AM2 Motherboards-Part 4: ATI Crossfire Xpress 3200

Overclocking Comparison

If we only had results from AMD processors and we were comparing AM2 results, we would be absolutely blown away by the results of the AMD OC testing. All of the AM2 boards except the problematic ECS overclocked to beyond 300 MHz bus speed and many reached or came close to 350. This represents a 50 to 75% overclock of the base clocks which is testament to the high speed capabilities of both the NVIDIA and ATI chipsets.

Testing overclocks at the stock 12x multiplier is more a measure of the overclocking ability of the CPU, but even here all the boards reached the 250 to 260 range - a 25% to 30% overclock. Compared to our last results with Socket 939, these AM2 results are remarkable - even more so because we are still dealing with a 90nm process on AM2 and we really shouldn't find this kind of headroom still remaining in a CPU near the end of a process life.



Of course we don't live in a vacuum and reality sets in when you compare results with the 65nm Intel Core 2 Duo. We have seen Core 2 Duo stock speed overclocks of as much as 100%, and bus speeds of 450 -- or about a 70% OC of the 266 bus -- have been achieved with air cooling.

As a die-shrink happens with AM2 next year we will likely see even greater overclocks to put bigger smiles on our faces. It's fair to say, though, AM2 or Core 2 Duo, that it's a good time to be an overclocker again. With the right board and the right CPU you can now achieve new performance levels with either AM2 or Core2 Duo.

Looking at the AM2 results a few boards stand out in the overclocking arena. The ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe and the MSI K9A Platinum are the top boards for overclocking, reaching 350 and 335 respectively with stability. In fact, any AM2 board we've tested in these four articles will get you to 307 or higher except the ECS KA3. This superb performance pretty much across the board makes price an important consideration, and here the Epox MF570SLI stands out in providing great overclocking at a small price.