I've never overclocked an i7 - I'm still on Q6600 - but a friend asked me a question today he needs help with. Basically he's bought an i7 920, 4GB DDR3 1600 (dual channel, dont ask!!) and an Asus P6T X58 I think. He's using his previous Hitachi 500GB 16MB drive and an ATi 4890.

Curiously he's only getting around 14400 on 3DMark 06. I pretty sure I got around there with my Quad. He's looked around and people are posting 20000 with similar setups.

Any ideas what he should be looking for when overclocking? He's up to 3.2GHz at the minute which probably means he just upped the FSB (or whatever its called now) and not at lot else.

Ideas appreciated.

P.S. I would look for guides on t'internet but I'm at work and most forums are blocked. Plus I thought a couple of you guys might have made the jump to i7.

Is he using the stock cooler?

I'm running my opnes with a Fenrir Titan & hit 4GHz on them.

200 blk x 20
1.3v IIRC

No he's upgraded the cooler. He has run it at 4GHz but is happier leaving it plodding along at 3.2 (probably worried it will go bang). Even at 3.2 though he says the 3DMark score seems low compared to others.

Although I think most of the 3dmark06 records were set with ATi cards, ironically they usually get lower scores than Nivida, even if there actual FPS power is higher in games, thus indicating the uselessness of 3dmark06 in general.

I got 13500 with a Q6600 and the old 8800GTS 320mb
I then got a 9800GTX and was getting just under 17000 (in xp)
HD4850 1GB got about 14000 and my GTX280 gets about 17300 with a Q6600

With my 920 at just under 4ghz and the GTX280 overclocked I got 21600 with latest Nvidia drivers. However 182.50 drivers give over 22000 mark.

Found this on the net, seems this guy is at 4.2 and with a GTX285 gets about 2000 more than me.

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c235/ ... ew06pr.jpg

Just to clarify.... the issue is that he is seeing comparable systems with 4890 and mildly overclocked i7 920's with scores 5000+ more than his. I might understand if it was an nVidia versus ATi thing.

ATi cards score lower in 3dmark06 than Nivida even if they are more powerful. If you put your Nvidia card in his rig, the score would shoot up. Also...when you look at the scores and see, 20000 with a 4890...you can't see how many 4890's they have, it may be crossfire, but from when I just looked (well they may have changed it now) there is no way to tell if someone is using SLI or Crossfire, just tells you what video card type it is.

I used to have a 7600GT and was miffed to see scores of 5000+ with lesser processors than I had when I was getting 3800. Turns out, these guys had two 7600GT's in SLi, hence the higher score and the crappy futuremark results table doesn't tell you that.