Next to numerous motherboard manufacturers Intel has their own motherbards. In this regard the DX79SI is their flagship model which should offer interesting and practical features as well as good overall performance. 
The DX79SI is Intels flagship model regarding their own X79 chipset. Therefore we can be curious how Intel chose to do his homework in developing a well equipped X79 motherboard.
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[pagebreak]
Spezifikationen / Lieferumfang
| CPU | Intel Socket 2011 2nd Generation i7 Processors |
| Chipset | Intel X79 |
| Memory | 8 x DIMM max 64 GB, DDR3 2400 (OC), 2133 (OC), 1866, 1600, 1333, 1066, Non-ECC, Un-buffered |
| Multi-GPU | NVIDIA 3-Way SLI AMD 3-Way CorssFireX |
| Slots | 3 x PCI-Express 3.0 x16 (dual at x16/x16,
triple at
x16/x8/x 2 x PCI-Express 2.0 x1 1 x PCI |
| Sound | Intel HD Audio |
| Storage | 2 x SATA 6.0 Gb/s (Intel, RAID 0, 1, 5, 0+1) 4 x SATA 3.0 Gb/s (Intel, RAID 0, 1, 5, 0+1, JBOD) |
| LAN | 2 x Intel Gigabit |
| I/O internal | |
| I/O Back Panel | |
| Fan connectors | 4 header |
| Forfactor | ATX Form Factor (30.5cm x 24.4cm) |
| BIOS | Bios (UEFI BIOS) |
Features
| Intel Desktop Utilities | Using this tool one can monitor system temperatures, voltages, fan speeds as well as the condition of the hard drive. |
| Intel Extreme Tuning Utility | Using this software you can overclock your processor as well as the memory. Furthermore you can also monitor key components on the motherboard. |
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[pagebreak]
Layout
Intel ships their DX79SI motherboard on a black PCB which black expansion slots and four blue DIMM slots. Furthermore there is quite a big southbridge cooler carrying the skull logo, you'll find on all Intel xtreme series motherboards. At the bottom edge of the board you can find several different colors which don't suite the general design.
Intel equipped the DX79SI with a 6 + 2 phase current supply regarding CPU and Memory. This is what Intel themselves suggests for a reference design regarding their socket LGA 2011. Therefore you shouldn't expect miracles from this motherboard regarding overclockability.
Totally you'll find eight DIMM-slots on the Intel DX79SI. The official clock speeds that are - if the CPUs integrated memory controller is capable: DDR3 2400 (O.C.) / 2133 (O.C.) / 1866 / 1600 / 1333 / 1066. There is engough space between the DIMM-slots and the CPU socket which means that you wont encounter compatibility problems with big coolers even when you choose to install RAM with big heatspreaders.
Southbridge as well as the current converters are being held at adequate temperatures via a passive heatpipe cooling solution. The cooling blocks haven been positioned wisely, which means that they don't collide with memory or CPU cooler. Generally the design doesn't look to bad, and the skull might even be stylish, but the board lacks a theme compared to other products available.
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[pagebreak]
Anschlüsse und I/O
Totally Intel equipped the DX79SI with six angled SATA ports which should be enough for any High-End PC or gaming system. You'll also find practical onboard power- and reset-buttons and there even is a debug display which would be very useful if you should once have issues with one of the components in your system.
Totally you'll find four fan header on the Intel DX79SI which is enough, to provide a well equipped midrange or high-end-system with fresh air. The fanheaders are located around the CPU socket as well as at the bottom edge of the mainboard.
Looking at the external connectors directly at the back-panel Intel equipped their DX79SI with four USB 3.0/2.0 ports, one FireWire port, two Intel gigabit ethernet ports, an optical out as well as an analogue audio panel. Furthermore there also is a back to BIOS switch.
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BIOS
First of all one can see that Intel doesn't follow the trend regarding BIOS with graphical user interfaces. They present to us a BIOS which is still all text based and only the keyboard can be used to change parameters, therefore the mouse is of no use. Furthermore it is interesting to see that the entry page lists all the tweaking and overclocking settings. This is quite unusual for Intel and it seems like they want to underline that overclocking is an important business for them.
