AMD pro, FlanK3r, is back again with more A10-7850K testing on the Crossblade Ranger. This time, he evaluates the effect of CPU NB (north bridge) frequency changes on performance, between standard 1.8GHz and 2GHz in Superpi 32M, Cinebench R11.5 and in 3D Mark11. See the thread link for more insights!

So you've bought yourself a Crossblade Ranger and an A10-7850K to go with it: now it's time to turn up the dials! Typically you can expect a mid-4GHz overclock with reasonable 'every-day' voltages, but your mileage will vary depending on the luck of the silicon draw. We'll approach overclocking in two parts - the basic BIOS setup, then nudging the system to find its limits from within Windows AI Suite III, so be sure to install the latest version from the Crossblade product page before you start.

Since the Crossblade Ranger is an ATX motherboard with plenty of PCIe slots, we're assuming you're not using the integrated Radeon APU graphics in preference of something higher performance in R7-R9 PCI-Express (or CrossFireX). For reference, we're using a Cooler Master Seidon 120M liquid cooler which is high performance and affordable, but not the absolute best cooler you can buy, yet we still ran with good temperatures when overclocked. Your own mileage will vary depending on factors like your ambient temp, fan speed settings and (luck of) quality of silicon in your A10-7850K.

BIOS Setup

From the default settings, let's prepare the BIOS first:

• Advanced - CPU Features - disable SVM (virtualization), APM Master and IOMMU.

In addition we left AMD PowerNow on but disabled C6, because even though we want the CPU to reduce its clock-speed and voltage to save power when idle, sometimes the very low C6 power state can cause instability and potentially limit the total overclock. Similarly APM Master was disabled because we don't want to limit the APU to its 95W power limit as we push its limits. In normal circumstances the APU should not exceed 95W with CPU cores alone, but at high voltage and frequency, and with the GPU cores active (with an OpenCL-enabled program, or with HSA for example) an APU can pull above 100W (AI Suite III shows the power draw in real-time). Depending on your happiness with power use versus performance desire, you can experiment with leaving C6 on/off or enabling APM Master, as both can potentially save power . 

Aiming for 4.5GHz

• Set the Ai Overclock Tuner to manual and enter 43 as the multiplier. 4.3GHz is a decent starting point as it should be attainable for most 7850K APUs. Set the memory frequency to match your installed DDR3 memory. Here we are using 2x4GB 2400MHz G.Skill RipjawsZ.

• Set the offset voltage so your CPU hits roughly 1.4V, set the memory voltage to match your DDR3 memory.

• Within DRAM Timing Control, enter the DDR3 memory values displayed on your DIMMs. If you're unsure about any value leave it Auto.

• Within DIGI+ Power Control, we recommend trying High LLC for a every-day overclock. Note that Extreme can work better than attempting to raise voltage offset in some cases, but again, this is something to test for yourself.

• Tools --> ASUS Overclocking Profile --> Save the changes you've just made into an OC profile to allow easy settings recall, just in case things require a Clear CMOS later. For those who are pushing the limits for benchmarking, then inevitably you'll be clearing the settings, so we recommend saving two separate profiles ('every-day OC' and 'benchmarking OC') to save effort. As you can see below we've saved several with custom descriptions.

• F10 --> double check your changes --> OK!

AI Suite III

If your PC booted into Windows OK, from within AI Suite III let's push the system a little further. If at anytime the overclock fails, restart, (if necessary reload the OC profile) and try again! Your mileage will vary depending on your CPU. 

• Click on the TPU icon to load the overclocking functions. 

• Alternate between adding +1 to the CPU ratio and more voltage, making note of where the system crashes to compensate next time. For an every-day overclock we don't recommend higher than 1.45V - the lower the better to save power, heat and the life of your silicon - however going a bit higher just to check some settings for a short time won't hurt.

Once you've settled on a final, stable overclocked frequency, you can now begin to lower the voltage to check when the system crashes. This gives you an operating boundary to do further tests to find the best stable overclock : voltage ratio for your APU, in order to save the most power.

Stress Testing

Let's use Realbench to check stability - first run a standard benchmark. Realbench will test your whole system - single thread/multi thread/memory and IO. Does it complete it OK?

If yes, click Stress Test and run it for an hour; this will really test the system. If it passes this it will be stable in almost all scenarios. If it's not possible, turn the multiplier down a notch and try again.

