discussion ASUS X79 Rampage IV Extreme Socket 2011 Motherboard Review

[Eldonko]

BIOS Rundown

BIOS Rundown

2011 is the year of the UEFI BIOS and ASUS has adopted it in style. The Rampage IV Extreme has one of the most advanced yet complex BIOS’ that we have ever seen and features capabilities such as support for boot drives above 2.2TB and mouse support for easy navigation. The BIOS we have used in this section is version 0067b, dated Nov 8/11. Since then there have been a few more versions to improve performance but the general layout is the same.

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The first and main BIOS screen is the Extreme Tweaker page. This section contains a long list of subpages and overclockers will spend the majority of their time here. At the main section's top are there are profiles to get users started as well as an auto overclocking option titled CPU Level Up. CPU Level Up gives auto OC options of 4.017Ghz, 4.120Ghz, and 4.250Ghz for a 3960X chip. Further down are adjustable settings for BCLK, CPU Strap, Turbo, as well as subscreens for memory timings, power control, CPU settings, and GPU/DIMM POST.

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Next up is a wide range of voltages and skews for the processor and memory. As you can see each channel of RAM has its own voltage settings. At the bottom of the page are four more subpages that include advanced settings for CPU, RAM, PCH, and VGA.

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The DRAM Timing Control screen contains every memory timing imaginable and will be a dream come true for memory tweakers. There are literally five pages of memory timings as well as MCH Duty Sense and Slews available to users. At the top of the page there are four memory presets that make a good starting point if you know the memory chips you are dealing with.

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The next section under Extreme Tweaker is DIGI+ Power Control whicj contains voltage settings and every overclocker will spend some time here. Voltage and current options for CPU, VSA, VTT, DRAM, and PCH are found within.

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The next two pages are also subsections of the Extreme Tweaker section. CPU Performance Settings is where you find CPU Ratio, Speedstep, and Turbo. You can also set custom Turbo Mode Parameters such as power limits. GPU/DIMM POST contains two subpages as shown below.

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GPU and DIMM POST pages show the video cards and memory in the system detected at POST and the speeds both are running.

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The PCI-E Simulator tool is an interesting BIOS feature that shows you what bandwidth your video cards will run in a variety of different configurations. Changing these settings doesn't actually do anything other than give you info about the PCI-E lanes.

 

[Eldonko]

BIOS Rundown p.2

BIOS Rundown

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CPU Tweaker’s Paradise contains Skews and Drive Strength that can be tweaked for sub-zero operation. The aptly Memory Tweaker’s Paradise section has similar settings but related to the IMC and memory. Generally speaking lowering Skews and Drive Strengths can improve stability under sub-zero conditions.

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Next we have PCH Chipset Tweaker’s Paradise and VGA Tweaker’s Paradise. The PCH Chipset Tweaker’s Paradise section has chipset voltages, Drive Strength, and Skews. Again users can tweak these to maximize stability when benching. VGA Tweaker’s Paradise is used only when VGA Hotwire is set up and with it you can push voltages for up to two video cards.

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The Main tab is where you find BIOS, CPU, and memory information as well as the system time and date. Moving over one more tab to the Advanced tab, there are a number of configuration subscreens for CPU, System Agent, PCH, USB, and Onboard Devices.

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The Monitor tab has voltage, temperature, and fan speed monitoring as well as fan speed controls for five fan headers and the chipset fan. You can set fan speeds based on temperature, RPM, or use the profiles included in the BIOS. The temperature screen allows for setting Overheat Protection limits for the PCH, and other temp sensors around the board.

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The Boot tab is fairly straightforward; it contains boot priority options and POST options. Moving over to the Tools tab there are several useful itemms available including EZ Flash 2, Go Button and OC Profiles. Go Button is similar to an OC profile since users can set custom settings and load them by pressing the Go Button on the board.

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ASUS OC Profiles allow for saving customized OC Profiles suited for different situations. This is a very handy tool for any overclocker however keep in mind that if you flash your BIOS your profiles are gone. Last but not least we have EZ Flash 2. This utility is used for flashing the board’s BIOS from a flash drive in a safe and easy manner.

