Review: ASUS Maximus IV Extreme-Z
Category : Z68
Published by Marc Büchel on 01.09.11
The Maximus IV Extreme-Z is ASUS' latest flagship regarding their socket 1155 line-up. With its ROG brand the taiwanese mainboard giant targets gamers as well as overclockers. Very impressive is for example the number of USB 3.0 ports this board comes with. There is a total of eight of these ports. 
The Maximus IV Extreme-Z is ASUS' high end motherboard regarding Intels Z68 chipset. Therefore we're really curious what they've done from the layout and design perspective.
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[pagebreak]
Specifications / Delivery
| CPU | Intel Socket 1155 Core i7, Core i5, Core i3 |
| Chipset | Intel Z68 |
| Memory | Dual Channel DDR3, 4 x DIMM, Max. 32 GB DDR3, 2200 OC / 2133 OC / 1866 / 1600 / 1333 Non-ECC,Un-buffered |
| Multi-GPU |
NVIDIA 3-Way SLI Technology AMD CrossFireX Technology LucidLogix Virtu™ Technology |
| Slots | 4 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (x16 or dual x8 or x8, x16, x16) 1 x PCIe 2.0 x4 1 x PCIe 2.0 x1 |
| Audio | SupremeFX X-Fi 2 built-in 8-Channel |
| Storage | 4 x SATA 6.0 Gb/s (RAID 0, 1, 5, 10) 4 x SATA 3.0 Gb/s (RAID 0, 1, 5, 10) 2 x eSATA 3.0 Gb/s |
| I/O internal / Connectors | 1 x USB 3.0 connector(s) support(s) additional 2 USB 3.0 port(s) 4 x USB 2.0 connector(s) support(s) additional 8 USB 2.0 port(s) 4 x SATA 6Gb/s connector(s) 4 x SATA 3Gb/s connector(s) 1 x CPU Fan connector(s) 3 x Chassis Fan connector(s) 1 x Power Fan connector(s) 3 x Optional Fan connector(s) 1 x S/PDIF out header(s) 1 x 24-pin EATX Power connector(s) 1 x 8-pin ATX 12V Power connector(s) 1 x Front panel audio connector(s) (AAFP) 1 x System panel(s) 8 x ProbeIt Measurement Points 3 x Thermal sensor connector(s) 1 x RC Bluetooth header(s) 1 x LN2 Mode header(s) 1 x Q Reset switch(es) 2 x EZ Plug connector(s) (4-pin Molex power connector) 1 x Power-on button(s) 1 x Reset button(s) 1 x LN2 Mode switch(es) 1 x Go Button(s) 1 x BIOS Switch button(s) 1 x ROG light connector(s) 1 x Clear CMOS jumper(s) |
| I/O external | 1 x PS/2 keyboard/mouse combo port(s) 2 x eSATA 3Gb/s 2 x LAN (RJ45) port(s) 8 x USB 3.0 1 x USB 2.0 (white port can be switched to ROG Connect) 1 x Optical S/PDIF out 6 x Audio jack(s) 1 x Clear CMOS button(s) 1 x ROG Connect On/ Off switch(es) 1 x RC Bluetooth switch(es)) |
| Formfactor | Extended ATX (30.5 cm x 26.9 cm) |
| BIOS | 64Mb Flash ROM, EFI AMI BIOS, PnP, DMI2.0, WfM2.0, SM BIOS 2.5, ACPI2.0a Multi-Language BIOS |
| Warranty | 3 years |
Regarding the delivery you find a lot of accessories. Next to a nice ROG sticker there also is a 3-way SLI bridge, a CrossFire Bridge, eight SATA cables, ... Therefore there really is everything you could possibly think of.
Features
| Turbo-V | Allows you to overclock the bus frequency, CPU voltage, IMC voltage and DRAM Bus voltage in Windows and takes effect in realtime without exiting and rebooting the OS. |
| Extreme Engine Digi+ | Meanwhile ASUS also provides its boards with digital power designs. Using the the right software, in this case ASUS DIGI+ VRM Utility it is not only possible to adjust voltages whilst being in Windows on can now also control impedances. |
| Lucid Virtu | All the new Z68-series motherboards from ASUS support Lucids Virtu software. Using which makes a dynamic load balancing between the integrated graphics and a discrete graphics card possible. The software in this case can for example deactivate the discrete graphics card and only use the integrated graphics from the CPU. This makes sense when applications only need 2D compute power. Another example would be a 3D application where Virtu dynamically assigns load to either both the integrated as well as discrete graphics in order to maximize performance. |
| Intel Smart Response Technology | Intels Z68 chipset allows to use a small SSD as a cache for a big hard drive in order to enhance overall system performance. Especially application and system starts are ment to benefit from this technology. Also the overall user experience should become smoother. Of course you shouldn't expect a setup which makes use of Intels Smart Response Technology to outperform a SSD as a system drive. |
| ROG Connect | ROG Connect enables real-time overclocking via a notebook. For this purpose you connect your notebook via a USB cable to the rig you'd want to overclock. Afterwards you can overclock your computer remotely. |
| Ai Suite II | Using this software it is possible to monitor onboard components in realtime. You can also adjust voltages, clock frequencies as well as fan rotation speeds whilst you're in Windows. Genereally this software allows you to comfortable tweak your system when Windows has already been loaded. |
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[pagebreak]
Layout
Already at a first glance the ASUS Maximus IV Extreme-Z looks very good with its harmonic design. As always the ROG color schema is very attractive. The combination of a black PCB with red expansion slots as well as DIMM slots is very appealing especially if this is combined with the nicely shaped cooling blocks. The layout itself is well thought and there is for example enough space to install a big CPU cooler. One reason for this is that ASUS chose an extended ATX formfactor.