Try the Base Clock

With our A10-7850K we hit a wall around 4.6GHz, but we wanted to find the fine grained limit between 4.6-4.7GHz, so we nudged the base clock up a few MHz as well. The whole system uses the base clock as a reference for its own clock frequencies, so the DDR3 memory frequency and PCI-Express will change also. To compensate, lower the DDR3 memory frequency setting or add more DDR3 memory voltage. We used 2400MHz DDR3 memory, so we dialed it back to 2133MHz before pushing the base clock upwards. Use CPU-Z (can launch from the Realbench About menu) to follow DDR3 memory frequency changes.

• Please note that version 1.7 upwards is required to read FM2+ CPU core voltage correctly.

Starting from 44x we used AI Suite III again to push the base clock from 100MHz to 104 - 105 - 106 etc. 

[gallery include="34960,34961" size="large" link="file" template="file-gallery" columns="2"]

Pushing the limits for benchmarking

As it describes itself, an 'every-day' overclock has to potentially run reliably all-day, every-day, with voltages that are not going to cause long-term damage. Finding the limits for benchmarking, however, is about pushing the settings as high as possible, but for a very short period. Note that even in short periods very high voltage still causes damage, but if you want to test your skills and have some fun to compare and compete with others, this is the way to do it. To get started, we recommend these general guidelines, however getting involved in AMD overclocking forums/communities to chat about exact settings and techniques is highly recommended too!

• The best cooling you can manage. Add as many fans as you can to the VRMs and CPU area.
• Max out all the DIGI+ Power control settings in the BIOS.
• Turn off all power savings options in CPU Features.
• Turn off all motherboard extra functions you're not using, like sound and networking.
• Use a high quality power supply to provide stable voltages.
• Providing you can control the temperature, prepare to use a very high CPU voltage. This is a time of experimentation that should be fun, but before you start ask yourself "can I afford to kill my hardware?" if not, don't do it!
• If you are using faster than 2400MHz memory, you will need to increase the CPU base clock to achieve its frequency.
• Increasing CPU NB frequency can give the edge in benchmark results, but it can require some considerable voltage (up to ~1.35V). See this thread results as a reference.

Our best A10-7850K CPU frequency result was 4.9GHz, with just 4.71GHz stable enough to run 1M SuperPi.

The FX-8370 has only just been eeked out the door, and already Finnish overclocker The Stilt has pushed it within licking distance of 9GHz, with his FX-8370 frequency hitting 8722.78MHz (+164.77% over stock speeds), also using the Crosshair V Formula-Z motherboard.

• Verification Link
• HWBot submission
• via OCTV

Update: We missed Andre Yang's 8794MHz FX-8150 result (also on Crosshair V Formula-Z), however Andre's result uses 2/8 cores, whereas Stilt managed to push all 8 of the FX-8370 cores up past 8GHz, which is still a tremendous result and certainly the fastest 8-core CPU!

At the recent ASUS Expo 2014 FM2+ overclocking event, Vietnamese overclocker Congthanh pushed an A6-6400K to 7699.78MHz (+97.43%) under liquid nitrogen using the ROG Crossblade Ranger motherboard.

See the gallery and link below for more details.

[gallery include="36363,36364,36365,36366" size="large" link="file" template="file-gallery" columns="2"]

For Maximus VII Series, Rampage V Extreme and Crossblade Ranger owners, GameFirst III now includes a LiveUpdate function in the top-right corner, so you can always grab the latest version without having to check the website's download page.

The latest v1.00.11 adds the function and also contains several bug fixes, so be sure to update soon!

2014 is over already? We hope you've got a great night of celebration ahead (or if you're reading this on 1st, we hope the hang-over is not too bad!) . It's been a big year of 'firsts' for Republic of Gamers (and TUF and Strix), with many new product series launching; Poseidon, Striker, new mini-desktops, new series' of gaming laptops, a monitor, new mice, motherboards with new designs and painted PCBs, and much, much more. As it goes into its ninth year in 2015, ROG has evolved well beyond the motherboards and graphics cards that first made its name as the performance gamer's choice.

We've been through the last 35 pages of archives (!!) to dig out the best bits of 2014 as a reminder what ASUS, Strix, TUF and ROG products arrived, month-by-month. What was your 2014 upgrade and what are you looking forward to in 2015? We've got some great stuff in the pipe and it all starts off with CES next week. And no, my lips (well, fingers) are sealed until then!