 

[Eldonko]

Test Setup and Testing Methodology

Test Setup and Testing Methodology

Our test setup consists of an Intel Sandy Bridge-E 3960X, ASUS Rampage IV Extreme motherboard, two GTX 470s, 8GB of Corsair XMS DDR3-2000 9-9-9, and 32GB of Corsair Vengeance DDR3-1866 9-10-9. All this is powered by a Corsair AX1200w PSU. Here are a few shots of the setup and hardware:

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First we have the whole test bench up and running. As you can see we used watercooling (Apogee XT) for the CPU along with two heatercores. A second GTX 470 was also added for SLI testing.

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Above you can have a closer look at the CPU, memory and PSU. We tested all of the memory pictured in order to determine if there are any compatibility issues with x79.


Overclocking Methodology

At Hardware Canucks, we understand we have a diverse reader base and to represent a variety of user types, so we put the Rampage IV Extreme through three types of tests.

• Beginner Overclocker - To represent a beginner overclocker or a mainstream user that wants to have a quick and easy way to get some extra performance we used the CPU Level Up setting found in the UEFI BIOS.
• Experienced Overclocker - To represent an experienced overclocker that is looking for the optimal 24/7 overclock to maximize system performance while keeping voltage and temperatures in check we overclocked the Rampage IV Extreme manually and stopped when we started to get concerned with voltage levels and temperatures.
• Advanced Bencher - To represent the bencher that is looking for short benchmark runs at absolute maximum CPU and memory clocks we tested with sub-zero cooling and higher than recommended voltages. More on this is found in the sub-zero testing section.

We did stability testing a little differently for the Sandy Bridge-E platform than usual. The main stability test used was Linpack (LinX version 0.6.4) with memory usage set to 4,096MB and 20 loops run. In the enthusiast world, Linpack is a benchmark designed to measure performance on Intel CPUs in GFlops. However, it's also a very useful tool for checking the stability of a CPU and memory. LinX picks up very quickly and if you are able to complete a 20 loop test with the specifications above your system is likely stable or very close to it. For testing the 32GB kit, we use HyperPI as running LinX with that much memory would take way too long.

After LinX / HyperPI stability was achieved, 2 runs of 3DMark Vantage and 2 runs of 3DMark 11 were run to test 3D stability. Once an overclock passed these tests, this is the point deemed as “stable” for the purposes of this review.

Windows 7 Service Pack 1 was installed to take advantage of the Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX) with Sandy Bridge processors. Intel AVX is a 256-bit SIMD floating point vector extension of Intel architecture. The BIOS used for overclocking and benchmarking was version 0070b.

Benchmarking Methodology

Benchmarks in the System Benchmarks section will be a comparison of the i7 3960X at stock speed, at auto overclock speed as set by CPU Level Up, and at maximum 24/7 overclock to give an idea of how much performance a user can gain when overclocking the Rampage IV Extreme. These results are then compared to a 2600k using the same settings.

For stock testing, optimized defaults were loaded putting the CPU at 3,911Mhz (39 x 100.3) and memory at 669Mhz and 9-9-9-24 1T timings. Optimized defaults enable Turbo by default hence the 3,911Mhz instead of 3,300Mhz which is the stock speed of the processor. The auto overclocked speed on the 3960X (CPU Level Up) was 4,250Mhz (34 x 125) with memory at 667Mhz and 9-9-9-24 1T timings. The overclocked speed on the 3960X for 24/7 stability was 5,002Mhz (38 x 131.6) with memory at 1,228Mhz and 10-11-10-32 2T timings. Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit was used with SP1 installed.

 

[Eldonko]

Overclocking Results

Overclocking Results

Auto Overclocking

ASUS’s CPU Level Up is a tool that allows for quick and easy CPU overclocking simply by enabling the feature in the board's BIOS. There are three different levels of CPU performance, each giving a little extra speed. Basically all you have to do is enter the BIOS, select your desired CPU Level Up speed and the system will reset and your overclocking work is done. The result is a boost from stock speed (Turbo enabled) of 3900Mhz to an instant 4250Mhz with no effort whatsoever.

The system was rock stable while using the CPU Level Up feature and we were able to run stress tests without any issue at up to 4.25Ghz. For reference load Vcore was at 1.283v for the auto OC above 4Ghz.


Manual Overclocking

Manual overclocking was a bit of an adventure on a brand new board and a brand new platform. The basics were the same but add quad channel memory, straps, and overclockable BCLK and you have a bit of a different beast when compared to regular Sandy Bridge processors.

