MSI Master Overclocking Arena 2011

3DMark03

With the CPU-specific SuperPI 32M test out of the way, the teams turned their attention to 3DMark03, which the UK team explained was a more overall system test, needing both a hefty GPU and CPU overclock to score a high score. Balance is the key here, although teams would need to split their time between overclocking both the CPU and GPU, and finding the best balance between the two clocks. Importantly, the 50x CPU multiplier limit was lifted for this test, so teams could ramp up their CPU multipliers to really push their processors.

The UK team were more hopeful of their chances here, as their pre-testing had revealed their GPU to be a good overclocker on air. This wasn’t a guarantee of success, of course, as every chip reacts differently under LN₂, but it was a good sign. Unfortunately for them, though, their CPU still couldn't get beyond 5.2GHz, even when overclocking using the CPU multiplier instead of the base clock.


The team tried a range of temperatures from 30^oC all the way down to -110^o, and even tried slapping a suicidal 1.8V through the CPU at one point, but it was all to no avail. This was a costly experiment too, as the CMOS needed clearing and resetting every time they pushed the CPU too far, meaning they didn’t get the amount of time in the OS that they wanted to overclock the GPU.

In the end, the team posted a score of 120,573 (achieved with a 5.1GHz CPU, 1.17GHz GPU core and 2.45GHz GPU memory), which left them at the bottom of the table and in sore need of a few beers. This result also left the team concerned that the root of their poor performance could have been the motherboard, which may have taken a knock in transit from the UK. This left the team with a hard decision to make in the morning; whether they wanted to soldier on, or take the gamble and move to their reserve board.


At the other end of the table, the guys in the Romanian team was again going strong, but they were just beaten by the experienced Greek team who scored a whopping 154,227 points compared to their 150,933. To achieve this, the team had both the CPU and GPU under LN₂ with the CPU running at 5.5GHz (100MHz base clock, 55x multiplier) and the GPU at 1.44GHz with 2.3GHz memory. This launched the Greek team to top place overall, although only by a tiny margin.

The Spanish team was another big mover after this test, although in the wrong direction. After a great SuperPI 32M result, the team just couldn't get their GPU to play ball. The Russian team jumped up a number of places too, and was rumoured to have the best GPU in the room. This left the top five as Greece, Romania, Italy, Germany and Russia.