January 2014:

• First ROG Poseidon launched, with exclusive Direct H2O hybrid cooling design
• World's first G-Sync monitor arrived, with the limited edition Nvidia VG248Q G-Sync upgrade mod
• ASUS R9 290/290X DirectCU II graphics cards launched
• The bigger ROG Nomad backpack launched

February 2014:

• ASUS GTX Titan Black graphics card launched
• ASUS GTX 750 Ti DirectCU II graphics card launched

March 2014:

• Both ROG Matrix GTX 780 Ti and R9 290X graphics cards double-launch
• ROG G750 series gaming notebooks launched
• ASUS GTX 280 DirectCU II graphics card launched
• ROG G56JR gaming notebook launched

April 2014:

• ASUS R9 295X graphics card launched
• ROG introduces Striker series graphics cards, with Striker GTX 760 Platinum
• 4K revolution continues, with ASUS PB287Q

May 2014:

• ROG introduces Maximus VII series with Hero, Gene and new Ranger
• TUF launches its Z97 series Sabertooth and Gryphon
• ASUS GTX Titan Z launches
• ROG launches the G550JK gaming notebook
• Strix launches its first semi-fanless graphics cards with the R9 280 and GTX 780 series
• Strix Pro gaming headset launches

June 2014:

• Computex announcements for ARES III, GR8, Crossblade Ranger, Gladius mouse, GX500 gaming notebook, Maximus VII Formula, Impact, G20 and GK2000 keyboard!
• Computex announcements for PA328Q, PB279Q 4K monitors

July 2014:

• ROG launches the Maximus VII Formula motherboard
• ROG Swift PG278Q G-Sync gaming monitor launches
• Strix GTX 750 Ti graphics card launches
• Xonar U5 USB sound card and headphone amp launches
• Strix series expands its gaming credentials with the Strix DSP headset, Strix Claw mouse, Strix Tactic Pro keyboard and Strix Glide mouse mats launch

August 2014:

• ROG Rampage V Extreme motherboard launches
• ROG Crossblade Ranger motherboard launches
• ROG Maximus VII Impact motherboard launches
• ASUS X99 series motherboards launch
• ROG GM50 mouse mat launches

September 2014:

• Strix R9 285 graphics card launches
• ROG launches the Gladius gaming mouse
• ROG launches the ARES III graphics card
• ROG launches the G20 mini gaming desktop
• ROG launches the G551 and G771 series gaming laptops
• Strix GTX 980 and GTX 970 graphics cards launch

October 2014:

• ROG launches the GR8 mini gaming desktop
• ROG launches the G751 series gaming laptops
• ASUS launches the Z97 Pro Gamer motherboard

November 2014:

• ROG Poseidon GTX 980 graphics cards launches
• TUF launches the limited edition Sabertooth Z97 Mark S - white PCB, white Thermal Armor
• Strix 7.1 gaming headset launched

December 2014:

• ASUS GTX 970 DirectCU Mini graphics card launched for mini-ITX PCs
• ASUS PB279Q 4K monitor launches
• ROG Matrix GTX 980 graphics card launches
• Strix 2.0 gaming headset launches
• Xonar U3 Plus USB mini-sound card launches

Many of us check for updates and drivers habitually, much in the same way as opening a fridge looking for something to eat, despite knowing that we had just checked it an hour ago and the odds are that nothing has changed since then.  Why do we do this?  Because enthusiasts simply can't wait for the possibility of squeezing out even more performance, compatibility, stability, functionality or maybe even a fresh look or new options in the interface.  Sometimes a new update is all you need to take your hardware somewhere it has never gone before, perhaps the 5GHz territory.  ASUS has invested a tremendous amount of time and effort in this area so that you can feel as though you have brand new hardware to ticker with all over again.  Without further ado, here is the list of new updates this month (some may be released at time of writing so take a look anyway if you can't find yours here):

