Gigabyte Z77X-UP4 TH Review: Thunderbolt Times Two
by Ian Cutress on September 17, 2012 11:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Gigabyte
- Z77
- thunder
POST Time
Different motherboards have different POST sequences before an operating system is initialized. A lot of this is dependent on the board itself, and POST boot time is determined by the controllers on board (and the sequence of how those extras are organized). As part of our testing, we are now going to look at the POST Boot Time - this is the time from pressing the ON button on the computer to when Windows starts loading. (We discount Windows loading as it is highly variable given Windows specific features.) These results are subject to human error, so please allow +/- 1 second in these results.
The Z77X-UP4 TH performs around the middle of the pack in the POST timing test – with ASUS running their CAP Win8 on the Premium and ASRock’s optimizations, Gigabyte are starting to get left behind a little.
Overclocks
Here at AnandTech we want to provide quick and easy ways to determine if a board is good for you (with in-depth analysis of course). So here is a quick round up of our overclocking results. Overclocks are tested for stability with PovRay and OCCT - while these may not be the most strenuous of stability tests, it does offer a quick check for memory errors under high load (and also balances testing time with getting the next board on for review!).
|
CPU Speed (MHz) |
BIOS Voltage (Volts) |
PovRay Peak Temp (ºC) |
OCCT Peak Temp (ºC) |
Notes | |
|
ASRock Fatal1ty Z77 Professional |
4700 | 1.200 | 89 | 89 | PLL Overvoltage enabled |
|
ASRock Z77 Extreme4 |
4700 | 1.175 | 86 | 86 | LLC Level 1 |
|
ASRock Z77 Extreme6 |
4700 | 1.175 | 81 | 82 | LLC Level 1 |
|
ASRock Z77 Extreme9 |
4700 | 1.200 | 92 | 94 |
*High Ambients LLC Level 1 |
|
ASUS P8Z77-V Deluxe |
4700 | 1.225 | 89 | 84 | PLL Overvoltage enabled |
|
ASUS P8Z77-V Pro |
4700 | 1.200 | 83 | 86 | PLL Overvoltage enabled |
|
ASUS P8Z77-V Premium |
4700 | 1.225 | 93 | 96 | High Ambients |
|
Biostar TZ77XE4 |
4700 | 1.180 | 84 | 85 | None |
|
ECS Z77H2-AX |
4700 | 1.125* | 87 | 90 |
*High Ambients VDroop Disabled Odd VDroop Behaviour |
|
EVGA Z77 FTW |
4700 | 1.175 | 82 | 84 |
VDroop Disabled Power Limits Raised |
|
Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H |
4700 | 1.225 | 88 | 88 | LLC Extreme |
|
Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H |
4700 | 1.200 | 82 | 86 | LLC Extreme |
|
Gigabyte Z77MX-D3H |
4700 | 1.200 | 80 | 84 | LLC Extreme |
|
Gigabyte G1.Sniper 3 |
4700 | 1.200 | 85 | 88 | LLC Extreme |
|
Gigabyte Z77X-UP4 TH |
4700 | 1.200 | 84 | 86 | LLC Extreme |
|
MSI Z77A-GD65 |
4700 | 1.250 | 90 | - | PLL Overvoltage enabled |
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IanCutress - Monday, September 17, 2012 - link
I have access to a TB device, but it is only the two-bay Little Big disk with a pair of Intel Drives. Can't really stress the TB implementation in terms of peak speeds, and in our copy test it can get anything from 1.1 seconds to 3.3 seconds depending on if the wind is blowing, or the tides are in (very unpredictable).When I can get a 4-bay TB device in, I will fill it with 500MB/s+ SSDs and get down to testing. Unless there is a specific test you would like me to do (4K et al).
Ian
repoman27 - Monday, September 17, 2012 - link
I am very curious about a couple points, however they are not the easiest scenarios to test.Firstly, GIGABYTE depicts the ability to support a total of 12 connected Thunderbolt devices plus 2 displays, or 6 devices AND 1 display per port. [ http://www.gigabyte.com/microsite/306/images/thund... ] This seems to fly in the face of what we have been told by Apple and Intel about supported topologies, i.e. "up to a total of 6 devices, including up to 2 high resolution DisplayPort v1.1a displays". Can a single Cactus Ridge DSL3510L really handle that many devices? Is there some difference in implementation between Windows and Mac OS?
GIGABYTE also claims a full 10 Gbps of PCIe bandwidth from each port. Now I would also doubt that claim, and in the article you indicated this wasn't happening with a single DSL3510L. However, Anand achieved 1380 MB/s by using both Thunderbolt ports during his review of the MBPR, which also uses just one DSL3510L controller. Now ultimately this controller is bound by its PCIe 2.0 x4 back end, which should limit it to around 1600 MB/s of payload throughput, but breaking the 1000 MB/s barrier would seem to imply that there is more than one PCIe to Thunderbolt protocol adapter in these Cactus Ridge chips. This would be significant if true. Any chance you could lean on it hard enough to find out?
goinginstyle - Monday, September 17, 2012 - link
I agree about the need for TB testing as I have had nothing but issues with this board and a Seagate GoFlex attached on one port and a Apple TB 27" monitor on the other port. The monitor will flicker badly at times (does not happen on a competing board and a MacBook Pro) while the Seagate drive will "disappear" and requires a power on/off before being recognized again.thewhat - Tuesday, September 18, 2012 - link
It would be great if you could test with Speedfan whether the fan speed can be controlled independently for every header.NiggaASD - Sunday, December 9, 2012 - link
Ian, I think you are wrong about Gigabyte manipulating CPU voltage readings. The voltage reading 1.068 V is probably not CPU vcore, it could be VTT(VCCIO) voltage. It is known that some GB motherboards have this "feature", that they show VTT voltage in CPU-Z. For example, my GA-P67A-UD3P-B3 board shows 1.092 V in CPU-Z as vcore when I have set VTT to 1.1 V in BIOS.