Intel Z77 Panther Point Chipset and Motherboard Preview – ASRock, ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI, ECS and Biostar
by Ian Cutress on April 8, 2012 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Intel
- Biostar
- MSI
- Gigabyte
- ASRock
- Asus
- Ivy Bridge
- ECS
- Z77
Gigabyte GA-Z77MX-D3H—Visual Inspection
In a twist to the previous motherboards, Gigabyte sent us a micro-ATX sample, the GA-Z77MX-D3H. While still a Z77 product, capable of dual GPU setups, we have a motherboard aimed at the cheaper end of the spectrum. This is shown with what looks like a 4 + 2 VRM power delivery, and the relatively small sized heatsinks. We are also limited in terms of fan headers (three), and rear panel USB 3.0 ports (only two) compared to the Z77X-UD3H WiFi bigger brother.
The socket itself is clean with little obstructions—fan headers are found below the VRM heatsink, where we have two of the 4-pin variety. The other fan header on board can be found at the bottom next to the TPM.
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Despite being a cheaper small motherboard, we still have typical Gigabyte features, such as dual BIOSes next to the USB 3.0 header underneath the 24-pin ATX power connector, but only the SATA ports from the PCH. This means two SATA 6 Gbps and three SATA 3 Gbps. The chipset heatsink is also small but has enough surface area to keep Gigabyte confident of its functionality.
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The south side of the board is relatively naked, with a front panel audio, fan header, TPM and two USB 2.0 headers. Given the look of the board and that it does not display many potential features (presumably to fit into a price bracket), I was not expecting anything elaborate such as power/reset buttons.
The PCIe layout is aimed at users wanting dual GPUs or users needing an extra PCIe device alongside their GPU. The PCIe layout becomes x16 (x8 on dual GPU), x1, x8, x4, with this final x4 only being PCIe 2.0.
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The rear IO panel is more substantial than I assumed, which can only be a good thing. From left to right we have a pair of USB 2.0 (black), a combination PS/2 port, D-Sub, DVI, two USB 3.0 (blue), HDMI, four more USB 2.0 (black), gigabit Ethernet, and standard audio jacks with a combination optical SPDIF output.
Board Features
| Gigabyte GA-Z77MX-D3H | |
| Size | mATX |
| CPU Interface | LGA-1155 |
| Chipset | Intel Z77 |
| Power Delivery | TBC |
| Memory Slots |
Four DDR3 DIMM slots supporting up to 32 GB Up to Dual Channel, 1066-1600 MHz |
| Video Outputs | HDMI, DVI-D, D-Sub |
| Onboard LAN | Atheros |
| Onboard Audio | Via VT2021 |
| Expansion Slots |
2 x PCIe x16 Gen3 (x16, x8/8) 1 x PCIe x16 Gen2 (x4) 1 x PCIe x1 Gen2 |
| Onboard SATA/RAID |
2 x SATA 6 Gbps (PCH), Support for RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 4 x SATA 3 Gbps (PCH), Support for RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 |
| USB |
4 USB 3.0 ports (2 back panel, 2 from headers) 10 USB 2.0 ports (6 back panel, 4 from headers) |
| Onboard |
4 x SATA 3 Gbps 2 x SATA 6 Gbps 3 x Fan Headers 1 x Front Panel Header 1 x Front Audio Header 1 x SPDIF Output Header 1 x USB 3.0 Header 2 x USB 2.0 Headers 1 x TPM |
| Power Connectors |
1 x 24-pin ATX connector 1 x 8-pin 12V connector |
| Fan Headers |
1 x CPU Fan Header (4-pin) 2 x SYS Fan Headers (4-pin) |
| IO Panel |
1 x PS/2 Combo Port 1 x D-Sub 1 x DVI-D 1 x HDMI 2 x USB 3.0 6 x USB 2.0 1 x Gigabit Ethernet 1 x Optical SPDIF Audio Jacks |
| Warranty Period | 3 Years |
| Product Page | Link |
As with the Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H WiFi, this Z77MX-D3H comes with an Atheros/Via network and audio combination. Given the lack of features on the main area of the board due to the size and the audience this product is aiming for, it seems good if all you want is a stock processor and a working Ivy Bridge system with no frills.
