Intel Z87 Motherboard Review with Haswell: Gigabyte, MSI, ASRock and ASUS
by Ian Cutress on June 27, 2013 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Intel
- MSI
- Gigabyte
- ASRock
- Asus
- Haswell
- Z87
- Shark Bay
- Lynx Point
Metro2033
Our first analysis is with the perennial reviewers’ favorite, Metro2033. It occurs in a lot of reviews for a couple of reasons – it has a very easy to use benchmark GUI that anyone can use, and it is often very GPU limited, at least in single GPU mode. Metro2033 is a strenuous DX11 benchmark that can challenge most systems that try 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 1440p with full graphical settings. Results are given as the average frame rate from a second batch of 4 runs, as Metro has a tendency to inflate the scores for the first batch by up to 5%.
| Metro 2033 | 1 GPU | 2 GPU | 3 GPU |
| AMD | |||
| NVIDIA |
In our 3-way AMD test, it is clear that when the x1 mode is selected on the ASUS Z87-Pro, performance scaling goes out the window. For Metro there is a slight advantage having x8/x4/x4 over x8/x8 + x4.
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. Dirt 3 also falls under the list of ‘games with a handy benchmark mode’. In previous testing, Dirt 3 has always seemed to love cores, memory, GPUs, PCIe lane bandwidth, everything. The small issue with Dirt 3 is that depending on the benchmark mode tested, the benchmark launcher is not indicative of game play per se, citing numbers higher than actually observed. Despite this, the benchmark mode also includes an element of uncertainty, by actually driving a race, rather than a predetermined sequence of events such as Metro 2033. This in essence should make the benchmark more variable, but we take repeated in order to smooth this out. Using the benchmark mode, Dirt 3 is run at 1440p with Ultra graphical settings. Results are reported as the average frame rate across four runs.
| Dirt 3 | 1 GPU | 2 GPU | 3 GPU |
| AMD | |||
| NVIDIA |
If I was a Dirt gamer, clearly having the most PCIe lanes supplied by the CPU is going to win out the day, putting the MSI and ASRock ahead of the others.
Civilization V
A game that has plagued my testing over the past twelve months is Civilization V. Being on the older 12.3 Catalyst drivers were somewhat of a nightmare, giving no scaling, and as a result I dropped it from my test suite after only a couple of reviews. With the later drivers used for this review, the situation has improved but only slightly, as you will see below. Civilization V seems to run into a scaling bottleneck very early on, and any additional GPU allocation only causes worse performance.
Our Civilization V testing uses Ryan’s GPU benchmark test all wrapped up in a neat batch file. We report the average frame rate of a 5 minute test.
| Civilization V | 1 GPU | 2 GPU | 3 GPU |
| AMD | |||
| NVIDIA |
For whatever reason the ASRock motherboard is not too fond of Civilization V, taking a hit on dual AMD and also dual NVIDIA.
Sleeping Dogs
While not necessarily a game on everybody’s lips, Sleeping Dogs is a strenuous game with a pretty hardcore benchmark that scales well with additional GPU power due to its SSAA implementation. The team over at Adrenaline.com.br is supreme for making an easy to use benchmark GUI, allowing a numpty like me to charge ahead with a set of four 1440p runs with maximum graphical settings.
| Sleeping Dogs | 1 GPU | 2 GPU | 3 GPU |
| AMD | |||
| NVIDIA |
Sleeping Dogs is very much static between motherboards and CPUs, except at three-way AMD where the difference between a third slot at x4 or x1 is around 12.5%.
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Timur Born - Saturday, July 27, 2013 - link
Balanced inputs would only help when the outputs to be tested offered balanced outputs, but you won't find these on mainboard solutions. Still a professional solution might be preferable, because don't just concentrate on listing theoretical spec numbers of the converter chips, but also make sure to get the most out of it in practical implementation.The English ASUS site lists little (and partly wrong) information about the Xonar Essence STX for example, there is much better information on the German site, though. Still they list frequency response at -3 (three!) dB points, while usually you would choose -0.5 dB or -1 dB points to give a real picture.
repoman27 - Thursday, June 27, 2013 - link
While the Intel block diagram for the DZ87KLT-75K does appear to show 20 lanes of PCIe 3.0 coming from the CPU, the 8 PCIe 2.0 lanes from the PCH are used for the GbE controllers (2 x1), Thunderbolt controller (1 x4), the PCIe mini card / mSATA slot (1 x1), and a "PCIe Hub" (1 x1). We can presume this is really a conventional PCIe switch, and the Marvell 88SE9172, the 3 x1 slots, and the PCIe to PCI bridge are all connected to that.What's the deal with FDI now that there are display connections coming directly from the CPU? The block diagrams still show FDI and the Thunderbolt controller being fed DisplayPort from the PCH. Are the CPU display outputs DP 1.2 and the PCH connections still DP 1.1a?
repoman27 - Thursday, June 27, 2013 - link
Sorry, I should have kept reading before commenting about the display interfaces.repoman27 - Thursday, June 27, 2013 - link
The article does however say, "leaving the VGA behind", which should read, "leaving LVDS and SDVO (like anybody cares) behind." The PCH does still support VGA via the FDI x2 link as long as those lanes aren't being co-opted by Port D for eDP.Also, I meant to point out in my original comment that the additional USB 3.0 ports on the Intel board appear to be provided by a pair of USB 3.0 hubs, not a discrete controller.
Jaaap - Thursday, June 27, 2013 - link
Great Review Ian.I'd also be very interested in the minimal power consumption of Z87 motherboards without videocards and a PSU efficient at low powers (a PicoPSU or a light Seasonic).
IanCutress - Thursday, June 27, 2013 - link
I think Anand hit 34W idle on his 4770K with IGP?http://www.anandtech.com/show/7003/the-haswell-rev...
I have 500W Platinums for mini-ITX reviews, but I that might be too much for IGP idle at sub-10%.
DanNeely - Thursday, June 27, 2013 - link
500W probably is too much for anything other than relative comparison scores. IIRC most of the 80+ standards only require specific efficiency levels between 20 and 80% loads.ex The 400W Seasonic X-400 2 is 89.5% efficient at an 86W load; but only 82.6% at 37W.
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReview...
igxqrrl - Thursday, June 27, 2013 - link
Am I the only one confused by the video out options?I'm looking for integrated graphics that can drive 2x30" (2560x1600) or 2x27" (2560x1440) displays. Can any of these motherboards do that?
repoman27 - Thursday, June 27, 2013 - link
The Gigabyte, Asrock and Asus boards theoretically can, however in each case you'll need to drive one of the displays via the HDMI output. AFAIK there aren't a ton of displays that support 2560x1440 or 2560x1600 over HDMI.Earballs - Thursday, June 27, 2013 - link
The max resolutions are listed with typical refresh rates, but not max refresh rates. Just thought I'd throw that out there while talking about confusing video out options.