Gigabyte Z68X-UD7-B3 Motherboard Review

While everyone waits with baited breath for AMD to release their new range of processors, we felt it was a good time to have a look at another Intel Z68 motherboard - the Gigabyte Z68X-UD7-B3. Gigabyte have earned a good reputation in the industry over the years for producing quality motherboards, alongside MSI and Asus. This year has been a great year for Intel, with the only blip on the radar being the highly publicised Cougar Point chipset SATA issues, which resulted in the B3 stepping being released to market. The P67 chipset has had to try and thrive in a market which has placed a certain stigma against it. Enter the Z68 platform, set to give Intel a 'fresh' start for Sandybridge. The Gigabyte Z68X-UD7-B3 is one of the flagship 1155 products from Gigabyte, created from the ground up for overclocking and high demand situations. Specifications list: CPU Support for Intel® Core™ i7 processors/Intel® Core™ i5 processors/ Intel® Core™ i3 processors/Intel® Pentium® processors/Intel® Celeron® processors in the LGA1155 package L3 cache varies with CPU (Please refer "CPU Support List" for more information.) Chipset Intel® Z68 Express Chipset Memory 4 x 1.5V DDR3 DIMM sockets supporting up to 32 GB of system memory * Due to Windows 32-bit operating system limitation, when more than 4 GB of physical memory is installed, the actual memory size displayed will be less than 4 GB. Dual channel memory architecture Support for DDR3 2133/1866/1600/1333/1066 MHz memory modules Support for non-ECC memory modules Support for Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) memory modules (Please refer "Memory Support List" for more information.) Audio Realtek ALC889 codec High Definition Audio 2/4/5.1/7.1-channel Support for Dolby® Home Theater Support for S/PDIF Out LAN 2 x Realtek RTL8111E chips (10/100/1000 Mbit) Support for Teaming Support for Smart Dual LAN Expansion Slots 2 x PCI Express x16 slots, running at x16 (PCIEX16_1, PCIEX16_2) * For optimum performance, if only one PCI Express graphics card is to be installed, be sure to install it in the PCIEX16_1 slot; if you are installing two PCI Express graphics cards, it is recommended that you install them in the PCIEX16_1 and PCIEX16_2 slots. 2 x PCI Express x16 slots, running at x8 (PCIEX8_1, PCIEX8_2) * The PCIEX8_1 slot shares bandwidth with the PCIEX16_1 slot and the PCIEX8_2 slot with PCIEX16_2. The PCIEX16_1/PCIEX16_2 slot will operate at up to x8 mode when the PCIEX8_1/PCIEX8_2 is populated. 1 x PCI Express x1 slot (All PCI Express slots conform to PCI Express 2.0 standard.) 2 x PCI slots Multi-Graphics Technology Support for 2-Way/3-Way ATI CrossFireX™/NVIDIA SLI technology Storage Interface Chipset: 2 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors (SATA3_0, SATA3_1) supporting up to 2 SATA 6Gb/s devices 4 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors (SATA2_2~SATA2_5) supporting up to 4 SATA 3Gb/s devices Support for SATA RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10 * When a RAID set is built across the SATA 6Gb/s and SATA 3Gb/s channels, the system performance of the RAID set may vary depending on the devices being connected. 2 x Marvell 88SE9128 chips: 2 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors (GSATA3_6, GSATA3_7) supporting up to 2 SATA 6Gb/s devices 2 x eSATA 6Gb/s connectors (eSATA/USB Combo) on the back panel supporting up to 2 SATA 6Gb/s devices Support for SATA RAID 0 and RAID 1 USB Chipset: Up to 8 USB 2.0/1.1 ports (4 on the back panel, including 2 eSATA/USB Combo, 4 via the USB brackets connected to the internal USB headers) 2 x Renesas D720200 chips and 2 x VLI VL810 hubs: Up to 10 USB 3.0/2.0 ports (6 on the back panel, 4 via the USB brackets connected to the internal USB headers) * The USB 2.0 signals of the 6 USB 3.0/2.0 ports on the back panel are from the Chipset. IEEE 1394 T.I. TSB43AB23 chip: Up to 3 IEEE 1394a ports (2 on the back panel, 1 via the IEEE 1394a bracket connected to the internal IEEE 1394a header) Internal I/O Connectors 1 x 24-pin ATX main power connector 1 x 8-pin ATX 12V power connector 4 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors 4 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors 1 x CPU fan header 3 x system fan headers 1 x power fan header 1 x Chipset fan header 1 x front panel header 1 x front panel audio header 1 x S/PDIF Out header 2 x USB 2.0/1.1 headers 2 x USB 3.0/2.0 headers 1 x IEEE 1394a header 1 x clearing CMOS button 1 x power button 1 x reset button Back Panel Connectors 1 x PS/2 keyboard/mouse port 1 x optical S/PDIF Out connector 1 x coaxial S/PDIF Out connector 2 x IEEE 1394a ports 2 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports 6 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports 