X58A-UD9 vs. Rampage III Extreme, powered by i7 980X - whose crown?

Our test configuration included the following elements:

• Motherboards:
  • GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD9 (BIOS: F3)
  • ASUS Rampage III Extreme (BIOS: 0704)
• Processor:
  • Intel Core i7 98X Extreme Edition 3,33 GHz ES
• Processor cooler:
  • Scythe Grand Kama Cross
• Memory:
  • Kingston HyperX LoVo 1866 MHz 9-9-9-24 2 × 2 GB
• Hard disks:
  • HITACHI 160 GB SATA2 (HDS721616PLA380)
  • Samsung 200 GB SATA2 (SP2004C)
     
• Video card:
  • GeForce GTX 480 SLI (ASUS ENGTX480 1536 MB + GIGABYTE GTX480 1536 MB)
• Power supply: Xigmatek NRP-HC1501 1500 W
• Software environment:
  • Windows 7 RTM 64 bit Ultimate HUN
  • Intel INF 9.1.1.1019
  • NVIDIA GeForce 257.21 WHQL x64
  • Realtek HD Audio 2.49 Driver
• Display: ASUS 24T1 TV Monitor

Note for graphics tests:

For the synthetic measurements (3DMark Vantage, Unigine Heaven Benchmark) the GeForce driver settings were not checked, everything ran according to the factory configuration. However, after the synthetic measurements, the games were manually turned on with 16 × anisotropic filtering, as in many applications this is not possible from the program, but its presence was felt necessary for the measurements.

The tests were first performed on both motherboards with basic settings, respectively on the base clock signal:

GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD9

ASUS Rampage III Extreme

As you can see, Rampage sets the base clock two tenths higher for the processor (133,3 vs. 133,5) than the X58A-UD9, so the other values ​​are slightly higher. Although this counts (six) in the measurements, its magnitude is close to the negligible level. Interestingly, Rampage set a much lower base voltage for the 980X, and since the system was stable at 0,968 V, the need for a 58 V value for the X9A-UD1,2 is questionable, of course in tuning without voltage change. with the GIGABYTE motherboard we would probably go further than with the ASUS board.

Tuning

We couldn't let go of such motherboards sharpened for tuning and performance without tuning, but due to the shortness of time, unfortunately, it was only possible to poke one copy, which you could follow live on the HOC TV broadcast when Over@locker he visited us for the second time. Over treated the X58A-UD9, but this time the goal was not extreme tuning, but a detailed guide to overdriving and targeting a setting that can be used permanently in a home environment with air cooling. This value was 4 GHz, which of course was achieved. We’re sure the ASUS Rampage III Extreme would have been able to do just as easily with this stunt, who could be better than the other in overdrive, probably only with very aggressive tuning and a lot of time spent.

Applications used for measurements:

• CPU-Z 1.54
• Lavalys Everest Ultimate Edition 5.50.2100
• POV-Ray 3.7 beta 38
• Fritz Chess Benchmark 4.2
• Cinebench R10 64 bit
• Cinebench R11.5 64 bit
• WinRAR 3.92
• SuperPi 1.5 mod XS
• Uningine Heaven Benchmark v2.1
• 3DMark Vantage 1.02
• Crysis Warhead 1.1
• Colin McRae: Dirt 2 1.1
• Alien v Predator
• Far Cry 2 1.03