Overclocking and Conclusion
Overclocking
To give a feel for the overclocking performance potential of the Rampage V Extreme motherboard, we attempted to push it to known CPU-supported performance parameters with minimal tweaking. We were able to get the board to boot into the OS with a base clock of 125MHz, the CPU running at 4.5GHz, and memory running at 2666MHz with the system remaining rock solid while running the stability testing for over 4 hours. 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 32GB (4 x 8GB) of Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR3-2666 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
The ASUS Rampage V Extreme board performed well at stock settings and when overclocked when compared with the other Intel X99-based systems.
Pricing
As of January 08, the ASUS Rampage V Extreme motherboard was available at Amazon.com for $474.99 with Prime shipping. The board was also available from Newegg.com for $474.99.
Conclusion
The ASUS Rampage V Extreme is a testament to the ASUS ROG line with design aesthetics and performance that mesh in an almost perfect synthesis. The board features a black and red color scheme, common to the ROG product line, with all integrated components and ports colored to mesh into the design aesthetics. ASUS also included an aluminum overlay over the rear panel and upper VRM heat sink, giving the board a more uniform look. The E-ATX form factor allowed ASUS to integrate an enormous amount of extra features into the board, making it one of the most feature-rich offerings among the Intel X99 boards from all manufacturers. Its performance is nothing to balk at with it easily meeting our expectations. This board should give you no issues no matter what you throw at it.
The one concern with the board was the design decisions with respect to the bandwidth sharing among the PCIe slots and other integrated device ports. The sharing between the fourth red PCIe x16 slot and the M.2 port limits the performance of a high end systems, forcing the PCIe x16 slot to x4 mode when using an M.2 SSD. This is not problematic when using the graphics card for PhysX style processing only, but could affect system performance when attempting to use the system in 3 or 4-card SLI or CrossFireX mode. The other sharing-related oddity is the design between the black PCIe x16 slot, the left-most USB 3.0 ports in the rear panel, the PCIe x1 slot, and the ASMedia-controlled SATA-Express slots. As designed, you can use the black PCIe x16 slot in full x4 mode by sacrificing use of the other shared ports (the left-most USB 3.0 ports in the rear panel, the PCIe x1 slot, and the ASMedia-controlled SATA-Express ports). Note that this type of device bandwidth sharing is not uncommon among higher-end solutions, but changes slightly board-to-board based on how the manufacturer designs the board to split the available bandwidth between integrated devices.
Strengths
- Stock performance
- Overclocking potential and performance
- Board aesthetics
- Board design and layout
- CPU socket layout and spacing
- UEFI BIOS design and usability
- CMOS battery placement
- Performance of Intel GigE NIC
- Placement of M.2 port
- OC Panel device and integration
- Number of integrated device ports
Weaknesses
- Shared usage between PCI-Express ports and integrated device ports
- Price
- Lack of CMOS reset jumper
You appear to have “Courtesy
You appear to have “Courtesy of Gigabyte” dotted around on this article; perhaps you mean “Courtesy of Asus”
You know its Morry that has
You know its Morry that has written this right? We all love him and his work, but he is quite like that grandparent we all have that sometimes puts their shoe in the oven and the milk in the washer.
Thanks for the heads up, its
Thanks for the heads up, its fixed now…
Morry! You magnificent
Morry! You magnificent bastard, I read your article! ~ Derivative quote taken from “Patton” starring Geo. C Scott. 😉
Looks like a good board.
Looks like a good board. Especially now that EK posted a picture of a full coverage monoblock for the Rampage V. Might look into it for an upgrade from an X79 Sabertooth.
Anyone by any chance have an idea why the 2nd card in a crossfire setup would stop being detected in windows after installing Gskill 3333MHz ram?
it *might* be a PCIe voltage
it *might* be a PCIe voltage issue. Try bumping up your chipset related voltages a bit and see if that helps. What speed are you attempting to run the memory at? Could also be that that board cannot maintain stability at spec'd memory speeds with the new DIMMs
It was a client’s PC so I
It was a client’s PC so I don’t have it available anymore. The ram in question had an XMP profile of 3333MHz 1.35V CL16-16-16-36. Wouldn’t always boot at 3333MHz. 3200MHz would work so it was set to that. But I hadn’t thought to check the PCI-E voltage. If I come across the board again I’ll definitely look into that.
The guy was dead set on returning the PC anyways and brought it to me to see if I could get it going. I think the board was just set on making a fool of me.
Better that board than any of
Better that board than any of us! 🙂
Weird, you list “weakness” as
Weird, you list “weakness” as lacking a clear CMOS jumper, but it has a clear CMOS button on the back panel. See your own photo:
https://pcper.com/image/view/51285?return=node%2F62100
Lower left corner just above the ROG connect/USB BIOS Flashback button. It is labeled CLR CMOS
clear CMOS button and clear
clear CMOS button and clear CMOS jumper are different. Jumper can be used to clear all BIOS settings in conjuction with removing the CMOS battery reliably. CMOS button is not as reliable at doing this in practice. The jumper just gives a bit more control over the operation…
I have this board and the
I have this board and the clear CMOS button does exactly as the clear CMOS jumper does on all the other boards I own. It clears the CMOS and resets to default values.
A jumper is nothing more than two pins that when jumpered shorts a circuit, this is what clears the CMOS, it shorts the power to ground.
If you like you can put a DVM on it and test it yourself. They are indeed on in the same.
I have this board and the
I have this board and the clear CMOS button does exactly as the clear CMOS jumper does on all the other boards I own. It clears the CMOS and resets to default values.
A jumper is nothing more than two pins that when jumpered shorts a circuit, this is what clears the CMOS, it shorts the power to ground.
If you like you can put a DVM on it and test it yourself. They are indeed on in the same.
Noctua NH-D15 cooler seems to
Noctua NH-D15 cooler seems to be very close to the graphics card PCB. What non-conductive material would you use inbetween? Or, in your experience, does it even matter?
If you’re concerned when
If you're concerned when using a cooler like that, you could use one of the following (most of which I have used in my many liquid cooled and force-refrigeration-cooled systems):
– duct-tape
– neoprene pad (thin with adhesive on one side)
– conformal coating -> have to be careful with this, not to get any on conductive surfaces as it will insulate them very well
– backplate for the video card
Thank you so much for the
Thank you so much for the reply
I’ll definitely go with the Neoprene pad and GPU backplate solutions
I always wanted a 140mm kinda Noctua CPU cooler because I simply don’t trust even the 1 in a million chance that there’d be a leakage from CPU water cooling, and that that would be my CPU water cooler purchase
Will be this mobo compatible
Will be this mobo compatible with the next 2016-2017 HMC as replacement for DDR memories ? THKS
unknown, but unlikely based
unknown, but unlikely based on previous Intel release cycles…
I own this mobo an its been
I own this mobo an its been nothing but a nightmare for me. It resets on its own. Locks up. BSOD I have changed power supplies done everything I can think of best advise stay away.
please dont tell ppl to stay
please dont tell ppl to stay away from a board that i have and totally love, you just had a bad board which can happen with any board out there, so no dont stay away from thus board as a novice ocer this board is a beauty.