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Sandybridge has been dominating mainstream news in recent months, but Intel's flagship products are still tied into the X58 platform. After our recent review of the stunning Gigabyte G1 Assassin motherboard, today we turn our attention to the flagship Asus Rampage III Black Edition.
‘The Republic of Gamers consists only the best of the best. We offer the best hardware engineering, the fastest performance, the most innovating ideas, and we welcome the best gamers to join in.
In the Republic of Gamers, mercy rules are only for the weak, and bragging rights means everything. We believe in making statements and we excel in competitions. If your character matches our trait, then join the elite club, make your presence felt, in the Republic of Gamers.'
Yes, Asus have always been aggressive with their Republic of Gamers literature. In a similar fashion to the Gigabyte board, the Asus Rampage III Black Edition is a balls out, no compromise board loaded with every feature, then some. Asus are calling it the ‘Ultimate X58 Gaming Board'. Them's fighting words, but can it really hope to compete with the G1 Assassin?
Specifications
| CPU | Intel® Socket 1366 Core™ i7 Processor Extreme Edition/Core™ i7 Processor/ Supports Intel® Turbo Boost Technology 2.0 * Refer to www.asus.com for Intel CPU support list |
| Chipset | Intel® X58 / ICH10R |
| System Bus | Up to 6400 MT/s ; QuickPath Interconnection |
| Memory | 6 x DIMM, Max. 48 GB, DDR3 2200(O.C.)/2133(O.C.)/2000(O.C.)/1800(O.C.)/1600/1333/1066 Non-ECC,Un-buffered Memory Triple channel memory architecture * Hyper DIMM support is subject to the physical characteristics of individual CPUs. Some hyper DIMMs only support one DIMM per channel. Please refer to Memory QVL for details. |
| Expansion Slots | 4 x PCIe 2.0 x16 , support x16; x16/x16; x16/x8/x8 and x8/x8/x8/x8 configurations 2 x PCIe x1 |
| Multi-GPU Support | Support NVIDIA 3-Way SLI™ / ATI CrossFireX™ Technology 4 PCIe x16 slots ready for 4 single PCB 2-slot width graphics cards |
| Storage | Intel ICH10R controller 6 xSATA 3.0 Gb/s ports Intel® Rapid Storage Technology Support RAID 0,1,5,10 JMicron® JMB363 controller 2 xExternal SATA 3.0 Gb/s ports Marvell® 9182 PCIe SATA 6Gb/s controller 2 xSATA 6.0 Gb/s ports |
| Bluetooth | IEEE 802.11b/g/n, Wi-Fi Compliant, Bluetooth v3.0 + HS |
| ThunderBolt LAN/Audio Combo Card | Dedicated network processing unit (NPU) – Advanced Game Detect™ – Visual Bandwidth Control™ – Application Blocking – Online Gaming PC Monitor™ – Bandwidth Tester – Game Networking DNA™ Built-in 2-Channel High Quality DAC/ADC – Output Signal-to-Noise Ratio (A-Weighted): 116 dB – Output THD+N at 1kHz: 105 dB – C-Media 6631 audio processor (Max. 192kHz/ 24-bit) – TI 6120A2 high fidelity headphone amplifier – Digital-to-Analog Converter: 120 dB (Max. 192kHz/ 24-bit) – Analog-to-Digital Converter: 114 dB (Max. 192kHz/ 24-bit) – Supports 3 Headphone Impedance Gain Modes (up to 300 Ohms) – Fine-tuned Game Genre EQ Profiles – Xear™ Surround Headphone – Xear™ SingFX – Equalizer, Environment Effects, FlexBass, Smart Volume, Virtual Speaker Shifter – DS3D GX 1.0, OpenAL – Front-panel audio connector (AAFP) – Line in, Line out, Optical S/PDIF out ports – USB 2.0 Interface |
| LAN | Intel® Gigabit Ethernet LAN |
| Audio | SupremeFX X-Fi 2 Built-in 8-Channel High Definition Audio CODEC – EAX® Advanced™ HD 5.0 – THX® TruStudio PRO™ – X-Fi® Xtreme Fidelity™ – Creative ALchemy – Blu-ray audio layer content protection – Supports Jack-detection, Multi-streaming, Front panel Jack-retasking |
| USB | NEC® USB 3.0 controller – 4 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports (2 at back panel; 2 at midboard) Intel® ICH10R Southbridge – 11 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports (4 ports at midboard; 6 ports at back panel, 1 reserved for ROG Connect) |
| ASUS Unique Features | CPU Level Up MemOK! Onboard Switches: Power / Reset / Clr CMOS (at rear) ASUS MyLogo3 ASUS Fan Xpert ASUS EZ Flash 2 ASUS CrashFree BIOS 3 Q-Fan Plus ROG BIOS Wallpaper ASUS EPU Engine ASUS Q-Connector ASUS Q-LED (CPU, DRAM, VGA, Boot Device LED) ASUS Q-Slot ASUS Q-DIMM |
| Overclocking Features | ROG Connect – RC Poster – RC Remote – RC Diagram – GPU TweakIt ROG iDirect GPU.DIMM Post ROG Extreme Engine Digi+ – 8-phase CPU power – 3-phase QPI/DRAM power – 3-phase NB power – 3-phase Memory power – ML Caps on CPU, Memory and QPI respectively ProbeIt iROG Extreme Tweaker BIOS Flashback with onboard switch button Loadline Calibration ROG Extreme OC kit – LN2 Mode – PCIe x16 Lane Switch – Q_Reset – Double Power Supply with dual 8-pin (CPU) power connectors Intelligent overclocking tools – ASUS AI Booster Utility – O.C Profile Overclocking Protection – COP EX (Component Overheat Protection – EX) – Voltiminder LED – ASUS C.P.R.(CPU Parameter Recall) |
| Back Panel I/O Ports | 1 x PS/2 Keyboard 2 x External SATA ports 1 x LAN(RJ45) port(s) 2 x USB 3.0/2.0 (Blue) 7 x USB 2.0/1.1 (1 port also for ROG Connect) 8 -Channel Audio I/O 1 x Clr CMOS switch 2 x Wi-Fi antenna jacks 1 x ROG Connect On/Off switch |
| Internal I/O Connectors | 1 x USB 3.0/2.0 connector(s) supports additional 2 USB 3.0 ports 2 x USB 2.0/1.1 connector(s) support additional 4 USB 2.0 ports 2 x SATA 6.0Gb/s connectors (Grey) 6 x SATA 3.0Gb/s connectors (Black) 2 x CPU Fan connector(s) 3 x Chassis Fan connector(s) 3 x Optional Fan connector(s) 1 x S/PDIF Out connector 1 x 24-pin ATX Power connector 2 x 8-pin ATX 12V Power connector 3 x thermal sensor connector 1 x En/Dis-able Clr CMOS connector 1 x Front panel audio connector (AAFP) 1 x System Panel connector 8 x ProbeIt Measurement Points 1 x QPI Loadline calibration switch jumper (QPI_LL_SW) 1 x LN2 Mode Header 1 x START (Power On) button 1 x RESET button 1 x EZ Plug connector (4-pin Molex Power connector) 1 x Go Button 1 x BIOS Switch button 1 x ROG light connector |
