[section_title title=”Overclocking”]
Overclocking
When you’re overclocking with CPUs today, you are expected to be in for an easy ride due to the way that we now overclock on the new platforms. The tweaking of the system’s internal clock is not really required anymore, and 99% of the overclock can be achieved purely with a multiplier here or there. This has made overclocking rather dull, but there are reasons behind it, which we shall not venture into today. The MSI X99A Gaming Pro Carbon made this as easy as it sounds, touch the multipliers, add a little voltage, and boot up. Job done. It really is that easy if you know what you’re doing with regards to the voltages. For most of you out there, it may be a case of wanting to fine tune the voltages, but I just ran with what I knew would work, and I left it there. Sadly, I haven’t got the time to minimise the voltages, and the other issue is that I may not have the same CPU in the future.
I did come across an issue where I was unable to use the 125 MHz BCLK strap, but I have had some words with the guys at MSI HQ, and they assured me it was a one off. I’d typically expect to be able to choose which strap I wanted to use, but the Carbon automatically detects which is best by gathering which you’re closest to, and then sets that strap automatically. Useful, yes, but a little upsetting that I cannot choose it myself. I am a man of belief whereby it must be set manually. Maybe those days are coming to an end. However, I was under the misconception that the 125 MHz strap was needed for 3000 MHz RAM (like on Haswell-E), but they assured me that Broadwell-E had this fixed. I thought to myself: ‘okay, let us test this then.’ Sure enough, it worked! Hooray!
The motherboard was able to remain stable at all frequencies which I tried (within reason, of course) and it did not show any signs of breaking a sweat. The sample which we had for our i7-6950X wasn’t the best overclocker in the world, but it still managed to reach its 4.2 GHz marker without any trouble whatsoever. The memory was also able to operate at above stock frequencies with very little tuning to the UEFI. I ran it at 3200 MHz, so a small increase over its 3000 MHz stock frequency, with absolutely minimal effort. One thing to note here is that I would highly advise taking the VCCSA (System Agent) voltages off of automatic and to set them yourself. MSI have done some testing on various modules and have found that 1.35v is generally a safe zone as it allows for 99% of the kits out there to run at XMP. I quickly found out that to run 3200 MHz in quad channel only required 1.1 volts, significantly lower than the 1.35 volts they selected it to use by itself. I am in talks with HQ to try to get them to see if it can be lowered, because 1.35 volts is not something I’d like to shove through my memory controller on a daily basis, especially not with a £1500 CPU being the possible victim of the over-voltage. It may be down to personal preference as I haven’t got the Intel specs to hand, but that’s just my idea of being safe, I suppose.
From the results which we’ve already seen, the memory performance on the Carbon is simply phenomenal. I can’t even begin to understand how they have done it, but I know that they have tweaked things in the BIOS, things which are already changed/tweaked before you change timings manually. The MSI engineers have just blown the performance figures off of the charts (literally, I had to change the graphing around!) with their changes, and I am simply left in awe. I think that they are going to be incredibly difficult to beat in this round. The results were so far out that I actually ended up testing both motherboards on the charts twice just to confirm. After a fresh install of Windows, reloaded UEFI settings and a couple of cans of Monster Energy, I ran the motherboard through the tests again, only to find that the results gathered the first time around were indeed correct. In this industry, you’re better off being safe rather than sorry. That caffeine sure did hit the spot, though…
As with all of my overclocking tests, I do try to force the motherboard into an unrecoverable loop whereby the only method of reviving the board is a full power down. I could not get the Carbon into such a state where it would refuse to boot back up after a few on and off cycles of its own. I know I basically write the same comment in all of my reviews, but it is just proving to be too darn difficult with today’s recovery methods. Stupid technology moving forward and making things more reliable…. bah humbug! On a serious note, though, this is a good thing!
Now that we’ve examined the motherboard in its fullest state, let’s shimmy on to the conclusion to weigh up the good and bad points of the X99A Gaming Pro Carbon.
