The memory controller settings available in the BIOS Setup of ABIT Fatal1ty AN8 are also surprisingly rich. You can configure the memory frequency, adjust Tcl, Trcd, Tras and Trp basic timings, and change the 1T/2T Memory Timings mode. Besides that you can also adjust the whole bunch of secondary parameters responsible for the memory subsystem functioning. In fact, the options in the BIOS Setup offered for the memory controller configuring is almost fully identical to the list of settings provided by A64 Tweaker utility, which already means a lot.

So, now that we introduced to you all options for efficient CPU overclocking available on ABIT Fatal1ty AN8 mainboard, let’s carry out a practical test. Our experiments will help us find out the top clock generator frequency when the mainboard remains stable. For our overclocking tests we used an Athlon 64 3800+ processor working at the nominal 2.4GHz with the clock frequency multiplier reduced to 7x. In order to eliminate the possible limitations imposed by the memory subsystem, we reduced its working frequencies down to the guaranteed supported level.

With the HyperTransport multiplier set to 5x, we managed to easily raise the clock generator frequency up to 249MHz. This is not a record for nForce4, although it is a very good result anyway.

When the HyperTransport multiplier was reduced to 4x, we managed to raise the clock generator frequency to 276MHz. I should admit that this is a pretty moderate result compared to what other mainboards can do with the multiplier on the bus between the CPU and the chipset set to this value.

However, when the HyperTransport multiplier was set to 3x, the mainboard suddenly revealed huge potential and allowed us to raise the clock generator frequency to 337MHz. And this is the best results ’s lab has seen so far.

The table below shows all the frequencies we managed to obtain on ABIT Fatal1ty AN8 mainboard:

Also here is the comparative diagram showing the maximum clock generator frequencies achieved on the mainboards we have already tested in our lab:

As you see, our today’s hero appeared at the very top of the diagram. Here I would only like to add that overclocking with ABIT Fatal1ty AN8 mainboard is an extremely easy procedure. Moreover, if the mainboard doesn’t start after you modified some settings in the BIOS Setup, everything will automatically return to the default values and the system will reboot. For example, we didn’t have to use the Clear CMOS jumper even once throughout the entire overclocking session.