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The ASUS Maximus VIII Extreme Review: The Other $500 Option

 by Ian Cutress on April 7, 2016 9:00 AM EST
70 Comments | Add A Comment
70 Comments

ASUS Maximus VIII Extreme Conclusion

I mentioned at the top of the review that this is the second halo motherboard we’ve tested. Both the ASUS Maximus VIII Extreme and GIGABYTE Z170X-Gaming G1 command a large price but represent the premium product from the two major motherboard players in the industry. For the sale, each side focuses on specific areas:

ASUS Maximus VIII Extreme vs GIGABYTE Z170X-Gaming G1
 MSRP $500
Motherboard ASUS Maximus VIII Exteme GIGABYTE G170X-Gaming G1
Warranty Period 3 Years 3 Years
Product Page Link Link
Price Amazon US Amazon US
Size E-ATX E-ATX
CPU Interface LGA1151 LGA1151
Chipset Intel Z170 Intel Z170
Memory Slots (DDR4) Four DDR4
Supporting 64GB
Dual Channel
Up to 3866 MHz		 Four DDR4
Supporting 64GB
Dual Channel
Up to 3666 MHz
Video Outputs HDMI
DisplayPort		 HDMI
Network Connectivity Intel I219-V
3T3R 802.11ac 		 2 x Killer E2400
Killer AC-1535 2T2R 802.11ac
Onboard Audio Realtek ALC1150
with ESS ES9023P DAC bypass		 Creative Sound Core 3D +
JRC NJM2114 +
Burr Brown OPA2134
PCIe Slots
for Graphics
(from CPU)		 3 x PCIe 3.0
 - x16,
 - x8/x8,
 - x8/x4/x4		 4 x PCIe 3.0 via PLX8747
 - x16/x16,
 - x16/x8/x8,
 - x8/x8/x8/x8
PCIe Slots
for Other
(from PCH)		 1 x PCIe 3.0 x4
2 x PCIe 3.0 x1		 3 x PCIe 3.0 x1
Onboard SATA Six, RAID 0/1/5/10
Two from ASMedia ASM1061		 Six, RAID 0/1/5/10
Four via ASM1061, no RAID
Onboard SATA Express Two, RAID Three
Onboard M.2 1 x PCIe 3.0 x4 or SATA,
RAID 0/1, NVMe		 2x PCIe 3.0 x4 or SATA,
RAID 0/1, NVMe
Onboard U.2 1 x PCIe 3.0 x4 (switched with M.2) None
USB 3.1 2 x Type-A (ASM1142)
1 x Type-A (Alpine Ridge)
1 x Type-C (Alpine Ridge)		 1 x Type-A (Alpine Ridge)
1 x Type-C (Alpine Ridge)
1 x Type-A (Front Panel bundle)
1 x Type-C (Front Panel bundle)
USB 3.0 4 x Rear Panel
4 via headers		 4 x Rear Panel
2 via headers
USB 2.0 -
6 via headers		 2 x Rear Panel
4 via headers
Power Connectors 1 x 24-pin ATX
1 x 8-pin CPU
1 x 4-pin CPU		 1 x 24-pin ATX
1 x 8-pin CPU
Fan Headers 2 x CPU (4-pin)
4 x CHA/SYS (4-pin)		 2 x CPU (4-pin)
5 x CHA/SYS (4-pin)
Notes Bundled OC Panel Bundled USB 3.1 Panel
Combination air/water heatsink

The big selling points for the Z170X-Gaming G1 are the PLX8747 chip enabling 32 PCIe lanes for 3-way and 4-way SLI, three Killer based network points for DoubleShot-X3 Pro, a combination air/water chipset heatsink, dual M.2, a USB 3.1 front panel, PCIe guards, and a Creative Sound Core 3D audio codec with a Burr Brown op-amp.

The big selling points for the Maximus VIII Extreme are the 3x3 Wi-Fi module, onboard U.2 support, a total of four onboard USB 3.1 ports, an ES9023P audio DAC, a bundled OC Panel, system performance and the BIOS/software package.

Both motherboards are validated with Thunderbolt 3.

It’s an interesting scenario being played out. ASUS wins on the performance side, the BIOS and software are easier to use, and overclocking wins out due to LLC implementation. 3x3 WiFi plus U.2 is hard to ignore on the Extreme as well. But the multi-GPU support of the GIGABYTE via the PLX is the massive plus that can’t be made up elsewhere (and non-GPUs can be used as well).

Both sides have impressive feature sets, and both sides have areas for improvement. If the price is still a factor and the prices of these motherboards decrease over time, if the GIGABYTE ends up $50-75 less expensive in a direct comparison, it would be hard to pass up that saving to spend elsewhere. Under the 100-series platform and Skylake processors, ASUS takes the crown up to dual GPU here, whereas by virtue of support the GIGABYTE motherboard happily takes it for 3-way and 4-way.

