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With its distinctive ROG Armor, high-end audio system, and strong set of features, the Maximus VI Formula is a very good addition to Asus' Republic Of Gamers motherboards for the Z87 platform. It manages to bridge the price/performance gap that separates the mid-range Maximus VI Hero and the enthusiast-grade Maximus VI Extreme.
CPU overclocking performance on the Maximus VI Formula is as strong as any of the other Z87 motherboards that we have tested, excluding ASRock's Z87 OC Formula. A few simple adjustments in Asus' easy-to-use UEFI BIOS took us directly to 4.5GHz with ease.
The built-in BCLK overclocking profiles are convenient tools that allow practising overclockers to gain an idea of the frequencies their chip is vaguely capable of. Our particular 4770K was only able to boot using the 195MHz mode, but that was to be expected when the other profiles surpassed our perfectly-stable limit of 4.5GHz.
Memory overclocking capabilities of the Maximus VI Formula are very good. The rich UEFI BIOS gives experienced users plenty of flexibility in terms of BCLK adjustments, memory dividers, and power settings. We were able to push a 3000MHz Avexir Core Extreme Series memory kit to 3264MHz which is only 24MHz short of what ASRock's Z87 OC Formula achieved.
Overall, the Maximus VI Formula has the most alluring feature set of any Z87 ROG motherboard. The Advanced SupremeFX audio system features high-end electrical components designed to deliver excellent acoustic performance. Sonic Radar and Perfect Voice are compatible with the M6F, and so is GameFirst II network control. As is the case with the other Z87 Maximus boards, the Formula is outfitted with the newest set of ROG tools which include RAMDisk and SSD Secure Erase.
Part of the Formula's increased price tag over the Hero has been sunk into the bundled mPCIe Combo II card which brings 802.11ac WiFi, Bluetooth and an M.2 SSD connection. On the other end of the scale, the Formula's reduced cost against the Extreme is related to an omitted PLX PEX8747 lane switch and the lack of ROG OC Panel.
The Maximus VI Formula's general usage features are good. Ten SATA 6Gb/s ports, up to eight USB 3.0 connections, and room for three graphics cards is likely to please a large proportion of buyers in the circa-£260 motherboard market. A small minority of users may miss the support for 3-way SLI, and an even lesser number will frown at the headaches caused by two Nvidia cards being simultaneously used with a PCI-E x2 or x4 expansion device.
As we have seen many times in the past, and with Asus' other Maximus VI series motherboards, the ROG UEFI BIOS is superb. The layout is excellent, appearance is great, usage is simple, and the quantity of in-depth settings and parameters is ample. There really is nothing to dislike about the interface, nor is it easy to find any suggested improvements. I would not hesitate in saying that Asus' ROG UEFI is the best interface on the market.
Priced at £259.99 from Overclockers UK, the Maximus VI Formula is around £90 more expensive than the Hero, and roughly £55 cheaper than the Extreme. Given its feature set, the Formula could use a price drop to be sat more towards the middle of the Hero-to-Extreme price gap (and MSI's Z87 MPower MAX, for that matter). An extra £55 for the Maximus VI Extreme with ROG OC Panel, 4-way graphics support, and additional overclocking tools is within the wallet of many buyers. On the other hand, it is unlikely that the Hero's target audience will be tempted to upgrade to the Formula due to its significantly higher price tag.
ASRock's Z87 OC Formula (more specifically, the WiFi-equipped /AC variant), the Maximus VI Formula's biggest rival, is a stiff competitor to the Asus board. ASRock's similarly-priced option provides an extra USB 3.0 header, on-board status OLED, a protective coating, and four x16-length PCI-E slots. Asus' M6F also has points in its favour such as ROG Armor, an M.2 SSD slot, and the excellent ROG UEFI. To overclockers, the ASRock Z87 OC Formula is arguably the better buy. To gamers and general users, the two motherboards are much more closely matched.
Pros:
- Strong CPU and memory overclocking potential.
- Very good set of general usage features (ten SATA, 802.11ac WiFi, eight USB 3.0, M.2 SSD support).
- Plenty of ROG enhancements (Sonic Radar, Perfect Voice, RAMDisk, SSD Secure Erase).
- High-quality SupremeFX Formula audio system.
- ROG Armor.
- Excellent UEFI BIOS.
- Hybrid VRM cooling.
Cons:
- Only two USB 2.0 headers (one shared with ROG_EXT connector).
- Could use a price drop to become more competitive.
- No water cooling fittings included.
- Limitations with dual-card SLI and a PCI-E x2 or x4 expansion device may affect a very small minority of users.
KitGuru says: A very good addition to Asus' Republic Of Gamers series of Z87 motherboards, the ROG Armor-equipped Maximus VI Formula is worth buying if you're a high-end gamer who also likes to overclock.
Have mine ordered, cant wait to get it. thanks for the review. ive just bought some 2,800mhz memory, hope it works!
I really dislike the thermal armor, had it on my sabertooth and took it off, makes no difference and makes getting at some buttons tricky. good board though.
Great read Luke, looks like another winner for ASUS, but I fail to see the benefits of the armor really unless you added fans to circulate air underneath it. It would isolate GPU heat from above, that is good, but the stagnant air underneath the plastic would stay close to the capacitors, right? Am I missing something?
OMG it’s here. >.< Thank you so much for the review.
If I didin't already have this at hand ( arrived yesterday), I would have been worried because of the rating, which BTW I don't understand why the low rating seeing as it didn't do that bad at all. In fact I had to read the whole review carefully to see where it all went wrong but for the life of me, I can't find the negatives that matter. I only use one card so the lane speed issue doesn't affect me and By the Gods, Extreme and Hero don't have anything on how sexy This Beast looks or just how awesomely powerful it feels in hand. I would gladly drop the extra cash just for those looks alone.
Now that I have seen no real issues where performance is concerned, I have no regrets for skipping Ivy-E this time around in favour of Has well. And it was all because of this sexy thing.
Thank you again for the review Luke, can I use you name?
“A small minority of users may miss the support for 3-way SLI, and an even lesser number will frown at the headaches caused by two Nvidia cards being simultaneously used with a PCI-E x2 or x4 expansion device.”
What about a PCI-E x1 device? I have a SoundBlaster X-Fi I would like to use along with 2 770 GTXs in SLI.
Simon,
The two graphics cards can be installed in the upper x16-length slots to use the CPU’s PCI-E 3.0 lanes (split as x8/x8 for each card).
If you install the PCI-E x1 sound card in one of the dedicated x1 slots, it will receive a PCI-E 2.0 lane from the Z87 chipset, and will not affect the bandwidth provided to your graphics cards.