EVGA X79 Dark Review

EVGA X79 Dark Conclusion

For those that have jumped to the conclusion, I will say this: I am a stickler for out-of-the-box results.  Despite target audiences of gamers or enthusiasts, (I feel) the majority of users are most likely to run a motherboard out of the box without any changes, or system integrators will sell motherboards at their stock settings.  As a result, the impetus is to have stock settings done correctly, and then optimized.  Having stock settings work out of the box should be a simple task – it is in Intel’s own documents supplied to the manufacturer.  If you have trouble implementing the small stuff, then what impression is that for the bigger picture?

So the EVGA X79 Dark, in this ‘snapshot in time’ review using currently available (and supplied) BIOSes, has some serious out-of-the-box issues.  It all comes down to a small number of factors:

- BIOS 2.03 and 2.04 do not implement turbo mode correctly, however XMP and Overclocking are OK.
- BIOS 2.05 implements turbo mode correctly, but XMP and Overclocking are broken.

If you overclock, then strap on BIOS 2.04 and away you go.  BIOS 2.04 will run at the overclock speeds, and although per-core ratios are still not working through the BIOS, our overclock testing gave a solid 4.6 GHz across all cores, despite some high (94ºC) temperatures.

Performance is doubly hard to gauge with multipliers all over the place, as well as competing motherboards in the same price segment use MultiCore Turbo, meaning a 400 MHz boost across the range regardless of loading.  The result of this lower CPU speed did have a positive effect on our power consumption readings, at the expense of reduced performance.

I mentioned at the beginning of the review that the EVGA X79 Dark has been reviewed with positive comments elsewhere on the web, and those that discovered the stock turbo issue were more than happy to overlook the issue when examining overclocked performance.  The hardware on the board itself allows for three tri-slot GPUs with ease, as well as 4-way.  There are four additional SATA ports to bring the total to ten, two Intel NICs, and the black/red color scheme can be matched to a system build with great effect.  The bundle in the box puts all the components sealed individually, which could be viewed as a marque of quality or an expression in overindulgence depending on your point of view.

The main competition for the EVGA X79 Dark, at $400, is the ASUS Rampage IV Extreme at $430, to which we gave our 2^nd highest award back in 2012.  While viewed in isolation, BIOS notwithstanding, the EVGA comes out as a reasonable product, but the ASUS RIVE provides an all-guns blazing approach to BIOS, software, the extras in the box, the hardware on board, and the overclocking utilities in the extreme enthusiast segment.  While the EVGA X79 Dark would have to come in at a lower price to tempt my palate (along with a corrected BIOS) in an overclocked scenario, it does not make sense for users running a CPU at stock right now.

Addendum: Since writing this review, on posting (10/23) the latest BIOS is 2.07.  Here's the link to the thread on EVGA forums.