BIOS

GIGABYTE continues to use the same Award version 6 blue BIOS screen. However, things look a little different. Usually the M.I.T menu that houses all the overclocking features is on the right hand edge of the screen. This time, as soon as you boot into the BIOS your first option is the M.I.T menu.

Also, GIGABYTE usually hides certain features from end users and requires you to press CRTL + F1 to gain access to them. No longer is that the case with this board.

Buses

CPU Host Frequency: 100 - 1200 in 1MHz Increments

PCIE Frequency: 90 - 150MHz in 1MHz Increments

Voltages

CPU VCore: 0.50v to 2.3v in 0.00625v increments

CPU Termination Voltage: 0.8v to 1.94v in Various Increments

CPU PLL Voltage: 1.1v to 2.8v in 0.02v increments

CPU Reference: 0.440v to 1.0v in Various Increments

CPU Reference2: 0.440v to 1.0v in Various Increments

MCH Core: 0.8v to 1.8v in 0.1v increments

MCH Reference: 0.5v to 1.45v in 0.05v Increments

MCH/DRAM Reference: 0.49v to 1.75v in Various Increments

ICH I/O: 1.0v to 2.3v in 0.05v Increments

ICH Core: 0.8v to 1.8v in 0.1v increments

DRAM Voltage: 1.8v to 3.0v in 0.02v Increments

DRAM Termination: 0.62v to 1.35v in Various Increments

Channel A Reference: 0.49v to 1.75v in Various Increments

Channel B Reference: 0.49v to 1.75v in Various Increments

Ratio and Dividers

(G)MCH Frequency Latch: 200-266-333-400

Overclocking

When it comes to overclocking DDR2 based boards, it gets a little tricky getting extra bus speed as we can't lower the ratios below 1:1. Thus, hitting the high 500MHz level means we are pressing the memory close to 1200MHz. However, we did manage an extremely good overclock when it came to our P5Q and we thought this was going to be it, but GIGABYTE managed to hit 571MHz by tweaking all of the voltage options a bit. With more time and patience we could possibly get more and with better RAM and cooling, even more again.

Important Editor Note: Our maximum overclocking result is the best result we managed in our limited time of testing the motherboard. Due to time constraints we weren't able to tweak the motherboard to the absolute maximum and find the highest possible FSB, as this could take days to find properly. We do however spend at least a few hours overclocking every motherboard to try and find the highest possible overclock in that time frame. You may or may not be able to overclock higher if you spend more time tweaking, or as new BIOS updates are released. "Burn-in" time might also come into play if you believe in that.