Discuss this article in the forums [pagebreak]
Test setup
Hardware |
|
| Motherboard |
|
| Processor | Intel Core i7-3930K, 3.2 GHz |
| Memory | 8 Gigabyte Kingston H2O KHX2133 @ 1600 MHz CL9-9-9-24 |
| Graphic card | ASUS ENGTX 580 |
| Driver | Version 275.33 |
| Hard disk | Samsung Spinpoint F1 320 GByte |
| Power supply | bequiet! Dark Power Pro 1000Watt |
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[pagebreak]
3D Mark
3D Mark11
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
| 3D Mark 11 Total | Percent | |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 | 6'627 | 102.17 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Gene | 6'550 | 100.99 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Extreme | 6'518 | 100.49 % |
| ASUS Sabertooth X79 | 6'515 | 100.45 % |
| MSI Big Bang Xpower II | 6'508 | 100.34 % |
| ASUS P9X79 Deluxe | 6'506 | 100.31 % |
| ASUS P9X79 Pro | 6'505 | 100.29 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Formula | 6'499 | 100.20 % |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD7 | 6'494 | 100.12 % |
| Intel DX79SI | 6'486 | 100.00 % |
| ASRock X79 Extreme4 | 6'482 | 99.94 % |
| ASRock X79 Extreme4-M | 6'478 | 99.88 % |
| ASUS P9X79 WS | 6'465 | 99.68 % |
| more is better | ||
Physic
| 3D Mark 11 Physic Score | Percent | |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 | 11'029 | 106.01 % |
| ASUS P9X79 WS | 11'019 | 105.91 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Gene | 11'009 | 105.82 % |
| MSI Big Bang Xpower II | 10'827 | 104.07 % |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD7 | 10'579 | 101.68 % |
| ASUS P9X79 Deluxe | 10'558 | 101.48 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Extreme | 10'557 | 101.47 % |
| ASUS P9X79 Pro | 10'518 | 101.10 % |
| ASUS Sabertooth X79 | 10'510 | 101.02 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Formula | 10'501 | 100.93 % |
| ASRock X79 Extreme4-M | 10'456 | 100.50 % |
| Intel DX79SI | 10'404 | 100.00 % |
| ASRock X79 Extreme4 | 10'385 | 99.82 % |
| more is better | ||
3D Mark 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
| 3D Mark Vantage Total | Percent | |
| ASUS P9X79 Deluxe | 26'943 | 102.04 % |
| ASUS Sabertooth X79 | 26'903 | 101.89 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Extreme | 26'892 | 101.85 % |
| ASUS P9X79 Pro | 26'870 | 101.76 % |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 | 26'834 | 101.63 % |
| MSI Big Bang Xpower II | 26'824 | 101.59 % |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD7 | 26'691 | 101.09 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Gene | 26'670 | 101.01 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Formula | 26'645 | 100.91 % |
| ASRock X79 Extreme4 | 26'632 | 100.86 % |
| ASUS P9X79 WS | 26'620 | 100.82 % |
| ASRock X79 Extreme4-M | 26'519 | 100.44 % |
| Intel DX79SI | 26'404 | 100.00 % |
| more is better | ||
CPU
| 3D Mark Vantage CPU | Percent | |
| MSI Big Bang Xpower II | 32'880 | 103.73 % |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 | 32'786 | 103.44 % |
| ASUS P9X79 WS | 32'721 | 103.23 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Gene | 32'541 | 101.80 % |
| ASUS P9X79 Deluxe | 32'106 | 101.29 % |
| ASUS P9X79 Pro | 32'090 | 101.24 % |
| ASRock X79 Extreme4-M | 31'807 | 100.35 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Extreme | 31'798 | 100.32 % |
| ASUS Sabertooth X79 | 31'784 | 100.27 % |
| ASRock X79 Extreme4 | 31'736 | 100.12 % |
| Intel DX79SI | 31'697 | 100.00 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Formula | 31'628 | 99.78 % |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD7 | 31'535 | 99.49 % |
| more is better | ||
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[pagebreak]
PC Mark 07
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
| PC Mark 07 Total | Percent | |
| ASUS Rampage IV Gene | 4'707 | 100.23 % |
