My Eagle Academy Introducing GIGABYTE PerfDrive, the automatic overclocking technology for GIGABYTE motherboards.

Before this year, the three major motherboard brands, GIGABYTE, MSI and ASUS, had only MSI_ GAME BOOST and ASUS_AI overclocking for Intel processor platforms with motherboard BIOS, while AMD platforms had PBO (Precision Boost Overdriver) directly available. GIGABYTE announced the introduction of PerfDrive technology in Intel 700 series platforms at the beginning of this year, which can quickly switch between four different profiles for Intel 13th processors to meet the needs of gamers with different usage requirements. Today, let's have a brief introduction of PerfDrive technology's functions and performance differences.

Before I start, I would like to remind you that although I am one of the winners of the "2022 Intel Core i9-13900K Overclocking Battle", I don't have a complete understanding of the overclocking details of GIGABYTE's motherboards, and the processor and other computer hardware components may vary depending on the configuration, environment, and physical condition of the computer, resulting in results that may not be able to allow gamers to fairly match the scores. Therefore, my test results are for reference only. The main focus of this article is to let gamers understand how to use PerfDrive and who it is suitable for, rather than overclocking related details, therefore, I will not answer questions about overclocking at the bottom of this article, above.

GIGABYTE PerfDrive: Auntie Leads Me to Fly GIGABYTE PerfDrive 4 Functions Explained

First of all, I would like to tell you that PerfDrive technology is only available on the Z790 / B760 motherboards; the Z690 / B660 does not have PerfDrive technology, and if you want to fully open the Optimization, Instant 6GHz, Spec Enhance, and E-Core Disable modes, you can only do so with the Intel Core i9-13900K, i9-13900KF, i7-13700K, and i7-13700KF processors. To fully enable Optimization, Instant 6GHz, Spec Enhance, and E-Core Disable modes, it can only be used with Intel Core i9-13900K, i9-13900KF, i7-13700K, and i7-13700KF processors.

When I tested the Intel Core i9-12900K, only Optimization and E-Core Disable could be enabled, but not Instant 6GHz and Spec Enhance. However, I think GIGABYTE will make a little effort to fully support PerfDrive technology on the 600 series motherboards and Intel 12th processors. However, I actually think that if GIGABYTE puts in a little effort, it will not be difficult to fully support PerfDrive technology on 600 series motherboards and Intel 12th processors, and from a gamer's point of view, I still hope that GIGABYTE can do a little bit more.

When ∆ i9 12900K is paired with Z790 AORUS MASTER(BIOS:F8a), PerfDrive option can only be selected as one of the two options.

This time, we used Intel Core i9 13900K processor with Z790 AORUS MASTER motherboard, and updated the BIOS to the latest F8 version when I tested it, the memory on hand is not enough so we took the T-FORCE VULCANα DDR5 5600MT/s 16GBx2 to top it up, and opened EXPO 5600 for performance testing. 5600 for performance testing.

Testing Platform
Processor: Intel Core i9 13900K
Cooler: darkFlash TWISTER DX 360 Ver2.6
Motherboard: GIGABYTE Z790 AORUS MASTER (rev. 1.0)
Memory: T-FORCE VULCANα DDR5 5600MT/s 16GBx2 (Open EXPO)
Graphics: MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GAMING Z TRIO
Power : MONTECH TITAN GOLD 1200W
System Drive: WD BLUE 3D NAND SATA M.2 2280 SSD 500GB
Operating System: Windows 11 Home Edition 21H2
Case: STREACOM BC1 Benchtable V2

After updating to the new BIOS version, you can see a new column of "Biscuits CP Score" in the Hardware Monitor on top of EASY MODE. The CP score of Biscuits can roughly estimate the quality and grade of the processor in your hand and the i9 13900K has an average of 85 CP, which is the average of the i9 13900K, according to HiCookie, GIGABYTE's in-house overclocking guru. According to GIGABYTE's in-house overclocking guru, the i9 13900K with 100 CP should be able to be overclocked up to 8GHz under LN2 liquid nitrogen, and the i9 13900K in my hands is 88.801 CP.

∆ Added the Biscuits processor performance score, will anyone sell processors with this score in the future to raise the price?

