3D Movement Algorithm Test

The algorithms in 3DPM employ both 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.

3D Particle Movement - Single Threaded

3D Particle Movement - MultiThreaded

Using aggressive BIOS settings, the Deluxe comes top of our Ivy multithreaded test on 3DPM, and only misses out in the single threaded test by the tiniest of margins.

WinRAR x64 3.93 - link

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.

WinRAR x64 3.93

The Deluxe smashes our previous WinRAR timings, comfortably coming ahead of all the other Z77 motherboards.

FastStone Image Viewer 4.2 - link

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.

FastStone Image Viewer 4.2

The Deluxe also posts a significantly better time in our FastStone Image test.

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.

Xilisoft Video Converter

Seemingly unstoppable, the Deluxe also comes top of our Video conversion test.

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.

x264 Pass 1

x264 Pass 2

To round off a near perfect string of 2D results, the Deluxe comfortably comes out top in our x264 test.

System Benchmarks Gaming Benchmarks
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  • lbeyak - Saturday, May 12, 2012 - link

    "The ECS Z77H2-AX and Gigabyte G1. Sniper 3 (both part of future reviews) utilize the PCIe PLX chip for >2 GPUs."

    Any time frame on when the review containing information on the G1. Sniper 3 will arrive?

    Thanks for another good review.
  • nemt - Saturday, May 12, 2012 - link

    Can you guys do a more thorough analysis of the plethora of other P88Z77-V boards available apart from the standard, Pro and Deluxe?
  • Moogle Stiltzkin - Saturday, May 12, 2012 - link

    Asus Q-Design does this
    http://us.estore.asus.com/index.php?l=product_deta...

    Asus SSD quick cache is overlooked....

    i'm curious to know what is the difference between this SSD caching vs asus z77 deluxe ssd caching (allows ahci) vs intel raid quick cache ssd.

    Imho i would think that the asus mobo is the better deal because the premium comes with an msata already integrated and enough space just for caching. has 4 ssd quick cache ports for 4 hard drives (can work for ahci as well).

    and that third pcie 2.0 slot in black, is actually going to be where the thunderbolt add on card will be using. i had to research online to find that out.
  • karagiosis - Saturday, May 12, 2012 - link

    All graphs on the "Computation Benchmarks" say that they are ordered by "Score" but some of them should read "Time". I don't remember if there where any other errata...
  • IanCutress - Monday, May 14, 2012 - link

    Updated. Many thanks!

    Ian
  • AFQ - Saturday, May 12, 2012 - link

    Dude you take amazing pics. Please share your setup.

    Awesome and well explained review!
  • etamin - Saturday, May 12, 2012 - link

    I think I'm missing something. Can someone explain the purpose of this chip to me? Isn't this analogous to NF200 where two GPUs can run in x16 on a board with only 16 native lanes? I thought with PCIe3.0, bandwidths doubled, so is there really a need for such a chip still?
  • IanCutress - Monday, May 14, 2012 - link

    There are several PLX chips. There is one that acts like the NF200, which increases the PCIe 3.0 lanes to 32 (for x8/x8/x8/x8), and there are others which increase the number of PCIe 2.0 lanes for additional controllers (SATA, NIC). The latter is on this board, the former (the PLX PEX 8747, http://www.plxtech.com/products/expresslane/pex874... is on other boards (Sniper 3, Z77H2-AX) and incurs a bigger cost.

    Ian
  • etamin - Friday, May 18, 2012 - link

    Thanks for clearing that up. That's a pretty substantial list of chips for lane expansion.
  • ggathagan - Saturday, May 12, 2012 - link

    I'm mystified by the use of the Realtek NIC for LAN testing instead of the Intel NIC.
    It's generally stated that the Intel NIC is superior.
    Were both tested and the Realtek the better performer?

    If so, there's been a lot of FUD concerning the Realtek.

    The inevitable grammer comment from the 3rd paragraph of page 1:
    With this in mind, there are current two obvious answers...

    Should be:
    With this in mind, there are currently two obvious answers...

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