ASUS equipped the Maximus IV Extreme-Z with a 8+4+3 phase current supply whereas the CPU can rely on eight phases, the memory gets its own three phases and the integrated GPU gets another four phases. Furthermore ASUS implemented a digital power design which should emit less electromagnetic radiation than its analogue counterpart. Therefore ASUS claims that the system stability can be enhanced even further, especially during extreme overclocking.
Totally you'll find four DIMM-slots on the Maximus IV Extreme-Z. Officially supported are DDR3-2200+ / 2133 / 1866 / 1600 / 1333 with up to 32 GByte capacity. Because of the eATX formfactor there is plenty of space to install even big aircoolers and they shouldn't interfere with memory.
Current converters as well as northbridge are being kept at adequate temperatures via a passive heatpipe cooling solution. The southbridge got an independant cooling block which has been nicely designed. The aluminium blocks around the CPU socket are quite big. Nevertheless their not too close to the CPU socket which means that this will not compromise the installation of a big CPU coolers.
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[pagebreak]
Anschlüsse und I/O
Totally ASUS equipped the Maximus IV Extreme-Z with eight angled SATA ports which should be enough for any or gaming system or high end PC. You'll also find practical onboard power- and reset-buttons. There also is a debug display which is very useful if you should once have issues with one of the components in your system. Very welcome for overclockers are the voltage measuring points next to the ATX plug. There are also dip switches to disable/enable the PCI-Express x16 slots. Another feater overclockers like concerns the two additional molex connectors which can be used to additionally stabilize the power supply regarding the graphics cards.
Totally you'll find eight fan header on the Maximus IV Extreme-Z which is more than enough, to provide a well equipped high-end-system with fresh air. The fanheaders are located around the CPU socket. Furthermore you'll also find one next to the DIMM slots and another at the bottom edge of the mainboard. It's also well thought that the last expansion slot is a PCI Express x1. This makes it possible to install a dual slot graphics card in the last PCI Express x16 slot and still use the connectors at the bottom edge of the board.
Looking at the external connectors directly at the back-panel ASUS equipped the Maximus IV Extreme-Z with eight USB 3.0/2.0 ports, one ROG Connect USB 2.0 port, two eSATA 3 Gbps ports, two gigabit ethernet ports, an optical out as well as an analogue audio panel and a ROG Connect On/Off switch as well as a RC Bluetooth switch. Furthermore you also get a PS/2 combo port for mouse or keyboard.
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[pagebreak]
BIOS
What you're meanwhile getting with every single board is the feature to save and afterwards reload different BIOS profiles. Once again ASUS succeeded in creating yet another very well structured BIOS. The UEFI BIOS awaits you with a graphical user interface throughout which you can navigate using a mouse. Fuerthermore the ASUS UEFI-BIOS come with very nice background graphics which make overclocking the board even nicer. The Maximus IV Extreme-Z is an ROG-series board and it therefore comes with a lot of overclocking features. There really is everything you might look for when pushing your computer to the limit.Discuss this article in the forums
[pagebreak]Test setup
Hardware |
|
| Motherboard |
- ASUS Maximus
IV Extreme-Z - ASUS P8B WS (Memory @ 1'333 MHz) - Gigabyte Z68X-UD5-B3 - Gigabyte Z68X-UD4-B3 - ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z - Gigabyte Z68X-UD7-B3 - ASUS P8Z68-V Pro - ASUS P8H67-M Evo - ASRock Fatal1ty P67 Professional - ASUS P8H67-I Deluxe - Intel DH67BL - Intel DP67BG - MSI P67A-GD65 - MSI Big Bang Marshal P67 - ASUS Sabertooth P67 - Gigabyte P67A-UD4 - ASUS Maximus IV Extreme - ASUS P8P67 WS Revolution - ASUS P8P67-M EVO - Gigabyte P67A-UD7 |
| Processor | Intel Core i5 2500K |
| Memory | 2 GB Kingston PC3 16'000 9-9-9-27 |
| Graphic card | Asus 5850 |
| Hard disk | Samsung Spinpoint F1 320 GByte |
| Power supply | bequiet! Dark Power Pro 1000Watt |
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[pagebreak]
Futuremark
3DMark11
3DMark 11 is Futuremarks latest benchmark for the entire graphical subsystem. The benchmark uses DirectX 11 and it supports all recent features which can possibly generate high load on a GPU. Therefore you find tessellation, compute shader calculations, divers lighting effects and different depth of filed animations. Following we publish values regarding the performance preset of 3DMark 11.
