Now let’s run the same tests with the CPU and memory overclocked. You can see the difference in the system parameters in the following table:
The MSI Z68A-GD80 (B3) doesn’t stand out among the rest of the mainboards when benchmarked at the default settings. This might be expected since similar platforms are always going to deliver similar performance under similar settings. We can see it perform as fast as its cousin, including the suspiciously high results in 3DMark11. When overclocked, both mainboards from MSI are at the top of the list thanks to the combination of a high CPU clock rate with a high memory frequency. Besides, they allow running the overclocked system memory at low timings. We’ve been that lucky with only these two MSI mainboards so far. They are undoubtedly faster than the other mainboards which can overclock the CPU well but are inferior to them in terms of the memory clock rate.