.exe's priority is set to Realtime and explorer.exe is turned off... after each set of runs, restarted the system...

1. After setting up the system and installing all the updates, I run my first RealBench test... just to set a baseline...
At this point everything was on BIOS defaults - got a system score of 570

2. The first tweak was to choose the XMP settings form Ai Tuner: 2400MHz/10-12-12-31 2T - score went up to 645

3. just to have the sensation that I'm controlling the tweaking, I set the memories at their XMP spec manually... and set the CPU to 3.9GHz (39x100)... I started to run two tests one after another - got a max score of 646

4. Then I switched the memories from 2T to 1T - just a little bit of increase in scores: 648

5. Then I have started to push the CPU, basically by only increasing the multi... but before, I disabled the CPU Spread Spectrum, Execute Disabled Bit and all C-States... CPU at 4GHz (40x100) - score 662

6. Just continued increasing the multi... CPU at 4.2GHz - score 690

7. CPU at 4.4GHz - score 719



8. CPU at 4.6GHz - score 746



9. And CPU at 4.8GHz - score 770

Please, note that I haven't changed anything else in BIOS beside of those mentioned above...
However, the next step, moving to 5GHz started to present some trouble:



The system booted up fine, even the AIDA64 stress-testing was going on well... - only the RealBench was not happy...

10. So, I took some extra measures... enabled the Internal PLL Overvoltage, set LLC to Ultra HIgh and disabled VRM Sread Spectrum... also, started to push the Vcore manually..
. at 1.520V finally got a result with CPU at 5.0GHz - score 796

11. Got very excited and applied an another tweak: reduced the screen resolution to 1024x768... had to push the Vcore a little bit more (to 1.530) - and finally passed the 800 mark with a 4-core CPU! 5.0GHz - score 809



12. Then followed a long period of trial and - mostly errors - while I was pushing the Vcore further for 5.1GHz... when I passed 1.6V, I actually set the coolant temp to 60F/15.5C, just to stay on the safe side... also, enabled the Xtreme Tweaking (not sure if this one helped) and set the LLC to Extreme... I was running AIDA64 in background to monitor the temps... when I got to 1.66V, finally passed with CPU at 5.1GHz - score 805



Temps reached 80C during the second test!

13. And finally I reset the screen to the lower resolution... CPU at 5.1GHz - score 821



Here is the summary of my journey:



And a chart with the evolution of the scores:



I'm showing the each score from both of the runs, so it can be seen that it is a big difference running RealBench for the second time! Also, check how much improvement brings if you set the screen resolution lower!

One more thing... you also can see how the Vcore got increased... - please, monitor your temps while tweaking!!! The role of this thread is to show some basic tweaks (maybe, letar on some more detailed ones too) and not suggesting that your CPU can do the same clocks at the same voltage! Your CPU can be actually better, needing less voltage... or can be worse... - don't forget that I used a chiller for cooling...

So, that's it for now... hope you will enjoy it...

[Masterbobo]

you said your using a chiller, what is that? lol

[Zka17]

It's an aquarium cooler, adapted for PC use... 🙂

It can cool the water approx 5-10C below ambient... of course, that depending on the relative humidity and your willingness to insulate your system (if the dew point is reached, condensation will happen)

[Masterbobo]

Zka17 wrote:
It's an aquarium cooler, adapted for PC use... 🙂

It can cool the water approx 5-10C below ambient... of course, that depending on the relative humidity and your willingness to insulate your system (if the dew point is reached, condensation will happen)

wth? pics? links? is it submerged in water? ive seen that but not sure if its a prank HAHA

[Zka17]

Nothing is submerged in water...

Here is a review of mine: http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cooling/2010/07/20/hailea-hc-500a-water-chiller-review/1

[Detleg]

drip drip Booom

[nikosa43]

Five stars for the thread, for the work and the people to see!

[HiVizMan]

Nice thread ZKa folks do not really understand the hour and hours that can and should go into testing for a particular benchmark.

[IM2L844]

Okay, in an attempt to automate a sortable spreadsheet, I created a form that automatically enters the data into a spreadsheet once it is filled out and submitted. I think I have it configured so anyone can use it or edit it from the link and I don't think you need to be signed in to Google.

This is just sort of an experiment to see how something like this might work. I don't know if anyone would have the time to create something similar "in house" for the ROG site.

If you want, you can give it a whirl here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1zhePmWylUq80tKA58TYd0TYoG5EGnMhHSQflXyA-KLE/viewform

Suggestions and criticisms are welcome. It's just an idea.

[Zka17]

IM2L844 wrote:
Okay, in an attempt to automate a sortable spreadsheet, I created a form that automatically enters the data into a spreadsheet once it is filled out and submitted. I think I have it configured so anyone can use it or edit it from the link and I don't think you need to be signed in to Google.

This is just sort of an experiment to see how something like this might work. I don't know if anyone would have the time to create something similar "in house" for the ROG site.

If you want, you can give it a whirl here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1zhePmWylUq80tKA58TYd0TYoG5EGnMhHSQflXyA-KLE/viewform

Suggestions and criticisms are welcome. It's just an idea.

That would complement nicely the thread where we're submitting the RB scores! However, if you want more infos about details, you may need to list there the whole BIOS' settings... and for every socket type... - it would be a huge database...

[Zka17]

Thanks Nikosa and HiVizMan!

Well, yes, the time... I intentionately didn't mentioned it... - but who does this kind of tweakings/benchings must enjoy it... so, then time doesn't really matter... 🙂