Intel Z77 Motherboard Review with Ivy Bridge - ASRock, ASUS, Gigabyte, and MSI
by Ian Cutress on May 7, 2012 7:40 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- MSI
- Gigabyte
- ASRock
- Asus
- Ivy Bridge
- Z77
3D Movement Algorithm Test
The algorithms in 3DPM employ either 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.
In our single threaded test, the improved IPC from Ivy Bridge is clear to see, with every board able to beat the i7-3960X results.
Now we see some real differences to the boards - as the ASUS has MultiCore Enhancement, which boosts the CPU to full turbo mode under multithreaded mode, it has a clear advantage over the other boards in the test. Surprisingly the Gigabyte board also did the same, despite clear settings in the BIOS to enforce multiplier ratios at core loads.
WinRAR x64 3.93
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.
Due to the mixed threaded nature of the WinRar test, this is all about how the board reacts to different load levels. The four core Ivy chips are on par with the six core Sandy-E chips, but the ASRock Z77 seems to lag behind.
FastStone Image Viewer 4.2
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.
The single thread speed is key for FastStone, where the IPC for Ivy really gets to play.
Xilisoft Video Converter
With XVC, users can convert any type of normal video to any compatible format for smartphones, tablets and other devices. By default, it uses all available threads on the system, and in the presence of appropriate graphics cards, can utilize CUDA for NVIDIA GPUs as well as AMD APP for AMD GPUs. For this test, we use a set of 32 HD videos, each lasting 30 seconds, and convert them from 1080p to an iPod H.264 video format using just the CPU. The time taken to convert these videos gives us our result.
As one of our new tests, Xilisoft can show how motherboards treat a fully multi-threaded load with optimised coding. Again, the ASUS and Gigabyte win out here.
x264 HD Benchmark
The x264 HD Benchmark uses a common HD encoding tool to process an HD MPEG2 source at 1280x720 at 3963 Kbps. This test represents a standardized result which can be compared across other reviews, and is dependant on both CPU power and memory speed. The benchmark performs a 2-pass encode, and the results shown are the average of each pass performed four times.
Similarly to Xilisoft, the way different boards react to a full multithreaded load are on display. Score another one for ASUS and Gigabyte.
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SnowKing - Tuesday, May 8, 2012 - link
I think you are confusing bits per second vs. bytes per second. Do not be alarmed, that is the gimmick of Ethernet.10 mbps (megabits per second) = 1.25 MBps (megabytes per second)
100 mbps (megabits per second) = 12.5 MBps (megabytes per second)
1 gbps (gigabits per second) = 125 MBps (megabytes per second)
If you want 1 GBps, you will need an 8 gbps connector i.e. (10gbps nic)...and good luck with that.
Unit Converter
http://www.numion.com/calculators/units.html
repoman27 - Tuesday, May 8, 2012 - link
theSeb's (and originally adrien's) point here is that the chart for LAN speeds erroneously list MBps instead of Mbps.HollyDOL - Wednesday, May 9, 2012 - link
Transfer speed is always measured in bps (bits per second).Latin prefixes for kilo-Mega-Giga etc. signify 10^3,10^6 etc. bits
Capacity volume is always measured in B (bytes).
Latin prefixes for kilo-Mega-Giga etc. signify 2^10, 2^20 etc. Bytes (ie. 1kB = 1024 Bytes) according to old school rules.
According to new customs kilo-Mega-Giga signify 10^3,10^6 etc. Bytes, prefixes kB, MB, GB, while alternate prefixes kiB,MiB,GiB signify 2^10,2^20... Bytes. Data storage capacity uses new style kB,MB,GB,TB for long years since it makes their drives look bigger, while on hardware and OS level you are much more likely to see units based on power of two since it is much more natural for binary computer.
Basically 10Mbps = 1.25MB/s is completely wrong... 10Mbps = 10,000,000bps = 1,250,000 B/s = 1.192 MB/s
1TB (new style or storage device manufacturers) = 931,32GiB
Schafdog - Tuesday, May 8, 2012 - link
What is draw of power from GPUs?IanCutress - Tuesday, May 8, 2012 - link
The 7970s should Idle at approx 3W or less each.gorg_graggel - Tuesday, May 8, 2012 - link
the current asus lineup seems to have problems with memory configs that consist of 8GB dimms...their list of supported memory modules seems to be made for multiple boards...it contains configurations for e.g. 6x4gb for boards that have only 4 slots...so i guess it`s not only a problem with my board...
i got myself a sabertooth z77 and a pair of corsair 1600mhz 8gb dimms. no matter how conservative i set the timings the board won`t boot at 1600mhz and freeze after some time at 1333mhz (spd or xmp don`t work either). i can only get them stable at 1066mhz. a single dimm runs fine at the specified clocks and timings.
could you spare some time and test the boards with a 1600mhz config with 2 8gb dimms? or even with 4 of those? no underclocking of higher specced dimms, as there is a 2x8gb@1866mhz config in the list...
would be interesting to know if all those boards had problems with ivy brigde`s max specified dram clocks...
i guess it will be fixed in a future bios update, but maybe beeing pointed out by a respected site, they are gonna hurry it up a bit...i mean c`mon 1600mhz rams at 1066mhz? seriously...
gorg_graggel - Monday, May 14, 2012 - link
so, i got myself another pair of 8gb dimms...g.skill ripjaws 1600mhz, cl10...
those worked from the get go...also not on ovl list...
the latest bios (1015) made the corsair dimms work better @1333mhz (no more freezing), but still no 1600 (for which they are specified)...
so if you plan to get 8gb 1600mhz dimms for your asus board, steer clear from corsair vengeance low profile dimms...at least until the bios has matured some more...
Luay - Tuesday, May 8, 2012 - link
The $225 Asus V Pro has the Realtek ALC892 audio chipset while the $148 Asrock Extreme4 has the 898! Not everyone wants or can install a sound card so what are they thinking?GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UD5H-WB Has wireless, 898 audio chip and a third PCI-E 3.0 slot for $219. That's a good reason to pay an extra $70 over the Asrock Extreme4 as I don't really care about auto-over-clocking.
Only Asrock at budget and Gigabyte at mid-end are in it to win it. Not enough high-end boards to tell who won there.
I am shocked by what Asus put on the table but I might be missing something here.
blacksun1234 - Tuesday, May 8, 2012 - link
Gigabyte's third PCI-E 3.0 slot cannot work if CPU BCLK OC only 1MHz to 101MHz. It is buggy M/B. Don't buy it.blacksun1234 - Tuesday, May 8, 2012 - link
I mean GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UD5H-WB . GA-Z77X-UD3H is Ok for 3rd PCI-E 2.0.