As per usual, we started with a CPU overclock, left the RAM at stock, and shot directly for the overclocker’s holy grail of 5Ghz. 5Ghz was reasonably easy to achieve on Sandy Bridge so it should have a good goal for SB-E right? After some time (a lot more time than SB) we were able to achieve the 5Ghz we were after but we have to admit the RIVE BIOS was a little daunting at first. It simply wasn’t as simple as setting 100 x 50 and adjusting Vcore. You have to tweak a number of other settings and voltages as well.

By Gradually reducing Vcore to the lowest stable point we ended up at 1.40v set in the BIOS and LLC at Ultra High giving load Vcore of 1.46v measured with a digital multimeter.

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After finding that point of CPU stability, the next step is always to maximize the memory overclocks. First we tried our 4 x 2GB sticks of Corsair XMS3-2000 9-9-9 memory. From previous testing we knew that this wasn’t the best overclocking kit and on Sandy Bridge it ran only a little better than its stock speeds. However to our surprise (and with a LOT of tweaking) we managed to get the same kit in quad channel to over 2500Mhz at 10-11-10, far exceeding what was possible with a 2600K. We did have to push the IMC a bit with 1.35v VTT and 1.3v VCCSA but it is important to note that ASUS has included a secondary VTT that you can keep lower (300mv lower recommended) to help to avoid damaging the IMC. In the end the optimal overclock for this particular CPU and memory combo was 38 x 131.6 for 5002Mhz and 2508Mhz on the memory.

The 8GB kit was by no means optimized for SB-E since it is a year old so some users will breathe a sigh of relief that they may not have to purchase all new memory if upgrading. To put that theory to the test we tried a number of different older DDR3 kits and are pleased to report we did not have a single issue with any of the memory pictured on the Test Setup page. We can even go as far to say that you can mix and match memory to some extent but keeping chip types consistent is recommend.

Next up we threw 32GB of the brand new Corsair Vengeance 1866 9-10-9 1.5v memory into the RIVE to see how well the huge amount of memory would overclock. These kits are speced for 16GB layouts so we were optimistic to even see stock speeds when adding an extra 16GB.

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The memory uses Micron 43nm die chips and is rated for 1.5v so we had an idea it would clock reasonably well at low voltages and after a bit of work and tireless tweaking of timings we ended up with a very nice overclock of 1945Mhz at 9-10-9 while remaining at 5Ghz - not bad for 32GB! We also only needed 1.5v on the memory and 1.25v VTT / 1.20v VCCSA to max out the kit so this is a great low voltage option for 24/7 operation. What do you need all of this memory for you ask? Stay tuned for the “Why Do I Want 32GB of Memory?” section.

Worried about the max multi limit on the K-series SB-E chip? Don’t worry too much since the RIVE brought us to 160 BCLK with minimal effort on the X and the K will likely be similar. BCLK at 155 or above bumps up to the 166 strap and if you have a limited multi this will give you all the headroom you need for overclocking. We should add however that it is too early to know for sure if this is an indication of how other CPUs will behave when it comes to BCLK.

We ran the RIVE for a week using the 5Ghz overclock and we are happy to report that we did not see any issues with stability. We did run into a cold boot issue once but we have been unable to duplicate that thus far so it could be a one off issue or an auto mem timing adjusting too tightly.

 

[Eldonko]

Sub-Zero Overclocking Results

Sub-Zero Overclocking Results

Enthusiasts have been anticipating the release of Sandy Bridge-E after the release of Sandy Bridge changed the sub-zero benchmarking game. As we know these new processors don’t carry the simple equation of higher volts + cooler temperatures = higher CPU speed due to the ring bus architecture. Plus, with Sandy Bridge BCLK is hardly overclockable at all so final overclocks are based on the modification of multipliers and with a megahertz cap, this really isn’t the most exciting overclocking experience for the sub-zero enthusiast.

We are sad to inform you that the same BCLK cap still exists for Sandy Bridge-E but now the cost of entry is three times the price. Not only do you have to hope for a chip with a high cap but now you also have to hope for a processor with a "good" IMC as well. However, even with a limited amount of headroom on some fronts, sub-zero is still useful when you find a decent chip because you can keep the things cool enough for prolonged benchmark runs like those required for 3D benching.

