ASUS A88X-Pro Review: Kaveri, Kaveri, Quite Contrary
by Ian Cutress on April 22, 2014 11:59 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- AMD
- Asus
- Kaveri
ASUS A88X-Pro Software
The idea behind manufacturer based OS software is multi-faceted: it has to provide the options similar to the BIOS but in an easier to use way. Because the manufacturer now has the full scope of graphical prowess that is afforded by the operating system, it has to look good and work smoothly. The more features a motherboard manufacturer decides to add to their software stack, the more effort has to go in to developing and testing the visuals around such options. ASUS’ software goes by the AI Suite name, and has been attached to ASUS software for several generations. The latest incantation, AI Suite III, came to pass during the Z87 release and moved to a Java based platform rather than Flash.
ASUS’ software revolves around their Dual Intelligent Processors 4 platform. This is the combination of the TPU and EPU alongside the fan controls and digital power delivery to create ‘4-Way Optimization’:
From this initial screen the user can see the CPU sensors, the fan profiles, the CPU power and choose from several presets for energy conserving or performance. The button on the left offers an automatic test based on environment and usage – it will go through each of the four ways in turn (TPU, EPU, Digi+ Power, Fans) and attempt to optimize for temperature, CPU frequency and power consumption. As a result, we get something like this:
Each of the four sections can also be manually configured. For CPU overclocks, the TPU menu offers frequency and voltage adjustments:
The EPU menu gives each of the four presets on the front page (Auto, High Performance, Max Power Saving, Away Mode) and allows users to adjust features like time-to-sleep or aggressive power saving.
DIGI+ Power Control offers access to the load line calibrations for the system and improving the headroom of the power delivery above defaults. Fan Xpert 2 allows users to test fans to find how RPM varies with power applied and then implement this into the fan profiles:
There are also several presets for fans, including Silent, Turbo and Full Speed. Users can ask the system to probe the fans power response and update the fan profiles automatically.
Slightly hidden away from the initial screen are the rest of AI Suite’s functions. By clicking the icon on the top navigation bar, next to the question mark, we get access to AI Charger+, USB 3.0 Boost, EZ Update, Network iControl, System Information, USB BIOS Flashback, USB Charger+ and Remote Go!. We have covered these features in previous reviews, but here is a brief overview:
AI Charger+: Quick Charging of BC1.1 compliant devices
USB 3.0 Boost: Offers an additional speed for Windows 7 USB 3.0 devices by implementing an updated driver on-the-fly.
EZ Update: Software to allow updates to the system, primarily drivers, software and BIOS. I can now confirm that it works and offers updates.
Network iControl: Software implementation for network data prioritization.
USB BIOS Flashback: Converts the appropriate BIOS to the correct format for USB BIOS Flashback.
USB Charger+: Quick charging of a single device via USB 3.0 by disabling data transfer and increasing power delivery.
Remote Go!: Home cloud computing for media, files, remote desktop and so on.
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mikato - Wednesday, April 23, 2014 - link
"ASUS has suggested that my review CPU from AMD is from an initial batch of A10-7850K which may have higher-than-retail leakage issues. We are currently investigating this further.""Signs may point towards early batch of Kaveri processors that draw higher current, or the silicon lottery."
Wow, does this mean you are going to rerun the power consumption numbers from the Kaveri review and give us new graphs? You really should.
"we take a series of 170 images in various sizes and formats and convert them all into 640x480 .gif files, maintaining the aspect ratio"
I'm just curious how that's possible? Do you use blank bars on the sides? Or do they all have the same length:width ratio to match 640x480 to begin with?
Hrel - Thursday, April 24, 2014 - link
"A side note: we are looking into the restarting flaw that seems to occur during our specialised benchmark under high CPU load. Signs may point towards early batch of Kaveri processors that draw higher current, or the silicon lottery. We need to get a newer one in to retest our Photoscan benchmark."The fact that you still recommended this motherboard, despite the above quote, makes this sites recommendations meaningless. You're AMD bias is only going to do harm, not good. Please stop yourselves from showing such obvious favoritism. AMD platforms are less stable than Intel, this is a long known fact.
silverblue - Sunday, April 27, 2014 - link
And this is the sort of FUD that AMD and its customers have to put up with.Haravikk - Sunday, April 27, 2014 - link
It's nice to see AMD still getting some good performance motherboards. This said, I have to say I really prefer the layout of the ASRock FM2A88-ITX+ motherboard, and wish more motherboards would do something similar. While it does get a little tight on the CPU cooler to have the memory angled "horizontally" towards the "top" of the motherboard, it just gives much better airflow and cooler RAM in general; I wish more manufacturers would do this, and just leave cooler manufacturers to adapt.