Gaming Performance

For Z490 we are running using Windows 10 64-bit with the 1909 update.

Grand Theft Auto V

The highly anticipated iteration of the Grand Theft Auto franchise hit the shelves on April 14th 2015, with both AMD and NVIDIA in tow to help optimize the title. GTA doesn’t provide graphical presets, but opens up the options to users and extends the boundaries by pushing even the hardest systems to the limit using Rockstar’s Advanced Game Engine under DirectX 11. Whether the user is flying high in the mountains with long draw distances or dealing with assorted trash in the city, when cranked up to maximum it creates stunning visuals but hard work for both the CPU and the GPU.

For our test we have scripted a version of the in-game benchmark. The in-game benchmark consists of five scenarios: four short panning shots with varying lighting and weather effects, and a fifth action sequence that lasts around 90 seconds. We use only the final part of the benchmark, which combines a flight scene in a jet followed by an inner city drive-by through several intersections followed by ramming a tanker that explodes, causing other cars to explode as well. This is a mix of distance rendering followed by a detailed near-rendering action sequence, and the title thankfully spits out frame time data.

GTX 1080: Grand Theft Auto V, Average FPSGTX 1080: Grand Theft Auto V, 95th Percentile

F1 2018

Aside from keeping up-to-date on the Formula One world, F1 2017 added HDR support, which F1 2018 has maintained; otherwise, we should see any newer versions of Codemasters' EGO engine find its way into F1. Graphically demanding in its own right, F1 2018 keeps a useful racing-type graphics workload in our benchmarks.

Aside from keeping up-to-date on the Formula One world, F1 2017 added HDR support, which F1 2018 has maintained. We use the in-game benchmark, set to run on the Montreal track in the wet, driving as Lewis Hamilton from last place on the grid. Data is taken over a one-lap race.

GTX 1080: F1 2018, Average FPSGTX 1080: F1 2018, 95th Percentile

Strange Brigade (DX12)

Strange Brigade is based in 1903’s Egypt and follows a story which is very similar to that of the Mummy film franchise. This particular third-person shooter is developed by Rebellion Developments which is more widely known for games such as the Sniper Elite and Alien vs Predator series. The game follows the hunt for Seteki the Witch Queen who has arose once again and the only ‘troop’ who can ultimately stop her. Gameplay is cooperative centric with a wide variety of different levels and many puzzles which need solving by the British colonial Secret Service agents sent to put an end to her reign of barbaric and brutality.

The game supports both the DirectX 12 and Vulkan APIs and houses its own built-in benchmark which offers various options up for customization including textures, anti-aliasing, reflections, draw distance and even allows users to enable or disable motion blur, ambient occlusion and tessellation among others. AMD has boasted previously that Strange Brigade is part of its Vulkan API implementation offering scalability for AMD multi-graphics card configurations.

GTX 1080: Strange Brigade DX12, Average FPSGTX 1080: Strange Brigade DX12, 95th Percentile

CPU Performance, Short Form Overclocking
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  • :nudge> - Monday, December 21, 2020 - link

    Too little too lake
  • orsoleads - Monday, December 28, 2020 - link

    Great info. This will be great for my new set up. Will be adding to my list to order next week. Thanks a bunch. Regards - http://www.google.com
  • Duncan Macdonald - Monday, December 21, 2020 - link

    Or with Threadripper you can have 64 PCIe 4.0 lanes direct from the CPU - no switch required,

    The total bandwidth on the Supermicro is only that of 16 PCIe 3.0 lanes - the switch does not magically add bandwidth. The bandwidth on Threadripper 3rd gen (3970x etc) is eight times the bandwidth of the Intel CPU (a PCIe 4.0 lane has twice the bandwidth of a PCIe 3.0 lane).

    Even the latest Ryzen chips have more bandwidth due to having PCIe 4.0 lanes instead of PCIe 3.0 lanes.

    The board is probably on special offer to clear out this deadweight item.

    The only good reason for buying it is to replace a broken motherboard.
  • Jorgp2 - Monday, December 21, 2020 - link

    lol the cheapest TR and motherboard combo is like $2000
  • Operandi - Monday, December 21, 2020 - link

    Yeah, this particular board is potintless given the platform. Aside from that Supermicro should really lean into what they do best and thats build solid boards aimed at professionals. Sure target the DIY enthusiast but drop the gamer slogans, and marketing, "play harder" ughhh.... just stop.
  • lmcd - Monday, December 21, 2020 - link

    The point is specifically the platform. Wouldn't this be one of the only boards capable of 2-card SLI with 3090s (not that such a thing is performant) without a NUMA-required CPU?
  • JimmyZeng - Tuesday, December 22, 2020 - link

    Then you'll notice 2 slot 3090s are hard to find.
  • edzieba - Tuesday, December 22, 2020 - link

    The x16 slots are 4 slots apart.
  • Jorgp2 - Tuesday, December 22, 2020 - link

    Any GPU is single slot if you stick a water block on it.
  • CheapSushi - Wednesday, December 23, 2020 - link

    No, shut up. It's great that SuperMicro is making these and it is an option. Why don't YOU focus on other products.

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