2 x eSATA/USB Combo connectors 2 x RJ-45 ports 6 x audio jacks (Center/Subwoofer Speaker Out/Rear Speaker Out/Side Speaker Out/Line In/Line Out/Microphone) I/O Controller iTE IT8728 chip H/W Monitoring System voltage detection CPU/System temperature detection CPU/System/Power fan speed detection CPU overheating warning CPU/System/Power fan fail warning CPU/System fan speed control * Whether the CPU/system fan speed control function is supported will depend on the CPU/system cooler you install. BIOS 2 x 32 Mbit flash Use of licensed AWARD BIOS Support for DualBIOS™ PnP 1.0a, DMI 2.0, SM BIOS 2.4, ACPI 1.0b Unique Features Support for @BIOS Support for Q-Flash Support for Xpress BIOS Rescue Support for Download Center Support for Xpress Install Support for Xpress Recovery2 Support for EasyTune * Available functions in EasyTune may differ by motherboard model. Support for Dynamic Energy Saver™ 2 Support for Smart 6™ Support for Auto Green Support for eXtreme Hard Drive (X.H.D) Support for ON/OFF Charge Support for Cloud OC Support for Q-Share Bundle Software Norton Internet Security (OEM version) Operating System Support for Microsoft® Windows® 7/Vista/XP Form Factor ATX Form Factor; 30.5cm x 24.4cm Remark Due to different Linux support condition provided by chipset vendors, please download Linux driver from chipset vendors' website or 3rd party website. Most hardware/software vendors no longer offer support for Win9X/ME/2000/XP SP1/SP2. If drivers are available from the vendors, we will update them on the GIGABYTE website. The Gigabyte Z68X-UD7-B3 arrives in an eye catching black and gold accented box with so much information on the front it is hard to focus on any single point. The bundle includes SATA cables, literature on the product, case stickers, a 3.5 inch drive bay for USB 3.0, a 3.5 inch plate for eSATA, software disc and backplate. They also include a 2 way SLI dongle a and 3 way SLI bridge which are both very useful. Clearly it is a very comprehensive bundle and covers all bases. To say the motherboard is attractive, is an understatement. The black PCB matches up great with the gold and grey heatsinks. The expansion slots and memory slots are all black as well, meaning the colour scheme is simple yet effective. The back of the motherboard shows a total of 10 heatsink mounting screws, which are removable. The Gigabyte board has a seriously effective power configuration in place. There are 24 power phases across the design, basically a 12 phase PWM design doubled for added stability and overclocking goodness. Both power channels will work by default and scale depending on the power demand at hand. The PWM heatsink array is very impressive, with the accented gold edges complimented by the subtle grey paint on the main areas. In this area to the right (image above right) there is an 8 pin CPU power connector. The connector can be difficult to reach if you forget to hook in the power cable before a system build, but it is accessible. There are also several 3 pin power headers in the area for chassis and CPU fans. Gigabyte have clearly spent some time with the board layout. There is a handy reset, CMOS clear and power button for easy test access and all of the header panels are colour coded and labelled for ease of use during the install phase. The board has support for for 2-Way/3-Way ATI CrossFireX and NVIDIA SLI configurations. The platform supports dual channel memory, with the Z68X offering capacity configurations up to 32GB usable memory running at 2133mhz. There are eight SATA connectors on the board. The four black connectors to the left are SATA 3GBps rated, the two white connectors are SATA 6GBps rated from the Intel chipset and the two grey ports to the right are SATA 6GBps rated from the onboard Marvell 88SE9128 controller. The UD7 I/O Panel is loaded. There are eight USB ports in total, a PS/2 keyboard and mouse port, two firewire connectors, two eSATA connectors. Dual Gigabit ethernet ports are offered with 8 channel analog audio and two digital connections over optical. The Bios is unfortunately not one of the newer UEFI driven interface configurations, but it does offer a wide variety of settings, especially in regards to overclocking. As hoped, we managed to get the Intel Core i7 2600k overclocked to 4.8ghz with high end aircooling. Pretty much as good as we would expect without moving to watercooling or phase change. Higher speeds are possible, but the temperatures get too high, even with a Noctua NH D14. Below there are a variety of screenshots from various parts of the bios, highlighting some of the adjustments available. Let's take a quick look at the software on the disc provided. Gigabyte supply all the drivers necessary to get audio, lan and other functionality operational. There is