System Overview & Testing Procedures
The Maximus VI Formula was installed in our test bench, which we use to test all of our motherboards. All of the hardware besides the motherboard stays the same to keep things uniform.
Test System Specs
Processor: Intel Core i7-4770K
Video Card: MSI GTX 770 Gaming
Motherboard: ASUS Maximus VI Gene
Memory: 16GB Crucial Ballistix
Storage: 120GB Kingston HyperX 3K
Power: Corsair AX860i
Cooling: Asetek 240mm watercooler
Case: HighSpeed PC Top Deck Tech Station
We will be testing the motherboard at the CPU’s stock speed of 3.5 GHz and again at our max stable overclock which is 4.6 GHz.
I have organized our benchmarks into the sections you see below.
CPU Testing
SiSoftware Sandra
– Processor Arithmetic
– Processor Multi-Media
CINEBENCH R11.5 64-bit
x264 HD Benchmark 5.0
Overall System Testing
PCMark 8
PCMark 7
PCMark Vantage
Gaming & Video
3DMark
3DMark 11
Battlefield 4
Alien vs Predator Benchmark
Now let’s get to testing!
Would you prefer this board to the Gigabyte Sniper M5? I’ve bought two of the gigabyte boards in the last week. First DOA board I’ve ever had and I got two in a row so I think I’ll try this Asus board next instead.
Maybe I’m just old, but maybe not…is it not better to have 1 really good GPU, compared to having 2 (or more) mediocre GPU’s?
I know that ROG is a great standard of components; but does a typical gamer really need to run more than 1 GPU (if it’s of a high-end variety)…unless he/ she is running 4K graphics?
You are correct, if you are gaming in 1080p 1 GPU is all you are going to need. You will not see a huge difference in performance even if you add another GPU, this is only seen in 4K and multi-display gaming.