Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H-B3 Review
by Brendan van Varik on July 11, 2011 7:01 AM EST- Posted in
- Gigabyte
- Motherboards
- Sandy Bridge
- Z68
Dirt 2
Dirt 2 came to the PC in December 2009, developed by Codemasters with the EGO Engine. Resulting in favorable reviews, we use Dirt 2’s inbuilt benchmark under DirectX 11 to test the hardware. We test two different resolutions at two different quality settings using a discrete GPU, and an appropriate integrated GPU setting.
During the testing, I found out that the board performs slightly below average and comes nearer to the bottom of our graph when a 1920x1080 resolution was used. However, whilst testing the lower resolutions where games are more CPU dependent, the board does much better and it averages roughly in the middle.
Dual GPU testing reveals that the board is more or less bang in the middle.
A poor show from Gigabyte. With almost a 20% difference between the ASUS P8Z68-V Pro and the UD3H in the 1680x1050 tests, and a 17% difference in the 1920x1080 tests, this is certainly a weak spot.
Metro 2033
Metro 2033 is the Crysis of the DirectX 11 world (or at least until Crysis 2 is released), challenging every system that tries to run it at any high-end settings. Developed by 4A Games and released in March 2010, we use the inbuilt DirectX 11 Frontline benchmark to test the hardware.
In both of the 1680x1050 and 1920x1080 tests, the Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H did very well with hardly any difference in scores.
Just like in the DiRT2 tests, the dual GPU tests are some of the best we have seen thus far.
Just like in the DiRT2 tests, the UD3H is unable to produce results which compete against the ASUS P8Z68-V Pro.
iGPU tests
Top spot in both iGPU tests with an i5-2500K for the Gigabyte here, which is always good to see, but the strength of the Llano APU shines through.
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Brutus1234 - Monday, July 11, 2011 - link
I bought one of these from Newegg a couple weeks ago and I'm very happy with it.2600K with a 45x multiplier for 4.5GHz
GSKill RipSaw DDR3 ( 4 Gig ) - system recognizes memory as 2133 with enhanced profile
H70 Corsair Water Cooler
Runs great, Have not touched voltage - it's still all stock.
I've stressed tested it, running some h264 encodes, getting nearly 100% utilization on the CPU for 6hrs and never a hiccup. Temp rarely cracks 50C on the CPU. Very happy with this build
Only thing I have issues with is the Virtu Softare. It recognizes the board but I thought I was getting a licence to use it, and all I can get is a demo mode.
Patrick Wolf - Monday, July 11, 2011 - link
So they implement TouchBIOS but not a GUI? That's just being lazy. FFS, even Biostar has a GUI. Then of course there's the boot loop issue that wasted a lot of my time.http://www.overclock.net/intel-motherboards/103472...
789427 - Monday, July 11, 2011 - link
GUI for bios is *really* a waste of time. Imagine having to connect a keyboard AND a mouse to fix the machine when it breaks...That's like finding a use for a mouse in DR Dos 6.0
Awesome motherboard... lack of fan control shouldn't be too problematic.
Just had a thought though.... if CPUs were delivered in larger packages with the connectors situated off-die, with a vertical arrangement it would be possible to cool both sides of the die at once in a sandwich style cooler.
Twice the surface area to cool means that we'd be in overclocking heaven!
Now we just need Intel to decide to change the sockets again!
86waterpumper - Monday, July 11, 2011 - link
I agree with EnzoFX. If the bios does not cause a boot time slowdown that is pretty well a non issue. However, this day and age lack of fan control in the bios is more than stupid. More and more you are going to see a move to more efficient and power saving features. There is no point in a cpu clocking down and powergating and idling if the fan is going to blast on along like a jet. This is especially true for htpc use which alot are going to use the sandy bridge z68 for. Speaking of that, gigabyte is the one that actually has a z68 board out without a video out on the board at all right? What are they smoking these days :PThe0ne - Monday, July 11, 2011 - link
"Based on the benchmarks and performance figures seen in this review, it shows that you do not have to spend big amounts of money on a motherboard to get on to the Z68 platform. A motherboard that could arguably be aimed at the budget end of the spectrum has performed well "This would fit my needs perfectly. Just wondering why with the comment above it's not a "pick" from you/Anandtech? What's lacking to make it so?
jigglywiggly - Monday, July 11, 2011 - link
U GRAMMAR FARTSSTFU
READ THE ARTICLE FOR THE INFO
fb39ca4 - Monday, July 11, 2011 - link
How is $170 a budget motherboard? This is mid range territory.ratbert1 - Monday, July 11, 2011 - link
Enjoying your baptism by fire? I was going to post about the grammar, but it seems to have all be said.Mr Alpha - Monday, July 11, 2011 - link
Why not run CDM in 0xFF fill mode? Sure, the perfectly compressible data is unrealistic, but it would largely take the flash out of the equation making the benchmark purely about the interface. And when benchmarking a motherboard is it not the limits of the interfaces it provides that really matter?nemitech - Tuesday, July 12, 2011 - link
The test does;t say what version of Lucid was used on the Gigabyte MB vs the Asus one. a new version was released yesterday on the Gigabyte site:http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx...
I can't see any hardware reason that the Gigabyte should be slower than the Asus. Maybe there is a BIOS or Lucid driver update that brings the performance back in par. that is the probelm with reviews, issues are rarely revisited or updated leaving a bad opinion about a product.
This is defiantly a budget MB - I got mine for $105 (!) after $15 rebate, at microcenter this past weekend, with a 2500k for $180. What a bargain. :-)