| BIOS | 16 Mb Flash ROM , PnP, DMI2.0, WfM2.0, SM BIOS 2.5, ACPI2.0a Multi-Language BIOS |
| Manageability | WOL by PME,WOR by PME,PXE |
| Accessories | 1 x ROG Connect cable 1 x 3-Way SLI Bridge 1 x SLI Cable 1 x CrossFire Cable 1 x 2-in-1 ASUS Q-Connector Kit 3 x 2-in-1 SATA signal cables 1 x 2-in-1 SATA 6G cables 1 x 2-port USB2.0 + ESATA module 1 x I/O Shield 3 x Thermal Sensor Cable Packs 1 x Cable Ties Pack 1 x ROG theme label 1 x 12-in-1 ROG Cable Label 1 x USB to USB cable for ThunderBolt 2 x Wi-Fi Ring Moving Antenna 1 x Optional NB Fan |
| Support Disc | Drivers ASUS PC Probe II ASUS Update Kaspersky® Anti-Virus ASUS TurboV EVO Utility ASUS AI Suite II ASUS AI Charger WiFi Agent |
| Form Factor | Extended ATX Form Factor 12 inch x 10.6 inch ( 30.5 cm x 26.9 cm ) |
The Rampage III Black Edition arrives in a forbidding black box with the Republic of Gamers logo at the top and a brief indication of the key selling points along the bottom.
As is becoming more commonplace today, the box is a gatefold design, which opens up to give a sneak peak at the board, and a list of specifications on the left.
The bundle is extensive, with a plethora of SATA cables supplied for the system build. There are also various Crossfire and SLI cables, including a 3 way SLI cable. Stickers, software discs, literature, and a USB 3.0/eSATA adapter is also included.
Asus include Kaspersky Anti Virus, which is a great piece of software to bundle.
Asus also include a hybrid card, called the ‘Thunderbolt'. This is a sound card with built in headphone amplifier and it also contains the fantastic Killer E2100 Nic. We will look at this later in the review.
The Asus Rampage III Black Edition is fully loaded and looks great with the menacing black colour scheme.
The board is supplied with 6 DIMMs supporting up to 48GB of DDR3 memory, right up to 2,200mhz. As this is a X58 motherboard, the memory is a triple channel design.
There are eight sata ports on the board, 6 of which are SATA 3.0 GB/s, controlled by the Intel ICH10R. This offers Raid 0,1,5 and 10 support. Next to this are 2 Sata 6.0 GB/s ports (grey), handled by the Marvell 9182 PCIe controller.
Above, a board schematic which shows an overview of the connectivity and specifications. The ‘Extreme Engine Digi+' is a high performance digital VRM design which can achieve the maximum performance levels with adjustable CPU PWM frequency. It expedites heat dissipation and achieves better electric conduction keeping critical components reliable.
The board has a dedicated ‘overclocking zone' which contains a reset and start button, as well as a ‘GO' Button. You can press this before post to enable MemOK! or to quickly load the preset profile for temporary overclocking while in the operating system. There is a debug LED next to this section which displays numbers which can be referenced in the manual to help with troubleshooting. The board supports ROG Connect which allows a laptop to be used, just like a race car engineer. You connect via a USB cable and can view post code in real time on the laptop. Its not something we ever use, but we can see some people finding it useful.
Next to the reset button are four switches which let the user enable or disable the corresponding PCIe x 16 slots. This means you can easily disable a slot with a card in it for troubleshooting or testing configurations. We think this is a rather ingenious idea.
Close to the ram slots is a 3 pin jumper switch which is tagged as ‘LN2'. This ships in the disabled position, but can be enabled to help combat the cold boot bug during POST when using hardcore cooling solutions such as Liquid Nitrogen.
Onboard sound is handled by the capable Supreme FX XFi 2 processor. It features EAX 5.0 and OpenAL for ultra-real cinematic in-game audio. It comes with THX TruStudio Pro, which enhances games, music and movies. SupremeFX X-Fi 2 also implements gold-plated jacks and high quality capacitors to ensure high definition adventures in audio.
The board is fully equipped with an array of passively cooled heatsinks to keep the VRM's cool under load. They are strategically positioned so oversized CPU coolers can be used. We fitted a giant Noctua NH D14 without any trouble.
The board has several power connectors across the schematic to ensure stable performance under heavy load conditions. Under the bottom PCIe Slot is a Molex connector which is to feed extra power to the PCIe slots and graphics cards. We found it didn't really make much difference during testing, two AMD HD6990's were perfectly stable in Quad Crossfire with or without it connected. There are also two EATX12V connectors to supply a high level of power to the CPU (the removable rubber caps are over 4 pins on each connector in the image above). There is a ‘Q reset' button next to these which temporarily stops the power feed to the CPU, to help it recover from a frozen condition. Asus have also included a dual bios configuration on the board so the user can recover to another bios in case of major issues occurring.
The back panel supports the following connectivity:
- 1 x PS/2 Keyboard
- 2 x External SATA ports
- 1 x LAN(RJ45) port(s)
- 2 x USB 3.0/2.0 (Blue)
- 7 x USB 2.0/1.1 (1 port also for ROG Connect)
- 8 -Channel Audio I/O
- 1 x Clr CMOS switch
- 2 x Wi-Fi antenna jacks
- 1 x ROG Connect On/Off switch
The Asus Rampage III Black Edition is supported by an American Megatrends bios which is finished in a black and orange livery. No overclocking setting is missing, and more importantly we found it to be very stable during testing. If we ever pushed things too hard a simple CMOS reset on the back panel got it up and running again.
Updating the bios is also very easy, simply copy the data file to a USB key, insert, start up and load the EZ flash tool.
