14 DAY TRIAL // Overclocking is probably the first thing that comes in mind when you’re trying to get better benchmark results, but as it turns out, this doesn’t really go hand in hand with Microsoft’s modern Windows 8.
Benchmark community HWBOT has decided to completely ban Windows 8 after discovering that benchmarks performed on this platform are more or less inaccurate due to an issue with hardware-based real-time clocks (RTCs).
The team behind the site has discovered that users who tweak the CPU base clock frequency from within the operating system post unreliable scores because Windows 8’s RTC doesn’t keep accurate track of time.
HWBOT has performed several tests to determine the way Windows 8 influences benchmark scores, discovering that in some cases, it could even cut down times by almost 18 seconds.
“We underclocked the base clock frequency by 6%. After 5 minutes, Windows Time was already 18(!) seconds behind real time. When overclocking the base clock frequency, we can see the opposite effect. We overclock by roughly 4%, and after two minutes, Windows Time is 3 seconds ahead of real time,” the site wrote in a post on its blog.
Windows 8.1 comes with the same glitch, but AMD systems don’t seem to be affected, the post also reads.
“We have continued our testing on more platforms. Windows 8.1 is, just like its older brother, affected by at-runtime base clock frequency adjustments. Intel platforms back to LGA775 are affected. From the looks of it, AMD systems are unaffected. In fact, the clock drifting on Intel based systems seem to resolve itself when switching from an Intel based system, to AMD, and back to Intel.”
As a result, Windows 8 can no longer be used to perform benchmarks for the HWBOT community, so all previous scores will be completely removed from the database.
The video below comes to describe the way Windows 8 influences benchmark results in specific scenarios.
