ASRock X79 Extreme4-M and X79 Extreme4 Review – Sandy Bridge-E meets mATX
by Ian Cutress on December 9, 2011 12:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- ASRock
- X79
3D Movement Algorithm Test
The algorithms in 3DPM employ both uniform random number generation or normal distribution random number generation, and vary in various amounts of trigonometric operations, conditional statements, generation and rejection, fused operations, etc. The benchmark runs through six algorithms for a specified number of particles and steps, and calculates the speed of each algorithm, then sums them all for a final score. This is an example of a real world situation that a computational scientist may find themselves in, rather than a pure synthetic benchmark. The benchmark is also parallel between particles simulated, and we test the single thread performance as well as the multi-threaded performance.
The extra speed of the i7-3960X shows in both tests, and the ASRock boards are well within 1% of the other X79.
WinRAR x64 3.93 - link
With 64-bit WinRAR, we compress the set of files used in the USB speed tests. WinRAR x64 3.93 attempts to use multithreading when possible.
WinRAR shows better performance under the X79 platform, however neither of the boards was quicker than the ASUS P9X79 Pro.
FastStone Image Viewer 4.2 - link
FastStone Image Viewer is a free piece of software I have been using for quite a few years now. It allows quick viewing of flat images, as well as resizing, changing color depth, adding simple text or simple filters. It also has a bulk image conversion tool, which we use here. The software currently operates only in single-thread mode, which should change in later versions of the software. For this test, we convert a series of 170 files, of various resolutions, dimensions and types (of a total size of 163MB), all to the .gif format of 640x480 dimensions.
Sorenson Squeeze 6.0 - link
Sorenson Squeeze is a professional video encoder, complete with a vast array of options. For this test, we convert 32 HD videos, each a minute long and approximately 42 MB in size, to WMV 512KBps format. Squeeze can encode multiple videos at once, one for each thread.
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DigitalFreak - Friday, December 9, 2011 - link
I wish PCI connectors on motherboards would die already, especially on the high end.futurepastnow - Friday, December 9, 2011 - link
I agree with you, but I'm sure the three people who still use sound cards will be here shortly to tell you you're wrong.geniekid - Friday, December 9, 2011 - link
I would be one of those people. If you're into amateur music production, you're probably going to need a sound card for various inputs/outputs, and a lot of the cheaper options there are going to be PCI.Also, my month-old built HTPC uses the PCI for a wireless network adapter.
cjs150 - Friday, December 9, 2011 - link
I rumaged around the various PCs I have and the best I come up with is a 6 year old RAID card (still a good one) and a 2 year old TV cardSo time for PCI to die
Can I have a right angled 24 ATX socket as well
somedude1234 - Friday, December 9, 2011 - link
If you're purchasing a new motherboard and CPU, each of which is north of $200, does the additional cost burden of a PCIe sound card or WLAN card really make that big of a difference?I understand that every dollar saved somewhere can be used (more memory, bigger SSD, etc.), but PCIe sound cards and WLAN cards aren't exactly bank-breakers.
I don't do any serious audio work, so are there any technical reasons (latency or otherwise) that make legacy PCI cards better than their PCIe counterparts?
Spivonious - Friday, December 9, 2011 - link
No technical reasons, but many audio production cards (i.e. not the latest Soundblaster) are still only available in a PCI format.Flunk - Friday, December 9, 2011 - link
The latest soundblaster IS actually available in PCI-E. If the PCI slots went away everything would be available in PCI-E. There really is no reason anymore.Gnarr - Friday, December 9, 2011 - link
no-one who's serious about music production uses a soundblaster..g00ey - Saturday, December 10, 2011 - link
That is not true at all, most serious brands of professional audio hardwareg00ey - Saturday, December 10, 2011 - link
That is not true at all, most serious brands of professional audio hardware such as RME, UAD, Apogee, or even AVID/Digidesign dominate their product lines with PCIe based expansion cards and not PCI.Also, there is a considerable variety of PCIe to PCI adapters and bridgeboards out there that makes it even less justifiable to put PCI slots on a modern motherboard.