also a quick install button which takes away much of the effort of clicking multiple buttons. After a couple of minutes, the software and drivers are all installed and a reboot is required. The Gigabyte Dynamic Energy Saver 2 software deserves a special mention. This is a software tool which lowers the power demand of various components in the system. As the images above show, by enabling it when idle, the power drain drops from almost 14 watts to just under 4 watts. If you leave a system on 24/7 idling, this would be a great option to enable. Today we will be testing the Gigabyte board with an Intel Core i7 2600k in an overclocked state @ 4.8ghz with various configurations of video card installed. Processor: Intel Core i7 2600k @ 4.8ghz Cooler: Noctua NH D14 Motherboard: Gigabyte Z68X-UD7-B3 Memory: ADATA 8GB DDR3 1600mhz gaming memory Drives: Intel 510 SSD 250GB and Samsung 2TB Power Supply: ADATA 1200W PSU Optical Drive: Asus BluRay SBC-06d1S-U Chassis: Thermaltake Level 10 GT Monitors: 3x Dell U2410 and Dell U3011 Ultrasharp. Graphics cards: AMD HD6990 Nvidia GTX580 Nvidia GTX570 AMD HD6970 AMD HD6950 Software: Windows 7 64 Bit Enterprise Edition Catalyst 11.5 Fraps Professional SiSoft Sandra CPUz GPUz CPUID Hardware Monitor Professional Cinebench R11.5 64 bit CyberLink PowerDvd 10 Ultra Cyberlink Media Espresso CrystalMark HDTach HQV Benchmark V 2.0 3DMark 11 Unigine Heaven Benchmark Games: Far Cry 2 Resident Evil 5 Battlefield Bad Company 2 Tom Clancy HAWX 2 Alien V Predator Lost Planet 2 Metro 2033 Dead Space 2 Batman Arkham Asylum Battleforge Crysis Warhead Devil May Cry 4 Left4Dead 2 All the latest BIOS updates and drivers are used during testing. We perform under real world conditions, meaning KitGuru tests across five closely matched runs and averages out the results to get an accurate median figure. Unigine provides an interesting way to test hardware. It can be easily adapted to various projects due to its elaborated software design and flexible toolset. A lot of their customers claim that they have never seen such extremely-effective code, which is so easy to understand. Heaven Benchmark is a DirectX 11 GPU benchmark based on advanced Unigine engine from Unigine Corp. It reveals the enchanting magic of floating islands with a tiny village hidden in the cloudy skies. Interactive mode provides emerging experience of exploring the intricate world of steampunk. Efficient and well-architected framework makes Unigine highly scalable: Multiple API (DirectX 9 / DirectX 10 / DirectX 11 / OpenGL) render Cross-platform: MS Windows (XP, Vista, Windows 7) / Linux Full support of 32bit and 64bit systems Multicore CPU support Little / big endian support (ready for game consoles) Powerful C++ API Comprehensive performance profiling system Flexible XML-based data structures We use the following settings: 1920×1080 resolution. Anti Aliasing off. Anisotrophy 4, Tessellation normal. Shaders High. Stereo 3D disabled. API: Direct X 11. We test at 1080p so that all video cards can be compared throughout our reviews. Obviously driver updates might enhance performance slightly over time, but as a rule, its a useful way for us to present the findings. The results are very close to the last Z68 board we reviewed, and in line with P67 testing in previous reviews. CINEBENCH R11.5 64 Bit is a real-world cross platform test suite that evaluates your computer’s performance capabilities. CINEBENCH is based on MAXON’s award-winning animation software CINEMA 4D, which is used extensively by studios and production houses worldwide for 3D content creation. MAXON software has been used in blockbuster movies such as Spider-Man, Star Wars, The Chronicles of Narnia and many more. CINEBENCH is the perfect tool to compare CPU and graphics performance across various systems and platforms (Windows and Mac OS X). And best of all: It’s completely free. The 2600k is a powerhouse processor and at 4.8ghz it generates the similar performance levels as the reference clocked 6 core Core i7 990x, at a third of the price. SiSoftware Sandra (the System ANalyser, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant) is an information & diagnostic utility. It should provide most of the information (including undocumented) you need to know about your hardware, software and other devices whether hardware or software. Sandra is a (girl’s) name of Greek origin that means “defender”, “helper of mankind”. We think that’s quite fitting. It works along the lines of other Windows utilities, however it tries to go beyond them and show you more of what’s really going on. Giving the user the ability to draw comparisons at both a high and low-level. You can get information about the CPU, chipset, video adapter, ports, printers, sound card, memory, network, Windows