Total
| 3DMark 11 Total | Percent | |
| ASUS Maximus IV Extreme-Z | 3'854 | 104.67 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD5-B3 | 3'854 | 104.67 % |
| ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z | 3'853 | 104.64 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD4-B3 | 3'852 | 104.62 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD7-B3 | 3'831 | 104.05 % |
| ASUS P8B WS (Memory @ 1'333 MHz) | 3'740 | 101.58 % |
| ASUS P8Z68-V Pro | 3'719 | 101.00 % |
| ASRock Fatal1ty P67 Professional | 3'714 | 100.87 % |
| ASUS Sabertooth P67 | 3'709 | 100.73 % |
| Gigabyte P67A-UD4 | 3'709 | 100.73 % |
| Asus Maximus IV Extreme | 3'709 | 100.73 % |
| MSI P67A-GD65 | 3'707 | 100.68 % |
| ASUS P8H67-M Evo | 3'707 | 100.68 % |
| Asus P8P67-M EVO | 3'705 | 100.62 % |
| Intel mATX DH67BL | 3'704 | 100.60 % |
| ASUS P8H67-I Deluxe | 3'702 | 100.54 % |
| Gigabyte P67A-UD7 | 3'688 | 100.16 % |
| Asus P8P67 WS Revolution | 3'682 | 100.00 % |
| ASUS P8Z68-V Pro (with Lucid Virtu) | 3'678 | 99.89 % |
| MSI Big Bang Marshal P67 | 3'632 | 98.64 % |
| Intel DP67BG | 3'620 | 98.32 % |
| more is better | ||
Physic
| 3DMark 11 Physic Score | Percent | |
| Gigabyte P67A-UD7 | 6'461 | 102.65 % |
| ASUS P8Z68-V Pro | 6'421 | 102.02 % |
| ASRock Fatal1ty P67 Professional | 6'399 | 101.67 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD7-B3 | 6'391 | 101.54 % |
| ASUS P8Z68-V Pro (with Lucid Virtu) | 6'317 | 100.37 % |
| Asus Maximus IV Extreme | 6'300 | 100.10 % |
| Asus P8P67 WS Revolution | 6'294 | 100.00 % |
| Intel DP67BG | 6'274 | 99.68 % |
| ASUS Sabertooth P67 | 6'271 | 99.73 % |
| Gigabyte P67A-UD4 | 6'269 | 99.60 % |
| MSI Big Bang Marshal P67 | 6'268 | 99 59 % |
| MSI P67A-GD65 | 6'244 | 99.21 % |
| ASUS P8H67-M Evo | 6'201 | 98.52 % |
| Asus P8P67-M EVO | 6'188 | 98.32 % |
| Intel mATX DH67BL | 6'193 | 98.40 % |
| ASUS P8H67-I Deluxe | 6'142 | 97.59 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD5-B3 | 6'040 | 95.96 % |
| ASUS Maximus IV Extreme-Z | 6'038 | 95.93 % |
| ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z | 6'020 | 95.64 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD4-B3 | 6'004 | 95.39 % |
| ASUS P8B WS (Memory @ 1'333 MHz) | 5'827 | 92.58 % |
| more is better | ||
3DMark Vantage
3DMark Vantage is able to squeeze nearly everything out of a recent system. Therefore the feature liste is also pretty long: DirectX10, FP16-HDR, motion blur, parallax occlusion mapping, GPU-physics simulation and different shader effects are being used to even make recent high-end systems struggle.
Total
| 3DMark Vantage Total | Percent | |
| ASUS Maximus IV Extreme-Z | 16'542 | 106.41 % |
| ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z | 16'569 | 106.58 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD5-B3 | 16'500 | 106.14 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD4-B3 | 16'482 | 106.02 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD7-B3 | 16'438 | 105.74 % |
| ASUS P8B WS (Memory @ 1'333 MHz) | 16'348 | 105.16 % |
| ASRock Fatal1ty P67 Professional | 16'153 | 103.90 % |
| ASUS P8H67-I Deluxe | 16'107 | 103.61 % |
| ASUS P8Z68-V Pro | 16'075 | 103.40 % |
| ASUS P8H67-M Evo | 16'069 | 103.36 % |
| Intel DP67BG | 15'924 | 102.43 % |
| MSI P67A-GD65 | 15'835 | 101.86 % |
| Gigabyte P67A-UD4 | 15'776 | 101.48 % |
| Intel mATX DH67BL | 15'710 | 101.05 % |
| Asus Maximus IV Extreme | 15'760 | 101.38 % |
| ASUS Sabertooth P67 | 15'757 | 101.36 % |
| Asus P8P67-M EVO | 15'749 | 101.31 % |
| Gigabyte P67A-UD7 | 15'605 | 100.38 % |
| Asus P8P67 WS Revolution | 15'546 | 100.00 % |
| ASUS P8Z68-V Pro (with Lucid Virtu) | 15'485 | 99.61 % |
| MSI Big Bang Marshal P67 | 15'157 | 97.50 % |
| more is better | ||
CPU
| 3DMark Vantage CPU | Percent | |
| ASUS Maximus IV Extreme-Z | 17'346 | 101.16 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD4-B3 | 17'181 | 100.20 % |
| ASRock Fatal1ty P67 Professional | 17'379 | 101.35 % |
| Gigabyte P67A-UD7 | 17'354 | 101.21 % |
| ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z | 17'347 | 101.17 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD7-B3 | 17'261 | 100.66 % |
| MSI P67A-GD65 | 17'186 | 100.23 % |
| ASUS Sabertooth P67 | 17'179 | 100.19 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD5-B3 | 17'167 | 100.12 % |
| Asus Maximus IV Extreme | 17'164 | 100.10 % |
| Asus P8P67 WS Revolution | 17'147 | 100.00 % |
| ASUS P8Z68-V Pro | 17'126 | 99.88 % |
| Intel DP67BG | 17'121 | 99.85 % |
| MSI Big Bang Marshal P67 | 17'118 | 99.83 % |
| ASUS P8H67-M Evo | 17'101 | 99.73 % |
| ASUS P8H67-I Deluxe | 17'043 | 99.39 % |
| Asus P8P67-M EVO | 17'017 | 99.24 % |
| Gigabyte P67A-UD4 | 16'979 | 99.02 % |
| ASUS P8B WS (Memory @ 1'333 MHz) | 16'941 | 98.80 % |
| Intel mATX DH67BL | 16'873 | 98.40 % |
| ASUS P8Z68-V Pro (with Lucid Virtu) | 15'055 | 87.80 % |
| more is better | ||
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[pagebreak]
SiSoft Sandra 1
SiSoft Sandra is a theoretical multi purpose benchmark suite which is able to show differences in CPU architectures. We split the tests with SiSoft Sandra into two parts. Therefore on this page you'll find Arithmetic-, Multimedia- and Cryptography-benchmarks.