It only takes a couple of minutes for the system to apply the bios update.
Intel were kind enough to send us one of the first 990x processors available to reviewers. Our sample is so new, the box artwork hasn't even been printed yet.
Inside, Intel include a small tube of thermal paste, and an upgraded ‘reference' Intel cooler, which is actually a huge step up from previous designs, a few years ago. We would assume that a large portion of the audience spending £800 on a processor will be using their own cooler, but at reference speeds we found this to be actually pretty good.
The Core i7 990x is Intel's new flagship processor to replace the 980x, which served KitGuru for a long time in one of our high end test beds. The chip is clocked at 3.46ghz with a maximum turbo frequency of 3.73ghz. It has a 12mb smart cache with 6 physical cores and 6 logical cores. A full list of specifications is available over here.
For our review today we have built a high performance gaming system around the Asus Rampage III Black Edition motherboard. We are using the new Antec Kühler H20 620 Liquid Cooler and 12GB of high performance Kingston T1 memory. As always thanks to all our partners for supplying the hardware today.
Asus Rampage III Black Edition Test system:
Processor: Intel Core i7 990x
Cooler: Antec Kuhler H20 620
Motherboard: Asus Rampage III Black Edition
Memory: Kingston HyperX T1 memory @ 1600mhz 9-9-9: 12GB
Graphics : AMD HD6990x2 (880mhz), Sapphire HD6970 x 3, Inno3D GTX 580 x 2 (gaming tests) / Sapphire HD5870 Flex Edition CFx/MSI GTX 560 ti (productivity tests)
Drives: Crucial RealSSD C300 256GB & Kingston HyperX Max 3.0
Power Supply: Corsair AX1200
Optical Drive: Asus BluRay SBC-06d1S-U
Chassis: Antec Twelve Hundred
Monitors: 2 Prolite B2712HDS & Dell U2410 and Dell U3011 Ultrasharp.
Intel Core i5-2500k System:
Processor: Core i5-2500k
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB 1600mhz
Power Supply: Antec High Current Pro 850W
Motherboard: ASRock P67 Extreme4
Cooler: Noctua NH D14
Thermal Paste: Noctua NT H1
Chassis: Thermaltake Level 10
Graphics: Gigabyte GTX460 OC
Drive: Intel X25-M SSD (160GB)
Operating System: Windows 7 64 bit
Intel Core i7-2600k System:
Processor: Core i7-2600k
Memory: GSkill Ripjaws 4GB 2133mhz
Power Supply: Antec High Current Pro 850W
Motherboard: ASRock P67 Fatal1ty Pro
Cooler: Noctua NH D14
Thermal Paste: Noctua NT H1
Chassis: Thermaltake Level 10
Graphics: Inno3D GTX570
Drive: Intel X25-M SSD (160GB)
Operating System: Windows 7 64 bit
Intel Core i5-655k System:
Processor: Intel Core i5 655k
Memory: Kingston 4GB DDR3 1600mhz
Motherboard: AsRock P55 Deluxe 3
Graphics Card: Sapphire HD6850
Power Supply: Thermaltake ToughPower Grand 750W
Chassis: Antec Dark Fleet DF-85
Cooler: Noctua NH D14
Drive: Kingston 128GB SSD
Intel Core i5-760 System:
Processor: Intel Core i5 760
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Tracer 4GB 1600mhz
Motherboard: AsRock P55 Extreme4
Graphics Card: AMD HD6870
Power Supply: Thermaltake ToughPower Grand 750W
Chassis: Antec Dark Fleet DF-85
Cooler: Noctua NH D14
Drive: Kingston 128GB SSD
Intel Core i7 950 System
Processor: Intel Core i7 950
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Tracer 6GB 1600mhz
Motherboard: AsRock X58 Extreme6
Graphics Card: AMD HD6850
Power Supply: Thermaltake ToughPower Grand 750W
Chassis: Antec Dark Fleet DF-85
Cooler: Noctua NH D14
Drive: Kingston 128GB SSD
Software:
Windows 7 64 Bit Enterprise Edition
Catalyst 11.4
Forceware 266.66
Fraps Professional
SiSoft Sandra
CPUz
GPUz
CPUID Hardware Monitor Professional
Cinebench R11.5 64 bit
CyberLink PowerDvd 10 Ultra
Cyberlink Media Espresso
CrystalMark
HDTach
HQV Benchmark V 2.0
3DMark 11
Unigine Heaven Benchmark
Games:
Alien V Predator
Lost Planet 2
Far Cry 2
Resident Evil 5
Mafia 2
Tom Clancy HAWX 2
Dead Space 2
F1 2010
Colin McRae Dirt 2
Crysis Warhead
Metro 2033
Left4Dead 2
Battleforge
Media Of Honor SP
Devil May Cry 4
All the latest BIOS updates and drivers are used during testing. We perform under real world conditions, meaning KitGuru tests across five closely matched runs and average out the results to get an accurate median figure.
Overclocking:
Overclocking the system was relatively easy and we were limited only by the Antec Kühler H20 620 Liquid Cooler. Taking the CPU to 1.48 volts is a safe long term figure and we managed to get the system stable at 4.8ghz, with load figures in the mid 70s.
The system was stable at 5ghz, but it requires 1.5volts and the temperatures are a little high for long term use (80c+ over extended use once the room gets warmer). Obviously people with hard core water cooling will find the Asus Rampage III Black Edition will push all their hardware to the limit. 5ghz+ is easy on this board.
The image above highlights the settings we needed for 5ghz. We changed load line calibration to 100% calibration and phase control to extreme. Digi+ VRM Duty Control was also switched to extreme settings. Stability was added by setting CPU PLL Voltage to 1.85v and QPI/DRAM Core Voltage to 1.35v. Dram voltage was set to 1.66v. It really didn't require much work at all and is the first indication of a really high quality motherboard and perfectly stable power delivery.
System validation is available over here.
SiSoftware Sandra (the System ANalyser, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant) is an information & diagnostic utility. It should provide most of the information (including undocumented) you need to know about your hardware, software and other devices whether hardware or software.
Sandra is a (girl) name of Greek origin that means “defender”, “helper of mankind”. We think that’s quite fitting.
It works along the lines of other Windows utilities, however it tries to go beyond them and show you more of what’s really going on. Giving the user the ability to draw comparisons at both a high and low-level. You can get information about the CPU, chipset, video adapter, ports, printers, sound card, memory, network, Windows internals, AGP, PCI, PCI-X, PCIe (PCI Express), database, USB, USB2, 1394/Firewire, etc.