In fact, you can directly switch the PerfDrive mode in the upper right corner of the EASY MODE, there are four different modes under GIGABYTE PerfDrive: Optimization, Instant 6GHz, Spec Enhance, E-Core Disable, and by default, the motherboard setting will be By default, the motherboard setting will be Optimization, and a prompt will pop up if you switch to other modes.

The GIGABYTE PerfDrive can also be found in the “Tweaker” section if you enter the Advanced Mode BIOS, with the recommended water cooling and a brief description of the basic features in the lower left corner.

∆ If you select Instant 6GHz, Spec Enhance, or E-Core Disable, a prompt will appear.

The GIGABYTE PerfDrive can also be found in the ∆Tweake program.

Optimization Automatic Optimization Model

I'd like to share with gamers what the four modes underneath GIGABYTE PerfDrive are. The first one is the default "Optimization" mode after entering BIOS, which automatically adjusts the performance and frequency according to the PC's cooling condition, but this mode is actually Intel Turbo Boost. Optimization will automatically adjust the performance and frequency according to the PC's thermal condition, but this mode is actually Intel Turbo Boost.

The CINEBENCH R23_Multi Core score was 38814 pts, during the test the P-Core was maintained at 5.5 GHz, the E-Core at 4.3 GHz, the Single Core score was 2212 pts, and two of the P-Cores maxed out at 5.8 GHz, with a maximum power consumption of 305.7 W. The temperature was 90 °C. As a side note, the F8 version of the BIOS seems to have tuned the 13900K pretty well. The temperature is 90 °C. On a side note, the F8 version of the BIOS seems to have tuned the 13900K pretty well, and with a power consumption of around 300 W and a 360 AIO, it's not bad at all.

CPU-Z's single thread is 921.7, while the multi-processor thread is 16566.2.

∆ Optimization mode R23 multi-core 38814 pts, P-Core 5.5 GHz / E-Core 4.3 GHz.

∆ R23 single-core 2212 pts, two P-Cores up to 5.8 GHz.

∆ I forgot to take a screenshot of the power consumption the first time I ran R23 multi-core, so I re-ran it to take a screenshot of the power consumption and temperature.

∆ CPU-Z.

3DMark CPU Profile This test will be conducted six times, testing the performance of MAX, 16, 8, 4, 2, 1 threads respectively, while the performance of 16 threads and above belongs to 3D rendering or audio/video professional work. The 4 and 2 thread scores are related to older games developed with DX9.

∆ 3DMARK CPU Profile.

Instant 6GHz One-Click Overclocking Dual-Core 6 GHz

Instant 6GHz is the highlight of GIGABYTE's PerfDrive technology, which enables the two P-Cores of the i9-13900K, i9-13900KF, i7-13700K, and i7-13700KF to run at 6 GHz directly in few-core applications when this mode is turned on.

However, Instant 6GHz will also eat the processor itself, the author has also heard feedbacks from players that after opening this feature, PC has unstable crashing problem, assuming you have unstable problem after opening it, then you may want to congratulate...

In CINEBENCH R23 Instant 6GHz mode gained 39227 pts and 2291 pts, multi-core grew by 1% and single-core scores increased by 3%, and two P-Core cores did reach 6 GHz in the frequency section.

With 39227 pts and 2291 pts in ∆ Instant 6GHz mode, the R23 does achieve 6 GHz and 3% growth on a single core.

∆ up to 302 W at 87 °C.

950.2 (3% growth) and 16868.9 (1.8% growth) in ∆ CPU-Z.

There is almost no improvement in the maximum threads of the 3DMark CPU Profile, but there is growth in the remaining five number of threads,2 and a similar 3% improvement in the Thread 2 test.

∆ 3DMARK CPU Profile.

Spec Enhance long time power consumption is small limit / but multi-core performance is unexpected!

