Overclocking and Conclusion
Overclocking
To give a feel for the overclocking performance potential of the Maximus VII Formula board, we attempted to push it to known CPU-supported performance parameters with minimal tweaking. We were easily able to get the board running stable for over 4hrs at a 4.67GHz CPU speed, a 2220MHz memory speed, and a 4.0GHz ring bus speed with a 167MHz base clock. System stability was tested running the AIDA64 stability test in conjunction with EVGA's OC Scanner X graphical benchmark running at 1280×1024 resolution and 8x MSAA in stress test mode. Note that 16GB (2 x 8GB) of Corsair Vengeance Pro DDR3-2400 memory modules were used for the overclocking tests.
Note that this is is meant only as a quick preview of the board's performance potential. With more time to tweak the settings to a greater extent, pushing to a higher base clock and ring bus speed may have been achievable, in addition to an overnight stability run without issue.
Performance
No surprises with the Maximus VII Formula's performance. The board performed as well as we've come to expect from an ASUS flagship solution with no performance-related issues encountered running at stock or overclocked speeds.
Pricing
As of September 26, the ASUS Maximus VII Formula motherboard was available at Amazon.com for $317.99 with Prime shipping. The board was also available from Newegg.com for $349.99.
Conclusion
The Maximux VII Formula appears to be another feather in ASUS' hat, continuing the performance tradition of their Formula board line. From outward appearances, there is not too many obvious differences between the Maximus VI Formula and Maximus VII Formula. ASUS did such a fine job with the VI's design that they really only had to make a few tweaks at the surface level. The biggest non "under-the-hood" change was the update to the CrossChill VRM cooler. With the Maximus VI Formula, the CrossChill cooler is now all copper, rather than the aluminum version featured on the Maximus VI Formula board. The board still maintains the slick black and red theme with top and bottom ROG Armor overlay. Under the hood, ASUS made vast improvements over the previous generation board. The first and most obvious change was the inclusion of the Z97 chipset. This allowed for the inclusion of Intel-based SATA-Express ports, more SATA III ports, and a 10 Gbps capable M.2 port integrated into the included Combo III add-on card. They also updated the audio subsystem integrated into the Maximus VII Formula, using their new and improved SupremeFX 2014 solution. The board's digital power circuitry was optimized to be more power efficient, translating to cooler VRM and board temperatures under all operational conditions. The Maximus VII Formula is just a well designed and efficiently engineered product.
There was a slight design issue we ran into was attempting to use a full-sized (80mm length) M.2 card in the Combo III card's M.2 slot. Because of the card's proximity to the CrossChill cooler, the Combo III card would not seat properly into the rear panel header. However, you should not run into the issue using a smaller 60mm or 40mm M.2 SSD with the Combo III card. The manual itself states that the Combo III device supports only a maximum sized M.2 SSD of 60mm. However, those are currently in short supply for the PCIe x2 or x4 type variant.
Note that we encountered an anomaly between the Intel GigE controller and the ASUS GameFirst application drivers, where the GameFirst application causes performance degradation most felt during file download operations. This performance degradation was addressed in version 1.00.11 of the GameFirst application, and confirmed by PC Perspective in testing.
Strengths
- Stock performance
- Overclocking performance
- Board layout and design
- Motherboard manual details and quality
- UEFI BIOS design and usability
- Quality of included power circuitry
- ROG Thermal Armor
- CrossChill hybrid VRM cooling solution
- mPCIe Combo III card with support for 802.11ac wireless and M.2 10Gbps device
- Intel GigE network controller performance
- KeyBot hardware keyboard macro chipset
- USB BIOS Flashback function
Weaknesses
- Lack of secondary network controller
- Space issue using full-sized M.2 SSD with Combo III card
Bought this board with a
Bought this board with a 4790k cpu about a month ago. Replaced my MSI A88X G45 Gaming rig with a 7850k kaveri.
Such a huge upgrade. Rock solid performance. can go to 4.8GHz no issue. Using a Silverstone TD03 water cooler.
LOVE THIS BOARD!
Also have 4790k with this
Also have 4790k with this motherboard,my first motherboard with Asus. Usually go with MSI,but with 4.8ghz 1.25v i really love this board.
That’s a nice CPU you’ve got
That's a nice CPU you've got there…
Me too. Asus is just
Me too. Asus is just fantastic and i am loving Mr Ryan’s hard work all the way from Ghana west Africa.
This board is almost perfect.
This board is almost perfect. They messed up big time only including a pci-e 2.0 x2 m2 slot instead of a pci-e 3.0 x4 ultra m2 slot. It’s a huge difference 10gbit/sec vs 32gbit/sec and lower latency since the pci-e is connected directly to the cpu instead of the pch. Would much rather have the the ultra m2 slot even though that means with an m2 ssd installed in an ultra m2 slot you only have 1 x8 and 1×4 pci-e 3.0 slots left for GPU. Limiting you to 1 nvidia gpu or 2 AMD gpu’s. I only use single gpu setups so really an ultra m2 slot is a requirement for me.
This would of been a perfect motherboard if they wouldn’t of bungled the m2 slot. Such a shame.
Almost everything in the
Almost everything in the specification list is the same as the Asus Maximus VII Hero, 60A-rated BlackWing chokes 10K capacitors etc. There’s very little not to like about the motherboard and there’s a lot to hated about their software bundle.
Don’t install their software bundle as it could lead to a pure headache or worst a nightmare. I never in my life did I have so much problems with Corsair Link and Asus software bundle, there’s countless complains about their software not to mention the problems with Firmware, he’s one in the event viewer, it’s tell me the follow error.
Event 13:
The embedded controller (EC) did not respond within the specified timeout period. This may indicate that there is an error in the EC hardware or firmware or that the BIOS is accessing the EC incorrectly. You should check with your computer manufacturer for an upgraded BIOS. In some situations, this error may cause the computer to function incorrectly.
These are the things like this that can’t be seen because there is no way they have all that time to fine pick, test and tweak so many setting to see such problems. The only advice I can give you is that you always check the manufacturers forum before purchasing any motherboard.
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Morry Teitelman is also great
Morry Teitelman is also great please keep it up