internals, AGP, PCI, PCI-X, PCIe (PCI Express), database, USB, USB2, 1394/Firewire, etc. Native ports for all major operating systems are available: Windows XP, 2003/R2, Vista, 7, 2008/R2 (x86) Windows XP, 2003/R2, Vista, 7, 2008/R2 (x64) Windows 2003/R2, 2008/R2* (IA64) Windows Mobile 5.x (ARM CE 5.01) Windows Mobile 6.x (ARM CE 5.02) All major technologies are supported and taken advantage of: SMP – Multi-Processor MC – Multi-Core SMT/HT – Hyper-Threading MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE 4.1, SSE 4.2, AVX, FMA – Multi-Media instructions GPGPU, DirectX, OpenGL – Graphics NUMA – Non-Uniform Memory Access AMD64/EM64T/x64 – 64-bit extensions to x86 IA64 – Intel* Itanium 64-bit Scores below in the graphs are from the 2600k running at 4.8ghz. At 4.8ghz, the Core i7 2600k delivers great results in Sandra. A very important part of overall system responsiveness is down to hard drive performance. We use two of our favourite benchmark utilities Crystalmark X64 Edition and HD Tach to rate the Intel 510 250GB from the onboard SATA 6GBps controller. The Intel 510 250GB SSD generates a sequential read score of 504 MB/s which is the highest we have achieved yet from this particular drive. The Sapphire Mini ITX H67 motherboard by comparison peaked at 475.8MB/s with the same drive. I have been using HDTach for many years now and always find it is an invaluable benchmark to ascertain potential levels of performance. HD Tach is a low level hardware benchmark for random access read/write storage devices such as hard drives, removable drives (ZIP/JAZZ), flash devices, and RAID arrays. HD Tach uses custom device drivers and other low level Windows interfaces to bypass as many layers of software as possible and get close to the physical performance of the device. An average bandwidth figure of over 386 MB/s is very strong for this particular test and is actually one of the highest scores we have achieved. The ATTO Disk Benchmark performance measurement tool is compatible with Microsoft Windows. Measure your storage systems performance with various transfer sizes and test lengths for reads and writes. Several options are available to customize your performance measurement including queue depth, overlapped I/O and even a comparison mode with the option to run continuously. Use ATTO Disk Benchmark to test any manufacturers RAID controllers, storage controllers, host adapters, hard drives and SSD drives and notice that ATTO products will consistently provide the highest level of performance to your storage. Again, some great results with this Gigabyte Z68X-UD7-B3 and Intel 510 250GB pairing, some of the best results with the Intel 510 250GB SSD yet. AS SSD is a great free tool designed just for benching Solid State Drives. It performs an array of sequential read and write tests, as well as random read and write tests with sequential access times over a portion of the drive. AS SSD includes a sub suite of benchmarks with various file pattern algorithms but this is difficult in trying to judge accurate performance figures. Great results from the combination, with sequential transfer rates surpassing 475 MB/s read and 311 MB/s write respectively. HQV Benchmark 2.0 is an updated version of the original tool and it consists of various video clips and test patterns which are designed to evalute motion correction, de-interlacing, decoding, noise reduction, detail enhancement and film cadence detection. There are two versions of the program, standard definition on DVD and high definition on Bluray. As our audience will be concentrating on HD content so will we. This has a total of 39 video tests which is increased from 23 in the original and the scoring is also up from a total of 130 to 210. As hardware and software gets more complicated, the software has been tuned to make sure we can thoroughly maximise our analysis. Read our initial analysis over here Sapphire HD6990 Dial 4 Dial with static pattern 5 Gray Bars 5 Violin 5 Stadium 2:2 5 Stadium 3:2 5 Horizontal Text Scroll 5 Vertical Text Scroll 5 Transition to 3:2 Lock 5 Transition to 2:2 Lock 0 2:2:2:4 24 FPS DVCAM Video 5 2:3:3:2 24 FPS DVCam Video 5 3:2:3:2:2 24 FOS Vari-Speed 5 5:5 FPS Animation 5 6:4 12 FPS Animation 5 8:7 8 FPS Animation 5 Interlace Chroma Problem (ICP) 5 Chroma Upsampling Error (CUE) 5 Random Noise: Sailboat 5 Random Noise: Flower 5 Random Noise: Sunrise 5 Random Noise: Harbour Night 5 Scrolling Text 5 Roller Coaster 5 Ferris Wheel 5 Bridge Traffic 5 Text Pattern/ Scrolling Text 5 Roller Coaster 5 Ferris Wheel 5 Bridge Traffic 5 Luminance Frequency Bands 5 Chrominance Frequency Bands 5 Vanishing Text 5 Resolution Enhancement 15 Theme Park 5 Driftwood 5 Ferris Wheel 5 Skin Tones 7 Total 196 The Gigabyte Z68X with HD6990 scores 196 points out of 210, which