Gigabyte Z97X-UD3H-BK Black Edition Motherboard Review

We measured the power consumption with the system resting at the Windows 7 desktop, representing idle values.

The power consumption of our entire test system (at the wall) is measured while loading only the CPU using Prime95′s in-place large FFTs setting. The rest of the system’s components were operating in their idle states, hence the increased power consumption values (in comparison to the idle figures) are largely related to the load on the CPU and motherboard power delivery components.

The use of a hybrid digital Intersil VRM controller presents the Z97X-UD3H-BK with positive idle power consumption numbers. At load, however, Gigabyte's part displays the highest stock and overclocked power consumption levels.

Overclocked load power consumption is higher than typical due to the board's reliance upon heavily tweaked voltage settings. We also noticed that the CPU temperature was a few degrees higher than normal while stress testing our overclocked settings. Gigabyte's relatively basic VRM solution is not the most efficient of the boards on show.

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