Many years ago, playing DIY and playing overclocking was regarded as the patent of a master, because overclocking at that time required users to have a deep understanding of the hardware, and they also had to adjust the settings one by one in the face of various obscure English abbreviations in BIOS. In order to drain the residual value of the hardware in your hands, it is very common to struggle for a day to improve performance by 1%.
. Many years later, overclocking is no longer a problem. The motherboard BIOS uses various auxiliary means to help users complete overclocking. Even Intel and AMD's various unlocked frequency-doubling versions of processor have turned it into something that can be completed by just entering a bit of a mouse. It can be achieved simply to improve performance and make the CPU you buy more value. Why not do it?
Nowadays, many users who choose to assemble the machine may configure a CPU that does not lock the frequency and a motherboard that supports overclocking. They may be a little interested in overclocking, but when faced with the thick motherboard manual, they lose the desire to try. In fact, the motherboard manual does not tell you directly how to overclock, but you still need to explore it yourself. Everything is difficult at the beginning. This article takes the Gigabyte Z390 AORUS XTREME motherboard as an example, and plays a role in attracting jade. It teaches you who are interested in overclocking but have no idea how to explore the CPU overclocking and drain the residual value of the processor in your hand.
motherboard introduction
Gigabyte Z390 AORUS XTREME is currently the flagship motherboard with the most high-end positioning among Gigabyte Z390 motherboards. The luxurious 16-phase power supply is enough to support the i9-9900K in overclocking state. The huge armor and power supply heat sink can quickly dissipate the heat generated during work. The three M.2 slots ensure that users can use large-capacity SSD storage. In addition, the motherboard is equipped with dual USB-Ch interfaces, one of which supports the Thunderbolt 3 protocol.
Let’s take a closer look at the high-definition large picture of the motherboard:
At first glance, you will be attracted by the huge expansion armor. There are three M.2 slots below, two of which support the maximum specification of 22110, and one supports the maximum specification of 2280, giving SSD enthusiasts enough space to play in terms of storage expansion.
Z390 AORUS XTREME's armor covers most of the back, providing better protection for the back circuit.
If you want to carry Core i9-9900K, a large power consumer with a full load power consumption of more than 200W, then the specifications of the power supply part must be strong. Gigabyte directly sets up a luxurious 16-phase power supply to the Z390 AORUS XTREME, effectively reducing the load on each phase and providing high stability in power supply.
Since the power supply part has been strengthened, the places where the power is input must naturally be strengthened. The Z390 AORUS XTREME uses a side-mounted 24-Pin interface and is reinforced and strengthened. The CPU power supply part is equipped with a dual 8-Pin input, which can theoretically withstand the equivalent of 672W±5% CPU power supply. Of course, we generally do not need such a large input power. Its function is to maximize the current received by a single power terminal, which is conducive to reducing port heating and extending life. The
I/O expansion also demonstrates its flagship level. There are two RJ-45 network ports, one is the common gigabit network port and the other is the real 10Gbps network port, with a speed of up to 10Gbps. If you want to use wireless network and Bluetooth, you only need to connect the antenna. Two USB-C interfaces are also set up below the two network ports, one of which supports Thunderbolt 3, and the maximum transmission rate can reach 40Gbps. In addition to the two USB-C ports, the motherboard also has multiple USB 3.1-specification interfaces, providing a transfer rate of 10Gbps. The audio part provides an optical fiber interface, allowing users to easily connect power amplifiers and other equipment.
Starting from the 8 series chipset, manufacturers pay more and more attention to the audio modules of the motherboard. Z390 AORUS XTREME also retains their excellent design on the audio circuit. After the audio Codec, they used a 9018K2M DAC chip from ESS for digital-to-analog conversion, and then separated the left and right channels. Each side was passed through an LME49720 op amp, and then amplified output through the OPA1622 of Texas Instruments.The entire audio circuit has its own independent shielding cover, and a series of advanced electronic components ensure the signal purity of the entire audio circuit. Compared with the audio circuit of ordinary motherboards, the Z390 AORUS XTREME can provide better direct output, and it is no problem to drive ordinary headphones.
motherboard has dual BIOS and retains the hardware switching lever. In various unexpected scenarios, the second BIOS can be used as a life-saving straw to restore the entire system to its original state, or save the overclocking state to a BIOS, easily switching between default and overclocking.
When installing or overclocking, the hardware DEBUG light is a very practical detection tool. It allows players to understand what part is wrong, and quickly carry out targeted debugging work to reduce the time wasted on disassembly and assembly of other hardware. The hardware DEBUG light has thus become a symbol of high-end motherboards, and the Z390 AORUS XTREME has also been configured without surprise. Although the
hardware DEBUG lamp can display more detailed error information, many times we have to check the comparison table on the manual to know the specific fault information. In fact, you only need to know which part is wrong. At this time, the simple hardware failure indicator light on the motherboard will work. Which light is on is wrong. It is simple, crude and easy to understand.