Native ports for all major operating systems are available:
- Windows XP, 2003/R2, Vista, 7, 2008/R2 (x86)
- Windows XP, 2003/R2, Vista, 7, 2008/R2 (x64)
- Windows 2003/R2, 2008/R2* (IA64)
- Windows Mobile 5.x (ARM CE 5.01)
- Windows Mobile 6.x (ARM CE 5.02)
All major technologies are supported and taken advantage of:
- SMP – Multi-Processor
- MC – Multi-Core
- SMT/HT – Hyper-Threading
- MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE 4.1, SSE 4.2, AVX, FMA – Multi-Media instructions
- GPGPU, DirectX, OpenGL – Graphics
- NUMA – Non-Uniform Memory Access
- AMD64/EM64T/x64 – 64-bit extensions to x86
- IA64 – Intel* Itanium 64-bit
A staggering set of results for the Asus Rampage III Black Edition/990x. When overclocked to 4.8ghz, the performance figures are literally off the chart.
CINEBENCH R11.5 64 Bit is a real-world cross platform test suite that evaluates your computer’s performance capabilities. CINEBENCH is based on MAXON’s award-winning animation software CINEMA 4D, which is used extensively by studios and production houses worldwide for 3D content creation. MAXON software has been used in blockbuster movies such as Spider-Man, Star Wars, The Chronicles of Narnia and many more.
CINEBENCH is the perfect tool to compare CPU and graphics performance across various systems and platforms (Windows and Mac OS X). And best of all: It’s completely free.
At default clocks this is a rendering powerhouse, however check out the result at 4.8ghz! Considering an Intel Atom system scores around 0.50 points you can begin to see the level of power on tap here.
Unigine provides an interesting way to test hardware. It can be easily adapted to various projects due to its elaborated software design and flexible toolset. A lot of their customers claim that they have never seen such extremely-effective code, which is so easy to understand.
Heaven Benchmark is a DirectX 11 GPU benchmark based on advanced Unigine engine from Unigine Corp. It reveals the enchanting magic of floating islands with a tiny village hidden in the cloudy skies. Interactive mode provides emerging experience of exploring the intricate world of steampunk.
Efficient and well-architected framework makes Unigine highly scalable:
- Multiple API (DirectX 9 / DirectX 10 / DirectX 11 / OpenGL) render
- Cross-platform: MS Windows (XP, Vista, Windows 7) / Linux
- Full support of 32bit and 64bit systems
- Multicore CPU support
- Little / big endian support (ready for game consoles)
- Powerful C++ API
- Comprehensive performance profiling system
- Flexible XML-based data structures
We test at 1080p so that all video cards can be compared throughout our reviews. Obviously driver updates might enhance performance slightly over time, but as a rule, its a useful way for us to present the findings.
Staggering levels of performance from the Crossfire and SLI solutions, with two HD6990's scoring an average of over 147 frames per second, a new record in our labs.
Futuremark released 3DMark Vantage, on April 28, 2008. It is a benchmark based upon DirectX 10, and therefore will only run under Windows Vista (Service Pack 1 is stated as a requirement) and Windows 7. This is the first edition where the feature-restricted, free of charge version could not be used any number of times. 1280×1024 resolution was used with performance settings.
We wanted to break 50,000 points in Vantage, but just fell a bit short at 48,487 points. Still a very good showing from this high end system configuration.
3DMark 11 is designed for testing DirectX 11 hardware running on Windows 7 and Windows Vista the benchmark includes six all new benchmark tests that make extensive use of all the new features in DirectX 11 including tessellation, compute shaders and multi-threading.
After running the tests 3DMark gives your system a score with larger numbers indicating better performance. Trusted by gamers worldwide to give accurate and unbiased results, 3DMark 11 is the best way to test DirectX 11 under game-like loads.
If you want to learn more about this benchmark, or to buy it yourself, head over to this page.
Performance scaling is extremely impressive, from 5,412 points with a single HD6970, to 14,234 with two HD6990's in QuadfireX.
A very important part of overall system responsiveness is down to hard drive performance so we used two of our favourite benchmark utilities Crystalmark X64 Edition and HD Tach. We are using a 6Gb/s capable connector which is controlled by the Marvel 9182 chipset.
Sata 6Gb throughput is fantastic, especially when used in combination with the 256gb Crucial C300 SSD, averaging well over 300MB/s from a single drive.
Many people using this system will be enjoying Flash related content so we feel it is important to test with some of the more demanding material available freely online.
As we have said before Flash isnt an ideal platform for video content as it is quite CPU intensive. Regardless, the 990x is hardly tasked, even at reference clock speeds with HD content.
Cyberlink PowerDVD 10 is one of the finest solutions for the Blu-Ray experience on Windows and we found this software to work perfectly with this chipset. We tested with the Bluray Disc of Avatar, one of our favourite sci-fi films in recent years.
Average load with our bluray disc was around 10 percent. The CPU has a huge percentage of free cycles left for multitasking.
We recorded CPU demand over a specific period of time to get a ‘real world’ rolling scale of activity. The reference clocked Core i7 990x Extreme Edition processor is barely being pushed, ensuring a first class HD media experience.
CyberLink MediaEspresso 6 is the successor to CyberLink MediaShow Espresso 5.5. With its further optimized CPU/GPU-acceleration, MediaEspresso is an even faster way to convert not only your video but also your music and image files between a wide range of popular formats.
Now you can easily playback and display your favorite movies, songs and photos not just on your on your mobile phone, iPad, PSP, Xbox, or Youtube and Facebook channels but also on the newly launched iPhone 4. Compile, convert and enjoy images and songs on any of your computing devices and enhance your videos with CyberLink’s built-in TrueTheater Technology.
We are using a 3.3gb MKV file today at 2 hours and 12 minutes in length. We are converting to a final output for an Apple Media Player, a real world situation facing many people.
Graphics card acceleration is disabled, so we are solely weighing in processor performance. We are using the latest beta which has optimisations for the Sandybridge architecture.
At 4.8ghz the 990x returns a final time of 8 minutes and 38 seconds which is a staggering result with the latest build. The Core i7 2600k takes over 11 minutes.
We are now going to test the USB 3.0 and 2.0 speed, so we used the fastest drive we have, the Kingston HyperX Max 3.0 128GB, which is an Toshiba based SSD product within a USB 3.0 capable enclosure.
