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Asus Rampage IV Extreme Edition
The Rampage IV Extreme Edition is going to find a home in many a high end enthusiast system, due to the ‘no compromises' design ethic. The Republic Of Gamers products are a showcase range for ASUS and after using this for the last week we can see why. The UEFI bios is well engineered, cleanly organised and offers a wide array of processor tweaks to get the most from the machine.
In a similar fashion to the P9X79 Deluxe, the Digi Power section of the bios offers many settings to stabilise and improve power delivery, especially when the processor is right at the redline. We were only limited by our cooling solution today, achieving stable overclock results at 4.9ghz and 5.0ghz, even if the temperatures were a little high to feel totally safe 24/7. That said, 4.8ghz from an inexpensive ‘all in one' liquid cooler is impressive and the subsequent results indicate performance levels previously unheard of.
Memory support is fantastic, and the cutting edge Corsair Dominator GTX8 operated at 2,400mhz without a hitch throughout our intensive test period.
The Rampage IV Extreme specification list is just as impressive as the P9X79 Deluxe board, while offering additional capabilities such as the LN2 switch for hardcore overclockers.
ASUS are releasing this product for £334.99, right at the top of their X79 range. It may be expensive, but if you have just spent over £800 on the new Core i7 3960X EE then we would assume that money is really not that big a concern. It is well worth the cost because it is the most impressive motherboard released today for the X79 platform.
Pros:
- UEFI is very impressive.
- Good overclocker, only limited by cooling.
- 2,400mhz memory worked without a problem.
- Good PCB layout.
Cons:
- Its expensive.
Kitguru says: Another brilliant motherboard from the ASUS Republic Of Gamers team.
Intel Core i7 3960X Extreme Edition Processor
I use the X58 platform on a regular basis, between multi monitor work based environments and for bursts of gaming …. on the rare occasion that I manage to get some downtime that is. Intel's 970, 980X and 990X have been personal favourites of mine now for some time, but X58 was long overdue a refresh. We can safely say that the Core i7 3960X Extreme Edition has rewritten the performance charts, even before we get to overclocking.
Intel are promoting the new X79 platform as a ‘master of all trades', and we fail to find a valid argument against this. It can not only outperform any system on the market when it comes to gaming prowess, but for more serious duties such as 3D rendering and video encoding it is without question, in a class of its own.
While the Core architecture is both efficient and brutally powerful on a clock per core basis, the quad channel memory architecture is responsible for further enhancing the overall system performance. SiSoft Sandra gives an indication of almost 50 GB/s of bandwidth available from this 2,400 mhz Quad channel configuration, which is over twice the performance of the previous generation.
Overclocking the Core i7 3960X EE is relatively easy, with our sample needing a little more ‘Digi Power' bios tuning after pushing past 4.7ghz. Intel supplied a reference sheet with their DX79SI motherboard which said it should only need around 1.44 volts to achieve 4.8ghz, but all processors will vary, even from within the same batch.
Achieving 4.7ghz with our sample only required 1.41 volts and we would probably run this CPU at that speed 24/7. It really will depend on your cooling solution, but there is definitely plenty of headroom in the right hands, even with a mainstream ‘all in one' liquid cooler. In the hands of the hardcore overclockers we are sure that some crazy, yet stable 5.2ghz+ speeds will be possible.
AMD have unfortunately not released a solution to target this ultra high end enthusiast sector and we are left with the FX 8150 Black Edition, which in reality fails to even outclass Intel's ‘mainstream high end' Core i7 2600k or 2700k. That said, we were also surprised to see that the FX 8150 could actually demand more watts at the socket than this i7 3960X EE, depending on the settings.
UK pricing has not yet been confirmed for the i7 3960X Extreme Edition, but as we said earlier in the review, we would make an educated guess around £800 inc vat. Sure its expensive, but like the last generation 970, 980X and 990X this new chip redefines the ultra high end sector. A selection of the enthusiast audience will be willing to pay for this.
Pros:
- Sets a new performance level.
- Great overclocking capabilities, only limited by the cooling solution.
- Quad Channel memory architecture is a significant new technology.