Arithmetic Benchmark
| SiSoft Sandra - Arithmetic Benchmark - Dhrystone | GIPS | Percent |
| ASUS P8H67-I Deluxe | 68.00 | 101.12 % |
| ASUS P8H67-M Evo | 67.83 | 100.86 % |
| Asus Maximus IV Extreme | 67.77 | 100.77 % |
| ASUS P8B WS (Memory @ 1'333 MHz) | 67.73 | 100.71 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD5-B3 | 67.70 | 100.67 % |
| ASRock Fatal1ty P67 Professional | 67.67 | 100.62 % |
| Gigabyte P67A-UD4 | 67.62 | 100.55 % |
| Intel DP67BG | 67.60 | 100.52 % |
| MSI Big Bang Marshal P67 | 67.59 | 100.51 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD7-B3 | 67.58 | 100.49 % |
| ASUS Maximus IV Extreme-Z | 67.56 | 100.46 % |
| ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z | 67.39 | 100.21 % |
| Asus P8P67-M EVO | 67.37 | 100.18 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD4-B3 | 67.26 | 100.01 % |
| Intel mATX DH67BL | 67.25 | 100.00 % |
| Asus P8P67 WS Revolution | 67.25 | 100.00 % |
| ASUS P8Z68-V Pro | 67.19 | 99.91 % |
| ASUS Sabertooth P67 | 67.13 | 99.82 % |
| MSI P67A-GD65 | 67.00 | 99.63 % |
| Gigabyte P67A-UD7 | 67.00 | 99.63 % |
| more is better | ||
| SiSoft Sandra - Arithmetic Benchmark - Whetstone | GFLOPS | Percent |
| ASUS Maximus IV Extreme-Z | 49.00 | 100.51 % |
| ASUS P8B WS (Memory @ 1'333 MHz) | 49.00 | 100.51 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD5-B3 | 49.00 | 100.51 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD4-B3 | 49.00 | 100.51 % |
| ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z | 49.00 | 100.51 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD7-B3 | 49.00 | 100.51 % |
| ASUS Sabertooth P67 | 49.00 | 100.51 % |
| Asus P8P67-M EVO | 49.00 | 100.51 % |
| ASRock Fatal1ty P67 Professional | 48.81 | 100.12 % |
| Gigabyte P67A-UD4 | 48.80 | 100.10 % |
| MSI P67A-GD65 | 48.80 | 100.10 % |
| Gigabyte P67A-UD7 | 48.78 | 100.06 % |
| ASUS P8Z68-V Pro | 48.76 | 100.02 % |
| Asus P8P67 WS Revolution | 48.75 | 100.00 % |
| Intel mATX DH67BL | 48.71 | 99.92 % |
| Intel DP67BG | 48.70 | 99.90 % |
| MSI Big Bang Marshal P67 | 48.69 | 99.88 % |
| ASUS P8H67-M Evo | 48.43 | 99.34 % |
| Asus Maximus IV Extreme | 47.77 | 97.99 % |
| ASUS P8H67-I Deluxe | 47.52 | 97.48 % |
| more is better | ||
Multimedia
| SiSoft Sandra - Multimedia - Integer | MPixels/sec | Percent |
| ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z | 120.84 | 100.34 % |
| ASUS Maximus IV Extreme-Z | 120.73 | 100.25 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD5-B3 | 120.70 | 100.22 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD4-B3 | 120.68 | 100.21 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD7-B3 | 120.62 | 100.16 % |
| Asus P8P67 WS Revolution | 120.43 | 100.00 % |
| ASUS P8Z68-V Pro | 120.41 | 99.98 % |
| ASRock Fatal1ty P67 Professional | 120.41 | 99.98 % |
| ASUS P8B WS (Memory @ 1'333 MHz) | 120.36 | 99.94 % |
| ASUS Sabertooth P67 | 120.34 | 99.93 % |
| Asus P8P67-M EVO | 120.34 | 99.93 % |
| Asus Maximus IV Extreme | 120.33 | 99.92 % |
| ASUS P8H67-I Deluxe | 120.30 | 99.89 % |
| Intel DP67BG | 120.23 | 99.83 % |
| MSI P67A-GD65 | 120.19 | 99.80 % |
| ASUS P8H67-M Evo | 120.10 | 99.73 % |
| Intel mATX DH67BL | 120.00 | 99.64 % |
| MSI Big Bang Marshal P67 | 120.00 | 99.64 % |
| Gigabyte P67A-UD4 | 120.00 | 99.64 % |
| Gigabyte P67A-UD7 | 120.00 | 99.64 % |
| more is better | ||
| SiSoft Sandra - Multimedia - floating point | MPixels/sec | Percent |
| ASUS Maximus IV Extreme-Z | 71.43 | 100.31 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD5-B3 | 71.37 | 100.22 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD4-B3 | 71.37 | 100.22 % |
| Asus P8P67 WS Revolution | 71.21 | 100.00 % |
| ASUS P8B WS (Memory @ 1'333 MHz) | 71.20 | 99.99 % |
| ASUS P8H67-M Evo | 71.20 | 99.99 % |
| ASRock Fatal1ty P67 Professional | 71.20 | 99.99 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD7-B3 | 71.19 | 99.97 % |
| ASUS P8H67-I Deluxe | 71.19 | 99.97 % |
| Asus Maximus IV Extreme | 71.18 | 99.96 % |
| ASUS Sabertooth P67 | 71.17 | 99.94 % |
| Asus P8P67-M EVO | 71.16 | 99.93 % |
| Intel mATX DH67BL | 71.00 | 99.71 % |
| MSI P67A-GD65 | 71.00 | 99.71 % |
| Gigabyte P67A-UD4 | 71.00 | 99.71 % |
| Gigabyte P67A-UD7 | 71.00 | 99.71 % |
| MSI Big Bang Marshal P67 | 70.87 | 99.52 % |
| ASUS P8Z68-V Pro | 70.65 | 99.21 % |
| Intel DP67BG | 70.57 | 99.10 % |
| ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z | 69.83 | 98.06 % |
| more is better | ||
Crytography
| SiSoft Sandra - Crytography - AES 256 | GB/sec | Percent |
| ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z | 7.39 | 117.30 % |
| Asus Maximus IV Extreme | 7.38 | 117.14 % |
