With the Extreme7 Gen3, ASRock has a new high end motherboard in its product portfolio. Therefore you get a lot of features and a very nice looking design for your money. In the following review we will show if this board is able to convince. 
The Extreme7 Gen3 is ASRocks high end motherboard regarding Intels Z68 chipset. Therefore we're really curious what they've done from the layout and design perspective.
Discuss this article in the forums
[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, 2133 OC / 1866 OC / 1600 / 1333 Non-ECC,Un-buffered |
| Multi-GPU |
NVIDIA 3-Way SLI Technology AMD CrossFireX Technology LucidLogix Virtu Technology |
| Slots | 1 x PCIe 3.0 x16 4 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (dual x16/x16, triple x16/x8/x  1 x PCIe 2.0 x1 1 x PCI |
| Audio | Realtek ALC892, 7.1 Channel |
| Storage | 2 x SATA 6.0 Gb/s Intel (RAID 0, 1, 5, 10) 4 x SATA 6.0 Gb/s ASM1061 4 x SATA 3.0 Gb/s Intel (RAID 0, 1, 5, 10) 2 x eSATA 3.0 Gb/s |
| I/O internal / Connectors | 1 x IR header 1 x CIR header 1 x COM port header 1 x HDMI_SPDIF header 1 x IEEE 1394 header 1 x Power LED header CPU/Chassis/Power FAN connector 24 pin ATX power connector 8 pin 12V power connector SLI/CrossFire power connector Front panel audio connector 4 x USB 2.0 headers (support 8 USB 2.0 ports) 1 x USB 3.0 header (supports 2 USB 3.0 ports) 1 x Dr. Debug with LED |
| I/O external | 1 x D-Sub Port 1 x DVI-D Port 1 x HDMI Port 1 x DisplayPort 1 x Optical SPDIF Out Port 2 x Ready-to-Use USB 2.0 Ports 1 x eSATA3 Connector 4 x Ready-to-Use USB 3.0 Ports 2 x RJ-45 LAN Ports with LED (ACT/LINK LED and SPEED LED) 1 x IEEE 1394 Port 1 x Clear CMOS Switch with LED HD Audio Jack: Rear Speaker / Central / Bass / Line in / Front Speaker / Microphone |
| Formfactor | ATX (30.5 cm x 24.4 cm) |
| BIOS | 64Mb Flash ROM, EFI AMI BIOS GUI |
| Warranty | 3 years |
Regarding the delivery you find a lot of accessories. Next numerous manuals there also is a 3-way SLI bridge, a CrossFire Bridge, SATA cables, ... There really is everything you could possibly need.
Features
| PCI-Express 3.0 | The ASRock Extreme7 Gen3 already has PCI-Express 3.0 Support onboard. Therefore from this point of view the board is ready for Intels upcoming Ivy Bridge. Sandy Bridge doesn't support PCI-e 3.0. You'll have to use PCI-Express 2.0 in this case. |
| NVIDIA NF200 | NVIDIAs NF200 chip provides additional PCI-Express lanes. In this case it is for example possible to run a SLI/CrosFire setup with x16/x16. |
| Digital Power Design | The ASRock Extreme 7 comes with a digital power design onboard. This enables a more efficient current supply as well as a minimum of electromagnetic radiation. |
| Lucid Virtu | Lucids Virtu software allows 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. |
Discuss this article in the forums
[pagebreak]
Layout
Already at a first glance the ASRock Extreme7 Gen3 looks very good with its harmonic design. ASRock decided to use black as a basic color and combined it with some elements in silver and grey. Especially the cooling blocks look very nice and appealing. The layout in general is well thought. Because of the big cooling blocks which keep the mosfets at adequate temperatures there is still enough space to finally install a big CPU cooler but it might get tight.
ASRock equipped the Extreme7 Gen3 with a 8+4 phase current supply whereas the CPU can rely on eight phases and the memory gets an additional four phases. Furthermore ASRock implemented a digital power design which should emit less electromagnetic radiation than its analogue counterpart. Therefore ASRock claims that the system stability can be enhanced even further, especially during extreme overclocking.
Totally you'll find four DIMM-slots on the Extreme7 Gen3. Officially supported are DDR3- 2133 (OC) / 1866 (OC) / 1600 / 1333 with up to 32 GByte capacity. 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 as well as the other cooling blocks. 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.