| ASUS P9X79 Pro | 4'757 | 101.30 % |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD7 | 4'749 | 101.13 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Formula | 4'716 | 100.43 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Extreme | 4'716 | 100.43 % |
| ASUS P9X79 Deluxe | 4'714 | 100.38 % |
| Intel DX79SI | 4'696 | 100.00 % |
| ASUS P9X79 WS | 4'672 | 99.49 % |
| ASUS Sabertooth X79 | 4'670 | 99.45 % |
| ASRock X79 Extreme4-M | 4'654 | 99.11 % |
| ASRock X79 Extreme4 | 4'642 | 98.85 % |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 | 4'569 | 97.30 % |
| MSI Big Bang Xpower II | 4'526 | 96.38 % |
| more is better | ||
| Video playback and transcoding / Video playback | fps | Percent |
| ASUS P9X79 WS | 23.14 | 100.09 % |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 | 23.14 | 100.09 % |
| ASUS P9X79 Deluxe | 23.14 | 100.09 % |
| ASUS Sabertooth X79 | 23.13 | 100.04 % |
| MSI Big Bang Xpower II | 23.12 | 100.00 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Gene | 23.12 | 100.00 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Formula | 23.12 | 100.00 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Extreme | 23.12 | 100.00 % |
| Intel DX79SI | 23.12 | 100.00 % |
| ASUS P9X79 Pro | 23.12 | 100.00 % |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD7 | 23.11 | 99.96 % |
| ASRock X79 Extreme4-M | 23.06 | 99.74 % |
| ASRock X79 Extreme4 | 23.05 | 99.70 % |
| more is better | ||
| Graphics - DirectX 9 / Graphics - DirectX 9 | fps | Percent |
| ASRock X79 Extreme4 | 75.78 | 103.06 % |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD7 | 74.65 | 101.52 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Extreme | 74.57 | 101.41 % |
| ASUS Sabertooth X79 | 74.44 | 101.24 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Gene | 74.11 | 100.79 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Formula | 74.05 | 100.71 % |
| ASUS P9X79 Pro | 73.97 | 100.60 % |
| ASUS P9X79 Deluxe | 73.76 | 100.31 % |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 | 73.74 | 100.29 % |
| ASUS P9X79 WS | 73.60 | 100.10 % |
| MSI Big Bang Xpower II | 73.53 | 100.00 % |
| Intel DX79SI | 73.53 | 100.00 % |
| ASRock X79 Extreme4-M | 73.48 | 99.93 % |
| more is better | ||
| Image manipulation / Image manipulation | Mpx/s | Percent |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 | 10.10 | 101.41 % |
| ASUS P9X79 Deluxe | 10.10 | 101.41 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Extreme | 10.10 | 101.41 % |
| ASUS P9X79 Pro | 10.10 | 101.41 % |
| ASUS Sabertooth X79 | 10.10 | 101.41 % |
| ASUS P9X79 WS | 10.09 | 100.10 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Formula | 10.07 | 101.10 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Gene | 10.04 | 100.80 % |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD7 | 10.06 | 101.00 % |
| MSI Big Bang Xpower II | 10.03 | 100.70 % |
| Intel DX79SI | 9.96 | 100.00 % |
| ASRock X79 Extreme4-M | 9.90 | 99.40 % |
| ASRock X79 Extreme4 | 9.54 | 95.78 % |
| more is better | ||
| Web browsing and decrypting / Web browsing | Pages/s | Percent |
| ASUS Rampage IV Extreme | 19.70 | 102.34 % |
| ASUS P9X79 Pro | 19.65 | 102.08 % |
| ASUS Sabertooth X79 | 19.64 | 102.03 % |
| ASUS P9X79 Deluxe | 19.62 | 101.92 % |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD7 | 19.60 | 101.82 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Gene | 19.58 | 101.71 % |
| ASUS P9X79 WS | 19.55 | 101.56 % |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 | 19.53 | 101.45 % |
| ASRock X79 Extreme4-M | 19.36 | 100.57 % |
| ASRock X79 Extreme4 | 19.35 | 100.52 % |
| Intel DX79SI | 19.25 | 100.00 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Formula | 19.22 | 99.84 % |
| MSI Big Bang Xpower II | 19.29 | 100.21 % |
| 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 Cryptograph99y-benchmarks.
