ASUS Republic of Gamers and X79 ROG Review – Rampage IV Gene, Formula and Extreme
by Ian Cutress on August 3, 2012 1:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Asus
- X79
- ROG
A Byword About 4-way 7970 Scaling on X79
With three different benchmarks, we can say a little bit about the scaling on certain games when using almost the best consumer performance system put together - an X79 platform and several 7970 GPUs. Numbers quoted here are whilst using the Rampage IV Extreme and i7-3960X at stock, and percentages are relevant to single card increases expected.
To start, Civilization V is not a good game to analyze for AMD. In order to keep consistency with our previous testing, we had to use Catalyst 12.3 drivers, which are a few months old now. As a result, with Civilization 5 we see no improvement on AMD moving from one card up to four, even at 2560x1440 and all the eye candy turned on.
Civilization V - One 7970: 78.73 FPS
Civilization V - Two 7970: 83.13 FPS (+5.6% of a single card)
Civilization V - Three 7970: 82.50 FPS (-0.1% of a single card)
Civilization V - Four 7970: 83.00 FPS (+0.1% of a single card)
If we look at Metro 2033, we know from previous experience that it is a tough benchmark. It loves GPU power in all forms, and a system to back it up. With the scaling, we observe that it tends to a limit, with a series of four cards giving just over double the single card performance. Metro2033 is a perfect example of the law of diminishing returns, with the second card almost doubling performance, then the third card giving another ~40% of a card, and the final card giving another ~13%.
Metro 2033 - One 7970: 32.85 FPS
Metro 2033 - Two 7970: 61.63 FPS (+87.6% of a single card)
Metro 2033 - Three 7970: 74.59 FPS (+39.5% of a single card)
Metro 2033 - Four 7970: 78.90 FPS (+13.1% of a single card)
Dirt 3 is almost in a different league - this game seems to love GPU power and scales very well with it. Keep adding cards equals to an increase in FPS that is calculable (whether it is noticeable is up to the setup and users' eyes). We see that each additional card adds ~60% or above the performance of a single card:
Dirt 3 - One 7970: 73.95 FPS
Dirt 3 - Two 7970: 136.28 FPS (+84.3% of a single card)
Dirt 3 - Three 7970: 195.11 FPS (+79.6% of a single card)
Dirt 3 - Four 7970: 237.40 FPS (+57.2% of a single card)
Ultimately, the scaling a user will experience is highly dependant on the game, the engine that game uses, and the drivers at hand. If your main games are using the EGO 2.0 engine, then more cards seems like more performance!
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Flunk - Friday, August 3, 2012 - link
Ivy Bridge is more of a notebook oriented update anyway. The much better integrated graphics don't really matter to us anyway.G-Man - Friday, August 3, 2012 - link
Fantastic article, Ian! You must have been working on this for a long time. Thanks for a great read.B - Friday, August 3, 2012 - link
Ian -I would like to point out that under that nice metal Creative X-FI chip badge is, in fact, a Realtek processor. The Soundblaster piece of this is a merely a software implementation. I have this motherboard and was quite disappointed to discover this.
Thanks for great and thorough article.
just4U - Friday, August 3, 2012 - link
Indeed.. It's a little bit of a letdown. It will be nice if they are pushed away from the realtek chip now that Gigabyte is into similiar type boards which utilize the Creative recon chips.primonatron - Friday, August 3, 2012 - link
The article should be edited to specificy that it's only a Relatek chip, not a Creative one, at this point it's just blatent false advertising.When doing the review, did Anandtech actually do a Windows 7 install on it themselves?
They would have known if they did.
IanCutress - Friday, August 3, 2012 - link
As per my comment above, it states this in the tenth page. And yes, I do install Windows 7 fresh on every board I test. It would be crazy not to. I see the whole install procedure at least twice a week, as well as installing each vendors drivers and software. The ASUS install procedure for drivers is all one-button automatic, no user input required, no giant screens flashing up on the screen to ask to confirm this that or the other.Ian
primonatron - Friday, August 3, 2012 - link
I would not put " ASUS have dug into their pockets to provide the Gene with a better-than-Realtek solution, in the SupremeFX III" since it IS a Realtek solution.IanCutress - Friday, August 3, 2012 - link
Written in page 10:"In our SupremeFX III, we essentially get a Realtek codec (presumed ALC898), but by being stage III this chip is isolated from the rest of the board, has a separate EMI shield around the chip, its own PCB layer for audio tracing, a 1500 mF capacitor to reduce ripple, and gold plated audio jacks to minimize resistance. As a result, the SNR is increased to 110dB."
Ian
just4U - Saturday, August 4, 2012 - link
It also needs to be noted that soundchips getting decent software can be a fairly substantial bump.. atleast from my point of view. I seem to recall Creative nailing a company to the wall because they used software the emulated soundblaster stuff and they were reall popular 7 years back.just4U - Friday, August 3, 2012 - link
I've been using these for several years... and have always found that they offer more then most standard ATX boards in lesser and similiar price ranges. Your not paying the Big bucks but you have your foot in the door.. (as it were.. lol)They can be problematic at times mind you.. I've found that quality control can be a bit of an issue with dead boards coming in now and again. We are dealing with sensitive electronics mind you so that happens.
I must say they do have some competition now with Gigabyte's M3s sniper boards, that do utilize a true recon3d sound chip from Creative (as opposed to a realtek chip with software emulation). My hope is that it pushes Asus towards a similiar move as the sound is a key feature for these baby boards.
Personally I think the Gene series deserves your silver award. While high end boards can be had from all makers getting a good solid feature rich gaming MATX board is not the norm and they are almost allways a pleasure to work with.
Great review Ian.