The EVGA X299 FTW K Motherboard Review: Dual U.2 Ports
by Joe Shields on January 29, 2018 8:45 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Intel
- Killer
- EVGA
- X299
- Basin Falls
- Skylake-X
- Kaby Lake-X
Gaming Performance
Ashes of the Singularity is a Real Time Strategy game developed by Oxide Games and Stardock Entertainment. The original AoTS was released back in March of 2016 while the standalone expansion pack, Escalation, was released in November of 2016 adding more structures, maps, and units. We use this specific benchmark as it relies on both a good GPU as well as on the CPU in order to get the most frames per second. This balance is able to better display any system differences in gaming as opposed to a more GPU heavy title where the CPU and system don't matter quite as much. We use the default "Crazy" in-game settings using the DX11 rendering path in both 1080p and 4K UHD resolutions. The benchmark is run four times and the results averaged then plugged into the graph.
Our AOTSe testing continues to be a tight-knit dataset with almost 2 frames per second separating things in the more CPU heavy 1080p and less than 1 frame per second in 4K. The ROG Strix was in the middle of both results able to pull 44.1 frames per second in 1080p and 34.9 in 4K UHD.
Rise of the Tomb Raider
Rise of the Tomb Raider is a third-person action-adventure game that features similar gameplay found in 2013's Tomb Raider. Players control Lara Croft through various environments, battling enemies, and completing puzzle platforming sections, while using improvised weapons and gadgets in order to progress through the story.
One of the unique aspects of this benchmark is that it’s actually the average of 3 sub-benchmarks that fly through different environments, which keeps the benchmark from being too weighted towards a GPU’s performance characteristics under any one scene.
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EricZBA - Monday, January 29, 2018 - link
1. It would have been nice to get an explanation in the first page of what the heck a U.2 port is2. Motherboard / CPU are swapped in the "Manual overclocking results" graph on page 1
Joe Shields - Monday, January 29, 2018 - link
Eric,Sorry about that. Here you go: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.2
Thanks for the correction on the results.
JackNSally - Monday, January 29, 2018 - link
Can you test with a better CPU cooler? All of your X299 overclocking results are thermally limited. This doesn't show the board limits, just the coolers limits.Joe Shields - Monday, January 29, 2018 - link
I see what you are saying. Do understand however, in the vast majority of cases, users will be thermally limited by the CPU before the board regardless.The problem comes with how effective, or not, adding more radiator really is considering how effective the interior TIM is. The test CPU (the new one) was still thermally limited with a 3x120 custom loop (CPU only) and a better block (Kryos NEXT). IIRC, I was able to run around 100 more MHz out of that than the Corsair AIO used in the test system. In order to reap those benefits fully, we would need to delid the CPU and go a lot bigger on the radiator before most boards would stop the overclock. With delidding, we are really getting into a world where not many users would do it unless they are benching competitively which these would not be the weapon of choice in the first place. These are '24/7' overclocks with reasonable cooling solutions and warrantied CPUs.
bug77 - Tuesday, January 30, 2018 - link
Maybe add a paragraph summarizing all that to reviews, then?oRAirwolf - Tuesday, January 30, 2018 - link
USB type C motherboard headers should be standard equipment by now. I don't know why they would put 2 U.2 connectors on this motherboard but not a single USB type C header.My last motherboard was an EVGA x99 FTW K and it was a really nice motherboard. I liked the layout and the 2 slot spacing between GPUs. I am using an asrock z370 professional gaming i7 now and it only has single slot spacing between GPUs. There was definitely a noticeable increase in temperature going from 2 slot spacing to 1 slot spacing with SLI 1080 TI's. About 5-10 C. My only complaint with the x99 FTW K, besides using Killer networking, was that EVGA basically makes no motherboard software. While it doesn't see a lot of use, I like having utilities like fan curve and overclocking control. I know I can use things like speed fan and Intel extreme tuning utility...and I did, however, I was a bit let down by EVGAs lack of in house software.
Xajel - Tuesday, January 30, 2018 - link
U.2 is crap, while it's good for NVMe 2.5" SSD drives (well, it's the only solution now). but I really hate how bulky it is, and the fact that the drive still need dedicated power pins.For any new technology for 2.5" & 3.5" SSD's ( SATA or NVMe ) I wish the cable to be small, compact, not so thick or hard cables, preferably reversible and can carry a minimum amount of power so a regular SSD can be powered also by the same cable. any more advance drive can have a separate power.
Drazick - Tuesday, January 30, 2018 - link
At last real support for 2.5" drives with NVME.The M.2 solution is good for laptops.
For desktop we need something better with less heat issues.
drajitshnew - Tuesday, January 30, 2018 - link
Hi, could you please highlight the point at which an extra long screw is required. Also, list the specification of the required screw.Also , from the photographs is seems that the heat pipe from the power delivery is impinging on the 1 st memory slot. Could add a photo to clarify that?
drajitshnew - Tuesday, January 30, 2018 - link
hi, it seems with the listed config for the 44 lane CPU it requires 60 lanes?!x16/x8/x8/x16=48 lanes and m2=4+ 2*U2=8, Could you clarify that?