Discuss this article in the forums
[pagebreak]
Anschlüsse und I/O
Totally ASRock equipped the Extreme7 Gen3 with ten angled SATA ports which should be enough for any 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 have issues with one of the components in your system. A feature overclockers will like, concerns the additional molex connectors which can be used to additionally stabilize the power supply for the graphics cards.
Totally you'll find six fan header on the Extreme7 Gen3 which is more than enough, to provide a well equipped high-end-system with fresh air. The fanheaders are located around the CPU socket as well as at the bottom edge of the board. The fact that ASRock equipped the Extreme7 Gen3 with a total of five PCI Express x16 slots made it very likely that one of those slots might be placed at the bottom edge of the board. At the end of the day this really is the case. Therefore, if you place a dual slot graphics card in the last expansion slot this will cover the connectors at the bottom edge of the board.
Looking at the external connectors directly at the back-panel ASRock equipped the Extreme7 Gen3 with four USB 3.0/2.0 ports, two USB 2.0 port, one eSATA 3 Gbps ports, two gigabit ethernet ports, one VGA connector, one DVI port, a HDMI port, a display port and and analogue audio panel with an optical out.
Discuss this article in the forums
[pagebreak]
BIOS
What you're meanwhile getting with every single board is the feature to save and afterwards reload different BIOS profiles. Once again ASRock succeeded in creating yet another well structured BIOS. The UEFI BIOS awaits you with a graphical user interface, throughout which you can navigate using your mouse. Furthermore the ASUS UEFI-BIOS come with very nice background graphics which makes overclocking the board even nicer. The Extreme7 Gen3 is a high end motherboard and it therefore also comes with a lot of overclocking features.
Discuss this article in the forums
[pagebreak]Test setup
Hardware |
|
| Motherboard |
- ASRock
Extreme7 Gen3 - 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 |
Discuss this article in the forums
[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 | |
| ASRock Extreme7 Gen3 | 3'854 | 104.67 % |
| 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 % |
| ASRock Extreme7 Gen3 | 6'119 | 97.22 % |
| 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 | |
| ASRock Extreme7 Gen3 | 16'529 | 106.32 % |
| 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 % |
| ASRock Fatal1ty P67 Professional | 17'379 | 101.35 % |
| Gigabyte P67A-UD7 | 17'354 | 101.21 % |
| ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z | 17'347 | 101.17 % |
| ASRock Extreme7 Gen3 | 17'279 | 100.77 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD7-B3 | 17'261 | 100.66 % |
| MSI P67A-GD65 | 17'186 | 100.23 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD4-B3 | 17'181 | 100.20 % |
| 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 | ||
Discuss this article in the forums
[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 |
| ASRock Extreme7 Gen3 | 68.06 | 101.20 % |
| 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 |
| ASRock Extreme7 Gen3 | 49.08 | 100.68 % |
| 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 |
| ASRock Extreme7 Gen3 | 120.88 | 100.37 % |
| 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 |
| ASRock Extreme7 Gen3 | 71.48 | 100.38 % |
| 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 |
| ASRock Extreme7 Gen3 | 7.59 | 120.48 % |
| 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 |
| ASRock Extreme7 Gen3 | 553 | 102.03 % |
| 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 |
| ASRock Extreme7 Gen3 | 21.55 | 111.77 % |
| 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 |
| ASRock Extreme7 Gen3 | 21.54 | 111.84 % |
| 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 Extreme7 Gen3 | 61.2 | 94.30 % |
| 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 |
| ASRock Extreme7 Gen3 | 103.91 | 108.54 % |
| 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 |
| ASRock Extreme7 Gen3 | 11.288 | 99.67 % |
| 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 |
| ASRock Extreme7 Gen3 | 604.217 | 97.07 % |
| 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 Extreme7 Gen3 | 9.780 | 105.58 % |
| 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 Extreme7 Gen3 | 84.95 | 98.27 % |
| 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 |
| ASRock Extreme7 Gen3 | 176.7 | 108.21 % |
| 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 % |
| ASRock Extreme7 Gen3 | 523.18 | 91.82 % |