Today for testing we first copied a 3.9GB MKV file to and from the Kingston HyperX USB 3.0 drive.
USB 3.0 performance is fantastic for this particular drive, reading at over 140MB/s. USB 2.0 performance is also class leading, although it really is starting to look dated when compared to the new standard.
HQV Benchmark 2.0 is an updated version of the original tool and it consists of various video clips and test patterns which are designed to evalute motion correction, de-interlacing, decoding, noise reduction, detail enhancement and film cadence detection.
There are two versions of the program, standard definition on DVD and high definition on Bluray. As our audience will be concentrating on HD content so will we.
This has a total of 39 video tests which is increased from 23 in the original and the scoring is also up from a total of 130 to 210. As hardware and software gets more complicated, the software has been tuned to make sure we can thoroughly maximise our analysis.
Read our initial analysis over here.
| GTX580 | |
|
Dial
|
4 |
| Dial with static pattern | 5 |
| Gray Bars | 5 |
| Violin | 5 |
| Stadium 2:2 | 5 |
| Stadium 3:2 | 5 |
| Horizontal Text Scroll | 3 |
| Vertical Text Scroll | 5 |
| Transition to 3:2 Lock | 5 |
| Transition to 2:2 Lock | 0 |
|
2:2:2:4 24 FPS DVCAM Video
|
5 |
|
2:3:3:2 24 FPS DVCam Video
|
5 |
|
3:2:3:2:2 24 FOS Vari-Speed
|
5 |
|
5:5 FPS Animation
|
5 |
|
6:4 12 FPS Animation
|
5 |
|
8:7 8 FPS Animation
|
5 |
|
Interlace Chroma Problem (ICP)
|
5 |
|
Chroma Upsampling Error (CUE)
|
5 |
|
Random Noise: Sailboat
|
5 |
|
Random Noise: Flower
|
5 |
|
Random Noise: Sunrise
|
5 |
|
Random Noise: Harbour Night
|
5 |
|
Scrolling Text
|
5 |
|
Roller Coaster
|
5 |
|
Ferris Wheel
|
5 |
|
Bridge Traffic
|
5 |
|
Text Pattern/ Scrolling Text
|
5 |
|
Roller Coaster
|
5 |
|
Ferris Wheel
|
5 |
|
Bridge Traffic
|
5 |
|
Luminance Frequency Bands
|
5 |
|
Chrominance Frequency Bands
|
5 |
| Vanishing Text | 5 |
|
Resolution Enhancement
|
15 |
|
Theme Park
|
5 |
| Driftwood | 5 |
|
Ferris Wheel
|
5 |
|
Skin Tones
|
5 |
| Total | 192 |
The last three or four sets of Forceware drivers have delivered high levels of image quality with the GTX580. A score of 192 points is exceptionally good.
HQV Benchmark 2.0 is an updated version of the original tool and it consists of various video clips and test patterns which are designed to evalute motion correction, de-interlacing, decoding, noise reduction, detail enhancement and film cadence detection.
There are two versions of the program, standard definition on DVD and high definition on Bluray. As our audience will be concentrating on HD content so will we.
This has a total of 39 video tests which is increased from 23 in the original and the scoring is also up from a total of 130 to 210. As hardware and software gets more complicated, the software has been tuned to make sure we can thoroughly maximise our analysis.
Read our initial analysis over here.
| AMD HD6990 | |
|
Dial
|
4 |
| Dial with static pattern | 5 |
| Gray Bars | 5 |
| Violin | 5 |
| Stadium 2:2 | 5 |
| Stadium 3:2 | 5 |
| Horizontal Text Scroll | 5 |
| Vertical Text Scroll | 5 |
| Transition to 3:2 Lock | 5 |
| Transition to 2:2 Lock | 0 |
|
2:2:2:4 24 FPS DVCAM Video
|
5 |
|
2:3:3:2 24 FPS DVCam Video
|
5 |
|
3:2:3:2:2 24 FOS Vari-Speed
|
5 |
|
5:5 FPS Animation
|
5 |
|
6:4 12 FPS Animation
|
5 |
|
8:7 8 FPS Animation
|
5 |
|
Interlace Chroma Problem (ICP)
|
5 |
|
Chroma Upsampling Error (CUE)
|
5 |
|
Random Noise: Sailboat
|
5 |
|
Random Noise: Flower
|
5 |
|
Random Noise: Sunrise
|
5 |
|
Random Noise: Harbour Night
|
5 |
|
Scrolling Text
|
5 |
|
Roller Coaster
|
5 |
|
Ferris Wheel
|
5 |
|
Bridge Traffic
|
5 |
|
Text Pattern/ Scrolling Text
|
5 |
|
Roller Coaster
|
5 |
|
Ferris Wheel
|
5 |
|
Bridge Traffic
|
5 |
|
Luminance Frequency Bands
|
5 |
|
Chrominance Frequency Bands
|
5 |
| Vanishing Text | 5 |
|
Resolution Enhancement
|
15 |
|
Theme Park
|
5 |
| Driftwood | 5 |
|
Ferris Wheel
|
5 |
|
Skin Tones
|
7 |
| Total | 196 |
We couldn’t see any image differences between Catalyst 11.4 and 11.1. Not really a bad thing mind you as the IQ is exceptionally good anyway. The HD6970/6990 is really as good as it gets right now.
Aliens V Predator has proved to be a big seller since the release and Sega have taken the franchise into new territory after taking it from Sierra. AVP is a Direct X 11 supported title and delivers not only advanced shadow rendering but high quality tessellation for the cards on test today.
To test the cards we used a 1080p resolution with DX11, Texture Quality Very High, MSAA Samples 1, 16 af, ambient occulsion on, shadow complexity high, motion blur on. We use this with most of our graphics card testing so cards are comparible throughout reviews.
We only noticed a small gain with two HD6990′s, around 17 fps more, when compared with the single card solution.
Lost Planet 2 is a third-person shooter video game developed and published by Capcom. The game is the sequel to Lost Planet: Extreme Condition which is also made by Capcom, taking place ten years after the events of the first game, on the same fictional planet. The story takes place back on E.D.N. III 10 years after the events of the first game. The snow has melted to reveal jungles and more tropical areas that have taken the place of more frozen regions. The plot begins with Mercenaries fighting against Jungle Pirates.
After destroying a mine, the Mercenaries continue on to evacuate the area, in which a Category-G Akrid appears and attacks them. After being rescued, they find out their evacuation point (Where the Category-G appeared) was a set-up and no pick up team awaited them. Lost Planet 2 runs on the MT-Framework 2.0, an updated version of the engine used in several Capcom-developed games.
