Intel Z77 Motherboard Review with Ivy Bridge - ASRock, ASUS, Gigabyte, and MSI
by Ian Cutress on May 7, 2012 7:40 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- MSI
- Gigabyte
- ASRock
- Asus
- Ivy Bridge
- Z77
Civilization V
Civilization V is a strategy video game that utilizes a significant number of the latest GPU features and software advances. Using the in-game benchmark, we run Civilization V at 2560x1440 with full graphical settings, similar to Ryan in his GPU testing functionality. Results reported by the benchmark are the total number of frames in sixty seconds, which we normalize to frames per second.
During AMD testing, it is clear that Civilization 5 is not GPU limited at 2560x1440 as CrossFire results are either equivalent to single card testing, or even less than (indicating overhead). The increased multi-threaded speed reduces the overhead in dual GPU mode.
Given the GTX580s are weaker cards (but still powerful), we do see a difference between single GPU and dual GPU for Civilization, with dual GTX580s beating dual 7970s. At dual GPU mode, again the ASUS and Gigabyte perform better than the other two.
Dirt 3
Dirt 3 is a rallying video game and the third in the Dirt series of the Colin McRae Rally series, developed and published by Codemasters. Using the in game benchmark, Dirt 3 is run at 1920x1080 with full graphical settings. Results are reported as the average frame rate across four runs.
Dirt3 results are very consistent across the board.
Metro2033
Metro2033 is a DX11 benchmark that challenges every system that tries to run it at any high-end settings. Developed by 4A Games and released in March 2010, we use the inbuilt DirectX 11 Frontline benchmark to test the hardware at 1920x1080 with full graphical settings. Results are given as the average frame rate from 10 runs.
Metro2033 performance seems to vary across the board, where dual GTX580s shows the greatest variation in performance between the boards. We would expect the higher multi-threaded nature of the ASUS and Gigabyte to do well, however it seems Metro2033 involves more than pure CPU speed.
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Zoomer - Monday, May 14, 2012 - link
Construction quality analysis would be a good addition, imo. Perhaps the mobo roundups can be done by a team instead of just 1 person. ;)457R4LDR34DKN07 - Monday, May 7, 2012 - link
I am always impressed by the depth of reviews by AT. I can't wait for the mITX roundup!P.S. any comment on availability of i7 3770t?
ltcommanderdata - Tuesday, May 8, 2012 - link
http://www.geeks3d.com/20120506/intel-hd-graphics-...It turns out Intel's new Windows 8 beta driver (v2729) works for Windows 7 and enables OpenGL 4.0 and OpenCL 1.1 support for Ivy Bridge. Can you try your OpenCL Compute benchmarks on them? Perhaps a OpenGL Unigine run as well to test OpenGL tessellation?
althaz - Tuesday, May 8, 2012 - link
So glad to finally get a tech site benchmarking POST times. One point of constructive criticism: I realise this would take more time, but ideally it'd be good to benchmark POST times both at default settings AND with everything possible disabled, so that we can get a true comparison between boards. Even with all features disabled, I've come across older boards where there is still 10+ seconds of difference in POST times.All in all, thanks for a great review!
ZeDestructor - Tuesday, May 8, 2012 - link
"The ASUS P8Z77-V Pro retails at $225-$235, essentially $100 less than the ASRock Z77 Extreme4" Should be "$100 more", not "$100 less"adrien - Tuesday, May 8, 2012 - link
I really wish 10GbE was on mainstream motherboards but I think you've mixed bits and Bytes here. ;-)Casper42 - Tuesday, May 8, 2012 - link
10Gbase-T is a power hog and requires special cabling if memory serves me right.DAC by way of SFP+ is too short and too expensive.
Fiber transceivers cost more than any of these entire motherboards.
How do you propose they get there?
There is a Broadcom chip that does 2.5Gbps when connected to a 10Gb switch and 1Gbps on a 1Gb switch. Maybe that's a good compromise
Metaluna - Tuesday, May 8, 2012 - link
I agree it seems unlikely that 10GbE over copper will ever reach sufficient critical mass to be economical for consumers, especially with wireless standards continually improving. Maybe Thunderbolt is the way forward for small high performance wired SANs in the home?Zoomer - Tuesday, May 15, 2012 - link
Thunderbolt is not the answer, due to limited range.theSeb - Tuesday, May 8, 2012 - link
Yep, since MBps is used correctly for the USB 2 and USB 3 charts I was surprised to see 400 megabytes per second over a gigabit ethernet link. :)