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The phase change cooler used is these tests a large single stage unit with a 10,500 btu rotary compressor, a mix of r410a and r22a gasses, and a 5 foot flex line. The cooler is tuned for a 300W heat load at -30C so it can handle even Sandy Bridge-E with ease. We also had our trusty digital multimeter and thermometer as per usual.

Temps were around -47C idle and around -37C loaded at 1.58v. The 3960X we tested had no cold bug and it reacted normally to the sub-zero temperatures. We did have a bit of an issue with the IMC and had to drop mem freq a bit at the absolute max of the chip but nothing too serious.

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During our sub-zero testing we tested Subzero Sense, monitored with OC Key, and the accuracy was excellent - basically identical to the readings from our trusty Fluke. There are two Subzero Sense inputs next to the SATA ports.

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As you can see above right on the OC Key readouts, during 3D runs at 5.4Ghz Subzero Sense reads -41C which is basically bang on. If you are wondering why you see three keyboards in the image above it is because one is dedicated to OC Key. Plug a keyboard into the PS2 port and it will work for OC Key while the keyboard plugged into USB works for everything else.

The Rampage IV Extreme worked great with sub-zero operation and exhibited no cold bugs, boot issues or anything else out of the ordinary. The ROG team’s built in sub-zero overclocking profiles also helped a ton as a starting point.

In the end we were able to max out our 3960X at 5481Mhz which isn't bad considering we only had the one CPU to test and couldn't cherry pick from multiple samples. PI 1M, PIFAST, and other short benches were possible at the CPU's maximum speed and 3D and longer bechmarks ran at 5405Mhz. For 3D benching we ran dual GTX 470s in SLI with stock cooling on the GPUs so improvements are possible with better cooling.

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Above you will find a few of the 2D benchmark runs we were able to achieve. Keep in mind these we run on Windows 7 with no OS tweaks when evaluating the efficiency.

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Also some 3D benchmarks, note the performance of 3DMark11 and Vantage, above any other platform to date.

 

[Eldonko]

System Benchmarks

In the System Benchmarks we will show two types of comparisons:

• Performance differences between stock, auto OC and manual OC
• Performance differences between 2600k and 3960X

In order to do these types of comparisons we have outlined exact CPU and memory clocks for each system above. We understand that the comparisons are not perfect due to memory clocking but at the minimum you can see the difference between 2600k and 3960X at 5Ghz with memory maxed in a number of 2D applications. For full comparisons of 3960X vs. a number of different CPUs have a look at the Intel Sandy Bridge-E Core i7-3960X CPU Review.


SuperPI Benchmark

SuperPi calculates the number of digits of PI in a pure 2D benchmark. For the purposes of this review, calculation to 32 million places will be used. RAM speed, RAM timings, CPU speed, L2 cache, and Operating System tweaks all effect the speed of the calculation, and this has been one of the most popular benchmarks among enthusiasts for several years.

SuperPi was originally written by Yasumasa Kanada in 1995 and was updated later by snq to support millisecond timing, cheat protection and checksum. The version used in these benchmarks, 1.5 is the official version supported by hwbot.

Results: A 7% increase in SuperPI 32M when going from stock speed of 3900Mhz (Turbo is on by default) to the CPU Level Up speed of 4250Mhz on the i7 3960X and Rampage IV Extreme is quite impressive. Jumping up to the manual overclock speed of 5002Mhz a 23% gain is noted.

Comparing 3960X to the 2600k in SuperPI, the results are very similar and SB-E is perhaps a few seconds slower than Sandy Bridge.


CINEBENCH R11.5

CINEBENCH is a real-world cross platform test suite that evaluates your computer's performance capabilities. CINEBENCH is based on MAXON's award-winning animation software CINEMA 4D, which is used extensively by studios and production houses worldwide for 3D content creation.

In this system benchmark section we will use the x64 Main Processor Performance (CPU) test scenario. The Main Processor Performance (CPU) test scenario uses all of the system's processing power to render a photorealistic 3D scene (from the viral "No Keyframes" animation by AixSponza). This scene makes use of various algorithms to stress all available processor cores. The test scene contains approximately 2,000 objects which in turn contain more than 300,000 polygons in total, and uses sharp and blurred reflections, area lights, shadows, procedural shaders, antialiasing, and much more. The result is displayed in points (pts). The higher the number, the faster your processor.