We are testing in DX11 mode with all settings on the highest. Direct X 11 features are on high.
Lost Planet 2 is an intensive Direct X 11 title which can bring lesser video cards to their knees. The HD6990 on the other hand eats this game for breakfast.
Far Cry 2 (commonly abbreviated as “FC2 or “fc2″) is an open-ended first-person shooter developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It was released on October 21, 2008 in North America and on October 23, 2008 in Europe and Australia. It was made available on Steam on October 22, 2008. Crytek, the developers of the original game, were not involved in the development of Far Cry 2.
Ubisoft has marketed Far Cry 2 as the true sequel to Far Cry, though the sequel has very few noticeable similarities to the original game. Instead, it features completely new characters and setting, as well as a new style of gameplay that allows the player greater freedom to explore different African landscapes such as deserts, jungles, and savannas. The game takes place in a modern-day East African nation in a state of anarchy and civil war. The player takes control of a mercenary on a lengthy journey to locate and assassinate “The Jackal,” a notorious arms dealer.
Far Cry 2 is still a popular game and the open world environment can be taxing on even the latest hardware available today.
Settings: 1920×1200, D3D10, Disable Artificial Intelligence(No), Full Screen, Anti-Aliasing(8x), VSync(No), Overall Quality(Ultra High), Vegetation(Very High), Shading(Ultra High), Terrain(Ultra High), Geometry(Ultra High), Post FX(High), Texture(Ultra High), Shadow(Ultra High), Ambient(High), Hdr(Yes), Bloom(Yes), Fire(Very High), Physics(Very High), RealTrees(Very High)
An average of almost 200 frames per second in Direct X 10 mode with 8AA and all settings cranked to the hilt, if you buy two HD6990's, similar performance levels are yours.
Resident Evil 5, known in Japan as Biohazard 5, is a survival horror third-person shooter video game developed and published by Capcom. The game is the seventh installment in the Resident Evil survival horror series, and was released on March 5, 2009 in Japan and on March 13, 2009 in North America and Europe for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. A Windows version of the game was released on September 15, 2009 in North America, September 17 in Japan and September 18 in Europe. Resident Evil 5 revolves around Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar as they investigate a terrorist threat in Kijuju, a fictional town in Africa.
Within its first three weeks of release, the game sold over 2 million units worldwide and became the best-selling game of the franchise in the United Kingdom. As of December, 2009, Resident Evil 5 has sold 5.3 million copies worldwide since launch, becoming the best selling Resident Evil game ever made.'
215 fps per second from the two HD6990's. Some CPU limiting happening, believe it or not, even at 4.8ghz.
Mafia II is a gritty drama which chronicles the rise of World War II veteran Vito Scaletta, the son of Sicilian immigrants. As the game progresses, Vito will join the Falcone Crime Family and become a made man. There are 15 chapters in the game, connected into one storyline.
We tested at 2560×1600 with fullscreen: on, antialiasing:on , Anisotrophic filtering: 16x, Shadow Quality: High, Ambient Occlusion: on, Geometry Detail: High and APEX PhysX: medium.
The AMD HD6970 takes a bigger performance hit when physX is enabled, causing juddering frame rates at our chosen resolution. The GTX580 is perfectly playable at these settings, but the image quality would need to be dialled down a little for the HD6970.
Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. 2 is an arcade-style flight action game developed by Ubisoft Romania and published by Ubisoft. After the events of the first game, the H.A.W.X squadron is sent to Middle East, where a high level of violence is being registered, and the appearance of various insurgents leaders in various hotspots. The team also has to investigate the mysterious disappearance of Russian nuclear weapons. The player will be controlling three groups: one American (Hunter), one British (Munro) and one Russian (Sokov), each with its own pilots and supporting characters. There will also be references to other characters in the Tom Clancy universe.
We are testing in full DX11 mode with all settings to maximum.
This game is very skewed in favour of nVidia hardware, but the HD6990's more than make up for that with the sheer horsepower on tap. All solutions are perfectly playable at these settings.
Dead Space 2 is a survival horror third-person shooter. The player controls Isaac Clarke from a third-person point of view, looking over the character’s right shoulder. The game features no HUD elements, relying on holograms projected from the player character and his weapons to show information such as messages and ammunition count, respectively. Player health and stasis is shown by a visual indicators located on Isaac’s back. Isaac must fight an alien organism that infects and takes control of human corpses, turning them into “Necromorphs”, mutating their bodies.
Necromorphs must be dismembered as the alien organism controls host bodies via tentacles extending into their limbs. Other, larger types of Necromorphs that cannot be dismembered will often have yellow, glowing pustules, indicating weak spots. Occasionally, when an enemy gets close enough to Isaac, they will grab a hold of him, and the player must repeatedly press a key to fend off the enemy, with failure to do so leading to death of the player character.
More CPU limiting, even at 4.8ghz. No performance problems however, with even the single HD6970 able to power through this without a problem.
F1 2010 is a video game based on the 2010 season of the Formula One world championship. It is the sequel to the 2009 video game based on the same series. It was released in September 2010 on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Windows platforms. The game was confirmed by Codemasters on 23 April 2009. The game engine is based on the new EGO 1.5 engine, an unofficially titled evolution of the EGO 1.0 engine that was created specially for the title.
We are testing across three screens with 2aa and 8af enabled and ultra quality settings in DX11 mode.
A great result for the single card running on the Rampage III Black Edition motherboard, averaging over 40 fps.
Colin McRae: Dirt 2 (known as Dirt 2 outside Europe and stylised, DiRT) is a racing game released in September 2009, and is the sequel to Colin McRae: Dirt. This is the first game in the McRae series since McRae’s death in 2007. It was announced on 19 November 2008 and features Ken Block, Travis Pastrana, Tanner Foust, and Dave Mirra. The game includes many new race-events, including stadium events. Along with the player, an RV travels from one event to another, and serves as ‘headquarters’ for the player. It features a roster of contemporary off-road events, taking players to diverse and challenging real-world environments. The game takes place across four continents: Asia, Europe, Africa and North America. The game includes five different event types: Rally, Rallycross, ‘Trailblazer,’ ‘Land Rush’ and ‘Raid.’ The World Tour mode sees players competing in multi-car and solo races at new locations, and also includes a new multiplayer mode.
We are testing across three screens in Direct X 11 mode with 4aa and 16af enabled. All settings are switched to high.
