Hardware Asus Maximus IV Gene-Z Review

Yes they do!

Maximus IV Extreme
http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/Maximus_IV_Extreme/

and the Extreme-Z with Z68.

We're just better at making motherboards

 

ASUS seem to have the upper hand on Intel's 1155 iteration. Very happy with my P8P67 Pro.
If only I had the money, this board would make a killer replacement for my ageing Core2Quad Media/Games PC that sits under the tv.

 

OK and I appreciate your response but in the greater scheme of things such oncosts are minimal in a production run when weighed against the advantage of being two steps ahead of the opposition. It is going to happen some time so why not now on a premium board? I already use a PCIe USB3 card . All it does is take up a valued PCIe slot as opposed to having the stuff built in . Same applies to SATA 6

 

But it's not in the actual chipset design. Intel simply doesn't provide it for any board.

 

I just need it, too bad we're all not able to afford these nice things. I'll go with the p8p67.

 

Maybe you are...

How did the Sabertooth get so fast all of the sudden?

asus-sabertooth-p67-review/5 Sabertooth P67 Intel P67 SATA 6Gbps 353 MB/sec
asus-p8p67-m-pro-review/5 Sabertooth P67 Intel P67 SATA 6Gbps 353 MB/sec
gigabyte-ga-z68a-d3h-b3-review/5 Sabertooth P67 Intel P67 SATA 6Gbps 541 MB/sec
asus-maximus-iv-gene-z/5 Sabertooth P67 Intel P67 SATA 6Gbps 541 MB/sec

Was the C300 limiting the chipset?

 

Ok I understand.. Let's hope that the next Intel chip introduction will deal with this. We seem to be at a intermediate stage of the evolution of moving to USB3 and SATA 6. Having downloaded a vast programme to a USB3 flash drive and then seemingly instantly loaded it to my MSI P67A mobo equipped with a SATA 6Gb hard drive I am a total convert to the upgrade

 

Don't know, but here is the recent AnandTech review of the UD3:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4493/gigabyte-z68xud3hb3-review

However their benchmarks are different than the Bit-Tech benchmarks - so it's hard to equate them.

 

I just bought this board, and discovered why it is fast at stock speed.
It allows the 2600/2600K cpu to run at 3.8Ghz/4 cores at full load, where as a reference board would run @3.5Ghz when all 4 cores are stressed.

This is actually overclocking.

 

Hmmm yes, they see a difference between the C300 and the Vertex 3 as well...not as much as BitTech though.

 

Is it possible to use the 2nd PCIe x16 slot for a single graphic card configuration? Will it only run at x8 speed even if I buy a Gen3 model?

I might have to do this to get my Zalman 7700 to fit, unsure about that at the moment :/

 

Slot 1 will work as x16 or x8. Slot 2 will only work as x8. That's the same as the original gene-z (before I set up my watercooling, I had to run my old gpu as a x8 device in slot 2, because my Noctua NH-D14 covered most of the motherboard!).

 

Ok, thank you. At least I know it'll work. Is there any performance loss?

 

I'm not a game player, so my most gpu intensive work is folding, which isn't affected by the bandwidth.

I think the best way to see if you are fully using the gpu when in the x8 slot is to use a monitor, such as EVGA Precision or MSI Afterburner. Both will help you to overclock (although the EVGA software doesn't store voltage changes between sessions) and have a tool to show how much of the gpu you are using, clock speeds, etc.

 

There's not a massive amount of change at x8 vs x16, depending on card. The dual-GPU cards will be affected far more than single GPU cards. If it's a 6950 level card, then it will make little (~2-5% max) difference, GTX580 level will be affected more. As it's PCI-E 3.0, when Ivy Bridge comes out, (and thus PCI-E 3.0 will become relevant) in theory the x8 slot will be able to provide as much bandwicth as a x16 PCI-E 2.0 slot, but IIRC that will only work with PCI-E 3.0 compatible cards, so won't make any difference to older cards.