Arithmetic Benchmark
| SiSoft Sandra - Arithmetic Benchmark - Dhrystone | GIPS | Percent |
| ASRock X79 Extreme4-M | 189.33 | 100.68 % |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD7 | 189.29 | 100.36 % |
| ASUS P9X79 Pro | 189.24 | 100.33 % |
| ASUS Sabertooth X79 | 188.82 | 100.11 % |
| Intel DX79SI | 188.62 | 100.00 % |
| ASRock X79 Extreme4 | 188.36 | 99.86 % |
| ASUS P9X79 WS | 188.20 | 99.78 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Extreme | 188.00 | 99.67 % |
| ASUS P9X79 Deluxe | 187.90 | 99.62 % |
| MSI Big Bang Xpower II | 187.80 | 99.57 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Formula | 187.80 | 99.57 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Gene | 187.39 | 99.35 % |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 | 186.83 | 99.05 % |
| more is better | ||
| SiSoft Sandra - Arithmetic Benchmark - Whetstone | GFLOPS | Percent |
| ASRock X79 Extreme4 | 116.57 | 100.57 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Formula | 116.20 | 100.25 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Gene | 116.00 | 100.08 % |
| ASUS P9X79 WS | 116.00 | 100.08 % |
| ASRock X79 Extreme4-M | 116.00 | 100.08 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Extreme | 116.00 | 100.08 % |
| ASUS P9X79 Deluxe | 115.93 | 100.02 % |
| Intel DX79SI | 115.91 | 100.00 % |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 | 115.90 | 99.99 % |
| ASUS P9X79 Pro | 115.87 | 99.97 % |
| ASUS Sabertooth X79 | 115.78 | 99.89 % |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD7 | 115.00 | 99.21 % |
| MSI Big Bang Xpower II | 113.27 | 97.72 % |
| more is better | ||
Multimedia
| SiSoft Sandra - Multimedia - Integer | MPixels/sec | Percent |
| ASRock X79 Extreme4-M | 290.24 | 100.72 % |
| ASRock X79 Extreme4 | 290.18 | 100.70 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Formula | 288.64 | 100.16 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Gene | 288.63 | 100.16 % |
| ASUS P9X79 WS | 288.62 | 100.16 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Extreme | 288.61 | 100.15 % |
| ASUS Sabertooth X79 | 288.57 | 100.14 % |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 | 288.51 | 100.12 % |
| MSI Big Bang Xpower II | 288.50 | 100.11 % |
| ASUS P9X79 Pro | 288.49 | 100.11 % |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD7 | 288.47 | 100.10 % |
| ASUS P9X79 Deluxe | 288.48 | 100.11 % |
| Intel DX79SI | 288.17 | 100.00 % |
| more is better | ||
| SiSoft Sandra - Multimedia - floating point | MPixels/sec | Percent |
| ASRock X79 Extreme4-M | 396.52 | 100.64 % |
| ASRock X79 Extreme4 | 396.27 | 100.58 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Gene | 394.33 | 100.08 % |
| ASUS Sabertooth X79 | 394.24 | 100.06 % |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD7 | 394.14 | 100.04 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Extreme | 394.10 | 100.03 % |
| ASUS P9X79 Deluxe | 394.07 | 100.02 % |
| Intel DX79SI | 394.00 | 100.00 % |
| ASUS P9X79 Pro | 393.87 | 99.97 % |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 | 393.83 | 99.96 % |
| ASUS P9X79 WS | 393.72 | 99.93 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Formula | 393.40 | 99.85 % |
| MSI Big Bang Xpower II | 390.38 | 99.08 % |
| more is better | ||
Crytography
| SiSoft Sandra - Crytography - AES 256 | GB/sec | Percent |
| ASUS Rampage IV Extreme | 12.55 | 122.44 % |
| ASUS Sabertooth X79 | 12.31 | 120.10 % |
| ASUS P9X79 WS | 12.30 | 120.00 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Gene | 12.30 | 120.00 % |
| ASUS P9X79 Deluxe | 12.30 | 120.00 % |
| ASUS P9X79 Pro | 12.30 | 120.00 % |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD7 | 12.27 | 119.71 % |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 | 12.17 | 118.73 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Formula | 12.10 | 118.05 % |
