Day two of ASUS ROG Showdown at DreamHack Winter 2009 has come to an end and a winner has been announced after the semifinals and final are over.
Below is a live transcript from the event:
12.20: The semifinal has officially come to an end and Elmor came out victorious with a safe margin. SF3D saved some honor with a really good score of 28442 points in the second round, but to no use. More information will follow.
12.05: With fifteen minutes to go but the mood has dropped since the competition is already over. We hope to see a result from SF3D before time is up.
11.52: Elmor has officially secured a place in the finals. There is still time to go, but Elmor managed a second solid score of 27 983 points. SF3D is still to register a result and has most likely lost a lot of zest now that the theoretic chance of winning is all gone.
11.39: The graphics cards of the systems, two Radeon HD 5870, use the stock cooling. While fighting for the last MegaHertz Elmor has started pouring liquid nitrogen over his Swedish moose mascot. The cool air is then sucked into the fans of the graphics cards, which the mascot sits upon, it’s the little things that gets you through!
11.35: The second half begins and the two competing have now switched systems and start by a tour of the BIOS settings.
11.32: The first half of the first semifinal has been completed and Elmor has a firm hold of the competition with the highest score so far, while SF3D has failed to register a result at all.
Elmor: 28685
SF3D: 0
We will return with second half.
11.30: Elmor complete the first half of the semifinal against SF3D by registering a Vantage Performance score of 28 685 points, a new record in ASUS ROG Showdown! Very impressive!
11.25: SF3D miss out on scoring in the first round after his system crashed in the last test. Elmor has most likely secured a place in the final , we are simply waiting for Elmor to complete his last test.
11.23: Times us up, but both Elmor and SF3D have rounds rolling and hope to improve their scores, SF3D hasn’t managed to score any points so far.
11.22: We now have 50 seconds left of the first found.
11.17: A highly unscientific poll among the overclockers and other personnel shows that Elmor is the clear favorite to take home the first semifinal, with 7 – 1. SF3D complained about his test system, which could spell trouble for Elmor in second half when the roles are reversed.
11.15: Elmor takes the lead after scoring 28167 points. A good score, but it doesn’t beat the best results from yesterday.
11.09: Both Elmor and SF3D are running a round of 3DMark and by pure chance have wound up at the exact same locations in the test. We have 15 minutes to go before halftime.
11.05: Both Elmor and SF3D have started their first test rounds of 3DMark Vantage and Elmor was pleased with the first system where the processor felt up to par with the best system yesterday. So far no results.
Elmor won the first semifinal of ASUS ROG Showdown. It started with some nervous play where both Elmor and SF3D started their first 3DMark rounds at almost the same time, but only the Swede managed to keep the system stable through the whole test. Unfortunate for Finland and SF3D this pattern continued through the first half and SF3D failed to score in the first half. At the same time Elmor went to set a new record in the competition with 28685 points and left SF3D with only a theoretic chance of winning.
Elmor never let SF3D take advantage of the slim chances with another good score in the second half. In the end Elmor could cruise to victory and was applauded by the other overclockers after his good score in the first half. During the second half Elmor was close to a result over 29000 point, but sadly the system crashed at the very last minute. So far there seems to be more to get.
Elmor is the first to move on to the final in ASUS ROG Showdown and with his new record he has raised the bar as Sampsa and Stummerwinter will face off later during the day.
We continue with the rest of the competition on the following pages and of course put extra weight on the final where profile Elmor will defend the blue and yellow colors.
Elmor with his lucky mascot
Our Finnish overclockers had a rough day today and after SF3D failed to score in the first half of his semifinal against Elmor the problems continued for Sampsa as he struggled to get his system to complete 3DMark Vantage. In a tough fight against Stummerwinter, who got the highest score during the quarterfinals, Sampsa managed to get his first system rolling and with one of his last attempts he managed to score 27458 points, which gives him a pretty good chance against Stummerwinter in the second half after he scored 28271 points with his system.
The second semifinal of ASUS ROG Showdown turned out to be a really exciting event where Sampsa didn’t manage to get a score until the very last second in the first half and both competitors had to struggle in the second round and the final scores were very close. In the end it was Stummerwinter who came out victorious from this very even semifinal. With both scores summarized there was only 196 points separating them, to Stummerwinter’s advantage.
Stummerwinter: 28271 + 27441 = 55712 points
Sampsa: 27458 + 28058 = 55516 points
This means that the final would be between Swedish Jon “Elmor” Sandström and German Boris “Stummerwinter” Küntzler in ASUS ROG Showdown. The final turned out to be an even struggle that went on for 2 x 60 minutes and we had hopes for scores over 29 000 points, something Elmor had claimed to be close earlier in the competition.
ASUS ROG Showdown reached its climax and after eight of the world’s most merited overclockers have met in first quarter and then semifinals at DreamHack two competitors have reached the finals. Jon "Elmor" Sandström and Boris "Stummerwinter" Küntzler have through impressive overclocking defeated the competition and reached the final of ASUS’ overclocking competition, which had longer rounds at 2 x 60 minutes.
