Shootouts

Intel H55 Mobo Shootout - Integrated HD Graphics Showdown

By Vincent Chang - 25 Jan 2010

BIOS Settings & Test Setup

BIOS Settings

When it comes to mainstream motherboards with integrated graphics, we don't usually expect them to score on the overclocking front. Hence, with such modest expectations, we were thus floored by the rather aggressive tweaking options available from all the vendors (except Intel). Not only did they have BIOS overclocking tools, they had software-based overclocking utilities and as you know by now, MSI's higher end board even brought out the big guns with its hardware-based auto-overclocking tool, OC Genie.

Despite this, we felt that most of the boards lacked control in the BIOS for adjusting the integrated GPU clock manually. Only ASRock had this, while the other boards could only do so via a software utility or through MSI's OC Genie only with a beta BIOS. However, with our Core i5-661 processor's GPU core already at 900MHz, there probably wasn't much allowance left for GPU overclocking, going by the small 100MHz bump that we managed on the ASRock.

BIOS Settings
O/C Settings ASRock H55M Pro ASUS P7H55-M PRO Gigabyte GA-H55M-UD2H Intel DH55TC MSI H55M-ED55
Base Clock (MHz) 100 - 300 80 - 500 100 - 600 133 - 240 100 - 600
CPU Ratio 9 - 25 9 - 26 9 - 26 N.A 9 - 25
Memory Ratio/Multiplier 800, 1066, 1333MHz 800, 1066, 1333MHz 800, 1066, 1333MHz N.A 800, 1066, 1333MHz
Voltage Adjustments
  • CPU Voltage: 0.84375 - 1.6V (0.00625V steps)
  • Memory Voltage: 1.3 - 2.05V (0.05V steps)
  • PCH Voltage: 1.05, 1.15, 1.25V
  • VTT Voltage: 1.11 - 1.55V (0.06V steps)
  • CPU Voltage: 0.85 - 1.60V (0.00625V steps)
  • Memory Voltage: 1.2 - 2.2V (0.1V steps)
  • IMC: 1.1 - 1.2V (0.05V steps)
  • PCH Voltage: 1.05 - 1.4V (0.05V steps)
  • CPU Voltage: 0.5 - 1.9V (0.00625V steps)
  • Memory Voltage: 1.3 - 2.6V (0.02V steps)
  • PCH Voltage: 0.950 - 1.50V (0.02V steps)
N.A
  • CPU Voltage: +0.006 - +0.303V (0.006V steps)
  • Memory Voltage: 0.906 - 2.405 (0.006V steps)
  • GPU Voltage: 1.300 - 1.399V (0.012V steps)
  • PCH Voltage: 0.451 - 1.953V (0.004 to 0.006V steps)
Tested Overclock Settings
  • Base Clock: 160MHz max
  • IGP: 133 - 1333MHz (1000MHz max)
Base Clock: 170MHz max Base Clock: 160MHz max N.A Base Clock: 160MHz max


Test Setup

All the H55 motherboards were tested with its integrated graphics core at default clock speed and with 256MB of shared memory allocated. The following system configuration:

  • Intel Core i5-661 processor
  • 2 x 1GB Kingston HyperX DDR3-1333 (CAS 7-7-7-20) *the Intel DH55TC was running DDR3-1066
  • Seagate 7200.10 200GB SATA hard drive (one single NTFS partition)
  • Integrated graphics driver - Intel GFX_15.16.4.x.2009_PV
  • Intel INF 9.1.1.1020
  • Windows 7 Ultimate

The following system and gaming benchmarks were used:

  • BAPCo SYSmark 2007 Preview (ver 1.05)
  • Futuremark PCMark Vantage (ver 1.01)
  • Futuremark 3DMark06 (ver 1.10)
  • SPECviewperf 9.0
  • Unreal Tournament 3 (ver 1.1)
  • Quake 4 (ver 1.3)

 

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