| MSI Big Bang Xpower II | 11.71 | 114.24 % |
| ASRock X79 Extreme4 | 11.56 | 112.78 % |
| ASRock X79 Extreme4-M | 11.51 | 112.29 % |
| Intel DX79SI | 10.25 | 100.00 % |
| more is better | ||
| SiSoft Sandra - Crytography - SHA 256 | MB/sec | Percent |
| ASRock X79 Extreme4-M | 1'440 | 100.70 % |
| ASRock X79 Extreme4 | 1'440 | 100.70 % |
| MSI Big Bang Xpower II | 1'430 | 100.00 % |
| ASUS P9X79 WS | 1'430 | 100.00 % |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 | 1'430 | 100.00 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Gene | 1'430 | 100.00 % |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD7 | 1'430 | 100.00 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Formula | 1'430 | 100.00 % |
| ASUS P9X79 Deluxe | 1'430 | 100.00 % |
| Intel DX79SI | 1'430 | 100.00 % |
| ASUS P9X79 Pro | 1'430 | 100.00 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Extreme | 1'430 | 100.00 % |
| ASUS Sabertooth X79 | 1'430 | 100.00 % |
| 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 |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 | 37.83 | 104.27 % |
| ASUS Sabertooth X79 | 37.77 | 104.11 % |
| ASUS P9X79 Deluxe | 37.76 | 104.08 % |
| ASUS P9X79 Pro | 37.74 | 104.02 % |
| ASUS P9X79 WS | 37.61 | 103.67 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Gene | 37.58 | 103.58 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Extreme | 37.41 | 103.11 % |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD7 | 37.27 | 102.73 % |
| ASRock X79 Extreme4-M | 37.18 | 102.48 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Formula | 37.00 | 101.98 % |
| ASRock X79 Extreme4 | 36.74 | 101.27 % |
| MSI Big Bang Xpower II | 36.35 | 100.19 % |
| Intel DX79SI | 36.28 | 100.00 % |
| more is better | ||
| SiSoft Sandra - Memory bandwidth - floating point | GB/sec | Percent |
| ASUS P9X79 Deluxe | 37.85 | 103.84 % |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 | 37.84 | 103.81 % |
| ASUS P9X79 Pro | 37.76 | 103.59 % |
| ASUS Sabertooth X79 | 37.70 | 103.43 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Extreme | 37.69 | 103.41 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Gene | 37.66 | 103.32 % |
| ASUS P9X79 WS | 37.63 | 103.24 % |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD7 | 37.38 | 102.55 % |
| ASRock X79 Extreme4-M | 37.23 | 102.14 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Formula | 37.20 | 102.06 % |
| ASRock X79 Extreme4 | 36.86 | 101.12 % |
| Intel DX79SI | 36.45 | 100.00 % |
| MSI Big Bang Xpower II | 36.42 | 99.92 % |
| more is better | ||
Memory latency
| SiSoft Sandra - Memory latency | ns | Percent |
| Intel DX79SI | 73.60 | 100.00 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Extreme | 74.40 | 101.09 % |
| ASUS Sabertooth X79 | 74.60 | 101.36 % |
| ASUS P9X79 Deluxe | 74.70 | 101.49 % |
| ASUS P9X79 Pro | 74.70 | 101.49 % |
| ASUS P9X79 WS | 74.80 | 101.63 % |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 | 74.80 | 101.63 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Gene | 74.80 | 101.63 % |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD7 | 75.00 | 101.90 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Formula | 76.00 | 103.26 % |
| ASRock X79 Extreme4-M | 79.30 | 107.74 % |
| ASRock X79 Extreme4 | 79.30 | 107.74 % |
| MSI Big Bang Xpower II | 80.90 | 109.92 % |
| less is better | ||
Memory and cache access
| SiSoft Sandra - Memory and cache access | GB/sec | Percent |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 | 175.63 | 103.20 % |
| ASUS P9X79 WS | 175.60 | 103.18 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Gene | 175.57 | 103.16 % |
| ASUS P9X79 Pro | 175.00 | 102.83 % |
| ASUS Sabertooth X79 | 174.75 | 102.68 % |