Again, no problems at these settings, even with 4aa and 16af enabled.
Crysis Warhead, like the original Crysis, is set in the near future when an ancient alien spacecraft is discovered on an island east of the Philippines. The single-player campaign has the player assume the role of former SAS Delta Force operator Sergeant Michael Sykes, referred to in-game by his call sign, Psycho. Psycho’s arsenal of futuristic weapons builds on those showcased in Crysis, with the introduction of Mini-SMGs which can be dual-wielded, a six-shot grenade launcher equipped with EMP grenades, and the destructive, short ranged Plasma Accumulator Cannon (PAX). The highly versatile Nanosuit returns. In Crysis Warhead, the player fights North Korean and extraterrestrial enemies, in many different locations, such as a tropical island jungle, inside an “Ice Sphere”, an underground mining complex, which is followed by a convoy train transporting an unknown alien object held by the North Koreans, and finally, to an airfield.
The engine is still a system killer, all these years later, but modern day hardware can finally generate the frame rates we wanted when it was released !
At these settings Crysis needs an insanely powerful system. The performance is great, with only a few drops to around 25fps. We have tested this game at these settings with a stock clocked 990x and the performance was noticeably lower than this.
Metro 2033 is an action-oriented video game with a combination of survival horror and first-person shooter elements. The game is based on the novel Metro 2033 by Russian author Dmitry Glukhovsky. It was developed by 4A Games in Ukraine and released in March 2010 for the Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows.
The game utilizes multi-platform 4A Engine, running on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Microsoft Windows. There is some contention regarding whether the engine is based on the pre-release X-Ray engine (as claimed by Sergiy Grygorovych, the founder of GSC Game World, as well as users who have seen the 4A Engine SDK screenshots, citing visual similarities, shared resources, and technical evaluation of the pre-release 4A Engine demo conducted at the request of GSC Game World), or whether the engine is an original development (as claimed by 4A Games and Oles’ Shiskovtsov in particular) who claims it would have been impractical to retrofit the X-ray engine with console support). The PC version includes exclusive features such as DirectX 11 support and has been described as “a love letter to PC gamers” because of the developers’ choice “to make the PC version [especially] phenomenal”.
By lowering a few of the settings to medium we were able to improve the minimum frame rates, getting the engine playable at all times, and our overclock helped the system to maintain a +25fps reading at all times.
Left 4 Dead 2 is a cooperative first-person shooter game. It is the sequel to Valve Corporation’s award-winning Left 4 Dead.
Like the original, Left 4 Dead 2 is set during the aftermath of an apocalyptic pandemic, and focuses on four survivors fighting against hordes of the infected. The survivors must fight their way through levels, interspersed with safe houses that act as checkpoints, with the goal of reaching a rescue vehicle at the campaign’s finale. The gameplay is procedurally altered by an artificial intelligence engine dubbed the “Director” that monitors the players’ performance and adjust the scenario to provide a dynamic challenge. Several new features have been introduced: new types of infected, melee weapons, and a story-arc that connects the game’s five campaigns together.
Valve’s Source engine doesn’t prove a problem for the high end AMD hardware, with the HD6970 able to power through the engine, even with anti aliasing enabled.
BattleForge is a video game developed by EA Phenomic and published by Electronic Arts. It was released on Windows in March 2009. A demo was released in the same month. BattleForge is a card based RTS. It revolves around trading, buying and winning through means of micro-transactions. Micro-transactions are not required for playing the game, only for buying new cards.
It supports DirectX 11 providing full support for hardware tesselation.
At these very high settings, the Intel and Asus pairing deliver a great gaming experience, with the frame rates holding above 30fps at all times.
Medal of Honor’s single-player campaign uses a heavily-modified version of Unreal Engine 3, and its multiplayer uses the Frostbite Engine. The single player campaign takes place in 2002 in Afghanistan.
For half of the game, players assume the role of a DEVGRU operator codenamed “Rabbit”, of AFO Neptune. For the remainder, the player alternates between the roles of a Delta Force sniper code-named “Deuce”, of AFO Wolfpack, as well as Army Ranger Specialist Dante Adams of the 75th Ranger Regiment, and AH-64 Apache gunner Captain Brad “Hawk” Hawkins.
Another fantastic result from the Asus and Intel system, averaging 55 frames per second across the three screens.
Devil May Cry 4 is an action game that was published and developed by Capcom in 2008 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Windows platforms. The game is the fourth installment to the Devil May Cry series.
In the game, the player controls both Nero and Dante, the game’s protagonist and the series’ title character as they fight enemies in close combat using firearms, swords, and other weapons. The characters Lady and Trish from previous games in the series makes an appearance, along with new characters Nero, Kyrie, Credo, Gloria, and Agnus. The game is set after Devil May Cry but before Devil May Cry 2.
We used Super high settings with HDR on high and 8aa and 16af to improve the image quality as much as possible.
Devil May Cry 4 is a fun game to play across a tri monitor setup and there really is no problem maintaining good frame rates with a single HD6970.
Crysis Warhead, like the original Crysis, is set in the near future when an ancient alien spacecraft is discovered on an island east of the Philippines. The single-player campaign has the player assume the role of former SAS Delta Force operator Sergeant Michael Sykes, referred to in-game by his call sign, Psycho. Psycho’s arsenal of futuristic weapons builds on those showcased in Crysis, with the introduction of Mini-SMGs which can be dual-wielded, a six-shot grenade launcher equipped with EMP grenades, and the destructive, short ranged Plasma Accumulator Cannon (PAX). The highly versatile Nanosuit returns. In Crysis Warhead, the player fights North Korean and extraterrestrial enemies, in many different locations, such as a tropical island jungle, inside an “Ice Sphere”, an underground mining complex, which is followed by a convoy train transporting an unknown alien object held by the North Koreans, and finally, to an airfield.
We tested earlier across three screens, but this time we are swapping out the HD6970 for a single, then two HD6990's.
Whoever would have thought that Crysis Warhead could run at an average of 78 fps at 7680×1080 resolution? With two of the HD6990's in Crossfire, we could even get away with higher image quality settings.
The Killer Nic drivers and software are installed from the Asus CD which is supplied in the box.
Firstly, we need to discuss Latency V Throughput. Latency is commonly refered to as ‘Lag’. This is a measurement of delay for a network packet or series of packets. Latency is a good measure of the real speed of your network or Internet connection – low numbers indicate fast networking.
