Overclocking
Overclocking with the ASRock Fatal1ty X79 Champion was far easier than I had expected, reaching our reference clock of 4600 MHz using just 1.4 V set in BIOS, and 1.383 V real measured using the provided measure points. Memory clock, capability, and performance were pretty good too, with no real intervention required on my part for the board to run a much faster clock speed than any other Intel X79 Express product I've tested. Getting a higher overclock on the CPU proper quickly assuaged any concerns I had with slightly lower CPU performance.
Cinebench provided a substantial performance increase when overclocked, something that resounds true through the entire series of Intel-based products.
SuperPi 32m results were very good for the ASRock Fatal1ty X79 Champion which finished in last place.
WPrime 1024M numbers showed the true performance benefit available when overclocking the ASRock Fatal1ty X79 Champion which sits as the fastest result to date.
For a bit of 3D action we fired up CodeMaster's F1 2010 to find the ASRock Fatal1ty X79 Champion sitting right in the middle overall.
With Codemaster's F1 2010 starting to show its age, and proving less reliable in showing performance increases, we've added the Shogun 2 DirectX 9 CPU benchmark to our testing suite. In the months to come, it will get added to the main testing section, but for now, it does show a very large increase in performance when run on the overclocked ASRock Fatal1ty X79 Champion, which again finished as the best result.