Spec Enhance mode is mainly designed to allow the processor to run at high performance and low temperature, if you look into it a little bit, you can actually find that it limits the long term power consumption of PL1 to 253 W, while the short term power consumption of PL2 is maintained at the upper limit of liberation, therefore, in the "one time" test of CINEBENCH R23_Multi Core Multi Core Test, the power consumption still exceeds 300 W in the one time test due to the fact that Multi Core Test is quite fast and has not exceeded the Turbo Time Parameter of 13900K. Therefore, in the CINEBENCH R23_Multi Core "one-time" test, since the Multi Core test is quite fast and hasn't exceeded the Turbo Time Parameter of 13900K, the power consumption still exceeds 300 W in the one-time test. We will change the test time to 10 minutes and observe again, and we will find that the power consumption stabilizes at around 252~253 W after a while.

However, the results are quite interesting, the CINEBENCH R23_Multi Core results are even higher than Optimization and Instant 6GHz modes, while Single is in between Optimization and Instant 6GHz. I have directly asked GIGABYTE PM for discussion on this, and the conclusion is that GIGABYTE has made Spec Enhance mode to meet both high performance and low power consumption needs. The conclusion I got is that GIGABYTE has made Spec Enhance mode to meet both high performance and low power consumption needs, Spec Enhance mode not only has a PL1 power limit setting, but also has fine-tuning in some settings to get better performance, but GIGABYTE can't disclose what they have set up so interested gamers can look into it by themselves then. GIGABYTE can't reveal what they have set, so interested gamers can do some research on their own.

CINEBENCH R23 gets 40498 pts vs. 2252 pts in ∆ Spec Enhance mode.

∆ Up to 327.1 W for short time applications.

∆ The power consumption is limited to about 253 W for long time tests after more than a certain period of time.

∆ CPU-Z.

The CPU Profile test is also the best of the four modes, with a maximum thread score of 16689.

∆ 3DMARK CPU Profile.

Low Temperature and Low Power Consumption E-Core Disable Tower Dispersal Continue to carry it.

If you want to get cooler temperature and lower power consumption, you can choose the E-Core Disable mode. E-Core Disable is actually a result of some bugs in the 12-generation processors at the time when Intel 12th came out, as some software or programs had not yet optimized and supported the big and small cores.

The proposed temporary solution is to turn off the E-Core directly, and the E-Core Disable mode not only turns off the E-Core for lower power consumption, but also brings better P-Core single-core overclocking performance. The author also found that when overclocking a 13900K single-core, after turning off the E-Core, the P-Core frequency can be stretched to higher levels. The author also found that the P-Core frequency can be pulled higher when the E-Core is turned off when overclocking the 13900K single core.

However, when E-Core is disabled in E-Core Disable mode, it also means that the multi-core scores will drop. On the CINEBENCH R23_Multi Core, the scores drop to a level similar to that of the 12700K, but the single-core scores are not affected too much (since the R23 single-core tests are run with P-Core), and the power consumption is also reduced to around 200 W. This is suitable for both air-cooled and 240 mm water-cooled users. The power consumption has also dropped to around 200 W, making it suitable for both air-cooled and 240 mm water-cooled users.

The ∆ E-Core Disable mode R23 is 22715 and 2205 pts, and the power consumption and temperature are 204.3 W and 85 °C. The ∆ E-Core Disable mode R23 is 22715 and 2205 pts.

8 P-Cores and 16 threads left in ∆CPU-Z for E-Core Disable mode.

∆ CPU-Z.

∆ 3DMARK CPU Profile.

Conclusion

GIGABYTE PerfDrive provides four modes, Optimization, Instant 6GHz, Spec Enhance, and E-Core Disable, which are suitable for lazy gamers or novice users to use, and can be directly applied to the original settings according to the different needs of normal use, which saves a lot of time on parameter tuning. This saves a lot of time for parameter tuning.

If you are a gaming enthusiast or use a few core applications, I would recommend Instant 6GHz mode, but if you have a poor processor, you may want to choose another mode.

Spec Enhance mode is surprisingly the best multi-core mode among the four modes. In addition to the automatic limitation of 253W for long time usage, which reduces the burden on the cooler for long time application, GIGABYTE has also tuned the Spec Enhance mode so that it can achieve both high performance and low power consumption over a long period of time.

Assuming you're building a small PC and choose a cooler below the 360 mm water-cooling specification, the E-Core Disable will only consume about 200 W at most when used with the 13900K under high loads, which will bring about lower power consumption and temperatures with a relative performance loss, so it's up to gamers to make the right choice.