Standard bClk
The benchmarks and the energy consumption of a motherboard are partially dependent upon the default setting of the base clock (bClk). It's supposed to be set at exactly 100.0 MHz, but some manufacturers cheat by slightly raising it in order to get ahead of the competition in benchmark scores. A higher bClk improves performance somewhat, but it also increases the energy consumption. Gigabyte also likes to raise the clock frequency of the integrated GPU a bit in its BIOS, which you can clearly see reflected in the 3DMark results on the next page. It creates an uneven playing field when we attempt to objectively test these products and create a fair comparison.
The bClk of the Maximus V Extreme is set at exactly 100.0 MHz, the way it's supposed to be. In order to put the results on the next page in perspective, below you have the bCLK values for the other Z77 boards as well.
