ASUS Crosshair IV Formula AM3 890FX Motherboard Review

[raxen]

Processor Unlocking and Overclocking

Processor Unlocking and Overclocking

Core Unlocking – Simply Easy

With “Core Unlock” prominently advertised as one of the Crosshair IV’s features, and coupled with the dedicated “Core Unlocker” button situated on the motherboard itself, it would be an embarrassment if the board did not support unlocking.

Just as expected, our AMD Phenom II X2 555BE processor went from a dual-core to a quad-core processor with a push of the “Core Unlocker” button. Core unlocking can be enabled in BIOS as well where you can select which of the two disabled cores that you would like to unlock. This feature is particularly useful for users with X2 processors that only have one unlockable core.

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Processor Overclocking

For those readers who jumped straight to this section looking for the good stuff, you’re in for a treat. The ASUS Crosshair IV Formula is a motherboard geared towards gamers and overclockers so it naturally has several built-in functions that make overclocking a simple breeze.


"OC Button” – The Simplest Way to Boost System Performance

First on the list, we take a look at the built-in “OC Button” that is located on the motherboard itself. To test this overclocking function, we reset the BIOS to default settings and turned off the computer and then simply pushed the appropriate button and turned on the computer. By doing this, the Crosshair will automatically work its magic by increasing the CPU bus speed until it detects instability in the system. Afterwards, the settings are saved in BIOS and the system will boot to an overclocked state.

Overclocking using the “OC Button” literally takes less than a minute. The result is a very respectable 232MHz CPU bus frequency, taking the processor to 3.71GHz without any voltage increases.

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In terms of shortcomings, we have to say that the “OC Button” is quite rudimentary since it will not increase any system voltages. As a result, your overclock is limited to whatever tested stable at the stock voltages. In addition, it automatically defaults to an extremely conservative ram divider and timings which resulted in our memory (which is capable of running at 1600MHz) being downclocked to 928MHz at 6-6-6-18 timings.

 

[SKYMTL]

Processor Overclocking; part 2

Processor Overclocking; part 2

Turbo V – The 15 Minute Way

The next easiest method of overclocking is to use TurboV, ASUS’ proprietary software that is designed to automatically overclock a system through an intuitive graphical user interface. To test this method, we entered the TurboV GUI and selected the “Custom Tuning” and “Flexible Voltage” options and were then greeted with a full screen GUI showing the system increasing in CPU bus frequency. Approximately 15 minutes later with several automated restarts, TurboV had pushed our Phenom II X6 1090T to almost 3.97GHz through a CPU Bus speed of 247MHz – an overclock of 24% over stock frequencies (3.2GHz) with minimal effort and time.

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Unlike the “OC Button”, TurboV will increase system voltages to increase overclocking headroom but the software still has several significant shortcomings which need to be addressed. Firstly, TurboV does not recognize that a Black Edition processor is installed into a computer. As a result, it is limited to overclocking a system through the increase of the bus speed only rather than taking advantage of unlocked multipliers. Secondly, and most importantly, TurboV does not increase CPU voltages while running its overclocking algorithm; it only increases CPU-NB and DRAM voltages to stabilize an overclock. Also like the “OC Button”, RAM timings and speeds are set very conservatively, with the RAM only running at 988MHz with 6-6-6-18 timings.


Turbo V with Manual Customization

Following the success of Turbo V tuning, we decided to specify certain BIOS settings to address the shortcomings of the program. In the BIOS, we configured ram timings of 7-7-7-20 and increased our ram divider to DDR3-1066MHz and decreased the CPU multiplier from 16x to 14x. This was done to allow for more overclocking headroom of the CPU bus.

After running the Turbo V overclocking algorithm, the system booted to a final CPU bus speed of 281MHz which equated to a CPU frequency of 3.93GHz (23% overclock) and a CPU-NB frequency of 2.81GHz (40% overclock). The final RAM speed was 1493MHz with 7-7-7-20 timings.

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As previously stated TurboV does not increase CPU voltages and tends to stabilize the overclock by increasing CPU-NB and DRAM voltages. With the above frequency settings, the CPU-NB voltage was increased to a whopping 1.48v! This definitely raised a big red flag, and is a bug that ASUS needs to correct if they continue to advertise TurboV as an overclocking tool.