Results: The CINEBENCH R11.5 results show an impressive increase in performance moving from a stock system to the two levels of an overclocked system. For CPU rendering, an 8% and 28% improvement (in points) is quite significant.

Comparing the multi-CPU results of an 8 threaded 2600k to a 12 threaded 3960X we see where the Sandy Bridge-E starts to shine with a 47% improvement in rendering over the 2600k!


Sandra Processor Arithmetic and Processor Multi-Media Benchmarks

SiSoftware Sandra (the System ANalyser, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant) is an information & diagnostic utility. The software suite provides most of the information (including undocumented) users like to know about hardware, software, and other devices whether hardware or software. The name “Sandra” is a (girl) name of Greek origin that means "defender", "helper of mankind".

The software version used for these tests is SiSoftware Sandra Professional Home XII.SP2c and the two benchmarks used are the Processor Multi-Media and Processor Arithmetic benchmarks. These three benchmarks were chosen as they provide a good indication of three varying types of system performance. The multi-media test shows how the processor handles multi-media instructions and data and the arithmetic test shows how the processor handles arithmetic and floating point instructions. These two tests illustrate two important areas of a computer’s speed and provide a wide scope of results.

Results: Sandra processor arithmetic and multi-media show impressive improvements on an overclocked system, with 28% gains in performance across the board in arithmetic and multi-media for the manual overclock.

Comparing the results of the 3960X to the 2600k it is clear that the extra threads of the 3960X dominate the 2600k with gains over 50% in both processor arithmetic and multi-media.


MaxxMem Benchmark

Created by MaxxPI², the MaxxMem benchmark tests your computer’s raw memory performance, combining copy, read, write and latency tests into one global score. This memory benchmark is a classic way to measure bandwidth of a memory subsystem.

MaxxMem uses continuous memoryblocks, sized in power of 2 from 16MB up to 512MB, starting either writing to or reading from it. To enable high-precision memory performance measurement, they both internally work with multiple passes and averages calculations per run.

Further, the main goal was to minimize (CPU) cache pollution on memory reads and to eliminate it (almost completely) on memory writes. Additionally, MaxxMem operates with an aggressive data prefetching algorithm. This all will deliver an excellent judge of bandwidth while reading and writing.

For the purposes on the MaxxMem benchmark, we will only compare the 5Ghz result for both processors. Memory speeds being compared are 2456Mhz @ 10-11-10 2T for the 3960X and 2133Mhz @ 9-9-9 1T on the 2600k.

Results: MaxxMem shows that the 2600k pulls off better bandwidth and latency than the 3960X in all cases. We found these results to be very surprising since on the 3960X system the memory is quad channel and running at a much higher speed but we are going to chalk this up to an oddity of programs that just haven't been updated by their programmers.

 

[Eldonko]

SLI Testing

SLI Testing

This section will put the RIVE and new x79 chipset to the test and provide an overview of single card vs. SLI performance. Additionally we will add a Z68 to the mix to see exactly how that compared. The main objectives here are to see how much we gain by adding a second GPU to the system and to see if there are any real differences between Z68 and x79.

For SLI testing, two GTX 470s were used, both running at stock speeds of 607/1215/3348 for the PNY and 625/1250/3348 for the Galaxy. All tests were completed using Nvidia ForceWare 280.26 drivers and Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit. In the following tests, all SLI comparisons were run at manual overclock settings of 5Ghz for both systems.


3DMark 11 Benchmark:

3DMark 11 is the most recent release by Futuremark, creators of the 3DMark suite. 3DMark 11 is the latest version of the world’s most popular benchmark for measuring the graphics performance of gaming PCs. Designed for testing DirectX 11 hardware running on Windows 7 and Windows Vista the benchmark includes six all new benchmark tests that make extensive use of all the new features in DirectX 11 including tessellation, compute shaders and multi-threading.

After running the tests 3DMark gives your system a score with larger numbers indicating better performance. Trusted by gamers worldwide to give accurate and unbiased results, 3DMark 11 is the best way to test DirectX 11 under game-like loads.

For our testing, we will use the Performance setting with all other settings at default. The build version is the latest Advanced version of 3DMark 11, v1.02.

Results: For a pure graphics benchmark like 3DMark11, the RIVE shows x79’s true power when running SLI. The RIVE also outperforms Z68 in 3DMark 11 by about 3% when multi video cards are used.


