Intel Z97 Motherboard Roundup with ASUS, Biostar, Gigabyte and MSI
Intel Z97 Overclocking
Overclocking greatly varies due to what hardware is being used and who is doing the overclocking. Always remember that no two pieces of hardware will perform the same, so our results will differ from what you might be able to get.
BIOSTAR Hi-Fi Z97WE
The Intel Core i7 4770K runs at a non-turbo speed of 3.5GHz and turbo will ramp the processor up to as high as 3.9GHz under a lightly threaded load as we can see above. Since we are using a K series processor which has an unlocked multiplier we will be able to increase the default x35 multiplier to achieve our overclock today. This is the easiest way to overclock K series processors and should provide us with some great speeds.
In the past, my overclocking experiences with BIOSTAR motherboards has been very hit or miss. This time around with the Hi-Fi Z97WE there were absolutely no issues and I was able to take the Intel Core i7 4770K right to 4.824GHz!
What’s the fun of overclocking without a little bit of benchmarking? Firing up the latest iteration of FutureMark 3DMark, our score jumped to 6141 from 6028! The biggest increase in score was the Physics score which is heavily dependent on the CPU, that increased to 13725 from 10710!
ASUS Z97-Pro Wi-FI AC
The ASUS Z97-Pro Wi-FI AC was also able to reach 4.8GHz by manually setting the CPU VCore to 1.3. This board was super easy to overclock with no problems what so ever.
GIGABYTE Z97X-UD5H
Much like with the BIOSTAR Intel Z97 Motherboard, I was able to take the GIGABYTE Z97X-UD5H right to 4.8GHz without any issues. I increased the CPU multiplier to x48 and the CPU vCore to 1.3 Volts and the system was completely solid.
Firing up 3DMark Firestrike the Physics score jumped from 11233 to 13752!
MSI Z97 Gaming 7
Under a full load, the MSI Z97 Gaming 7 brings all four CPU cores of the Intel Core i7-4770K to 3.9GHz.
Once again I was able to bring the Intel Core i7-4770K to the limit of 4.8GHz with almost no effort. Simply increasing the CPU Multiplier to x48 and the CPU vCore to 1.3 the system was rock solid!
The MSI Z97 Gaming 7 overclocking session saw the Firestrike score increase to 6142 3DMarks from 6092, not a huge jump, but the Physics score is where there is a solid performance increase. The Physics score of Firestrike jumped from 11259 to 13739!