| ASUS P9X79 Deluxe | 174.24 | 102.38 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Formula | 174.15 | 102.33 % |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD7 | 174.14 | 102.32 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Extreme | 173.41 | 101.89 % |
| MSI Big Bang Xpower II | 172.70 | 101.47 % |
| Intel DX79SI | 170.19 | 100.00 % |
| ASRock X79 Extreme4-M | 170.00 | 99.89 % |
| ASRock X79 Extreme4 | 169.37 | 99.82 % |
| 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 X79 Extreme4 | 11.669 | 92.92 % |
| ASRock X79 Extreme4-M | 11.704 | 93.20 % |
| ASUS P9X79 Deluxe | 11.731 | 93.41 % |
| ASUS P9X79 Pro | 11.746 | 93.53 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Extreme | 11.747 | 93.54 % |
| ASUS Sabertooth X79 | 11.747 | 93.54 % |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD7 | 11.762 | 93.66 % |
| ASUS P9X79 WS | 11.778 | 93.79 % |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 | 11.778 | 93.79 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Formula | 11.763 | 93.67 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Gene | 11.794 | 93.92 % |
| MSI Big Bang Xpower II | 11.852 | 94.38 % |
| Intel DX79SI | 12.558 | 100.00 % |
| less is better | ||
Super Pi 32M
| Super Pi 1.5 XS - 32M | sec | Percent |
| ASUS Rampage IV Extreme | 632.909 | 94.18 % |
| ASUS P9X79 Pro | 633.033 | 94.20 % |
| ASUS P9X79 Deluxe | 633.377 | 94.25 % |
| ASUS P9X79 WS | 635.218 | 94.52 % |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 | 635.452 | 94.56 % |
| ASRock X79 Extreme4 | 635.483 | 94.56 % |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD7 | 635.498 | 94.57 % |
| ASUS Sabertooth X79 | 635.920 | 94.63 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Formula | 636.154 | 93.92 % |
| ASRock X79 Extreme4-M | 636.984 | 94.79 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Gene | 636.247 | 94.68 % |
| MSI Big Bang Xpower II | 639.976 | 95.23 % |
| Intel DX79SI | 672.018 | 100.00 % |
| less is better | ||
wPrime 1024M
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 - 1024M | sec | Percent |
| ASUS Sabertooth X79 | 170.652 | 99.68 % |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 | 171.164 | 99.98 % |
| Intel DX79SI | 171.204 | 100.00 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Gene | 171.299 | 100.06 % |
| ASUS P9X79 WS | 171.260 | 100.03 % |
| MSI Big Bang Xpower II | 171.322 | 100.07 % |
| ASRock X79 Extreme4 | 172.334 | 100.66 % |
| ASRock X79 Extreme4-M | 172.503 | 100.76 % |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD7 | 172.803 | 100.93 % |
| ASUS P9X79 Deluxe | 172.878 | 100.98 % |
| ASUS P9X79 Pro | 173.851 | 101.55 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Formula | 175.667 | 102.61 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Extreme | 176.217 | 102.93 % |
| 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 DirectX10 (800 x 600 low details) | fps | Percent |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 | 149.065 | 106.56 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Gene | 148.475 | 106.14 % |
| ASUS P9X79 Pro | 146.665 | 104.85 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Extreme | 146.240 | 104.54 % |
| ASUS P9X79 WS | 146.135 | 104.47 % |
| ASUS P9X79 Deluxe | 145.935 | 104.32 % |
| ASUS Sabertooth X79 | 145.855 | 104.27 % |
| MSI Big Bang Xpower II | 145.085 | 103.72 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Formula | 143.740 | 102.76 % |
| ASRock X79 Extreme4-M | 143.575 | 102.64 % |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD7 | 143.510 | 102.59 % |
| ASRock X79 Extreme4 | 143.460 | 102.56 % |
| Intel DX79SI | 139.885 | 100.00 % |
| 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 DirectX10 (800 x 600 low details) | fps | Percent |
| ASUS Rampage IV Gene | 205.4 | 105.28 % |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 | 204.9 | 105.02 % |
