HTT Frequency performance scaling

The HTT frequency is the base frequency of which all other frequencies (processor, ht link, memory, northbridge) are derived. Standard, the HTT frequency is set at 200MHz, which is more than the base clock of the i7, which is set at 133MHz. However, in contrary to what you'd expect from frequencies in computing hardware, more does not equal better by definition. The base frequency is not directly related to the performance of your processor, it's what determines the clock speed of your components. To explain with a small example: 400x6 will always be slower than 200x20. The higher the base clock frequency can be clocked, the more room one has to tweak his configuration, though, so in that aspect more does indeed equal better.

Unlike with the first Phenom series, the Phenom II is again pretty decent in terms of HTT overclocking. I had no issues with booting around 300MHz, but 330MHz was the limit. Other overclockers have been able to reach over 400MHz, though, so I reckon we haven't seen the end of this yet.

Test settings:

Core frequency: 3600MHz

HT Link frequency: 2400MHz

Northbridge frequency: 2400MHz

Memory frequency: 400MHz (1:2 divider)

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

Variable:

HTT frequency: 200 - 240 - 300MHz


(Click for bigger version)

What we expected also came true: almost no gain going from 200MHz to 300MHz, which is a 50% increase in clockspeed. That increase gives you at most 3,5% performance increase and that only in one benchmark, the rest is still far below that number.