| Gigabyte P67A-UD7 | 7.30 | 115.87 % |
| ASUS Maximus IV Extreme-Z | 7.00 | 111.11 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD5-B3 | 7.00 | 111.11 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD4-B3 | 7.00 | 111.11 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD7-B3 | 7.00 | 111.11 % |
| Intel DP67BG | 7.00 | 111.11 % |
| ASUS P8Z68-V Pro | 6.87 | 109.05 % |
| ASRock Fatal1ty P67 Professional | 6.85 | 108.73 % |
| Gigabyte P67A-UD4 | 6.30 | 100.00 % |
| Asus P8P67 WS Revolution | 6.30 | 100.00 % |
| ASUS Sabertooth P67 | 6.30 | 100.00 % |
| MSI Big Bang Marshal P67 | 6.26 | 99.37 % |
| MSI P67A-GD65 | 6.25 | 99.21 % |
| Asus P8P67-M EVO | 6.00 | 95.24 % |
| ASUS P8H67-I Deluxe | 5.78 | 91.75 % |
| ASUS P8B WS (Memory @ 1'333 MHz) | 5.77 | 91.59 % |
| Intel mATX DH67BL | 5.74 | 91.11 % |
| ASUS P8H67-M Evo | 5.70 | 90.48 % |
| more is better | ||
| SiSoft Sandra - Crytography - SHA 256 | MB/sec | Percent |
| ASUS Maximus IV Extreme-Z | 552 | 101.85 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD5-B3 | 552 | 101.85 % |
| ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z | 552 | 101.85 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD4-B3 | 551 | 101.66 % |
| ASUS P8Z68-V Pro | 550 | 101.48 % |
| ASUS Sabertooth P67 | 550 | 101.48 % |
| Asus Maximus IV Extreme | 550 | 101.48 % |
| Asus P8P67-M EVO | 550 | 101.48 % |
| ASUS P8H67-M Evo | 550 | 101.48 % |
| ASRock Fatal1ty P67 Professional | 550 | 101.48 % |
| ASUS P8B WS (Memory @ 1'333 MHz) | 549 | 101.29 % |
| MSI P67A-GD65 | 549 | 101.29 % |
| Intel DP67BG | 549 | 101.29 % |
| MSI Big Bang Marshal P67 | 549 | 101.29 % |
| Gigabyte P67A-UD4 | 549 | 101.29 % |
| Gigabyte P67A-UD7 | 549 | 101.29 % |
| Intel mATX DH67BL | 548 | 101.11 % |
| Asus P8P67 WS Revolution | 542 | 100.00 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD7-B3 | 530 | 97.79 % |
| ASUS P8H67-I Deluxe | 510 | 94.10 % |
| more is better | ||
Discuss this article in the forums
[pagebreak]
SiSoft Sandra 2
At this point we deliver the values regarding Memory Bandwidth, Memory Latency as well as Memory and Cache Access.
Memory bandwidth
| SiSoft Sandra - Memory bandwidth - Integer | GB/sec | Percent |
| ASUS Maximus IV Extreme-Z | 21.38 | 110.89 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD5-B3 | 21.53 | 111.67 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD4-B3 | 21.52 | 111.62 % |
| ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z | 21.30 | 110.48 % |
| Asus Maximus IV Extreme | 22.68 | 117.63 % |
| Gigabyte P67A-UD7 | 22.40 | 116.18 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD7-B3 | 21.54 | 111.72 % |
| Intel DP67BG | 21.46 | 111.31 % |
| ASUS P8Z68-V Pro | 21.27 | 110.32 % |
| ASRock Fatal1ty P67 Professional | 21.13 | 109.60 % |
| ASUS Sabertooth P67 | 19.36 | 100.41 % |
| Gigabyte P67A-UD4 | 19.30 | 100.10 % |
| Asus P8P67 WS Revolution | 19.28 | 100.00 % |
| MSI P67A-GD65 | 19.22 | 99.69 % |
| MSI Big Bang Marshal P67 | 19.16 | 99.38 % |
| Asus P8P67-M EVO | 18.84 | 97.72 % |
| ASUS P8H67-I Deluxe | 18.00 | 93.36 % |
| ASUS P8B WS (Memory @ 1'333 MHz) | 17.82 | 92.43 % |
| Intel mATX DH67BL | 17.75 | 92.06 % |
| ASUS P8H67-M Evo | 17.70 | 91.80 % |
| more is better | ||
| SiSoft Sandra - Memory bandwidth - floating point | GB/sec | Percent |
| ASUS Maximus IV Extreme-Z | 21.38 | 111.01 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD5-B3 | 21.53 | 111.79 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD4-B3 | 21.53 | 111.79 % |
| ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z | 21.35 | 110.85 % |
| Asus Maximus IV Extreme | 22.69 | 117.81 % |
| Gigabyte P67A-UD7 | 22.40 | 116.30 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD7-B3 | 21.53 | 111.79 % |
| Intel DP67BG | 21.47 | 111.47 % |
| ASUS P8Z68-V Pro | 21.25 | 110.33 % |
| ASRock Fatal1ty P67 Professional | 21.14 | 109.76 % |
| Gigabyte P67A-UD4 | 19.36 | 100.52 % |
| ASUS Sabertooth P67 | 19.35 | 100.47 % |
| Asus P8P67 WS Revolution | 19.26 | 100.00 % |
| MSI P67A-GD65 | 19.22 | 99.79 % |
| MSI Big Bang Marshal P67 | 19.20 | 99.69 % |
| Asus P8P67-M EVO | 18.83 | 97.77 % |
| ASUS P8B WS (Memory @ 1'333 MHz) | 17.82 | 92.52 % |
| Intel mATX DH67BL | 17.75 | 92.16 % |
| ASUS P8H67-I Deluxe | 18.00 | 93.46 % |
| ASUS P8H67-M Evo | 17.72 | 92.00 % |
| more is better | ||
Memory latency
| SiSoft Sandra - Memory latency | ns | Percent |
| Asus Maximus IV Extreme | 59.0 | 90.91 % |
| Gigabyte P67A-UD7 | 59.3 | 91.37 % |
| ASRock Fatal1ty P67 Professional | 63.5 | 97.84 % |
| ASUS Maximus IV Extreme-Z | 64.5 | 99.38 % |
| ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z | 64.5 | 99.38 % |
| Intel DP67BG | 64.5 | 99.38 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD7-B3 | 64.8 | 99.85 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD5-B3 | 64.7 | 99.69 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD4-B3 | 64.7 | 99.69 % |
| ASUS P8Z68-V Pro | 64.7 | 99.69 % |
| Gigabyte P67A-UD4 | 64.9 | 100.00 % |
| Asus P8P67 WS Revolution | 64.9 | 100.00 % |
| ASUS Sabertooth P67 | 65.1 | 100.31 % |
| MSI P67A-GD65 | 65.2 | 100.46 % |
| MSI Big Bang Marshal P67 | 65.3 | 100.62 % |
| Asus P8P67-M EVO | 68.9 | 106.16 % |
| ASUS P8H67-I Deluxe | 70.8 | 109.09 % |
| ASUS P8B WS (Memory @ 1'333 MHz) | 73.0 | 112.48 % |
| ASUS P8H67-M Evo | 73.0 | 112.48 % |
| Intel mATX DH67BL | 73.3 | 112.94 % |
| less is better | ||
Memory and cache access
| SiSoft Sandra - Memory and cache access | GB/sec | Percent |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD5-B3 | 102.51 | 107.08 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD4-B3 | 103.13 | 107.73 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD7-B3 | 102.66 | 107.24 % |
| Intel DP67BG | 102.44 | 107.01 % |
| ASUS Maximus IV Extreme-Z | 102.33 | 106.89 % |
| Asus Maximus IV Extreme | 102.20 | 106.76 % |
| ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z | 101.83 | 106.37 % |
| ASUS P8Z68-V Pro | 101.65 | 106.18 % |
| ASRock Fatal1ty P67 Professional | 101.60 | 106.13 % |
| Gigabyte P67A-UD7 | 101.50 | 106.03 % |
| Gigabyte P67A-UD4 | 96.00 | 100.28 % |
| ASUS P8H67-M Evo | 96.64 | 100.95 % |
| ASUS Sabertooth P67 | 96.00 | 100.28 % |
| Asus P8P67 WS Revolution | 95.73 | 100.00 % |
| MSI P67A-GD65 | 95.62 | 99.89 % |
| ASUS P8B WS (Memory @ 1'333 MHz) | 95.00 | 99.24 % |
| ASUS P8H67-I Deluxe | 95.00 | 99.24 % |
| MSI Big Bang Marshal P67 | 95.31 | 99.56 % |
| Intel mATX DH67BL | 94.45 | 98.66 % |
| Asus P8P67-M EVO | 93.45 | 97.62% |
| more is better | ||
Discuss this article in the forums
[pagebreak]
Super Pi 1M - 32M / wPrime 32M
Meanwhile Super Pi even in its latest version has become pretty old. Never the less it is able to show scaling to the clock speed nicely.
Super Pi 1M
| Super Pi 1.5 XS - 1M | sec | Percent |
| ASUS Maximus IV Extreme-Z | 11.294 | 99.73 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD5-B3 | 11.295 | 99.74 % |
| ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z | 11.310 | 99.87 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD4-B3 | 11.325 | 100.00 % |
| Asus P8P67 WS Revolution | 11.325 | 100.00 % |
| Asus Maximus IV Extreme | 11.341 | 100.14 % |
| ASUS P8Z68-V Pro | 11.341 | 100.14 % |
| ASUS P8H67-I Deluxe | 11.341 | 100.14 % |
| ASRock Fatal1ty P67 Professional | 11.347 | 100.19 % |
| ASUS P8H67-M Evo | 11.356 | 100.27 % |
| MSI Big Bang Marshal P67 | 11.356 | 100.27 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD7-B3 | 11.357 | 100.28 % |
| Asus P8P67-M EVO | 11.357 | 100.28 % |
| ASUS P8B WS (Memory @ 1'333 MHz) | 11.372 | 100.42 % |
| ASUS Sabertooth P67 | 11.372 | 100.42 % |
| Intel DP67BG | 11.373 | 100.42 % |
| MSI P67A-GD65 | 11.404 | 100.70 % |
| Intel mATX DH67BL | 11.404 | 100.70 % |
| Gigabyte P67A-UD4 | 11.435 | 100.97 % |
| Gigabyte P67A-UD7 | 11.466 | 101.25 % |
| less is better | ||
Super Pi 32M
| Super Pi 1.5 XS - 32M | sec | Percent |
| Asus Maximus IV Extreme | 606.295 | 97.40 % |
| ASRock Fatal1ty P67 Professional | 607.120 | 97.53 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD4-B3 | 608.978 | 97.83 % |
| ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z | 609.976 | 97.99 % |
| Gigabyte P67A-UD7 | 609.992 | 97.99 % |
| ASUS Maximus IV Extreme-Z | 610.788 | 98.12 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD7-B3 | 610.959 | 98.15 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD5-B3 | 611.115 | 98.18 % |
| ASUS P8Z68-V Pro | 613.299 | 98.53 % |
| Intel DP67BG | 615.530 | 98.89 % |
| ASUS P8H67-I Deluxe | 623.877 | 98.88 % |
| Gigabyte P67A-UD4 | 620.803 | 99.73 % |
| ASUS P8H67-M Evo | 620.928 | 99.75 % |
| ASUS Sabertooth P67 | 621.552 | 99.85 % |
| MSI P67A-GD65 | 621.942 | 99.91 % |
| Asus P8P67 WS Revolution | 622.473 | 100.00 % |
| Intel mATX DH67BL | 623.002 | 100.08 % |
| Asus P8P67-M EVO | 623.143 | 100.11 % |
| ASUS P8B WS (Memory @ 1'333 MHz) | 623.252 | 100.13 % |
| MSI Big Bang Marshal P67 | 623.549 | 100.17 % |
| less is better | ||
wPrime 32M
wPrime is based on a multithreaded algorithm to calculate the square root to up to 32 billion digits. Therefore it is possible to put 100 percent load on every core or thread and to see differences between architectures.