| ASUS P9X79 WS | 200.9 | 102.97 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Extreme | 200.2 | 102.61 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Formula | 199.2 | 102.10 % |
| ASUS P9X79 Pro | 198.8 | 101.90 % |
| ASUS Sabertooth X79 | 198.6 | 101.79 % |
| ASUS P9X79 Deluxe | 198.2 | 101.59 % |
| MSI Big Bang Xpower II | 196.6 | 100.77 % |
| Intel DX79SI | 195.1 | 100.00 % |
| ASRock X79 Extreme4-M | 193.8 | 99.33 % |
| ASRock X79 Extreme4 | 192.2 | 98.51 % |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD7 | 191.2 | 98.00 % |
| 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 |
| ASRock X79 Extreme4-M | 823.86 | 102.87 % |
| ASRock X79 Extreme4 | 820.72 | 102.47 % |
| ASUS P9X79 Deluxe | 813.27 | 101.54 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Extreme | 812.27 | 101.42 % |
| ASUS Sabertooth X79 | 808.62 | 100.96 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Formula | 802.24 | 100.17 % |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 | 800.95 | 100.01 % |
| Intel DX79SI | 800.90 | 100.00 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Gene | 797.34 | 99.56 % |
| MSI Big Bang Xpower II | 792.97 | 99.01 % |
| ASUS P9X79 Pro | 792.67 | 98.97 % |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD7 | 785.97 | 98.14 % |
| ASUS P9X79 WS | 782.74 | 97.73 % |
| more is better | ||
Discuss this article in the forums
[pagebreak]
Power Consumption
Idle
| Idle | Watt | Percent |
| Intel DX79SI | 131 | 100.00 % |
| ASRock X79 Extreme4-M | 132 | 100.76 % |
| MSI Big Bang Xpower II | 134 | 102.29 % |
| ASRock X79 Extreme4 | 138 | 105.34 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Gene | 140 | 106.87 % |
| ASUS P9X79 WS | 141 | 107.63 % |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 | 141 | 107.63 % |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD7 | 144 | 109.92 % |
| ASUS P9X79 Deluxe | 148 | 112.98 % |
| ASUS P9X79 Pro | 149 | 113.74 % |
| ASUS Sabertooth X79 | 156 | 119.08 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Formula | 160 | 122.14 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Extreme | 162 | 123.66 % |
| more is better | ||
Load
| Load | Watt | Percent |
| Intel DX79SI | 207 | 100.00 % |
| ASRock X79 Extreme4-M | 219 | 105.78 % |
| ASRock X79 Extreme4 | 225 | 108.70 % |
| MSI Big Bang Xpower II | 226 | 109.18 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Gene | 226 | 109.18 % |
| ASUS P9X79 WS | 226 | 109.18 % |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 | 228 | 110.14 % |
| ASUS P9X79 Pro | 229 | 110.63 % |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD7 | 230 | 111.11 % |
| ASUS Sabertooth X79 | 238 | 114.98 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Formula | 239 | 115.46 % |
| ASUS P9X79 Deluxe | 243 | 117.39 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Extreme | 246 | 118.84 % |
| less is better | ||
Discuss this article in the forums
[pagebreak]
Performance Rating
| 3D and Gaming Benchmarks | Percent |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 | 103.55 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Gene | 102.94 % |
| ASUS P9X79 WS | 102.07 % |
| MSI Big Bang Xpower II | 101.90 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Extreme | 101.81 % |
| ASUS P9X79 Deluxe | 101.78 % |
| ASUS Sabertooth X79 | 101.52 % |
| ASUS P9X79 Pro | 101.44 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Formula | 100.98 % |
| ASRock X79 Extreme4-M | 100.86 % |
| ASRock X79 Extreme4 | 100.65 % |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD7 | 100.16 % |
| Intel DX79SI | 100.00 % |
| more is better |
| 2D Benchmarks | Percent |
| ASUS P9X79 Pro | 102.69 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Extreme | 102.68 % |
| ASUS Sabertooth X79 | 102.68 % |
| ASUS P9X79 Deluxe | 102.61 % |
