ASUS X79 Rampage IV Extreme

[Eldonko]

I realize there is a rule here against posting non-forum reviews but there is no master RIVE thread and wanted to share it so here is my review.





Includes overclocking, sub-zero, head to head comparos to Z68, and I even threw in some RAM caching. Ive worked with this board quite a bit so if anyone has questions I may be able to help.

cheers

EDIT - Here are some USB 3.0 numbers if anyone is interested. UASP is very fast.

http://event.asus.com/mb/2010/The_Be...For_USB3.0.htm

[sin0822]

Excellent review man nice overclocks!

[Eldonko]

Thx sin

[Hondacity]

finally 3d06!

thanks zac

[Eldonko]

I ran pretty much every bench at hwbot if you are looking for anything else in particular. It was really just to see the numbers and how the board performed frozen so the benches arent optimized but it still gives a gen idea of what to expect. RAM cache kills it in pcmark, never saw increases like that before.

[andressergio]

excellent review Zac !

[the_real_7]

Great review right to the point , I retired mine after two days not because the board wasnt the best ever cause it was , just cause the x79 didn't have anything to offer me but overclocking fun at a hefty price i wasn't willing to except after i saw it performance compared to my 2600k setup , 3930k was a hotter more powerful cpu , when use in the right environment , and the board has godly features , and overclocks like a dream , but its not $1100 better than my sandy setup , for that it doesn't even break even , higher memory latency even when setup with that fastest memory compared to a p67 counterpart , and alot more heat . but this has nothing to do with this superb board and when new cpu come out i will purchase again for now mine is officially retired ,

[andressergio]

Great review right to the point , I retired mine after two days not because the board wasnt the best ever cause it was , just cause the x79 didn't have anything to offer me but overclocking fun at a hefty price i wasn't willing to except after i saw it performance compared to my 2600k setup , 3930k was a hotter more powerful cpu , when use in the right environment , and the board has godly features , and overclocks like a dream , but its not $1100 better than my sandy setup , for that it doesn't even break even , higher memory latency even when setup with that fastest memory compared to a p67 counterpart , and alot more heat . but this has nothing to do with this superb board and when new cpu come out i will purchase again for now mine is officially retired ,

yes too much hype on this new platform...

[Hondacity]

the 12t procs are just the beginning...imagine 16threads [with die shrink] for consumers. that will be a new feat. for multi threaded applications this is an excellent platform.

[andressergio]

the 12t procs are just the beginning...imagine 16threads [with die shrink] for consumers. that will be a new feat. for multi threaded applications this is an excellent platform.

if software uses it wich i can see barely on real app honda...only some encoding and compress but games etc, barely uses it

we all have amazing powerful rigs wich is NOT being used by software, as a programmer i can tell you...companies dont spend a peny on recoding just patch and patch, see how many COMPATIBLE X64 software there is for ex its the same...you go to task manager and says kjkkjkjk.exe 32 lol

same happens on multithreads...

just my opinion, of course i would love to have one at 5Ghz but not worth it

Cheers
Sergio

[Eldonko]

Yah X79 is really a benching and multi GPU / multi-thread platform more than anything. Difficult to justify an upgrade from 1155 but from earlier platforms and if you have the $$ why not. Same deal as 1366 was when it was released. I was a little disappointed with the memory BW and perf from quad channel but that may improve in the future (I hope)

[the_real_7]

Yah X79 is really a benching and multi GPU / multi-thread platform more than anything. Difficult to justify an upgrade from 1155 but from earlier platforms and if you have the $$ why not. Same deal as 1366 was when it was released. I was a little disappointed with the memory BW and perf from quad channel but that may improve in the future (I hope)

" AGREED " the memory part just killed it i had i couldn't believe i was taking such a hit in latency dept and i actually had my memory set with 4 sticks vs the two i use on p67 with exact same memory profile

[Eldonko]

Not just latency, look at the BW, it is terrible compared to SB. 300 extra mhz and quad channel on the x79 and still very low.



I also used Sandra 2012 which supposedly reads x79 properly and results are the same. I suspect this is the reason that single thread 2D is not better than SB.

[Hondacity]

have you tried msix79 eldonko?

[andressergio]

Yah X79 is really a benching and multi GPU / multi-thread platform more than anything. Difficult to justify an upgrade from 1155 but from earlier platforms and if you have the $$ why not. Same deal as 1366 was when it was released. I was a little disappointed with the memory BW and perf from quad channel but that may improve in the future (I hope)

yeah comming from X58 would be nice i also think for those who has 980X and 990X would be nice as this dont heat as those gulfys

[the_real_7]

Not just latency, look at the BW, it is terrible compared to SB. 300 extra mhz and quad channel on the x79 and still very low.