| wPrime - 32M | sec | Percent |
| Asus P8P67 WS Revolution | 9.263 | 100.00 % |
| Asus Maximus IV Extreme | 9.264 | 100.01 % |
| ASUS Sabertooth P67 | 9.268 | 100.05 % |
| Gigabyte P67A-UD4 | 9.280 | 100.18 % |
| MSI P67A-GD65 | 9.298 | 100.38 % |
| Asus P8P67-M EVO | 9.298 | 100.38 % |
| Gigabyte P67A-UD7 | 9.314 | 100.55 % |
| MSI Big Bang Marshal P67 | 9.469 | 102.22 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD7-B3 | 9.595 | 103.58 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD5-B3 | 9.642 | 104.09 % |
| Intel DP67BG | 9.657 | 104.25 % |
| ASUS P8Z68-V Pro | 9.658 | 104.26 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD4-B3 | 9.733 | 105.07 % |
| ASUS P8H67-M Evo | 9.748 | 105.24 % |
| ASUS P8B WS (Memory @ 1'333 MHz) | 9.766 | 105.43 % |
| ASUS P8H67-I Deluxe | 9.779 | 105.57 % |
| ASRock Fatal1ty P67 Professional | 9.812 | 105.93 % |
| ASUS Maximus IV Extreme-Z | 9.886 | 106.73 % |
| Intel mATX DH67BL | 9.953 | 107.45 % |
| ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z | 9.966 | 107.59 % |
| less is better | ||
Discuss this article in the forums
[pagebreak]
Games
Crysis 800 x 600, low details
Crysis is still one of the games which has very high system requirements. Therefore developer Crytek implemented Direct3D-10-API, High-Dynamic-Range-Rendering, Parallax Occlusion Mapping, Soft Shadows, Motion Blur, Depth of Field as well as Soft Particles. We test Crysis by using DirectX9 to show CPU-sacaling especially which low resolutions. If we look at the high resolutions we are able to spot that the CPUs influence compared to the graphic card becomes much less important.
| Crysis DirectX9 (800 x 600 low details) | fps | Percent |
| Gigabyte P67A-UD7 | 90.16 | 104.04 % |
| Asus Maximus IV Extreme | 90.16 | 104.04 % |
| MSI Big Bang Marshal P67 | 89.80 | 103.62 % |
| MSI P67A-GD65 | 89.75 | 103.57 % |
| Asus P8P67-M EVO | 89.05 | 102.76 % |
| ASUS Sabertooth P67 | 89.01 | 102.71 % |
| Asus P8P67 WS Revolution | 86.66 | 100.00 % |
| Gigabyte P67A-UD4 | 86.61 | 99.94 % |
| ASRock Fatal1ty P67 Professional | 84.64 | 97.67 % |
| ASUS P8H67-I Deluxe | 84.64 | 97.67 % |
| ASUS P8Z68-V Pro | 84.26 | 97.23 % |
| ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z | 84.13 | 97.08 % |
| ASUS Maximus IV Extreme-Z | 84.05 | 96.99 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD5-B3 | 83.88 | 96.79 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD4-B3 | 83.43 | 96.27 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD7-B3 | 83.42 | 96.26 % |
| Intel DP67BG | 83.27 | 96.09 % |
| ASUS P8H67-M Evo | 81.77 | 94.36 % |
| Intel mATX DH67BL | 81.22 | 93.72 % |
| ASUS P8B WS (Memory @ 1'333 MHz) | 80.55 | 92.95 % |
| ASUS P8Z68-V Pro (with Lucid Virtu) | 78.94 | 91.09 % |
| more is better | ||
Resident Evil 800 x 600, low details
Resident Evil uses nearly every modern rendering technology: HDR, Hemisphere Lighting, Soft Shadows, Soft Particles, Field- und Motion-Blur oder auch Alpha to Coverage and static Ambient Occlusion. Furthermore Resident Evil 5 has been optimized for multicore architectures and already comes DirectX11 ready. By using the DirectX9 benchmark we can again show CPU-scaling with low resolutions and the compared to the CPU overproportional influence of the graphics card at high resolutions.
| Resident Evil DirectX9 (800 x 600 low details) | fps | Percent |
| ASUS Maximus IV Extreme-Z | 175.5 | 107.47 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD7-B3 | 175.1 | 107.23 % |
| ASRock Fatal1ty P67 Professional | 174.8 | 107.04 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD5-B3 | 174.5 | 106.86 % |
| Asus Maximus IV Extreme | 174.5 | 106.86 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD4-B3 | 174.4 | 106.80 % |
| ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z | 174.1 | 106.61 % |
| ASUS P8Z68-V Pro | 173.4 | 106.18 % |
| Intel DP67BG | 172.6 | 105.70 % |
| Gigabyte P67A-UD7 | 171.6 | 105.08 % |
| Gigabyte P67A-UD4 | 169.5 | 103.80 % |
| ASUS P8H67-I Deluxe | 169.4 | 103.74 % |
| Intel mATX DH67BL | 167.3 | 102.45 % |
| MSI Big Bang Marshal P67 | 169.4 | 103.74 % |
| ASUS Sabertooth P67 | 169.3 | 103.67 % |
| MSI P67A-GD65 | 168.5 | 103.18 % |
| ASUS P8B WS (Memory @ 1'333 MHz) | 167.4 | 102.51 % |
| ASUS P8Z68-V Pro (with Lucid Virtu) | 167.0 | 102.27 % |
| ASUS P8H67-M Evo | 166.7 | 102.08 % |
| Asus P8P67-M EVO | 166.5 | 101.96 % |
| Asus P8P67 WS Revolution | 163.3 | 100.00 % |
| more is better | ||
Street Fighter 4 800 x 600, low details
Street Fighter 4 comes with an extra benchmark version which makes testing you system childrens play. At low resolutions the system requirements are pretty low and we can see CPU-scaling in the results. At high resolution the graphic card becomes more important and the CPUs clock speed has less influence on the fps.