3DMark Vantage Benchmark:

3DMark Vantage is a recent release by Futuremark, creators of the 3DMark suite. This program was the first Futuremark version of 3DMark designed exclusively for Windows Vista. 3DMark Vantage consists of 2 CPU and 2 GPU tests as well as and 6 feature tests all of which are very hardware intensive. Four presets are available to allow for those with older PCs to benchmark just as easily as those with cutting edge hardware. For our testing, we will use the Performance setting with all other settings at default. The build version is the latest patched version of Vantage v1.1.0.

Results: Vantage shows a little less of a gain than 3DMark11 when adding a second GTX 470 with an SLI improvement of 77% over single card results.


World in Conflict Benchmark:

The World in Conflict in-game benchmark is a great test to show video card performance in real gaming situations. Under the Graphics menu in options, you can choose a variety of video settings and there is a "Run Benchmark" button. The actual benchmark uses all of the game’s graphic capabilities and is a good indication which settings will be optimal for a user’s system. For the tests below resolution was set to 1920x1080 and graphics was set to “Very High” which gives fullscreen anti-alias at 4x and anisotropic filtering at 4x.

Results: In a benchmark that simulates gaming situations the performance gained when adding a second GTX 470 is 77% or 53 FPS. Results are virtually identical when comparing x79 to Z68 in World in Conflict.


Far Cry 2 Benchmark:

Far Cry 2 is the popular first-person shooter from Ubisoft's Montreal studio, and the first game to utilize the new visually stunning Dunia Engine. The Benchmarking is excellent and does a great job in giving an accurate measurement of gaming situations. We ran the Long Ranch demo in DX10 mode at 1920x1080 with all settings set to very high and anti-aliasing set to 4x.

Results: The Far Cry 2 DX10 Benchmark is very graphics dependant and shows how the RIVE gets the best out of a second video card. Average FPS sees a nice gain from a second GTX 470 with an improvement of 91%! Plus, when you compare to Z68, x79 SLI gives an extra 5 FPS or a 4% improvement. This is where 40 PCI-E lanes give you that extra performance for multi-GPU.


Resident Evil 5 Benchmark:

The Resident Evil 5 benchmark was originally developed to test out the performance of Resident Evil 5 using the Nvidia's 3D Vision stereoscopic technology, however its use goes further than that.

Developed by Capcom, the RE5 benchmark is based on the MT Framework Engine, similar to Devil May Cry 4. RE5 uses MT Framework (2.0) which offers multi-core optimizations, modern rendering technology from HDR, hemisphere lighting, soft shadows and particles, and motion blur, and several other advanced technologies.

For testing, we used the DX10 version of the benchmark, 1920x1080 resolution, and AA set to 4x. We also selected the variable benchmark which measures performance over a variety of different gaming situations.

Results: Similar to the Far Cry 2 benchmark, the DX10 RE5 benchmark is very graphics dependant and illustrates how well the RIVE can perform with SLI. We see a gain of 113 FPS or 85%! Again comparing RIVE SLI results to Z68, we gain 7 FPS or about 3%.

 

[Eldonko]

Why Do I Want 32GB of Memory?

Why Do I Want 32GB of Memory?

So you have a Rampage IV Extreme and 32GB of memory has been bought, installed and overclocked but what is the point of spending good money on modules that may just be wasted? In this section we are going to attempt to answer just that. X79 is the first platform to utilize 8 DIMM slots which means that due to today’s cheap memory prices you can get 32GB of memory for as little as $160.

The first thing you can do with your extra memory is set up a RAM disk. As many benchers know, a RAM disk gives unmatched access times and comes in handy when benching or if you do things like extended periods of video processing. It will also speed up application performance in general. The only drawback is that you lose the data on the RAM disk if you reboot. That said it can be a hassle to move files around every time you want to reboot but it does still have its uses.

The main RAM use we are going to look at however is RAM caching. RAM caching has been around for a long time but only today do we have all of this extra memory to make it more feasible. RAM caching is similar to SSD caching where the computer's internal memory is used to hold or contain the most frequently used disk data. Basically the more you use some particular data, whether it be an application or a game or even files, the more it will be cached to the memory and the faster it will be.

