Gigabyte uses a modified version of the Phoenix Award BIOS for their EP45-DQ6 motherboard. The main menu is split into sections for the MB Intelligent Tweaker, the Standard CMOS Features, and the Advanced BIOS Features, Integraeted Peripherals, Power Management Setup, PnP/PCI Configurations, and PC Health Status.
MB Intelligent Tweaker is where the tweaking is done in the BIOS. Here’s a chart of the various settings that are available. Notice that the board supports going up to 1200MHz FSB which no CPU on the market today can do. But it does leave room if you need it. This board also has robust memory timings and voltage adjustments that allow the tweaker to change the settings to their maximum.
Setting |
Range |
CPU Bus |
100-1200MHz in 1MHz increments |
PCIe |
90MHz-150MHz in 1MHz increments |
CIA2 |
Disabled, Cruise, Sports, Racing, Turbo, Full Thrust |
CPU Clock drive |
700Mv, 800Mv (default), 900Mv, 1000Mv |
PCI Express Clock Skew |
0ps-750ps (Default 0ps) |
CPU Clock Skew |
0ps-750ps (Default 0ps) |
MCH Clock Skew |
0ps-750ps (Default 0ps) |
DRAM Performance Enhance |
Standard Turbo Extreme |
XMP |
Disable, Profile1, Profile2 |
(G)MCH |
200MHz, 266MHz, 333MHz, 400MHz |
System Memory Multiplier (SPD) |
Dependent on CPU FSB and (G)MCH settings |
Memory Frequency |
According to the CPU Host Frequency and SPD |
DRAM Timing Selectable |
Auto, Manual |
CAS Latency Time |
3-7 |
Trcd |
1-15 |
Trp |
1-15 |
TRAS |
1-63 |
TRRD |
1-15 |
TWTR |
1-31 |
TWR |
1-31 |
TRFC |
1-255 |
TRTP |
1-15 |
CMD |
1-3 |
TREAD |
1-15 |
TRD Phase0 Adjustment |
Auto, 0, 1 |
CPU vCore |
0.50000v-2.30000v in various increments |
CPU Termination Voltage |
0.800v-1.940v in 0.020v increments |
CPU PLL |
1.00v-2.800v in various increments |
MCH Core |
0.800v-1.800v in various increments |
MCH/DRAM Reference voltage |
0.490v-1.750v in various increments |
ICH I/O |
1.000v-2.300v in various increments |
DRAM Voltage |
1.800v-3.00v in 0.020v increments |
DRAM Termination |
0.620v-1.325v in various increments |
Channel A reference |
0.440v-1.700v in various increments |
Channel B reference |
0.440v-1.700v in various increments |
To overclock the board I used Gigabyte’s Full Throttle 6 program. Full Thrust would cause the system to crash as the 17% overclock over standard speeds is unattainable with the E6750 CPU that I used for testing. The maximum stable overclock on the board with the E6750 was the Sports setting which overclocked the CPU by 7%.