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extide - Tuesday, April 10, 2012 - link
Do you even know what it means to preempt a frame? Cavalcade is describing the technology correctly. He is explaining pretty much the same thing as you are but you just don't get it..Also separate input and rendering modules means a lot. Typically a game engine will have a big loop that will check input, draw the frame, and restart (amongst other things of course) but to split that into two independent loops is what he is talking about.
Iketh - Wednesday, April 11, 2012 - link
You really should look up "preemption." This is not what is happening... CLOSE, but not quite. Preemption is not the right word at all. This makes him incorrect and I kindly tried explaining. You are incorrect in backing him up and then accusing me of being inept. Guess what that makes you?On top of that, he's also not talking about splitting input and rendering into two loops. Not even close. How did you come up with this idea? He's asking how the input polling is affected with this technology. It is not, and can not, unless polling is strictly tied to framerate.
I want to be clear that I'm not for this technology. I think it won't offer any tangible benefits, especially if you're already over 100 fps, and they want to power up a second GPU in the process... I'm just trying to help explain how it's supposed to work.
Iketh - Sunday, April 8, 2012 - link
"handling input in a game engine" means nothing here. What matters is when your input is reflected in a rendered image and displayed on your monitor. That involves the entire package. Lucid basically prevents GPUs from rendering an image that won't get displayed in its entirety, allowing the GPU to begin work on the next image, effectively narrowing the gap from your input to the screen.Iketh - Sunday, April 8, 2012 - link
mistake post, sorryRyan Smith - Sunday, April 8, 2012 - link
The bug comment is in regards to HyperFormance. Virtual V-Sync is rather simple (it's just more buffers) and should not introduce rendering errors.Ryan Smith - Sunday, April 8, 2012 - link
Virtual V-Sync is totally a glorified triple buffering, however this is a good thing.http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/video/triplebu...
Triple buffering as we know it - with 2 back buffers and the ability to disregard a buffer if it's too old - doesn't exist in most DirectX games and can't be forced by the video card. Triple buffering as implemented for most DirectX games is a 3 buffer queue, which means every frame drawn is shown, and the 3rd buffer adds another frame of input lag.
On paper (note: I have yet to test this), Virtual V-Sync should behave exactly like triple buffering. The iGPU back buffer allows Lucid to accept a newer frame regardless of whether the existing frame has been used or not, as opposed to operating as a queue. This has the same outcome as triple buffering, primarily that the GPU never goes idle due to full buffers and there isn't an additional frame of input lag.
The overhead of course remains to be seen. Lucid seems confident, but this is what benchmarking is for. But should it work, I'd be more than happy to see the return of traditional triple buffering.
HyperFormance is another matter of course. Frame rendering time prediction is very hard. The potential for reduced input lag is clear, but this is something that we need to test.
DanNeely - Monday, April 9, 2012 - link
Lucid was very confident in their Hydra solution; but it never performed even close to SLI/xFire; and after much initial hype being echoed by the tech press it just disappeared. I'll believe they have something working well when I see it; but not before.JNo - Monday, April 9, 2012 - link
Thisvailr - Sunday, April 8, 2012 - link
Page 8 quote: "The VRM power delivery weighs in at 6 + 4 phase, which is by no means substantial (remember the ASRock Z77 Extreme4 was 8 + 4 and less expensive)."Yet: the "Conclusions" chart (page 14) shows the same board having 10 + 4 power.
Which is correct?
flensr - Sunday, April 8, 2012 - link
I'm bummed that ASUS didn't include mSATA connectors. Small mSATA SSDs would make for great cache or boot drives with no installation hassles and they're pretty cheap and available at the low capacities you'd want for a cache drive. That's a feature I will be looking for with my next mobo purchase.Ditching USB 2.0 is also one of the next steps I'll be looking for. Not having to spend a second thinking about which port to plug something in to will be nice once USB 2.0 is finally laid to rest. Having only 4 USB 3.0 ports is stupidly low this long after the release of the standard, and it's hampering the development of USB 3.0 devices.
Finally, I've been repeatedly impressed by my Intel NICs over the last decade. They simply perform faster and more reliably than the other chips. I look for an Intel NIC when I shop for mobos.