I also used Sandra 2012 which supposedly reads x79 properly and results are the same. I suspect this is the reason that single thread 2D is not better than SB.

Yep I saw that on review , I like how you pointed it out
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.

[donmarkoni]

Could some of you guys use this application: STREAM: Sustainable Memory Bandwidth in High Performance Computers (download, mirror)

and post screenshot like this:

[Eldonko]

Nope, I have to bang out a Z68 GD80 review and then on to next X79 (not 100% sure which board yet).

have you tried msix79 eldonko?

Sure, can do that later on.

Could some of you guys use this application: STREAM: Sustainable Memory Bandwidth in High Performance Computers (download, mirror)

and post screenshot like this:

[OC Nub]

Nice review Eldonko! Glad someone started a thread on this board.

Got this board only because Gigabyte is behind getting the UD7 out, but I am really starting to like this R4E. Its better with hypers than any of the Giga p67/z68 boards I tried, and has tons of nice features/extras to play with.

I didnt need the speed of my 2600k for most things I do, other than benching. And I didnt get this in hopes it was the fastest thing on earth. I was just so bored clocking SB, now its fun again. I also want to try some of the newer 3D benchmarks with a 6 core CPU, but no way in hell I was going back to x58.

[sin0822]

i agree with too much hype for this platform, maybe Intel thinks we are suckers, who knows. I don't understand why memory is so much slower other than intel has increased latency to allow for bandwidth in quad channel. IMC as intel said at IDF on SBe is only slightly tweaked compared to SB, so maybe that is why its low.

The on thing that does infact looks good is reports starting to drizzle in of retail CPUs, the X OCing higher on air/water than ours can do, like 5.3ghz i saw one. Then i hear reports of a 3930K doing 5.8ghz. That is nuts.

This has to be the slowest adoption by users of this platform I have ever seen, even bulldozer sold more on launch and had more users buy it. Intel needs to step up their game. From what i hear ivy bridge is going to be great for us OCers, and Ivy bridge-E might give us some high hopes with the X79 platform.


What is positive is an evolution occurring with the highend motherboards, im a mobo fanatic, no matter the brand, and I really like the new technologies i am seeing for OCing. UEFI is ok, not really a bnig deal for me, but i like the introduction of digital power for VCCIO/VCCSA/VCC/DDRAB/DDRCD which we have seen from asus and giga, to me i saw an article back here from the petrov group, they do analysis on chip makers like chil and intersil, and volterra and the such.
http://www.petrovgroup.com/pdfs/Oct%...%20article.pdf
id love to buy one of their 1.5k reports, but this article is intriguing, we are seeing some really good advanced in power density and i really like it. IDK prob no one else agrees, but i think its cool. Next with haswell Intel will only have a single voltage input for the CPU, so instead of CPUPLL/VCCIO/VCCSA/VCC and the other voltages derived from different VRs we will see just one, this will reduce the cost of the boards, and clear up real-estate and reduce noise and other things to make the motherboard better. Really cool stuff happening in the next few years, a lot of evolution.

We are gradually seeing upgrades in SATA/USB3.0/and Audio, in particular Audio with the upgrade from ASUS and GB to ALC898 with 100dB SNR. I hope with integration of USb 3.0 ondie, it and other faster busses like PCI-E will replace DMI. One thing that is a huge trend with SSD manufacturers is trying to get over SATA interface and directly interact with PCI-E as its much faster. Hopefully we will see some cool action!

[Eldonko]

Added USB 3.0 UASP link to OP.

[flesheatinvirus]

Very nice indeed, thanks Eldonko.

[st0ned]

What I would really like to see is 3 graphics configs with X79 vs P67 // Z68, because the latest have to use sucky NF200, I would like to know the X79 gain .

PS. I know you tested SLI, but with two graphics I had almost forgranted that it would be the same...

[Boulard83]

All my gear is ordered. Whaiting for it to arrive, stuck with my HTPC in the waiting ... !

New WC gear, new mobo, new CPU, new memory. So much bench to be done !

[bill_d]

What I would really like to see is 3 graphics configs with X79 vs P67 // Z68, because the latest have to use sucky NF200, I would like to know the X79 gain .

PS. I know you tested SLI, but with two graphics I had almost forgranted that it would be the same...

toms had one with 3 way
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...e,3071-18.html