| ASUS P9X79 WS | 102.49 % |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD7 | 102.41 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Gene | 102.57 % |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 | 102.39 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Formula | 102.19 % |
| ASRock X79 Extreme4-M | 102.08 % |
| ASRock X79 Extreme4 | 101.84 % |
| MSI Big Bang Xpower II | 101.77 % |
| Intel DX79SI | 100.00 % |
| more is better |
| Performance per Watt | Percent |
| Intel DX79SI | 100.00 % |
| ASRock X79 Extreme4-M | 98.26 % |
| MSI Big Bang Xpower II | 96.31 % |
| ASRock X79 Extreme4 | 95.16 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Gene | 95.12 % |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 | 94.57 % |
| ASUS P9X79 WS | 94.35 % |
| Gigabyte GA-X79-UD7 | 91.65 % |
| ASUS P9X79 Pro | 90.98 % |
| ASUS P9X79 Deluxe | 88.72 % |
| ASUS Sabertooth X79 | 87.24 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Extreme | 85.95 % |
| ASUS Rampage IV Formula | 85.51 % |
| more is better |
Discuss this article in the forums [pagebreak]
Fazit
| Allgemein | + | - | |
| From our first look we can tell that the DX79SI really isn't a big deal. End users will definitely prefer products from ASUS, ASRock, Gigabyte or MSI, where they get a lot more features for the same amount of money. In fact, if you take the board out of its box, you see that there is something of everything but nothing has been implemented consequently. There is a some "design", there is some "overclocking" and there are some "connectors". It looks like the engineers worked according to a checklist where they had to tick boxes what they've taken care of and what not. | - Design | ||
| Layout | + | - | |
|
Generally the Intel DX79SIs Layout has been very well thought. Once more practical are the angled SATA connectors as well as the power- and reset-buttons. There even is a debug display which is very useful in case you should have issues with a component in your system or the board itself. Furthermore there is another slot between every PCI Express x16 slot which means that one can easily setup a triple SLI/CrossFireX configuration. Furthermore the last slot isn't a PCI Express x16 one. Therefore you'll be able to access the connectors at the bottom edge of the board even if you should choose to install a dual slot graphics card in the last PCI Express x16 expansion slot. |
- Angled SATA connectors - Power/Reset-Button onboard - Debug display - Spac around the CPU socket - ATX Form factor |
||
| Performance | + | - | |
| In our overall rankings the Intel DX79SI scored really bad in both, the 2D rankings as well as the 3D rankings. In almost every benchmark the board marks this board comes in last. There was only wPrime wheren this board was able to really keep up with the competition. In other words, performance of the DX79SI is a disappointment. | - Performance in general | ||
| Power Consumption | + | - | |
| Power consumption really is the only thing where this board does well and in fact it is remarkable how efficient it is in these tests. There might be relation between power consumption and performance. In this regard we couldn't find any clock speeds or voltages that were lower than with board from other manufacturers. | -
Idle Power Consumption - Load Power Consumption |
||
| Recommendation | + | - | |
| If you're going to build a PC based on Intels latest high end desktop processors and one of the key things you have in mind is energy efficiency, then the Intel DX79SI will be the right choice for you. Under any other circumstance there are better alternatives from other manufacturers. The Intel DX79SI is available in Switzerland for about CHF 300.- (est. EUR 250.-). | - Energy efficient High-End-PC | ||
| Rating | |||
| We give the Intel DX79SI gets sufficient three out of five stars. | |||
Discuss this article in the forums
Author: m.buechel@ocaholic.ch