Manual Overclocking – Hours of Tweaking for the Maximum Rewards

Let’s be honest: nothing beats the performance obtained through old-fashioned trial-and-error overclocking. Simply put, you increase your CPU multiplier and system voltages until your computer can no longer run stably with the cooling you can provide or you go extreme and blow past all expectations. For more information, we recommend that you take a look at the "Hardware Canucks: Benchmarkers Guide to the Phenom II" for a more detailed approach to maximizing your overclocking potential on Phenom CPUs.

Using our custom watercooling loop, we were able to push our AMD Phenom II X6 1090T processor from its stock 3.2GHz CPU frequency to 4.3GHz – an impressive 34% overclock. For the CPU-NB, we topped out at 3.0Ghz, a 50% overclock over the stock 2.0GHz frequency.

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Naturally, when pushing for such extreme frequencies, significant voltage increases are required to maintain a stable system. For the above overclock, Vcore was set at 1.52v at idle and 1.56v under load (due to Load-Line Calibration, which is explored later in this review), and the Vcpu-nb was set at 1.32v. While we normally do not recommend or endorse the use of such high voltages in our overclocking endeavours, we were more comfortable pushing our processor with these voltages simply because of the superb cooling system in place for the MOSFET, Northbridge, and Southbridge chipsets. Furthermore, we were able to closely monitor component voltages using a multimeter and the ProbeIT measure points, which also led to an increased comfort level with the Crosshair IV Formula.


Maximum Bus Speed Overclock – For Non-Black Edition Processors

With the Crosshair IV Formula, we were able to top out at a bus speed of 351MHz. For those readers without Black Edition processors, the board will be able to max out any processor you can throw at it.

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[raxen]

Synthetic Benchmarks

Synthetic Benchmarks

Lavalys Everest Ultimate v5.02

Everest Ultimate is the most useful tool for any and all benchmarkers or overclockers. With the ability to pick up most voltage, temperature, and fan sensors on almost every motherboard available, Everest provides the ability to customize the outputs in a number of forms on your desktop. We selected two of Everest's seven CPU benchmarks: CPU Queen and FPU Mandel. According to Lavalys, CPU Queen simple integer benchmark focuses on the branch prediction capabilities and the misprediction penalties of the CPU. It finds the solutions for the classic "Queens problem" on a 10 by 10 sized chessboard. At the same clock speed theoretically the processor with the shorter pipeline and smaller misprediction penalties will attain higher benchmark scores. The FPU Mandel benchmark measures the double precision (also known as 64-bit) floating-point performance through the computation of several frames of the popular "Mandelbrot" fractal. Both tests consume less than 1 MB system memory, and are Hyper-Threading, multi-processor (SMP) and multi-core (CMP) aware.

Lavalys Everest Ultimate v5.02

Everest Ultimate is the most useful tool for any and all benchmarkers or overclockers. With the ability to pick up most voltage, temperature, and fan sensors on almost every motherboard available, Everest provides the ability to customize the outputs in a number of forms on your desktop. In addition to this, the memory benchmarking utility provides a useful tool of measuring the changes to your memory sub-system.

ScienceMark v2.0

Although last updated almost 3 years ago, and despite its rudimentary interface, ScienceMark v2.0 remains a favorite for accurately calculating bandwidth on even the newest chipsets.

As expected, these Synthetic Benchmark memory tests highlight the importance of proper RAM tuning and optimization. The OC Button and TurboV were unable to properly optimize ram frequencies and timings for peak performance. As a result, their scores rank below stock frequencies.

 

[raxen]

General Task Benchmarks

General Task Benchmarks

PCMark Vantage x64

PCMark Vantage Advanced 64-bit Edition (1.0.0.0)
PCMark Suite / Default Settings
Comparison: Generated Score

The main focus of our General Tasks category lies with the most recent installment of the PCMark series, Vantage. While still classified under the description of a Synthetic benchmark, PCMark Vantage uses many of Vista's (Note - Vantage is Vista-only) built-in programs and features along with its own tests, so it is "real-world" applicable in regards to CPU performance. The following is a general list of the tests in the PCMark suite, very much in line with tasks of an average user: Data encryption, Data compression, CPU image manipulation (compression/decompression/resize), Audio transcoding,Video transcoding,Text editing,Web page rendering, Windows Mail, Windows Contacts, and CPU game test.

x264 HD Benchmark

x264 HD Benchmark v3.0
Test: MPEG-2 HD 720P Video Clip Conversion to x264
DVD Video Length: 30 Seconds
Comparison: FPS of Second Pass

x264 is quickly becoming the new codec of choice for encoding a growing number of H.264/MPEG-4 AVC videos. Think of it as the new Divx of HD and you can understand why we felt it critical to include. Tech Arp's recent development of the x264 HD Benchmark takes a 30 second HD video clip and encodes it into the x264 codec with the intention of little to no quality loss. The test is measured using the average frames per second achieved during encoding, which scales with processor speed and efficiency. The benchmark also allows the use of multi-core processors so it gives a very accurate depiction of what to expect when using encoding application on a typical full length video.

