Kings of the Overclockers - an ElMaxi interview
Software & Benchmarking QuestionsYouGamers: I've got a closet full of dead hardware that's been sacrificed to the overclocking gods. What's your most memorable hardware failure as a result of overclocking? ElMaxi: I'd have to say when I left a pelt [Peltier cooling device - Ed] powered up and melted down one of my best benching cards. I was running #2 behind Overklokk [another top benchmarker] in the 9500 class and this card had a very good chance to match his. I hated losing a gem like that, but it happens to the best of us.
One of El-Maxi's benchmarking setups, complete with dry ice / liquid nitrogen container.
YouGamers: Benchmarking is a world of bragging rights and high scores. What accomplishment(s) are you most proud of? ElMaxi: Nearly breaking 30K on a 9800NP card right behind Macci [yet another benchmarker], 50K on [an AMD Athlon] FX-57 with X1900 running dry ice, and recently pushing [an Intel] Xeon 3070 over 5300Mhz in Super Pi [scores refer to 3DMark2001 SE - Ed].
YouGamers: This can be a time-consuming hobby. How much time do you devote to benchmarking? ElMaxi: You're right, it can be. It really depends - sometimes I can bench for 8 hours or more during one session. If things are going well you basically never want to stop. There's also all the testing, modifications, software setup, learning each new platform. You could easily do this full-time if you wanted to.
YouGamers: I once overclocked the Saturn processor in an HP48GX calculator. What's the most eclectic piece of hardware you've overclocked? ElMaxi: I never really got to out of mainstream with hardware but that sounds interesting!
YouGamers: Software is a key component to benchmarking. Which benchmarking applications do you use on a regular basis? ElMaxi: 3DMark2001, 3DMark03, 3DMark05, 3DMark06, PCMark05, Super Pi & EVEREST.
YouGamers: What other applications do you use when overclocking and preparing for benchmark runs? ElMaxi: CPU-Z, Memset, Clockgen, ATI Tool, Rivatuner and a few others.
Let the benchmarking begin! Keeping things cool with liquid nitrogen.
YouGamers: We're now a full half-year into the consumer release of Windows Vista. It's still a bit of a rocky road with regards to benchmarking, and many are sticking to WindowsXP, which has more mature drivers. Some benchmarks, though, are producing higher scores under Vista. Do you favor one release of Windows over the other? ElMaxi: It depends on the benchmark you're running. If you want every last point you should use the best setup for that particular test and that includes running the best OS for a particular benchmark. Most everything can run on Windows XP aside from PCMark05 which appears to favor Vista. I read that Futuremark's newest version of 3DMark will only run on Vista, that will be interesting transition because it isn't the best benching OS right now for most applications.
YouGamers: FutureMark's 3DMark series of products have become the standard in graphics benchmarking. Do you feel the benchmarks' popularity is justified? Are there any improvements in the software that you'd like to see? ElMaxi: Yes, better cheat protection. With the amount of money and time people spend running Futuremark software I think it is important that FM users feel confident in the results published on the ORB.
YouGamers: Since the 3DMark series of products have become the de-facto desktop graphics benchmarks (and PCMark the dominant system benchmark), the products get their fair share of scrutiny by hardware enthusiasts and benchmarkers alike. Benchmarking is very much a community-driven activity, and FutureMark fosters that community through their forums and the ORB. In your opinion, is there anything FutureMark can do to improve their relationship with the benchmarking community and their customer base as a whole? ElMaxi: I think the key is to be able to intelligently sort through any feedback whether it is good or bad and pick out the parts that are important and reasonable, talk about what kind of changes may be needed and then make those changes.
Things are getting frosty – note the high-tech plastic cup funnel.
YouGamers: Without tracking systems, it's impossible to compare worldwide benchmarking results. HWBot is an excellent service for tracking such results, but with regards to FutureMark products the results are explicitly linked to FutureMark's ORB database. Are there any improvements would you like to see in the ORB? ElMaxi: I am not a fan of the recent CNET advertising seen on the ORB so I'd like to see that removed. Another area of fairly frequent comment is the frequency of driver verification. If that process could be faster it would be helpful.
YouGamers: Ranking system in any field are magnets for controversy. How do you feel about the current state of online ranking systems for benchmarking? Is there enough impartiality with these systems, particularly with regards to reviewing questionable score submissions? ElMaxi: Speaking for HWBot, from my experience every moderator there takes a very professional approach to reviewing reported or questionable scores. Every result is given equal treatment. HWBot also has very experienced people which I think is rather important when looking at results on any level.
YouGamers: Recently, some top benchmarkers pulled their scores from the HWBot database in the name of giving others a chance to move to the top spots that they've dominated for so long. Any thoughts on this decision? Is this an attempt to bring benchmarking back to it's fun, community-based origins? ElMaxi: I can't answer for them. With any competitive sport such you will encounter some controversy - it's expected. I have great faith in the HWBot crew in its ability to innovate and do what's best for the community. In some regards a database that doesn't award points might be better but you also loose something in that scenario: the motivation to do better. Either way, benchmarking is a lot of fun for me and HWBot offers something you won't find anywhere else. I think that speaks for itself.
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