The ASRock Fatal1ty Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac Motherboard Review
by E. Fylladitakis on September 19, 2017 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Intel
- ASRock
- Mini ITX
- Z270
- 7700K
- Z270 Gaming ITX/ac
The ASRock Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac Review
Gaming Performance
The issue of FCLK settings might play a big role here. At launch, the default setting for the communication buffer between the CPU and PCIe stack was 800 MHz, even though Intel suggested 1000 MHz, but this was because of firmware limitations from Intel. Since then, there is firmware to enable 1000 MHz, and most motherboard manufacturers have this - but it is unclear if the motherboard will default to 1000 MHz and it might vary from BIOS version to BIOS version. As we test at default settings, our numbers are only ever snapshots in time, but it leads to some interesting differences in discrete GPU performance.
Total War: Attila
The Total War franchise moves on to Attila, another The Creative Assembly development, and is a stand-alone strategy title set in 395AD where the main storyline lets the gamer take control of the leader of the Huns in order to conquer parts of the world. Graphically the game can render hundreds/thousands of units on screen at once, all with their individual actions and can put some of the big cards to task.
For low-end graphics, we test at 720p with performance settings, recording the average frame rate. With mid and high range graphics, we test at 1080p with the quality setting. In both circumstances, unlimited video memory is enabled and the in-game scripted benchmark is used.
GRID: Autosport
No graphics tests are complete without some input from Codemasters and the EGO engine, which means for this round of testing we point towards GRID: Autosport, the next iteration in the GRID and racing genre. As with our previous racing testing, each update to the engine aims to add in effects, reflections, detail, and realism, with Codemasters making ‘authenticity’ a main focal point for this version.
GRID’s benchmark mode is very flexible and, as a result, we created a test race using a shortened version of the Red Bull Ring with twelve cars doing two laps. The car is focus starts last and is quite fast, but usually finishes second or third. For low-end graphics, we test at 1080p medium settings, whereas mid and high-end graphics get the full 1080p maximum. Both the average and minimum frame rates are recorded.
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Dug - Wednesday, September 20, 2017 - link
It's all tweets taking up the right hand side of the web page that gives users absolutely no context on what is being discussed. This really needs to go back to a hardware and news site with real reviews that don't chop up graphs with different products for different benchmarks.Oxford Guy - Monday, September 25, 2017 - link
Intel released a microcode update in April to fix the Skylake hyperthreading flaw (a crash/data corruption bug) but guess what AsRock's BIOS for the 170 version of this board is at? 2016, dude.Just peddle a new board instead of providing the most minimal amount of customer service. We're supposed to just turn off hyperthreading, apparently.
AsRock should be tarred and feathered by the tech press but, instead, no one wants to talk about practices like this at all. Just push the latest thing. Am I surprised that Anandtech is clearly oblivious about the hyperthreading bug and AsRock's lack of support for the 170 board? Nope.
zepi - Tuesday, September 19, 2017 - link
"and the 10Mbps ports are now called “USB 3.1 Gen 2”" - I suppose 10Gbps...Der Keyser - Tuesday, September 19, 2017 - link
Small correction: I have this board, and it drives my two 4k displays at 60hz without issue (displayport and HDMi 2.0). So your article is wrong on this count.It is capable of driving three 4k displays at 60hz if you attach a third monitor to the thunderbolt 3 port (displayport alternate mode). I have found several sources online doing just that.
Vatharian - Tuesday, September 19, 2017 - link
Oh no. They made SATA Express port. Don't tell me it's going to make a comeback now...edzieba - Tuesday, September 19, 2017 - link
They've been standard on every board I've seen for years. It takes up barely more space than the pair of SATA connectors everyone uses it as, and otherwise serves as a handy pair of PCIe lanes for front panel modules.edzieba - Tuesday, September 19, 2017 - link
A shame ASRock dropped a USB port over the previous Z170 Gaming ITX. Though at this point, I'm waiting for Z370 to see how the notional i7-8xxx compares to the i7-7820x on ASRock's X299 ITX board (probably a performance regression for most workloads, but dual m.2 NAND SSDs plus an Optane cache is a tempting option for ITX).jrs77 - Tuesday, September 19, 2017 - link
I'm still waiting for a mITX-board with two M.2 slots, so I can ditch cables alltogether. One small fast M.2 for the OS and one cheaper big one for storage. Add a picoPSU and you got rid of all the cables unnecessary cables.wolfemane - Tuesday, September 19, 2017 - link
Then what you are looking for is the Asus z270i Strix board . 1 sata/pcie m.2 slot and 1 pcie m.2 slot.jrs77 - Tuesday, September 19, 2017 - link
Get rid of all this fancy stuff noone really needs and bring the price down to a reasonable level doing so and I'm interested.