WinRAR

WinRAR 3.9.3
Test: WinRAR Benchmark
Comparison: MB/s

WinRAR is one of the most popular file compression/decompression tools. It is a great benchmark for the CPU, Memory, and Hard Drive subsystems.

For most of these General Task Benchmarks, scores were dependent on CPU speed. As a result, higher overclocks result in higher scores.

 

[raxen]

System Benchmarks

System Benchmarks

SuperPi Mod v1.5

When running the SuperPI 32MB benchmark, we are calculating Pi to 32 million digits and timing the process. Obviously more CPU power helps in this intense calculation, but the memory sub-system also plays an important role, as does the operating system. We are running multiple instances of SuperPi via the HyperPi 0.99b interface - one per each core. The final time is calculated by averaging the times from all instances.

Cinebench R11.5 64-bit

Comparison: Generated Score

Developed by MAXON, creators of Cinema 4D, Cinebench 11 is designed using the popular Cinema software and created to compare system performance in 3D Animation and Photo applications. The CPU test makes use of up to 16 CPUs/Cores, and renders a realistic photo while utilizing various CPU-intensive features such as reflection, ambient occlusion, area lights and procedural shaders.

wPrime 2.03

wPrime is a leading multithreaded benchmark for x86 processors that tests your processor performance by calculating square roots with a recursive call of Newton's method for estimating functions, with f(x)=x2-k, where k is the number we're sqrting, until Sgn(f(x)/f'(x)) does not equal that of the previous iteration, starting with an estimation of k/2. It then uses an iterative calling of the estimation method a set amount of times to increase the accuracy of the results. It then confirms that n(k)2=k to ensure the calculation was correct. It repeats this for all numbers from 1 to the requested maximum. This is a highly multi-threaded workload.

Depending on the benchmark, CPU speeds or RAM Timings can have a profound effect on the results. The general trend shows that scores favour higher CPU speeds.

 

[raxen]

Gaming Benchmarks

Gaming Benchmarks

Futuremark 3DMark06

3DMark06 v1.1.0
Graphic Settings: Default
Resolution: 1280X1024

Test: Full Test
Comparison: Generated Score

The Futuremark 3DMark series has been a part of the backbone in computer and hardware reviews since its conception. The trend continues today as 3DMark06 provides consumers with a solid synthetic benchmark geared for performance and comparison in the 3D gaming realm. This remains one of the most sought after statistics, and it will undoubtedly be used for years to come.

Futuremark 3DMark Vantage

3DMark Vantage v1.0.1
Graphic Settings: Performance Preset
Resolution: 1280X1024

Test: Specific CPU Score and Full Run 3Dmarks
Comparison: Generated Score

3DMark Vantage is the follow-up to the highly successful 3DMark06. It uses DirectX 10 exclusively so if you are running Windows XP, you can forget about this benchmark. Along with being a very capable graphics card testing application, it also has very heavily multi-threaded CPU tests, such Physics Simulation and Artificial Intelligence (AI), which makes it a good all-around gaming benchmark.

Crysis

Crysis Benchmark Tool 1.05
Resolution: 1024x768
Anti Aliasing: None
Quality Settings: Low
Global Settings: DX10

Test 1: CPU Benchmark
Comparison: FPS (Frames per Second)

Still one of the most hardware intensive game on the market today, Crysis has been chosen for its obvious ability to be able to showcase the differences between platforms and to showcase just how far one will need to go in the quest for maximum performance. The game also features the renowned CryEngine, the power behind the incredible graphics, which is expected to be foundation of future titles.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R - Call of Pripyat

S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Call of Pripyat Benchmark Tool
Resolution: 1024x768
Graphics Preset: Low
Renderer: Enhanced Full Dynamic Lighting (DX11)

When it was first released, the latest STALKER game was hailed for its use of DX11 but people quickly realized for all its bluster, the graphics were decidedly mediocre at the best of times. Nonetheless, the stand-alone benchmark that was released prior to the game’s North American debut is still used by many people due to its comprehensive interface and seemingly consistent results.

