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
If a user wants the top end of performance, they are going to have to look towards the X79 and Sandy Bridge-E platform. If they want the best of that platform, it would not hurt to start looking at the Republic of Gamers range to see if a motherboard would suit them. In this review, we have analyzed the Rampage IV Gene, the Rampage IV Formula and the Rampage IV Extreme - the entire ASUS Republic of Gamers range for this platform, with a mélange of real-world tests and some more exotic extreme enthusiast scenarios.
The Republic of Gamers motherboards for X79 do not come in cheap. For a platform where the processor range varies from $300 to $1000, cost is rarely a talking point. However, for completeness, here is how the ROG boards currently stack up price wise (from Newegg) against the rest of the X79 range (some of which we at AnandTech have tested):
$445 - EVGA X79 Classified
$430 - ASUS Rampage IV Extreme
$390 - MSI Big Bang-XPower II
$370 - ASRock X79 Champion
$360 - ASUS Rampage IV Formula
$350 - Gigabyte G1. Assassin2
$345 - ASRock X79 Extreme9
$310 - ASUS P9X79 Pro
$310 - ECS X79R-AX Black Extreme
$300 - EVGA X79 SLI
$280 - ASUS Rampage IV Gene
$265 - Intel DX79SI
$260 - ASUS P9X79
$245 - ASRock X79 Extreme7
$240 - Gigabyte X79-UD3
$230 - Biostar TPower X79
$225 - ASRock X79 Extreme4
$214 - ASRock X79 Extreme4-M
With the Formula and Extreme both catering for the more-than-dual GPU crowd, it is unsurprising that they are more at the upper end of the price range. The Rampage IV Gene is the most expensive of the MicroATX boards, but it does put some of the full sized ATX boards above it to shame in terms of performance.
ASUS Rampage IV Gene Conclusion
High end, small(er) form factor motherboards can often be a bit of a quandary. On the one hand, a user could have a serious processor costing around $1000 with all the bells and whistles a processor should have - why would they consider pairing it with a motherboard that limits itself on size? The answer lies in usage scenarios, and ultimately performance.
The Gene is not a normal mATX board - ASUS have asked me to state explicitly that the Gene is more of a entry level ROG motherboard rather than one aimed at SFF systems. It gets the benefit of ROG development, whilst retaining a modicum of mobility and the utmost of performance.
In my view, the Gene is a great product if a user has two PCIe devices or less. In terms of new hardware over other X79 products, the ROG glaze expands to the focused SupremeFX III audio and the Intel NIC, but the selling point of the Gene will be in the ASUS branded features. ROG Connect for example will let a user manage a PC from a mobile device; the fan headers on board are typical of ASUS and better than any other manufacturers' implementation. USB BIOS Flashback helps users updating the BIOS without CPU, Memory or a VGA, and the heatsinks are buffed up to take the strain of an enthusiast system.
The main competition from the Gene comes from the boards priced around it - the Intel DX79SI for example is a full sized ATX board with dual Intel NICs or the ASUS P9X79 has a full complement of memory slots. Compared to the other mATX boards, such the cheap-as-chips ASRock X79 Extreme4-M, the Gene is similar in terms of outward facing hardware, but surpasses the 4-M for performance and feature set. This is not forgetting the Gene also come with 3-years warranty and ASUS Premium Service for North American customers.
The Gene is not to be taken lightly. Despite the extra cost over the Extreme4-M, the Gene still gets big thumbs up from the ASUS ROG garnish and performance thanks to ASUS MultiCore Enhancement. Overclocking was great too, matching the other ROG boards easily enough and beating many of the other X79 competitors for performance and ease-of-use.
The Gene is still missing a delicate spark. The extras in the box were perhaps missing a little bonus, such as a USB 3.0 panel. If I were in the design team, I would consider reshuffling the IO panel to rid the empty space, and consider stripping out the audio and placing it on an add-in card, then have the PCIe as x1, x16, x8, x16. There would perhaps be space for a built-in WiFi card (or include it in the audio card).
Nevertheless, the Gene is still a great product for an enthusiast. As a result, I would like to give the Rampage IV Gene an AnandTech Editors' Choice Bronze Award.
ASUS Rampage IV Gene
Bronze Award
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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!