I’d happily recommend the ASUS to any performance junkie, but sometimes big performance needs big PCIe, and I’d happily recommend the GIGABYTE in that case. 


Recommended by AnandTech
The ASUS Rampage VIII Extreme Motherboard
For Your Local Performance Junkie, Dual GPU and under

 

Other AnandTech Reviews for Intel’s 6th Generation CPUs and 100-Series Motherboards

Skylake-K Review: Core i7-6700K and Core i5-6600K - CPU Review
Comparison between the i7-6700K and i7-2600K in Bench - CPU Comparison
Overclocking Performance Mini-Test to 4.8 GHz - Overclocking
Skylake Architecture Analysis - Microarchitecture
Z170 Chipset Analysis and 55+ Motherboards - Motherboard Overview
Discrete Graphics: An Update for Z170 Motherboards - PCIe Firmware Update
Price Check: Intel Skylake i7-6700K and i5-6600K - Latest Skylake Price Check (3/29)

100-Series Motherboard Reviews:
Prices Correct at time of each review

($500) The GIGABYTE Z170X-Gaming G1 Review
($500) The ASUS Maximus VIII Extreme Review (this review)
($250) The ASUS Maximus VIII Impact Review
($240) The ASRock Z170 Extreme7+ Review
($230) The MSI Z170 Gaming M7 Review
($208) The GIGABYTE Z170-UD5 TH Review
($165) The ASUS Z170-A Review
($125) The Supermicro C7H170-M Review

Motherboard Reviews Planned:

For anyone not interested in the $500 motherboard segment, the next one up on the block is the MSI Z170A SLI PLUS, which comes in at $120-130. Stay tuned for that review. We've also got a couple of server focused Skylake boards waiting in the wings.

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  • saratoga4 - Thursday, April 7, 2016 - link

    >if you care about audio you're exiting it on hdmi anyway

    Maybe for speakers, but not headphones. Good headphone amps on receivers are surprisingly rare. HDMI replaces line out for a lot of people, which is why its unfortunate that reviewers typically test line out and ignore headphone out.

  • Impulses - Friday, April 8, 2016 - link

    If you're only using headphones you can still do TOSlink out to an excellent outboard DAC/amp for $150-300 (less than an AVR) and it'll blow away anything that could be built into a mobo... Or just get a Xonar STX for $150, still pretty solid and the amp will still be better than anything on a mobo.

  • jptech7 - Friday, April 8, 2016 - link

    For headphone equipment, most are using USB audio or TOSLINK in my experience, but the idea is the same. I still respect the effort that Asus put into the audio system.

  • Ubercake - Friday, April 8, 2016 - link

    Even a $300 pro-level Asus board has exceptional on-board sound; better than many soundcards even in the $100-$150 range. In my opinion, the price on most sound cards is way too high, though the low demand due to people using great on-board sound might be the reason for the high price.

  • Silma - Thursday, April 7, 2016 - link

    This motherboard only makes sense for people who need low DPC latency, so mostly people in the audio/music industry.
    Otherwise the market is flooded with excellent 150 $ motherboards, which leave 350 $ to spend on a better graphic card, NVMe SSD, more memory or whatever makes sense for the user.

  • willis936 - Thursday, April 7, 2016 - link

    Dude it's 2016.

  • Dr. Swag - Thursday, April 7, 2016 - link

    I know you guys are hard at work on all the different articles and reviews and I appreciate it, but just wondering where is the article you guys promised 2 months ago on a review and ipc analysis of the Athlon x4 845? I'm really looking forward to that since depending on how big of an improvement Excavator is it could also affect Zen (since AMD said Zen is Excavator+ 40% or more), and I'm super excited for Zen. It's been nearly 2 months, and I know the x4 845 wasn't out then but it's been on the market for at least a month now. Just curious on how far you guys are on that and if it is coming out soon.
    If you don't know what I'm talking about and somehow completely forgot about it, here is the link to the original comment:
    http://www.anandtech.com/comments/10000/who-contro...

  • ghanz - Thursday, April 7, 2016 - link

    Seconded.

  • extide - Thursday, April 7, 2016 - link

    On page one, the Motherboard Comparison table is all screwed up. If you pick Asrock Z170 Extreme 7+, you get the stats for the MSI Gaming M7. If you pick the MSI Gaming M7, you get the stats of something else. If you pick the Asus Z170A you get the stats for the Asrock Extreme 7+. Please fix!

  • extide - Thursday, April 7, 2016 - link

    I am sure they are all messed up, those are only the ones I knew were wrong off the top of my head.
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