 Q87T-SI 0912
H81T-R2-SI 0501
A88X-PRO 1803
H81M-C-BR 2101
Z97M-PLUS-BR-SI 2701
H81M-C-R2 2201
H81M-E 2201
F2A85-M-LE 6504
H81M-K 1101
F2A55-M-LE 6604
B85M-F-PLUS 0303
H81M-D 2203
H81M-A 2201
H81M-C 2301
GR6 0401
CS-B 1201
H81-PLUS 2301
B85M-G-PLUS 0304
H87I-PLUS-SI 2003
F2A85-V-PRO 6504
H81M-V-PLUS-SI 2006
H81M-V3-SI 2005
AM1M-E 0401
H81M-R 0401
H81M-A-BR-SI 2201
MAXIMUS-VII-GENE 2501
Q87I-PLUS-SI 0401
H81T-SI 0801
M5A97-EVO-R20 2603
X99-A 1402
H81M-CS/BR 0401
B85M-V-PLUS-SI 0602
B85M-F 2402
X99-PRO 1501
P8Z68-V-PRO-GEN3 3802
Q87M-E 1501（D）
X99-DELUXE 1601
X99-DELUXE/U3.1 1601
X99-S 1601
UN42 0701
UN62 0701
VC62B 0405
Z97-K-USB-31 0401
RAMPAGE-V-EXTREME 1401
RAMPAGE-V-EXTREME/U3.1 1401
MAXIMUS-VII-FORMULA 2601
MAXIMUS-VII-FORMULA/WATCH DOGS 2601
MAXIMUS-VII-HERO 2601
MAXIMUS-VII-HERO/ACU 2601
MAXIMUS-VII-RANGER 2601
MAXIMUS-VII-GENE 2601
MAXIMUS-VII-IMPACT 2601
UN62V 0401
Z97-E-USB-31 0402
VC60 1105
VM42 1108
GR6 0501
GR8 0702
TROOPER-B85 0402
B85M-GAMER 0601
B85M-D 2008
B85M-D PLUS 0510
B85M-F 2601
B85M-K 1005
B85M-K PLUS 0401
H81M-R 0503
VM62 1108
H81M-P 2303
B85-PLUS-USB-31 0309
N3150M-E 0204
VM60 0706
H81M-PLUS 2109
Q87M-E 1502
VC60V 0605
F1A55-M-LX3 0901
B85M-G-PLUS-USB31 0305
H81M-Apollo1 0101
A88X-PLUS 2302
J1900I-C-SI 0613
A88XM-PLUS 2202
A88X-PRO 1902
A88X-GAMER 0904
A88XM-A 2204
CROSSBLADE-RANGER 1002
H81M2 2203
H81M-D-PLUS 2303
A55BM-E/BR 1603
A58M-A/BR 1102
A58M-A/BR 1103
B85M-GAMER 0602
H81-GAMER 0503
H97I-PLUS 2603
H97M-E 2402
H97M-PLUS 2501
H97-PLUS 2502
H97-PRO 2801
H97-PRO GAMER 2405
Z97-C 2404
Z97-E 0702
Z97-E/USB 3.1 0403
Z97I-PLUS 2604
Z97-K 2603
Z97-K R2.0 0802
Z97-K/USB 3.1 0402
Z97M-PLUS 2801
Z97M-PLUS/BR 2801
Z97-P 2801
Z97-PRO GAMER 2103
N3050M-E-ASUS-0216. 0216
A88XM-E 1204
TROOPER-B85 0405
A68HM-PLUS 0803
A68HM-E 0803
A68HM-K 0803
M5A78L-LE 2101
VM62N 1108
VANGUARD-B85 2202
A58M-K 1302
GR8 1001
M5A78L-M-LE 0211
B85M-E-BR-SI 2107
A58M-A-BR-SI 1103
B85M-V5-PLUS 0403
A58-C 0803
A68HM-F 0505
B85M-V-PRO-SI 0501
A55BM-PLUS 2102

A few important points to consider before updating:

• If in the early stages of building a system, it is best to update before you install a new operating system.
• If you are using a RAID configuration, please backup your data and check if an update will render the existing configuration unusable.
• If you have overclocked your system, backup your settings, that way you can confirm if the new update has improved overclockability. 
• All X99 motherboards received a UEFI update to fully support NVMe based SSDs as well as offer support of the ASUS Hyperkit module. This module allows X99 motherboards to support using Intel’s 750 series 2.5 inch SSD via the Hyperkit module which interfaces with the onboard M.2 slot.
• All Z97 motherboards have recevied a UEFI update to fully support NVMe based SSDs including Intel’s 750 series.

Generous might be a word used to describe how many ASUS boards that PC Gamer has nominated for best motherboards in their "The best gaming motherboards" article. However, it's pretty obvious that each nominated board is quite deserving of the honor. In total there are 7 categories for nomination and ASUS motherboards has claimed 5 of those spots.

See the full list of the nominated motherboards below:

ASUS Z97 PRO Gamer - The Best Mid-Range Motherboard  (LGA 1150)
ASUS Z97 PRO WI-FI/USB 3.1 - The Best High-End Motherboard (LGA 1150)
ASUS X99 RAMPAGE V - The Best Intel Extreme Motherboard (LGA 2011 v3)
ASUS Z97I PLUS - The Best Mini-ITX Motherboard (LGA 1150)
ASUS A88X-PRO - The Best AMD Motherboards (FM2+)

Click here to check out the full article!