Shootouts

High-End Intel Z87 Motherboard Shootout

By Wong Chung Wee - 14 Apr 2014

BIOS Settings & Test Setup

BIOS Settings

The UEFI BIOS utilities of the boards have their own unique look and feel. In the past, we felt that the GUI-based BIOS was lethargic in terms of responsiveness; however, with this current crop of Intel Z87 boards, it appears that such kinks have been ironed out.

Below, we have highlighted the voltage settings of the boards which we have had to modify during our overclocking efforts to obtain a maximum stable CPU clock speed (since there's little gain from modifying the base clock of the boards). The UEFI BIOS utilities from ASUS and Gigabyte offered the most detailed voltage settings among the compared boards. For the DRAM Timings, we took the default values offered by default settings of each board. We have used a new set of DDR3 memory modules for this round of testing, so do refer to their specifications listed below.

BIOS Options Relevant to Overclocking
Model CPU Voltage DRAM Voltage Other Voltage Settings
ASRock Z87 OC Formula
CPU Input Voltage: Fixed Mode (1.910V) DRAM Eventual Voltage: Auto
  • N.A.
ASUS Maximus VI Extreme
CPU Core Voltage: 1.325000V DRAM Voltage Frequency: Auto
  • Max Vcore: Disabled
  • Max Cache Voltage: Disabled
ECS Gank Domination Z87H3-A2X Golden  CPU Core Voltage: 1.315V DIMM Voltage:  1.65V
  •   N.A.
Gigabyte Z87X-OC
CPU Core Voltage: 1.325V Profile DDR Voltage: 1.50V
  • CPU Ring Voltage: 1.250V
MSI Z87 MPower Max CPU Core Voltage: Auto  DRAM Voltage: Auto
  • VCCIN Voltage: 1.950V 

 

Test Setup

This is the test configuration for our Intel Z87 motherboard shootout.

  • Intel Core i7-4770K (3.5GHz)
  • Motherboards:- ASRock Z87 OC Formula, ASUS Maximus VI Extreme, ECS Gank Domination Z87H3-A2X Golden, Gigabyte Z87X-OC, MSI Z87 MPower Max
  • 2 x 4GB Crucial Ballistix Elite Series DDR3-1600 (CAS 9-9-9-27)
  • MSI GeForce GTX 660 Ti Boost Twin Frozr III OC (GeForce Driver Version 331.65)
  • Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA 6Gbps hard drive (one single NTFS partition)
  • Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 (64-bit)

Note 1: The price range of the motherboards in the roundup is rather wide. We are focusing on the best options that are locally available from motherboard vendors at the time of evaluation (in December 2013). There are some boards that have additional features like wireless modules or even an OC Panel that is bundled with the ASUS board. Such frills will add on to the costs of each board. But we would be focusing on the overclocking and performance levels of the boards, especially on gaming benchmarks like 3DMark and Tomb Raider.

Note 2: Overclocked settings mentioned above were only used during the overclocking stress test phase. In all other tests, the boards were run at stock performance levels to judge them at level playing field.

 

Benchmarks

The following benchmarks were used to test the motherboards:

  • BAPCo SYSmark 2012 (ver 1.05)
  • SPECviewperf 11.0
  • Futuremark PCMark 8
  • Futuremark 3DMark (2013)
  • Tomb Raider

A new addition to our motherboard benchmark suite is Futuremark PCmark 8. It is designed to test the performance of the system on its pre-determined  scenarios while tackling a number of content creation applications simultaneously; after which it would generate a general score.

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