Left 4 Dead 2

Left 4 Dead 2 (Latest Update as of June 13, 2010)
Resolution: 1024x768
Film Grain: Default
Anti-Aliasing Mode: None
Filtering: Bilinear
Graphic Settings: Low
Shader Detail: Low
Comparison: FPS (Frames per Second)

Left 4 Dead 2 is the second installment of the latest disorienting, fast-paced zombie apocalypse mega-hit from Valve. L4D2 uses the latest version of the Source engine with enhancements such as multi-core processor support and physics-based animation. For benching, we used a pre-recorded 5 minute timedemo taken on the Dead Center campaign during the Hotel mission.

 

[raxen]

Temperature, Voltage, & Power Consumption

Temperature, Voltage, & Power Consumption

Temperature Testing

For our test setup, we will install the ASUS Crosshair IV Formula into a Corsair 800D case. The front fan of the Corsair 800D functions as an intake, while three Zalman ZM-F3 1600RPM fans installed at the top of the case will serve as exhaust fans. While the Corsair 800D is a large case, this test setup should emulate the typical temperatures experienced by most users with moderate airflow case setups.

We will attach our K-type thermocouple to the heatsinks of various components on the motherboard and record the temperature of those parts.

Temperature readings will be taken at 2 stages: Idle, and 100% Load.

Idle readings are taken after a cold boot of the computer followed by 30 minutes of idling.

100% Load settings are taken 5 minutes after the simultaneous start of a Prime95 Blend test and an infinitely looped Crysis GPU test.

For these tests, we will use the AMD Phenom II X6 1090T processor with the following frequency and voltage settings:

Results:

As expected, the heatsinks on the ASUS Crosshair IV Formula performed admirably to cool the Northbridge, Southbridge, and MOSFET components on the motherboard. Even the MOSFETs located on the underside of the motherboard without any heatsink contact stayed well within acceptable temperature limits. Overall, the three heatsinks coupled with a heatpipe to distribute the heat load from the three components, are an efficient and effective design to keep motherboard components cool.


Voltage Regulation

Our voltage regulation testing will focus on the various voltages and the differences encountered between what is selected in the BIOS and what is measured by a digital multi-meter (DMM). Thanks to the ProbeIt feature we didn't have to go poking & prodding everywhere, since all the voltage read points are located in one convenient spot.

These measurements were taken at stock system speeds and with C1E, AMD Turbo Core, Spread Spectrum, disabled in the BIOS. Just to clarify, the Vcore (LLC) section is the Vcore results with Load-Line Calibration enabled, and Vcpu-nb (LLC) is the Vcpu-nb with Load-Line Calibration enabled as well. Here are our findings:

To be honest, we were quite surprised to see how well the ITE IT8721F controller performed in reading the various voltages on the motherboard. Even taking the margin of error of our multimeter into account, we can safely conclude that the software voltage monitoring tool of the ASUS Crosshair IV Formula is spot-on with our digital multimeter readings.

Diving further into these results, we can see that our CPU experiences significant amount of Vdroop when LLC is disabled. Generally speaking, Vdroop is a term that is used to describe a drop in CPU voltage at times of high CPU load. While some overclockers view this as a negative aspect which will lead to instability of the processor, others see it as a safety threshold to ensure that the CPU voltage never exceeds the voltage set in the BIOS. Nonetheless, ASUS has included Load-Line Calibration (LLC) as a function on the Crosshair IV Formula, which should technically help resolve this Vdroop “problem”.

Unfortunately, when looking at the voltages recorded when LLC is enabled we can see that the Crosshair IV Formula tends to overshoot the voltage set in BIOS. Technically, LLC should help stabilize CPU voltages to ensure that it remains constant at times as experienced in our review of the ASUS Maximus III Extreme. From this data, it looks like the LLC function simply increases CPU Voltage at times of load to maintain stability – a practice that is currently used by AMD and their Turbo Core technology.

