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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iamkyle - Friday, August 3, 2012 - link
Has anyone used the included utilities on these series of boards that can comment on their usefulness compared to some other well-known OCing utilities out there?Jambe - Friday, August 3, 2012 - link
"Here on the Gene, ASUS are using two SATA 3 Gbps from the chipset (black), two SATA 6 Gbps from chipset (red) and two more SATA 6 Gbps from a controller (black, ASMedia)."The ASMedia 6 Gbps ports are red, not black. It might also be worth pointing out that the outside cluster is the ASMedia set and the middle one is the Intel set.
IanCutress - Saturday, August 4, 2012 - link
Many thanks for pointing this out. In my reviews I do go down the right hand side in order, especially in that paragraph. 24000 words and the odd one sometimes goes astray!Ian
HisDivineOrder - Saturday, August 4, 2012 - link
Doesn't the OC Key have a Single DVI limitation? You say in your article, "As long as you've got DVI, you're fine," or something along those lines, but the reality is that most of the high end users now use dual DVI (or Displayport) for 2560x1600/1440. After all, what's the point of pimping out your drag racing ride with the highest of the high end and then shrug and say, "1920x1200/1080 for yous!"Soooo... the high end are not using the OC Key because the OC Key doesn't support what the high end users are doing.
http://rog.asus.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-1128...
Honestly, I think the OC Key is just one big wasted opportunity because of this. Anyone willing to fork over $450 on a motherboard, $500+ on a CPU, have 8 sticks of memory, have four GPU's...
You think they need just a single-DVI OC Key? It's really rather absurd. It might be true, but people who spend that scratch will probably need the superior bandwidth sooner rather than later.
IanCutress - Saturday, August 4, 2012 - link
OC Key is not designed for gamers. It is designed for extreme overclockers who are competing for scores, most likely also using sub-zero cooling (Dry Ice, Phase or LN2). I have used it on occasion for competitive overclocking, and also have seen it used in overclocking competitions.That is its usage scenario.
Ian
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Laststop311 - Saturday, August 4, 2012 - link
I have an m18x desktop replacement. Has a 4.1 Ghz on all 4 cores OC without using turbo, the i7-2960xm, 4x4GB 1866MHz RAM, Crossfire Radeon 6990m's with both with a healthy overclock.It chews through almost every game on my 27" dell ultrasharp external monitor at 2560x1440 at at least 45 fps soe more some less but almost ALWAYS at very min above 25-30. Once I get the money to change out the 6990m's with 7970m's in crossfire I'll be playing every game at 45+ fps at 2560x1440 and full yltra settings.
So don't sit there and tell me laptops suck for LAN partys. Because actually I can carry my m18x in a little carrier like it's a backpack and set up at the lan and be ready to go in a hurry.
And the funny part is the laptop pulls higher fps then a lot of my friends pc's and that's not even with the 6990's upgraded to 7970m's.
ALSO the r2 version of the m18x came with a new specially designed beefier heatsink set up for the XM processor that is triple the surface area but fits right in place. So I'll also be getting that much larger cpu heatsink to crank my OC from 4.1Ghz to 4.3-4.4 or so, basically a crazy killer speed demon laptop cpu
Laststop311 - Saturday, August 4, 2012 - link
Claro Halo has a very very nice clean headphone amp (Headphone output with TPA6120 AMP IC) that can drive up to 600 ohms like a champ.It has incredibly high quality stereo RCA outputs for a low line level signal to a high quality stereo receiver (hardly any cards have gold plated RCA outputs which is crucial for a high quality connection to a high end receiver.) As well as a 5.1 optical output. If you require 7.1 output you can get the add on XT card that plugs in a connector on the sound card for additional gold plated 7.1 analog outputs.
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macforth - Saturday, August 4, 2012 - link
A very interesting read.......Thanks for that Ian.I have just bought an ROG, but it's the Maximus V Extreme..I am about to build a WC setup and run 690's in SLI.
The reason I chose the 1155 as against the 2011, is the cost of the top MB and top CPU (given the gaming world's belief that there's little gain), PCIe 3, and I don't need the abilities that the 2011 shines in. I more play games. And to be quite honest, to me ROG spells GAMER!
It's a while since I have seen any comparison of an ROG 2011 v 1155 just for games......and certainly not since the last proliferation of 1155's game to town.
Ahhhh it would be very very interesting!