Asus Maximus VII Impact (Z97) mITX Motherboard Review

The Haswell micro-architecture in Devil's Canyon processors is just the latest Intel CPU architecture to see many of the critical system operations handled by the processor. As such, benchmarking a motherboard becomes more of a test to certify that the part operates correctly and meets the anticipated performance levels.

We will be outlining the Asus Maximus VII Impact motherboard's performance with the Core i7 4790K CPU at its stock frequency (4.4GHz due to forced turbo). Overclocked performance will be outlined later in the review.

By default, the Asus Maximus VII Impact motherboard applies multi-core turbo (MCT) and forces the 4790K to a constant 4.4GHz when XMP is enabled. This will be displayed as the ‘stock’ setting.

CPU-Z (using the latest version) reports a VCore delivery of around 1.26V when MCT was applied. This is slightly higher than the VCore level that we have seen other Z97 boards provide the 4790K.

Z97 Motherboard Test System:

• Processor: Intel Core i7 4790K ES (4.4GHz forced turbo).
• Memory: 16GB (2x 8GB) Corsair Vengeance Pro 2400MHz CL10.
• Graphics Card: Asus R9 280X Matrix Platinum 3GB.
• System Drive: 240GB SanDisk Extreme II SSD.
• CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i.
• Case: NZXT Phantom 630.
• Power Supply: Seasonic Platinum 1000W.
• Operating System: Windows 7 Professional with SP1 64-bit.

Compared Z97 Motherboards:

• ASRock Z97 Extreme6.
• Asus Maximus VII Hero.
• Asus Maximus VII Ranger.
• Biostar Hi-Fi Z97WE.
• Gigabyte Z97X-SOC Force.
• MSI Z97 Gaming 9 AC.

Software:

• Asus Maximus VII Impact BIOS v2102.
• Catalyst 14.4 VGA drivers.
• Intel 10.0 chipset drivers.

Tests:

• 3DMark 1.3.708 – Fire Strike (System)
• SiSoft Sandra 2014 SP2 – Processor arithmetic, memory bandwidth (System)
• Cinebench R15 – All-core CPU benchmark (CPU)
• WinRAR 5.10 – Built-in benchmark (CPU)
• HandBrake 0.9.9 – Convert 4.36GB 720P MKV to MP4 (CPU)
• ATTO – SATA 6Gbps, USB 3.0, M.2 transfer rates (Motherboard)
• RightMark Audio Analyzer – General audio performance test (Motherboard)
• Totusoft LAN Speed Test – WiFi speed test, 100MB file transfer to wired ‘server' computer (Motherboard)
• Bioshock Infinite – 1920 x 1080, ultra quality (Gaming)
• Metro: Last Light – 1920 x 1080, high quality (Gaming)
• Tomb Raider – 1920 x 1080, ultimate quality (Gaming)

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