This creates one big messy problem since unlike AMD’s Turbo Core technology which balances voltage and frequency to ensure that the CPU remains within its TDP specifications, ASUS’ LLC function will undoubtedly cause the CPU to create more heat through the voltage increase. Without adequate cooling, the increased temperature of the CPU will now pose as a source of instability and counter the “benefit” of the voltage increase. To summarize, the voltage overshoot caused by LLC increases core temperatures, which in turn could lead to increased instability.


Power Consumption Testing

For this test, every BIOS option was reset to its default setting and the Windows 7 power plan was changed from High Performance to Balanced. Lastly, we set the ASUS EPU-6 Engine to AUTO mode to allow it to fully manage system power consumption.

In the idle test, we let the system idle for 15 minutes and measured the peak wattage through our Blue Planet EM100 power meter.

For our CPU load test, we ran Prime 95 In-place large FFTs on all available threads for 15 minutes, measuring the peak wattage via the Blue Planet EM100 power meter.

For our overall system load test, we ran Prime 95 In-place large FFTs on all available threads for 15 minutes, while simultaneously loading the 3DMark Vantage Calico Test at default settings.

 

[raxen]

Conclusion

Conclusion

The ASUS Crosshair IV Formula is part of the “Republic of Gamers” (RoG) line of products specifically targeted towards gamers and overclocking enthusiasts. With the top-tier AMD 890FX chipset providing triple CrossfireX capabilities and the SB850/NEC controllers giving the motherboard SATA 6Gbps and USB3.0 support, this is simply one of the most capable AMD motherboards currently on the market.

Unlike other 890FX motherboards by other manufacturers, the Crosshair implements many innovative and exciting functions. The sleek design of the motherboard heatsinks, the assortment of RoG-exclusive functions like ProbeIT and GoButton, dedicated push-buttons for core unlocking and overclocking, RoG Connect and the voltage indicator LEDs are all things which make this board stand miles above the competition. Most notable among these items were the automatic overclocking capabilities built into the CIVF through the “OC Button” and TurboV. These literally make overclocking your system as easy as pushing a button.

Honestly, we had to spend a good number of weeks with the Crosshair IV Formula to explore all of the functions it had to offer. The numerous BIOS overclocking options and included software were overwhelming at first and required a fair bit of time to learn. Having played around with other Intel-based RoG motherboards certainly made the learning curve less steep but is nonetheless rewarding to see countless hours rewarded. And reward your persistence is exactly what this RoG motherboard will do.

Unfortunately, our experience with other RoG products also made us more perceptive to the flaws of the Crosshair. Looking back at our adventures with the likes of the Maximus III and its ilk, we can’t help but wonder why some of the functions which we praised so much were excluded from or slightly botched up on the AMD side of things. We understand that Bluetooth connectivity may have been eliminated for price reasons but why did ASUS decide to only include one BIOS chip on this board? This decision effectively neuters RoG Connect’s remote BIOS flashing function which we loved in past reviews. Furthermore, what happened to Load-Line Calibration? For some reason the motherboard simply overvolted to compensate for the added load.

There are however some unique features on the Crosshair that are absent from their blue-blooded brethren. Intel-based RoG motherboards don’t have automatic overclocking functions, nor do they have LEDs that tell you you’re running crazy voltages on certain motherboard components.

Overall, we were impressed by the number of innovative and unique ideas ASUS packed into the Crosshair IV Formula. It is important to note however that even with all these “bells and whistles,” ASUS never lost sight of what this product was meant to be: a true enthusiast motherboard. Through the overclocking endeavours and our testing, the Crosshair IV Formula won our hearts.


Pros

• Solid overclocking capabilities
• Unique and effective heatsink design
• ATI-matching colour scheme
• CrossfireX support at 16x/8x/8x
• Numerous BIOS tweaking options for voltages and ram timings
• Dedicated buttons for unlocking cores, overclocking, and loading BIOS profiles on-the-fly
• SATA 6Gbps and USB 3.0 connectivity
• Eight 4-pin PWM fan headers – three of which have thermal sensor connectors to control fan speeds
• Comprehensive software suite
• Excellent software voltage monitoring

Cons

• Thermal sensors not included
• Poor contact between heatsink and MOSFETs out of the factory (requires tightening of mounting screws by user)
• Large CPU coolers + tall memory heatsinks will cause installation annoyances
• CrossfireX setup may obstruct pin headers
• Large Vdroop with Load-Line Calibration off, and significant overvoltage with Load-Line Calibration on

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