Testing Configuration and Benchmarks Used
To verify that the motherboard works as advertised, the board was run through our standard benchmark suite. In most cases, the results are presented for the motherboard under review as well as a different similar-class motherboard for performance comparison purposes. The benchmark tests used should give you a good understanding of the board’s capabilities for both office and gaming use so that you, the reader, can make a more informed purchasing decision.
| Test System Setup | |
| CPU | Intel Core i7-4770K (3.5GHz, 35 x 100MHz Base Clock) |
| Motherboards | GIGABYTE Z97X-UD5H ASUS Z97-Deluxe MSI Z97 XPower GIGABYTE Z97X-Gaming G1-WIFI-BK EVGA Z97 Classified MSI Z87 XPower |
| Memory | Stock Testing Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 modules (1600MHz, 9-10-9-27-1T, 1.525V) Z97 Overclock Testing Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2400 modules (2400MHz, 11-13-13-31-1T, 1.65V) |
| Hard Drive | Samsung 840 EVO 250GB SSD Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA III HD |
| Sound Card | On-board sound |
| Video Card | NVIDIA GTX 570 1.25GB ASUS Poseidon GTX 780 3GB |
| CPU Cooling | Corsair Hydro Series™ H100i Extreme Performance CPU Cooler |
| Video Drivers | NVIDIA 335.23 |
| Power Supply | Corsair HX750 |
| Operating System | Windows 7 Ultimate x64 |
Test Setup Explanation
The 64-bit Windows 7 based test bench used for Intel Z87 LGA1150 board testing includes an Intel Core i7-4770K CPU, 16GB of DDR3-1866 memory, an NVIDIA GTX 570 1.25GB video card, and a Samsung 840 EVO 250GB SSD drive. For the Z97-based board testing, an ASUS Poseidon GTX 780 3GB video card was used for testing – both it and the GTX 570 had no effect on the benchmark tests run. Using the selected components gives us the ability to demonstrate the motherboard's capabilities rather than that of the components themselves.
Benchmark Tests used for evaluation:
- SoftPerfect Research NetWorx Speed Test
- LanBench v1.1.0
- ATTO Disk Benchmark v2.47
- SiSoft Sandra 2012
- LinX Intel Linpack Benchmark v0.6.4
- Maxon Cinebench 11.5
As usual great review Morry,
As usual great review Morry, Like! Like! 🙂
“For the PCI-Express x16
“For the PCI-Express x16 slots, the board supports full x16 bandwidth with a single card, x8 bandwidth with cards in the primary and secondary slots with two cards populated, and x8 / x8 / x4 in all PCI-Express x16 slots with three cards populated.”
If I am reading the specs correctly, it is x8/x4/x4 with three cards rather than x8/x8/x4.
What a strange way to go
What a strange way to go about it, a better way would be gen 3 x8, gen 3 x8, gen 2 x4 which is what my board does.
I don’t know if that is
I don’t know if that is better. I am assuming that socket 1150 boards are limited to one x16 connection to the processor. This gigabyte board connects through a pci-e switch (some plx chip?) such that all three cards are sharing the single x16 link direct to the cpu at gen3 speeds. With the x8/x8/(x4 gen 2) set-up you are describing, the x4 link probably comes from the PCH (southbridge), so this shares bandwidth with every other IO device (SATA, network, usb, etc.) instead of the other video cards. I believe the DMI link from the PCH to the cpu is similar bandwidth to x4, gen 2 pci-e. This is cheaper as it does not require a pci-e switch chip. The performance difference may be minimal since 3-card set-ups do not scale well anyway. Best to just run 2 cards with this board though. I have wondered if it would work to run a pci-e ssd in one of the slots connected to the switch.
You are correct, tri-card
You are correct, tri-card mode is x8/x4/x4. Thank you for pointing that out….
“GIGABYTE designed the
“GIGABYTE designed the Z97X-UD5H’s rear panel with the following ports: … an HDMI video port, a DisplayPort video port, a DVI-I video port…”
The photos do not show a DisplayPort video port.
I do not believe that the GA-Z97X-UDH5 has DisplayPort connectivity onboard.
Fixed. Thanks for pointing
Fixed. Thanks for pointing that out…
great review, but i prefer
great review, but i prefer the looks of previsios z87x-ud5(which i have for my g3258)the heatsinks on this one are a bit to much golden yellow, on the old one they are more blacks in there which ads to the visual look a lot, makes it look a loth better in my opinion
Morry,
Thanks for yet another
Morry,
Thanks for yet another great review! I’ve a 4770K right in front of me that needs a cheap place to run! Your expertise, and experience it appreciated!!!
By the way, I really want to win that car!!!
KingKookaluke
Morry,
Thanks for yet another
Morry,
Thanks for yet another great review! I’ve a 4770K right in front of me that needs a cheap place to run! Your expertise, and experience it appreciated!!!
By the way, I really want to win that car!!!
KingKookaluke
Morry,
Thanks for yet another
Morry,
Thanks for yet another great review! I’ve a 4770K right in front of me that needs a cheap place to run! Your expertise, and experience it appreciated!!!
By the way, I really want to win that car!!!
KingKookaluke