F E A T U R E // E V G A Z 3 9 0 D A R K
winning strategy as I found out.
If you load the LN2 profile
(4133Mhz C12, 5.5Ghz Uncore, 6GHz
CPU core, 1.6v Vcore, 1.45V System
Agent and VCCIO etc.) you’ll find that
the temps are far too high for the
CPU under load. This can be quite
frustrating especially if you have a
lemon of a CPU which was the case
with this particular 9900K capable of
only 5.8GHz for Multi-threaded tests
(Vs. the 5.9GHz sample when I was
testing the Gene). Quite a low clock
even for Dry Ice, given that chilled
water can get a good CPU to 5.5GHz.
Despite all this, efficiency again on
this board is incredible. At 5.8Ghz,
the GeekBench 3 MultiCore result
(46598) is literally the best one
there is at 5.8Ghz and below on
HWBOT. That’s to say, any other
18 The OverClocker Issue 47 | 2019
score higher on HWBOT is from a
CPU with a higher clock frequency.
So, despite the OS and low clock
CPU, the board still manages
to deliver the excellent efficiency.
That said, getting the right
combination that allows you to keep
the DRAM performance (again these
are tied to the CPU overclocks and
not accessible independently) but
more appropriate settings for Dry
Ice may take some figuring out. To
that end it actually turns out that
you’re better off leaving nearly all
CPU settings on AUTO, save for Load
line calibration and Vcore. You’re not
likely to need any of the advanced
or extended voltage ranges for the
CPU, but you do need to enable this
for memory voltages above 1.6V.
In the end the best settings for