CPU Frequency performance scaling



Last but not least, the overall CPU frequency performance scaling chart. Ever since Intel released its Core 2 Duo processor series which showed OC scaling over 50% even with stock cooling, we re-evaluated our OC results with AMD, on average a 20% OC is far from bad, but not at all impressive compared to the Intel counterpart. The main problem though is the low overclockability when you want more than just 24/7 stable settings, when you're aiming for absolute high-end performance and need to squeeze every last megahertz out of your system ... something that can be very tricky on AMD systems.

Why? Well, most processors won't hit 3,5GHz on air cooling and even with exotic cooling solutions you won't hit far over 4Ghz if you don't have a so-called gem chip, basically a very good overclocker. Partially because of the coldbug problems, which has been every overclocker's nightmare for many, many years ... well, actually since AMD switched to the IMC with the Athlon 64.

Test settings:

HTT frequency: 200MHz

HT Link frequency: 1800MHz

Northbridge frequency: 1800MHz

Memory frequency: 400MHz (1:2 divider)

Memory timings: 4-4-4-10 2T Ganged

Variable:

Core frequency: 800-4000MHz


(Click for bigger version)

Of course, we expect the cpu frequency to make the biggest difference in all benchmarks, except maybe Everest as that's a real memory test. It's good to see that the Phenom II is actually still scaling well beyond stock frequencies; if we're correct, it should even be scaling pretty well beyond 4GHz.