CPU overclocking:
Our CPU overclocking part will focus on the performance of the i5-13600KF. It is important to underline that this Z790 Aorus Elite AX is not intended for advanced overclocking. But we’ll see that it’s doing pretty well despite the fact that it’s not in the best conditions for this exercise.
Protocol:
Before starting, it is necessary to have one or more reference scores with our i5-13600KF at stock frequencies, that is to say, without having made any modification except having activated the XMP profile in the case of an Intel processor. Concerning the test voltages, we decided to put the voltage in fixed mode.
It is also very important to have a sheet of paper or a spreadsheet at hand, which will allow you to note all the tests you are going to perform as well as the results or failures.
Reference scores and effective frequencies :
Let’s start by noting the result under Cinebench R23, taking care to note also the voltage (vcore), the max temperature during the bench, the power consumption as well as of course, the score obtained. During the benchmark, the HWinfo window is open which has a slight negative impact on the score.
We take advantage of this first test to have a look at the effective frequencies, voltages and temperatures. As we can see on the Benchmate window, the effective frequency is very close to the maximum frequency. This shows a good functioning of the CPU on this motherboard with respected frequencies and a score in adequacy with the chip. Temperatures and voltages are also very good with a voltage under load of 1.13V recorded on HWinfo and a temperature of 58°C.
Load-Line Calibration :
Before starting with the overclocking of this I5 13600KF, we need to set the LLC. In the case of this motherboard, we set it to turbo mode. This mode allows to have a good stability of the voltage with a contained Vdroop.
Profiles within the Bios with Gigabyte Perfdrive and CPU Upgrade:
Just like on the Z790 Aorus Tachyon, within our Bios there are 3 additional profiles to the default one. These are included in the new Gigabyte perfdrive menu and are called Optimization, Instant 6GHz, Spec Enhance and E-core Disable.
We’ll skip the Instant 6GHz profile, which pushes the two best P-Cores to 6GHz, as it is only compatible with the I9 13900K. The Optimization mode is the basic mode, by switching to the Spec Enhance mode we can lift the limits of the Bios with a single click. And finally, we have the E-core Disable mode which, as its name suggests, allows you to disable the Ecore.
To finish with the CPU optimization options, we still have the CPU upgrade, which allows the automatic overclocking of the CPU with the Max performance profile that will automatically overclock the CPU to 5.2 Ghz. And, the gaming profile that will disable the Ecore.
Overclocking under watercooling :
To start, I leave the Bios on auto by just setting the RAM to XMP i.e. 6800C34. So I chose a starting frequency of 5500 MHz with a multiplier of 55, a BCLK of 100 and a voltage of 1,3 volt. The Ecore and the cache are placed at 4500 MHz and 5000 MHz. The idea is then, in the OS, to test the stability on several runs of Cinebench R23 multithread.
As we can see, it is quite stable on Cinebench R23. The temperature is contained with 74°C for a voltage in load of 1,26V. It should be noted that on this Z790 Aorus Elite AX the measurement of the Vcore is done with the die sense which is very precise. We can still push a little the Frequency with this time 5800 MHz on the Pcore, 4600 MHz on the Ecore and 5000 MHz on the cache.
As we can see, the motherboard manages to hold this frequency without any difficulty. The effective frequency is at the level of the requested frequency. It should be noted that our example of I5 13600KF is particularly good, many will not hold such frequencies. For example the Biscuit score of this CPU is 96,1 CP and this is the best it is currently. The Biscuit score was until now reserved for the Aorus Tachyon but we now have this score on mainstream motherboards of the brand.