| 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]
Overclocking
| CPU-z | MHz | Percent |
| ASRock Extreme7 Gen3 | 5'200 | 100.00 % |
| ASUS Maximus IV Extreme-Z | 5'200 | 100.00 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD5-B3 | 5'200 | 100.00 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD4-B3 | 5'200 | 100.00 % |
| ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z | 5'200 | 100.00 % |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD7-B3 | 5'200 | 100.00 % |
| ASUS P8Z68-V Pro | 5'200 | 100.00 % |
| ASUS Maximus IV Extreme | 5'200 | 100.00 % |
| Gigabyte P67A-UD7 | 5'200 | 100.00 % |
| Gigabyte P67A-UD4 | 5'200 | 100.00 % |
| ASUS Sabertooth P67 | 5'200 | 100.00 % |
| MSI Big Bang Marshal P67 | 5'200 | 100.00 % |
| MSI P67A-GD65 | 5'200 | 100.00 % |
| Intel DP67BG | 5'200 | 100.00 % |
| ASRock Fatal1ty P67 Professional | 4'600 | 88.46 % |
| more is better | ||
| Super Pi 1M | sec |
| ASRock Extreme7 Gen3 | 7.178 |
| ASUS Maximus IV Extreme-Z | 7.191 |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD5-B3 | 7.195 |
| ASUS Maximus IV Extreme | 7.207 |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD4-B3 | 7.214 |
| ASUS P8Z68-V Pro | 7.216 |
| ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z | 7.222 |
| ASUS Sabertooth P67 | 7.241 |
| MSI Big Bang Marshal P67 | 7.252 |
| Gigabyte Z68X-UD7-B3 | 7.264 |
| Gigabyte P67A-UD4 | 7.282 |
| Gigabyte P67A-UD7 | 7.298 |
| MSI P67A-GD65 | 7.302 |
| ASRock Fatal1ty P67 Professional | 8.128 |
| less is better |
Conclusion
| Allgemein | + | - | |
| At a first glance ASRock leaves a very good impression with its Extreme7 Gen3. We very much like the design it defintely is an eye-catcher. Furthermore the delivery is impressive too. There is absolutely everything you'd ever need to setup your rig neatly. Furthermore there aren't a lot of boards on the market which offer more PCI Express lanes and in the end more PCI Express slots. | - Design - 5 x PCI-Express x16 |
||
| Layout | + | - | |
|
Generally the ASRock Extreme7 Gen3's Layout has been very well thought. Once more practical are the angled SATA connectors of which you'll find a total of ten. Furhtermore there also are very useful power- and reset-buttons. There even is a debug display which is very convenient in case you should have issues with a component in your system or the board itself. Altogether there are five PCI-Express x16 slots. No wonder that one was placed at the bottom edge of the board. In this case you should be aware that if you plan on putting a garphics card into the last PCI-Express x16 slot you'll block the connectors at the bottom edge of the board. Fortunately you'd still have four other slots to put GPUs in. If a big CPU cooler needs to be placed onto the Extreme7 Gen3 this is also possible. Although the cooling blocks are quite big, there are no compatibility issues. Last but not least, overclockers will enjoy the additional molex power connector which supports the current supply regarding overclocked graphics cards. |
- 10 Angled SATA connectors - Power/Reset-Button onboard - Debug display |
||
| Performance | + | - | |
| With the Extreme7 Gen3, ASRock definitely succeeded in building a motherboard which is an allround talent. Therfore this thing is capable of leading numerous benchmarks from our test parcours. Until today we didn't have many boards for review which were able to delivery such a level of overall performance. The Extreme7 Gen3 is able to perform extremely well in Futuremark, SiSoft Sandra as well as SuperPi. The only weaknesses concern wPrime and StreetFighter. | - SiSoft Sandra - 3DMark - SuperPi |
- wPrime | |
| BIOS / Overclocking | + | - | |
| Also in the overclocking part the Extreme7 was a very convincing product. Therefore it's been childrens play to reach the clock wall of our test CPU. Furthermore the UEFI BIOS is very easy to use and one can quickly find the settings needed. There are BIOSes from other manufacturers which are nicer to look at, but that's it. | - Well structured BIOS - UEFI-BIOS | ||
| Recommendation | + | - | |
| If you want to build a high end comptuer or gaming system then the ASRock Extreme7 Gen3 will be a good choice. And of course, it's also very suitable for overclocking. Even the price of about CHF 320.- (est. EUR 267.-) is competitively chosen. | -
High-End - Gaming - Overclocking |
||
| Rating | |||
| We give the ASRock Extreme7 Gen3 excellent five out of five stars. | |||
Discuss this article in the forums
Author: m.buechel@ocaholic.ch Copy edited and translated: m.buechel@ocaholic.ch c.ney@ocaholic.ch