Gigabyte X79-UD3 Motherboard Obliterates X79 Overclocking Record with F7 BIOS

Back in the days of old, overclocking used to require setting DIP switches and chanting prayers to the gods of clockspeed and stability. There was a good chance you could burn something up, and if you did, the motherboard vendor would simply shrug. And today?

 

Some of them will still shrug with indifference if you kill your hardware by overclocking, but the culture has changed dramatically. Not only do motherboard makers routinely tout overclocking-friendly features, but they actively participate in OCing competitions and are quick to brag when their gear is used to set new world records. Today is Gigabyte's day to gloat.



Renowned overclocker "Hicoookie" achieved a new high clockspeed on the Intel Core i7 3930K processor by cranking the chip past 5.6GHz using a Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 motherboard, the first mobo in the world to achieve a mulitplier of 57x.

"These new world records underline how the Gigabyte 3-way digital power engine on existing X79 motherboards makes breathtaking performance possible on our X79 series enthusiast platforms. They should also erase any skepticism regarding the performance and overclocking capabilities of our new F7 BIOS for Gigabyte X79 motherboards," commented Tim Handley, Deputy Director of Motherboard Marketing at Gigabyte.

There was a bit of a scandal with Gigabyte recently when a YouTube video showed one of its X79 boards going up in smoke. Gigabyte released a BIOS update for several of its X79 boards to prevent such incidents from happening, and there were outcries that the new F7 BIOS would essentially gimp overclocking performance in order to mask potential hardware deficiencies. Hicookie's achievement should erase those concerns.