Final scores:
Elmor: 28293 + 28103 points
Stummerwinter: 28203 + 28434 points
Transcript of the live coverage:
18.18: Stummerwinter wins ASUS ROG Showdown! Elmor’s last attempt results in another annoying freeze. We congratulate Stummerwinter!
18.16: Time is up and if not Elmor’s last and currently running 3DMark test reaches 28400 points we have a German winner of ASUS ROG Showdown.
18.14: Elmor starts another round of tests that will most likely be his last with only two minutes left of the competition.
18.11: 5 minutes to go and Stummerwinter is still in the lead.
18.06: With 10 minutes to go Elmor just started a new round of 3DMark while Stummerwinter please the crows with some entertaining BSODs.
18.00: Elmor finally has has a score to show, but 28103 points isn’t enough to get past Stummerwinter so he has to keep working.
17.50: Elmor has another annoying freeze and great trouble getting a result from his system. The same system Stummerwinter pushed to 28203 points about an hour ago.
17.39: The second half has is halfway, which means there is still plenty of time for both Elmor and Stummerwinter to improve their scores.
17.39: Elmor’s system just locked in 3DMark and time is getting short. He needs a result near 28400 points to get past Stummerwinter and reclaim the lead.
17.39: Elmor is still having a hard time in the second half and so far he hasn’t managed to complete a whole segment of 3DMark. Stummerwinter is on a roll and is currently moving through another round of 3DMark Vantage.
17.24: Stummerwinter scores 28434 points and take the lead!
17.24: The second half have started and after five minutes it is still all about getting a feel for the new systems.
Elmor and Stummerwinter struggling to improve their scores
First half:
17.13: 28293 points was the result and not as big increase as Elmor had hoped, but he still managed to increase the lead.
17.13: Elmor looks to have a real nice round coming along as he enters the last set of tests.
17.08: The first half is over but we are still waiting for the result of Elmor’s last attempt that is rolling on.
16.57: Elmor moves past Stummerwinter with a tiny margin. 28234 points is 31 points higher than Stummerwinter’s best score and this is well within the margin of error of the system.
16.52: With 15 minutes to spare German overclocker Stummerwinter still has a 200 point lead, but the competition is still open.
16.45: Elmor submit his first score, about 27900 points.
16.37: With 30 minutes to go we still have Stummerwinter in the lead while Elmor is hunting for his first score.
16.31: We managed to get a few words with Stummerwinter who revealed that by lowering memory voltage he managed to get the system more stable, while Elmor was less happy with his system.
16.26: 28203 points is the first score of the final and this very good result was submitted by Stummerwinter who got over his BSOD in the beginning quite fast.
16.23: Stummerwinter is ready to get serious and both finalists have started investigating the doable clock frequencies of each system.
16.15: Elmor is first to starting 3DMark and is starting to test the limit of the processor. Stummerwinter pulled down the first round of applauds with the first Blue Screen Of Death due to too aggressive settings.
BSODs are never fun
16.09: The competitions starts and both participants are busy optimizing memory settings and increasing clock frequencies, which will continue throughout the competition.
16.06: Preparations have taken longer than expected but now both Stummerwinter and Elmor are ready to go.
Stummerwinter and Elmor shaking hand before it all starts
15.56: Parties from ASUS and Intel are preparing the systems for the final starting any time now.
Alas, our hopes in Jon "Elmor" Sandström wasn’t enough to bring home ASUS ROG Showdown. German overclocker Boris "Stummerwinter" Küntzler turned out to be strong in the final and even if Elmor won the first half he never managed to get the second system running the way he wanted. Through two stable results in both halves, both over 28 000 points (28203 + 28434) Stummerwinter took home the crown with 241 points margin.
On his way to victory of ASUS ROG Showdown Stummerwinter beat skilled overclockers like Sampsa and Giorgioprimo to finally also best Elmor.
Boris earned this victory and for his work he earned an ASUS ROG G51J-3D notebook. We had a chat with Boris after his victory;
NH: How did you experience the different systems, was there any major differences between CPUs and memories?
Stummerwinter: The systems changed a lot and the key was to find what worked best for the particular system. It was great to switch systems instead of giving each overclocker their own systems that will impose a greater luck factor
NH: What was hardest about the competition?
Stummerwinter: The stress before the competition!
NH: Did you have any specific goals?
Stummerwinter: No specific goal, but mainly see what I could achieve and perhaps survive the first round.
NH: What do you think was the key to winning?
Stummerwinter: That I had the most consistent results.
NH: What do you think of the P55 platform and ASUS Maximus III Extreme? Any specific comments on the motherboard?
Stummerwinter: It was a bit hard to master, harder than the X58 platform, which made it difficult to really get to know it. It’s hard to say anything about the motherboard since the processor was so tricky.
NH: What did you think of the competition?
Stummerwinter: It was better than other competitions since we switched systems in halftime. It was also planned well for the audience. It was a shame there was no qualifier, but the competition worked very well.
NH: Any thoughts on DreamHack?
Stummerwinter: I haven’t seen much (laughs). But I like it in Sweden and I like the Nordic people, but sometimes there’s too much beer.
Last but not least we want to congratulate Boris for winning and also wish the other overclockers good luck in the future. Also thanks to ASUS that arranged a very good event, next we have our own Swedish Computer Performance Championship coming up!