| Street Fighter 4 (800 x 600 low details) | fps | Percent |
| Asus Maximus IV Extreme | 573.97 | 100.73 % |
| Asus P8P67 WS Revolution | 569.79 | 100.00 % |
| Gigabyte P67A-UD7 | 569.21 | 99.90 % |
| ASUS Sabertooth P67 | 568.30 | 99.74 % |
| MSI P67A-GD65 | 568.25 | 99.73 % |
| Gigabyte P67A-UD4 | 568.00 | 99.69 % |
| Asus P8P67-M EVO | 567.88 | 99.66 % |
| MSI Big Bang Marshal P67 | 563.66 | 98.92 % |
| ASRock Fatal1ty P67 Professional | 550.85 | 96.68 % |
| ASUS P8Z68-V Pro | 547.15 | 96.03 % |
| ASUS P8H67-M Evo | 543.94 | 95.46 % |
| ASUS P8H67-I Deluxe | 543.77 | 95.43 % |
| Intel mATX DH67BL | 541.17 | 94.98 % |
| Intel DP67BG | 538.99 | 94.59 % |
| ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z | 529.11 | 92.86 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD5-B3 | 523.83 | 91.93 % |
| ASUS Maximus IV Extreme-Z | 523.85 | 91.94 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD4-B3 | 523.70 | 91.91 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD7-B3 | 514.97 | 90.38 % |
| ASUS P8B WS (Memory @ 1'333 MHz) | 514.94 | 90.37 % |
| ASUS P8Z68-V Pro (with Lucid Virtu, only integrated graphics active) | 163.34 | 28.67 % |
| more is better | ||
Discuss this article in the forums
[pagebreak]
Conclusion
| Allgemein | + | - | |
| At a first glance ASUS leaves a very
good impression with its Maximus IV Extreme-Z. Once more we very much
liked the
ROG color scheme. Every time ASUS decides to create a ROG product
it's going to be beautiful. Furthermore the board is also very well
equipped. There are lots of USB ports and it also comes with four PCI-Express x16 slots.
We think it's a reasonable desicision to put all the components the
Extreme-Z comes with onto an extended ATX board. Everything else would
have led to a mess regarding the layout. What we didn't like it the fact that the board sometimes refuses to find the USB keyboard although it's connected. This is an issue which should be resolved as quickly as possible. |
- Design - eATX Overclocking Board - 4 x PCI-Express x16 |
- USB keyboard compatibility issues | |
| Layout | + | - | |
| Generally the ASUS P8B WS's Layout has been well thought. Once more practical are the angled SATA connectors as well as the power- and reset-buttons which can be found on an additional diagnosis card. Furthermore it is possible to install a total of four graphics cards. Unfortunately one can only build a CrossFire multi GPU setup and therefore your limited to applications which cause high open GL loads. A closer look at the area around the CPU socket reveals that there is plenty of space to install any big CPU cooler. The fact that the cooling blocks are much smaller makes it easy to install a CPU cooler too. the placement of the third PCI-Express slot isn't perfect. We would have love to see it as the second last expansion sloat onboard but in with the P8B WS it is the last and therefore when a dual slot video card is being installed in the last PCI-Express x16 slot it will cover the connectors at the bottom edge of the board. Unfortunately as we already phrased out in the text above there are some issues if you focus on the CPU socket. The aluminium blocks which keep the current converters cool can cause compatibility problems with high end CPU coolers. Another thing is the DIMM slots. They are also very close to the socket. In this case memory which is equipped with big heatspreaders can also collide with big aircoolers. | - Angled SATA connectors - Power/Reset-Button onboard - Debug display - PCI-Express x16 not last expansion slot |
||
| Performance | + | - | |
| This board really was able to convice regarding performance. Therefore in a lot of benchmarks it's been able to score very well. In SuperPi, SiSoft Sandra as well as 3DMark Vantage you often find this thing leading our charts. Only WPrime and 3DMark 11 CPU could have really been better. | - SiSoft Sandra - 3DMark - SuperPi |
- wPrime | |
| BIOS | + | - | |
| Focussing only on the settings, overclocking definitely is home territory for the Maximus IV Extreme-Z. Furthermore we also reached the maximum clock speed of our test CPU, which is 5'200 MHz. Looking at the Maximus IV Extreme-Z's EFI BIOS we see that it's been well structured. You'll quickly find all the different settings and it also resets itself if you should set values that do not work. Generally the ASUS EFI-BIOS are very nice and even the graphics are stunning. | - Well structured BIOS - UEFI-BIOS | ||
| Recommendation | + | - | |
| If you want to build a high end comptuer or gaming system then the ASUS Maximus IV Extreme-Z most definitely will be a good choice. Sure for overclocking this board is equally good. The price point of this board with CHF 352.- (est. EUR 293.-) is quite steep. | -
High-End - Gaming - Overclocking |
- Desktop-PC | |
| Rating | |||
| We give the ASUS Maximus IV Extreme-Z four out of five stars. We really didn't like that sometimes USB keyboards are simply not reconized. | |||
Discuss this article in the forums
Author: m.buechel@ocaholic.ch Copy edited and translated: m.buechel@ocaholic.ch c.ney@ocaholic.ch