- Ideal for 3D Rendering and video encoding.
- Power consumption demands are relatively modest at reference settings.
Cons:
- It is a significant financial investment.
Kitguru says: If performance is your primary concern then the Core i7 3960X EE should be right at the top of your shortlist.
Corsair Dominator GTX8 2,400 mhz DDR3
Corsair have supported our launch today by supplying several kits of high performance memory, but without question the Dominator GTX8 2,400mhz is the most impressive memory kit we have tested to date. After a few manual adjustments, and increasing the auto voltage to 1.65 – the Dominator GT worked flawlessly throughout all the tests, returning a bandwidth score of almost 50 GB/s and setting a new record in the process.
Additionally we noticed some gains when running Cinebench R11.5 64 bit and video encoding applications, which indicate that the extra bandwidth does further enhance the overall system performance of the X79 platform.
Pros:
- Lightning fast – around 50 GB/s of memory bandwidth available.
- 2,400mhz Quad channel is the ultimate configuration today.
- We love the appearance.
Cons:
- $500 for the 8GB kit.
- oversized heatspreaders might cause fitting issues with some CPU coolers.
Kitguru says: If you want the best memory on the market today, then this should be right at the top of your shortlist.
Great mobo ! but ouch on price (although expected for ROG).
That motherboard is friggin hardcore. 2400mhz memory?! awesome. probably cost £500 in the UK if they ever bring it out here however!
50GB of bandwidth with that Corsair GTX8 memory? I wet myself.
What beautiful memory too, stole the show for me today, never mind the 3960X… (which is good too I guess :p)
Great article, I would have liked to see the temperatures of that 2400mhz memory. I would say the oversized heatspreaders arent there for just show.
I cant believe the result of 50 GB/s of bandwidth with it, thats off the chart.
Great review, as always. One thing though, in the future will this CPU be used to bench new cards? Cause i think for gaming, from the small data i see in the review, it’s not the best performance/$ nor will it be affordable to 99% of gamers out there which would rather spend the cash on video cards.
No, I don’t think we will use it much for ‘general’ reviews in coming months. probably a 2600k system for those.
That Corsair memory is mindblowing. look at the design ! spectacular!
For video editing and 3d work, this is stunning. for the f irst time ive seen how high spec memory can make a difference. 2,400mhz is amazing, but can it overclock more?
Hey man, if you ever want a home for that 590 GTX QUAD SLI system, let me know.
almost 1kw from the socket. lol.
/jealous .
over 63k with 3dmark vantage? I seriously need a system upgrade, about to cry 🙁
Its a great setup, but its not mainstream or even for most enthusiast users. the price of the CPU alone means you could get a decent system, but in regards to technology its a bad sign for AMD, they are so far behind now its not even funny
Seems overkill for most users, if I played games at night and encoding video during the day, sure. but its a 2600k for me im afraid.
I love asus products. I bought one of their rampage boards a few years ago and its still working perfectly at a mad OC level.
LN2 switch is cool, wonder how many people at home would use thaT? any benefits for an ordinary user when ocing or just LN2?
Great review guys. love those high res images for board detail.
I am buying this setup when it is available. thanks for details. going to cost me 3k or so but I already have two GTX590s 🙂
I really do want to get hold of some of that memory from Corsair, that is insanely good.
How about WEI score? Can i7-3960x reach perfect 7.9? I have read many reviews that there is no processor that reach it without extreme overclocking.
Wei , the windows experience index?
Yes 7.9.
Anyone notice that Asus did not make the Rampage IV extreme with bluetooth V3.0… they are using the old 2.1 version, likely to continue the sells of they’re current Rampage III Black Edition.
Guess, they want me to wait until they come out with another black edition only for the Rampage IV?
Yeah thats weird, why would they do that?
Wow, this is cool, Intel Core i7-3960x EE is the first desktop processor capable of reaching the WEI (Windows Experience Index) perfect 7.9 at stock speed (3.30 GHz).
For the other components that have reached 7.9: DDR3 memory > 12 GB, HD 6970 or GTX 580 or faster, 200 GB or higher SATA 6 Gbps SSD.