ASUS Rampage II Gene mATX LGA1366 Motherboard Review

Stability & Overclocking Results

With the recent release of Intel D0 stepping i7 920's the reality of what determines maximum base block has really become a lot clearer. These new D0 stepping processors seem to reach much higher base clocks than the previous C0 stepping processors. This is no more evident than our comparison between our C0 i7 965 extreme processor and a newly acquired D0 i7 920 on the ASUS Rampage II Gene. Our previous base clock maximum with the i7 965 has been very little over 200 with every board we have tested. Right in the 205 base clock range is when that processor ran out of steam, which is also the case with the Gene. That all changed when we dropped in the D0 i7 920.

We only used the i7 920 for the base clock overclocking because it is far superior at base clock than our i7 965. Unfortunately the i7 965 has a much better memory controller so it will continue to be used for memory overclocking as well as overall overclocking. Needless to say, the maximum base clock a motherboard is capable of heavily depends on the CPU, but the motherboard can still limit a CPU. It really does take a combination of a good motherboard and a great CPU in order to get anywhere near 220 base clock for 24/7 stability. We start off our Stability & Overclocking section with a look at XMP profile testing on our two Corsair Dominator 3x2GB kits of memory.

Corsair Dominator 3x2GB PC3-12800 8-8-8 (TR3X6G1600C8D) Stability Testing

We started off as we always do with this mainstream kit and the Rampage II Gene had no problems running the XMP profile. All voltages adjusted correctly and within a couple minutes we were stability testing without any sign of issues. Unfortunately, once this kit finished testing, our nightmare began.

You will notice that we don't have the Corsair Dominator-GT XMP stability testing screen shot, and that is because we couldn't get any kind of stability at 933MHz. Basically, anything over 900MHz was completely unstable. The XMP profile loads as it should with its customary high VTT, but there was no way 933MHz was going to run on the XMP profile. We then spent the better part of a week trying everything we could. We were eventually able to get 920MHz stable through loosening up Back-to-back CAS Delay, but performance takes a large hit and the memory still wouldn't run the XMP profile even with the timing adjustments. We then received another kit of memory for review, Mushkin Ascent Redline PC3-12800 6-7-6. Like the Dominator-GTs, we could not get anything over 900MHz to run. Based on the performance of the Mushkin kit on another motherboard, we are assuming it is built with the same Elpida Hyper IC's that our Dominator-GT kit is confirmed to run. This indicates a compatibility issue with the Gene and Elpida Hyper based memory kits.

It really is a shame because the Elpida Hyper are the cream of the DDR3 crop. Unfortunately we have no Samsung HCF0 kits to test with over 900MHz to completely confirm the Elpida Hyper being the problem memory. In forums, however, other users of Elpida Hyper have run into the same issues as us and those not using Elpida Hyper don't seem to have the issue. Extensive testing will need to be done but it looks like ASUS has some BIOS work on their hands to get this board running Elpida Hyper based memory kits.

Base Clock/QPI Stability Overclocking

Because of the inability to run over 900MHz with memory, we have skipped the maximum memory overclocking and went straight to the base clock testing. As mentioned, and the screen shot shows, we used our new i7 920 D0 stepping processor and managed a very respectable 215 base clock. We haven't had time to test this processor on another board yet to determine if the processor is only capable of 215, but regardless, the Rampage II Gene shows it definitely has the Rampage heritage powering it. With a 215 base clock, this 920 is covered up to 4515MHz utilizing the 21X multiplier that turbo offers. If you have a capable CPU, it looks like the Rampage II Gene is more than capable of maxing it out for 24/7 clocks on air or water with ease.

Overall Stability Overclocking

With our known memory maximum and recent ability to run this 965 processor at 4.1GHz, we tried to come up with a maximum overclock that would maximize the CPU frequency, but also get as much out of our memory as we could. The result is a very impressive 4114MHz CPU frequency and 894MHz 7-8-7 memory clock running at a base clock of 179x23. Only recently have we been able to get this 965 over 4GHz stable on the EVGA Classified, but it looks like the Gene has managed to match it for clocking the CPU on air. For being such a little board, it sure packs a heck of a punch. With the right CPU, 215 base clock was easily attainable and now a 4.1GHz CPU overclock stable for 24/7 use. The only drawback is the memory issue we had with Elpida Hyper memory. Hopefully ASUS can cook up a BIOS that plays better with those memory kits and turn this board from an acceptable contender to an outright fighter ready for a title shot.