ASUS does not specifically have a RAM caching utility but you can find trial software online free of charge (Supercahce5, FancyCache, etc). To put RAM caching to the test we first ran some benchmarks with our WD 1TB Black mechanical drive and then with a RAM cache of 15GB. The results are nothing short of outstanding and by outstanding we are talking 100 times faster in CrystalDiskMark read and writes.

Next up we ran PCMark7 with and without the RAM cache and then we tested SSD caching on Z68 with the same system setup. PCMark7 combines more than 25 individual workloads covering storage, computation, image and video manipulation, web browsing and gaming so is very reflective of day-to-day PC usage. As you can see RAM caching dominates in yet another benchmark.

 

[Eldonko]

Conclusion

Conclusion

You will see the word “innovation” a few times in the ROG team’s mandate and we feel they have definitely succeeded in building this mantra into the Ramage IV Extreme. The OC Key, Subzero Sense, VGA Hotwire, LN2 Mode, and X Socket are all things we have never seen before on any manufacturer’s boards and we feel the team did a great job in thinking outside of the box here. Even if you would never use any of these items, this is one board that still has something for everyone.

For a gamer, the RIVE will appeal for the ability to overclock the system to 4.25Ghz with very little effort or overclocking experience. Add quad-SLI capabilities, PCI-E gen 3 along with 8 DIMM slots and we’re talking about a match made in heaven for anyone worried about future proofing. The RIVE will also appeal to the overclocker that needs the ability to tweak a system to their heart’s content since its BIOS is literally second to none in terms of scope and options.

Speaking of the BIOS, after spending many many hours with it we can say first hand that it will be daunting for just about anyone. But once you become accustomed to its labyrinth of menus and options, things quickly become second nature and the UEFI layout will truly be able to shine. We managed a 5Ghz overclock with memory over 2500Mhz and we feel many others will have no problem achieving the same. Although we have been through an epic TEN revisions during the short course of this review, we find the BIOS is already excellent and it will just get better with maturity. This also goes to show just how much time and effort ASUS is putting into the development of their flagship motherboard.

We saw that the 40 PCI-E lane x79 chipset lives up to the hype as being the platform to have for multi-GPU configurations. Users running SLI can enjoy true dual x16 slots and up to quad capabilities without having to worry about upgrading their board when PCI-E 3.0 GPUs drop. Single GPU and single thread CPU performance didn’t give us anything over the cheaper 1155 Sandy Bridge platform but the wins for Sandy Bridge-E are going to come from multi-GPU and multi-threaded tasks such as gaming, 3D rendering, and audio / video transcoding.

It really is difficult to find much to complain about with the Rampage IV Extreme. The main issue that may deter some buyers is price: at close to $500 it may be the most expensive X79 option yet. We also had problems when trying to uninstall graphics cards due to a minimal of space between the primary PCI-E slot and the CPU socket. There were some minor GUI glitches with MemTweakIt and ROG CPUZ but we’d expect those to be ironed out in short order.

Overall, we feel the ROG team has outdone themselves with the Rampage IV Extreme and it may possibly be the best board ASUS has released to date. Whether it be gamers that want the absolute best multi card 3D performance on the market, a mid-range user that wants a modest overclock but run a ton of memory, or the hard core bencher that eats and sleeps by the LN2 Dewar, this board will fit like a well worn glove. Here at Hardware Canucks we don’t just give out awards to every product we review, we give them to those that earn them, which is why ASUS gets our DAM Good award and a DAM Innovative award for the Rampage IV Extreme.


Pros

- Bencher’s dream board (Subzero Sense, LN2 Mode, VGA Hotwire, Voltminder LED II)
- 4.25Ghz overclock in 3 seconds
- MemtweakIt and OC Key make overclocking and tweaking quick and easy
- Huge memory clocking capabilities
- Unmatched multi-GPU performance and quad-GPU capability
- PCI-E 3.0 ready
- ROG build quality (Metallic Black chokes, caps and MOSFETs)
- X Socket saves $$ on a new heatsink
- Excellent BIOS, with presets included
- 8 DIMM slots allow for 32GB of memory on a budget


Cons

- Not cheap, probably the most expensive x79 out thus far
- Difficult to get GPUs out with tri or quad card configurations
- MemtweakIt and ROG CPUZ GUI not working properly

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...rampage-iv-extreme-review-comment-thread.html​