ASUS TUF Z87 Gryphon Review
by Ian Cutress on February 3, 2014 10:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Asus
- Z87
- TUF
Many thanks to...
We must thank the following companies for kindly providing hardware for our test bed:
Thank you to OCZ for providing us with 1250W Gold Power Supplies.
Thank you to G.Skill for providing us with memory kits.
Thank you to Corsair for providing us with an AX1200i PSU, Corsair H80i CLC and 16GB 2400C10 memory.
Thank you to ASUS for providing us with the AMD GPUs and some IO Testing kit.
Thank you to ECS for providing us with the NVIDIA GPUs.
Thank you to Rosewill for providing us with the 500W Platinum Power Supply for mITX testing, BlackHawk Ultra, and 1600W Hercules PSU for extreme dual CPU + quad GPU testing, and RK-9100 keyboards.
Thank you to ASRock for providing us with the 802.11ac wireless router for testing.
| Test Setup | |
| Processor |
Intel Core i7-4770K Retail 4 Cores, 8 Threads, 3.5 GHz (3.9 GHz Turbo) |
| Motherboards |
ASRock Z87 Extreme6/AC (ATX) ASRock Z87 OC Formula/AC (ATX) ASRock Z87M OC Formula (mATX) ASRock Z87E-ITX (mITX) ASUS Z87-Pro (ATX) ASUS Maximus VI Impact (mITX) ASUS TUF Z87 Gryphon (mATX) Gigabyte Z87X-UD3H (ATX) Gigabyte Z87X-OC (ATX) MSI Z87-GD65 Gaming (ATX) MSI Z87 Xpower (ATX) MSI Z87I (mITX) |
| Cooling |
Corsair H80i Thermalright TRUE Copper |
| Power Supply |
OCZ 1250W Gold ZX Series Corsair AX1200i Platinum PSU |
| Memory |
GSkill TridentX 4x4 GB DDR3-2400 10-12-12 Kit Corsair Vengeance Pro 2x8 GB DDR3 2400 10-12-12 Kit |
| Memory Settings | XMP (2400 10-12-12) |
| Video Cards |
ASUS HD7970 3GB ECS GTX 580 1536MB |
| Video Drivers |
Catalyst 13.1 NVIDIA Drivers 310.90 WHQL |
| Hard Drive | OCZ Vertex 3 256GB |
| Optical Drive | LG GH22NS50 |
| Case | Open Test Bed |
| Operating System | Windows 7 64-bit |
| USB 2/3 Testing | OCZ Vertex 3 240GB with SATA->USB Adaptor |
| WiFi Testing | D-Link DIR-865L 802.11ac Dual Band Router |
Power Consumption
Power consumption was tested on the system as a whole with a wall meter connected to the OCZ 1250W power supply, while in a dual 7970 GPU configuration. This power supply is Gold rated, and as I am in the UK on a 230-240 V supply, leads to ~75% efficiency > 50W, and 90%+ efficiency at 250W, which is suitable for both idle and multi-GPU loading. This method of power reading allows us to compare the power management of the UEFI and the board to supply components with power under load, and includes typical PSU losses due to efficiency. These are the real world values that consumers may expect from a typical system (minus the monitor) using this motherboard.
While this method for power measurement may not be ideal, and you feel these numbers are not representative due to the high wattage power supply being used (we use the same PSU to remain consistent over a series of reviews, and the fact that some boards on our test bed get tested with three or four high powered GPUs), the important point to take away is the relationship between the numbers. These boards are all under the same conditions, and thus the differences between them should be easy to spot.
In our power consumption test, handling under 500W is standard for a Z87 motherboard, although the result was a little high compared to other boards. OCCT and Long Idle numbers in general were relatively low.
Windows 7 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 7 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 Gryphon falls just short of our goal 12 seconds Windows 7 + dual GPU POST time.
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HandsomeChow - Wednesday, February 12, 2014 - link
No, the outside ambient air will always be cooler than the air inside the case in this scenario. Since fresh cool air is being pulled into the case and heated up and exhausted out the back. When your computer shuts down, the components don't just suddenly cool down to the ambient. It takes time and gradually the heat energy from the components will be transferred to the air inside the case. But if there is no 'Fan Overtime' the hot air will stay inside the case come into contact with the cold case panel and condense into liquid. But with Fan Overtime, the hot air is exhausted out of the case even after shut down.In more humid climates, the air has a higher % of moisture and therefore would cause a even bigger problem since more condensation will occur inside the computer increasing the probability of a component failure.
HaryHr - Tuesday, February 4, 2014 - link
I bought this board for my brother and after initial windows installation problem it is now working in his system with no problems, stable and more than enough for his needs.The problemwe had was when we first tried to install Windows, installation was failing with "could not configure Windows on this computer’s hardware" error.
It was solved by turning off Fast Boot which is default option.
eanazag - Tuesday, February 4, 2014 - link
I really like the POST testing. I think if you video-ed pressing the power button to Windows prompt, then you could get very accurate and consistent measurements.Tig3RStylus - Wednesday, February 5, 2014 - link
I buy Rampage and Maximus boards, but a friend of mine has bought Sabretooth. One pattern that i noticed is the lack of updates available for Sabretooth line when compared to the plethora of updates for Rampage and Maximus. Not a problem in Year 1 or Year 2, but with the TUF lines focus on longevity of 5 years, i wonder if ASUS will step up their commitment and continue to release updates in year 3, 4 and 5. What updates? things like drivers for controllers are not available for Windows 8 on a Sabretooth board thats 2 years old. My friend is going to be upgrading to either Maximus or Rampage next time and ditching the Sabretooth entirely. I doubt he would go near Gryphon with a bargepole for the same reasons. 5 year warranty is useless for anybody who keeps their software and OS up to date if ASUS dont bother providing updates beyond the bare minimum.rigel84 - Thursday, February 6, 2014 - link
Download the drivers from the manufacturer (Intel, VIA, Realtek and so on). If they provide you with an updated BIOS, their job is done.GTVic - Wednesday, February 5, 2014 - link
I like the complete absence of all legacy ports, including PS/2.YukaKun - Thursday, February 6, 2014 - link
Great Mobo, but just an ALC892? For REAL? At least go for the ALC1150 or a SupremeFX or your own Sonar line for this great MoBo.You dropped the ball there, Asus.
Cheers!
HandsomeChow - Wednesday, February 12, 2014 - link
Just a quicktip, you know the OEM shielding on the SupremeFX is bollocks right? The fact that it is shielded doesn't mean it is not prone to sound interference, if you can see it physically, sound can get to it.DMCalloway - Friday, February 7, 2014 - link
Four days have gone by and still nothing new here........ReneGQ - Thursday, March 13, 2014 - link
I recently purchased an Asus Motherboard and the problems started from day 1. The drivers update never works, the same for AI Suite III (there´s a lot of updates for this model in Asus webpage). After 2 months I still can´t install BitDefender cause a clock watchdog error.Asus technical support is the worst, mails comes and goes with no solution.
I will not recommend this brand to anyone. The brand has a very good Marketing but the product and the service are very disappointment.