ASUS P8Z68-V PRO Review: Our First Z68 Motherboard
by Ian Cutress on May 11, 2011 3:13 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Asus
- Z68
Dirt 2
Dirt 2 came to the PC in December 2009, developed by Codemasters with the EGO Engine. Resulting in favorable reviews, we use Dirt 2’s built-in benchmark under DirectX 11 to test the hardware. We test two different resolutions at two different quality settings using a discrete GPU, and an appropriate integrated GPU setting. (Since the game only runs in DX9 or DX11 modes and the HD 3000 lacks support for DX11, we test in DX9 mode on the iGPU.)
Our ASUS board does better in the 1680x1050 results than the 1920x1080, topping out the single and dual GPU results.
Metro 2033
Metro 2033 is the Crysis of the DirectX 11 world (at least until Crysis 2 is updated to DX11 support), challenging every system that tries to run it at any high-end settings. Developed by 4A Games and released in March 2010, we use the built-in DirectX 11 Frontline benchmark to test the hardware. For the iGPU, we run in DX10 mode.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
95 Comments
View All Comments
BernardP - Wednesday, May 11, 2011 - link
A practical question: If one wants to use i-mode or d-mode, is it necessary to install both the Intel video driver and the AMD or Nvidia video driver?Could this be a source of conflicts or other problems?
AnnihilatorX - Thursday, May 12, 2011 - link
Yes you need to install both. Not really on Vista and Windows 7, new driver models mean you can install multiple GPU drivers. I don't think Virtu supports older OS.BernardP - Thursday, May 12, 2011 - link
Thanks for the reply. Noted for future. After taking everything into consideration, including my usage pattern, I would simply deactivate intel IGP, not install Virtu and add an entry-level Nvidia videocard, such as the fanless Asus GT 520.The noteworthy other Z68 feature is SSD cache, but after reading the detailed article about this, I would prefer to go with a 120 GB SDD plus mirroring HDDs.
For me the single plus of the Z68 platform is that I would have Intel IGP as a temporary backup in case of failure of the discrete GPU. This is only worth a very small premium over P67.
vol7ron - Wednesday, May 11, 2011 - link
When you refer to BIOS, do you mean the UEFI BIOS Utility, or is there a dual BIOS/UEFI boot option?risa2000 - Wednesday, May 11, 2011 - link
I noticed in test setup description three different memory modules. Did you do some tests on memory throughput? Was there any difference?I wonder if it makes sense to go for faster memory beyond DDR3-1600.
AnnihilatorX - Thursday, May 12, 2011 - link
You are looking at about 2-5% performance increase from going DDR 1600 to DDR 2133No point buying expensive RAM unless you spot a bargain
L. - Thursday, May 12, 2011 - link
"expensive RAM" -- on the other hand there's quite a lot of relatively cheap around 2k mhz -- sticking to 1600 isn't that great nowadays.cyklonman - Wednesday, May 11, 2011 - link
P67 Asus looks much better, why did I wait for this one?fr500 - Wednesday, May 11, 2011 - link
Will this work?Hook up a monitor with two inputs and connecting a spare input to the motherboard's connector? As far as I know all you need is a display hooked up to one of the motherboard connectors, so if you have a display with 2+ inputs you could get one to your IGP, one to your GPU and switch to the IGP input when you want to do transcoding.
Best of both worlds, intact GPU performance and Quicksync.
Even if Virtu works 100% it still won't let you use your GPU control panel and any crashes might be harder to diagnose (ie: who should I blame, Lucid or NVidia/AMD)
Ryan Smith - Thursday, May 12, 2011 - link
Sure, that should work. Windows may or may not have quirks though, based on past experience.As for the control panel thing, I have not used Virtu in dGPU mode, but based on how Hydra works I'm sure the AMD/NV control panels work in dGPU mode. I wouldn't expect any crashes in that mode either since Virtu isn't intercepting the dGPU, but again I classify that with the fact that I haven't used dGPU mode yet.