It also has a boot and one-click overclocking button on the board, providing players with sufficient convenience for use. Users who are too lazy to do it themselves can let the motherboard help you complete this troublesome work, just click it.
overclocking settings
Turn on the computer and press Del to enter the BIOS setting interface of the motherboard. We directly press F7 to enter the advanced mode, and use the left and right arrow keys to switch to the Tweaker tab. Here, we need to modify the CPU frequency doubling, CPU voltage and memory XMP mode, which is also the most basic overclocking point.
set frequency doubling
Core i9-9900K full-core station is still very easy to 5GHz. The CPU main frequency can be calculated by the external frequency x frequency doubling. Here we directly set the frequency doubling to 50, which means that its main frequency is 5GHz.
Set memory
What you need to adjust is the memory XMP mode. Here we will remind many friends who purchase assemblers directly online. Many times, even if you configure high-frequency memory, the merchant may not set it up for you. After you get it, you still have to check it yourself. If it is not enabled, you need to manually adjust it to the on state. In this BIOS, changing the option to Profile1 means that XMP is enabled.
sets the voltage prevention and CPU voltage
and then comes to the link of setting the voltage. Why do you need to manually set the voltage? Generally, motherboards will give a higher voltage in order to ensure overclocking stability. Due to the different CPU constitutions, we are likely not to use such a high voltage. Using low voltage can also reduce the heating and power consumption of the CPU.
However, before setting the voltage, we must first configure a function: prevent voltage drop. This function can ensure the stability of the CPU voltage and will not reduce too much voltage under high load, thereby ensuring the stable operation of the PC.
In the BIOS of Z390 AORUS XTREME, this function is hidden in the advanced voltage settings, called CPU Vcore Loadline correction. Gigabyte provides a diagram on this function. Judging from the amplitude of pressure drop, Normal is the most powerful drop, and UltraExtreme has even reached the point of pressurization. Generally, we choose the third gear, which is the Turbo, so as to ensure that the pressure drops under high load cannot be excessive.
then comes to the link of setting the CPU voltage.
Here we use dynamic voltage settings. The advantage of this voltage setting method is that it will automatically reduce the CPU voltage under low load to save energy, and can also delay the occurrence of "CPU cylinder shrinkage situation" as much as possible. The dynamic voltage is determined by the motherboard itself, and this value is generally high, so the motherboard also provides a voltage offset value so that the user can control the voltage range. So how to determine this offset value? A method that can exercise multiple times to test.First, determine the voltage value given by the motherboard without an offset value. If it is unstable in the pressure test, then increase the offset value. If it is stable, then decrease the offset value. Let’s actually use it:
enable dynamic voltage on Gigabyte motherboard. First, you need to modify the CPU core voltage to Normal, and then restart and enter the system to use the Intel XTU tool to view the CPU voltage value. Z390 AORUS XTREME automatically provides us with a voltage of 1.33V to this Core i9-9900K, which can pass the pressure test. So we will start to reduce the voltage offset value. Here we recommend that you adjust the step with 0.01V as every time. After encountering unstable situations, you can fine-tune it with 0.005V as step.
Through the test, Z390 AORUS XTREME successfully used a voltage of 1.28V to bring up this 5GHz i9-9900K. At this time, the voltage offset value is -0.05V, and the voltage value when entering the BIOS is 1.26V. When running at the maximum load in the operating system, its voltage will rise to 1.29V. However, it will automatically enter energy-saving mode during standby. At this time, the main frequency of the CPU is only 0.8GHz, and the voltage is quite low.
test score
As mentioned at the beginning of the article, we overclock to squeeze out the surplus value in the CPU. After successful overclocking, we naturally have to simply verify the overclocking results. Here we choose several online games and CineBench R20 for a simple comparison.
test platform
test score
Although we only exceeded the main frequency of 300MHz this time, the performance differences have been reflected in actual game tests. At present, games are still relatively sensitive to the CPU's main frequency. On the one hand, when dealing with various game AI and interactive scenarios, CPUs with higher main frequency can bring better processing efficiency; on the other hand, CPUs with higher main frequency can also feed more data to the graphics card, bringing graphics card performance to the extreme. You can see that in "Rainbow Six: Siege", the average frame rate after overclocking to 5GHz is already close to 240Hz, which can feed your 240Hz monitor. In the other three games and tests, the results have also improved to a certain extent.
summary: Start using the residual value of the CPU.
. The processor without locking frequency doubler is like providing users with free lunch. It opens a certain overclocking space to users, allowing users who are willing to do it to have better performance without any money. The optimization made by motherboard manufacturers in the BIOS is to make the name of overclocking within reach for all users, just like this Z390 AORUS XTREME BIOS. Although it has many entries, we can actually only need to move a few of them and we can complete the overclocking. We can even simply press the OC overclocking button on the motherboard to let the motherboard automatically complete the overclocking work. So as long as you are willing and simple to do, you can take advantage of the residual value of the CPU in your host. Come on, let's overclock together.