Throughput is different, because this is a measure of bandwidth, basically how much data can be delivered to its destination. This is often the system by which consumer Internet connections are classified and priced.
It is important to understand that Latency does not measure Throughput. 30Mbps might seem like its a service ‘speed’ but in actuality its explaining what bandwidth is available to a connection. Standard networking devices are designed to maximise throughput. They are not however designed or optimised to lower latency for online games.
When you play a game online you might think its using 8mbit of your bandwidth, but in reality you will often find its hovering around 25-100kbps. Sometimes if you are playing a game and you notice lagging, its not that your connection isn’t handling massive amounts of data its that the packet delays are causing lag and therefore game responsiveness.
The Game Networking DNA Technology that is utilised in the BigFoot Killer Nic product is tuned to reduce latency, therefore optimising the gaming connection you experience when online. Subsequently it would make sense that with this technology you could experience smoother game play while the machine is multitasking in the background.
The Bigfoot software suite is very capable and offers functionality to check your speeds, as well as monitoring network traffic and CPU load.
The first test we decided to use was the Game Network Efficiency (GANE) Test, which is in place to simulate real world network performance for online PC games. This test is used to create a gaming load on a Windows PC as well as transmission of gaming network traffic over a local network. This test is also designed to test two network cards at once making direct comparisons between both at the same time.
The setup is a little complex, but ill describe it in a step by step manner.
Firstly you connect the host (listen/server) PC to a gigabit switch through a standard gigabit ethernet connection. The Killer Nic is then used on the other test PC and it is connected to the gigabit switch via both the Killer Network gaming card and a standard Intel NIC.
On the server PC we then configure the properties of the onboard network card to have a static IP address. We then adjust the subnet mask to 255.255.255.0. The test PC is then configured in a similar manner, but we assign different static IP’s to both the Intel NIC and the Killer . Again the subnet mask is set to 255.255.255.0.
On the main test PC we then go into advanced via the IPv3 properties window. We then uncheck the ‘Automatic Metric” box and set the metric value to “1″. Both cards need this applied as the NIC uses it to send network traffic. If we leave this setting at ‘automatic’, Windows does not alternate between the NICs and instead will send all the traffic through one card rendering the test useless.
The next stage is to run GANE on both the server/listen PC and the main test rig. GANE measures then compares latency between two network cards installed on any PC. This is handled by a procedure of sending 100 byte packets over the local network on a round trip, every 50ms. Kitguru has selected 100bytes as the packet size because this is a good real world representation of a standard network packet. We want to run this size specifically to test Bigfoot’s claims that many network cards are not optimised for this ‘game’ related data packet size.
While we set up the server PC we also need to run a game benchmark on the main PC and in this case we will use Resident Evil 5 in DX10 mode with the built in benchmark at maximum settings on our screen at 1920×1200 resolution. While we are running this, we are sending packets between both NICs on the main PC to the receiving (listening) PC. This mirrors a real life situation of playing a game online while transmitting data back and forward.
Adapter 1 is the Killer Nic and Adapter 2 is the Intel solution. The results above show that the Killer Nic is 4.0 faster than the Intel solution and delivers a result with almost 25 times less jitter. On a lesser solution this can actually be as high as 35 times faster with 120 times less jitter!
Our average UDP ping was 0.000287643 on the Killer nic and it was 0.003075006 with the Intel solution. Our average mean ping was 0.232525 on the Killer Nic and 0.921490 on the Intel Nic. The worst case scenario is more critical as it could cause lag online. The onboard solution is 5.287735 while it is 0.355063 on the Killer Nic … massive differences. Bear in mind this is obviously over a very tight local network, but when heading online to game on a server thousands of miles away this will increase, exponentially.
The Asus Rampage III Black Edition X58 is one of the finest motherboards KitGuru has reviewed since we launched the publication a year ago. We thought the Gigabyte G1 Assassin was going to hold onto the ‘Number 1' position for a long time, but Asus have already bitten back with an astonishing product set to appeal to hard core performance oriented overclockers and gamers. Sandybridge might get all the headlines in 2011, but X58 is still the most powerful Intel platform.
The Rampage III Black Edition presentation is fantastic, the lovely gatefold box highlights the main selling points and showcases the product within a transparent window, ideal for a store environment. Inside, the bundle is as good as we have seen, with Asus including a plethora of high quality cables, stickers, literature and extras. All of the attention to detail really does help the consumer feel as if they have bought into a full ‘exclusive experience' and not just a motherboard.
The Thunderbolt combo card is a great addition to the bundle, as it offers both audio and networking improvements when compared to onboard solutions. We already know that Asus create some very fine sound cards, and while the Thunderbolt isn't as good as the Xonar Essence STX which we recently reviewed, it is still leaps and bounds ahead of any onboard solution we have tested.
KitGuru has plenty of experience with the Bigfoot Killer E2100 networking hardware, and we still strongly feel that this is not a gimmick, it really does give tangible improvements to the networking experience. When we also factor in the intuitive software which offers many helpful networking settings, it is a good decision to include it on such an exclusive, high end motherboard.
The Asus Rampage III Black Edition is built using the finest engineering standards and the overall PCB layout is well thought out. It does excel when taxed with multiple graphics cards. The overall levels of performance are the highest we have recorded in our labs, and with two HD6990's it is a tour de force of gaming excellence. Our tried and trusted MSI X58 motherboard, used in KitGuru's high end gaming test bed is really starting to show its age.
Overclocking via the Rampage III Black Edition is as straightforward as it gets, and we are pleased that Asus have placed primary focus on power delivery and ensuring that V-Droop and rail stability doesn't negatively interfere with the highest possible end results. We were limited by our inexpensive ‘all in one' liquid cooling solution, but we managed to get the Intel 990x to 5ghz easy enough … with 4.8ghz a usable 24/7 configuration.
If you are in the market for a new X58 motherboard, or are wanting an upgrade to last you throughout 2011, then the Asus Rampage III Black Edition easily gets our highest recommendation. It is a close call between this board and the Gigabyte G1 Assassin, but the Thunderbolt combo card just swings it towards Asus.
The Asus Rampage III Black Edition X58 costs around £380 inc vat in the UK.
Pros:
- overclocking powerhouse with every option available for the hardcore user
- stable power delivery for the most serious demands
- great board layout
- connectivity is peerless
- Thunderbolt add on card offers improved audio and networking capabilities
- Gaming performance is class leading
- bundle is extensive
Cons:
- the cost means this is only for serious enthusiast overclockers and gamers