is class leading right now. Our good friends at Cyberlink kindly supplied the software for our BluRay and conversion tests. Cyberlink PowerDVD 11 is one of the finest solutions for the BluRay experience on Windows and we found this software to work perfectly with this chipset. We tested with the new Bluray Disc of TRON LEGACY. CPU utilisation averages 9 percent across all the 1080p content testing. CPU time moves between 4 percent and 20 percent, indicating that there is plenty of free cycles left for multitasking in the background if needed. Many people using this system will be enjoying Flash related content so we feel it is important to test with some of the more demanding material available freely online. Full hardware acceleration is enabled. The overclocked Core i7 2600k has no problems rendering high definition Flash HD content, averaging 5 percent utilisation. CyberLink MediaEspresso 6 is the successor to CyberLink MediaShow Espresso 5.5. With its further optimized CPU/GPU-acceleration, MediaEspresso is an even faster way to convert not only your video but also your music and image files between a wide range of popular formats. Now you can easily playback and display your favourite movies, songs and photos not just on your mobile phone, iPad, PSP, Xbox, or Youtube and Facebook channels but also on the newly launched iPhone 4. Compile, convert and enjoy images and songs on any of your computing devices and enhance your videos with CyberLink’s built-in TrueTheater Technology. New and Improved Features Ultra Fast Media Conversion – With support from the Intel Core i-Series processor family, ATI Stream & NVIDIA CUDA, MediaEspresso’s Batch-Conversion function enables multiple files to be transcoded simultaneously. Smart Detect Technology – MediaEspresso 6 automatically detects the type of portable device connected to the PC and selects the best multimedia profile to begin the conversion without the need for user’s intervention. Direct Sync to Portable Devices – Video, audio and image files can be transferred in a few easy steps to mobile phones including those from Acer, BlackBerry, HTC, Samsung, LG, Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, and Palm, as well as Sony Walkman and PSP devices. Enhanced Video Quality – CyberLink TrueTheater Denoise and Lighting enables the enhancement of video quality through optical noise filters and automatic brightness adjustment. Video, Music and Image File Conversion – Convert not only videos to popular formats such as AVI, MPEG, MKV, H.264/AVC, and FLV at the click of a button, but also images such as JPEG and PNG and music files like WMA, MP3 and M4A. Online Sharing – Conversion to video formats used by popular social networking websites and a direct upload feature means posting videos to Facebook and YouTube has never been easier. For our testing today we are converting a 3.3GB 720p MKV file (2h:12mins) to Apple Mp4 format for playback on a portable device. This is a common procedure for many people and will give a good indication of system power. We are using the newest version which has been optimised for Sandybridge processors. Nvidia Cuda acceleration is disabled, then enabled. Both times are recorded. With hardware acceleration disabled, the time taken was 9 minutes and 7 seconds. When enabling the GTX580 hardware acceleration via CUDA the time is reduced significantly to 7 minutes and 22 seconds. The same task takes around 1 hour and minutes with an Intel ATOM powered system. We are now going to test the USB 3.0 and 2.0 speed, so we used one of the fastest drives we have, the Kingston HyperX Max 3.0 128GB, which is an Toshiba based SSD product within a USB 3.0 capable enclosure. We copied a 3.9GB MKV file to and from the Kingston and Intel drives. Good results, highlighting great USB 3.0 performance from the Gigabyte board. Far Cry 2 (commonly abbreviated as “FC2 or “fc2″) is an open-ended first-person shooter developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It was released on October 21, 2008 in North America and on October 23, 2008 in Europe and Australia. It was made available on Steam on October 22, 2008. Crytek, the developers of the original game, were not involved in the development of Far Cry 2. Ubisoft has marketed Far Cry 2 as the true sequel to Far Cry, though the sequel has very few noticeable similarities to the original game. Instead, it features completely new characters and setting, as well as a new style of gameplay that allows the player greater freedom to explore different African landscapes such as deserts, jungles, and savannas. The game takes place in a modern-day East African nation in a state of anarchy and civil war. The player takes control of a mercenary on a lengthy journey to locate and assassinate “The Jackal,” a notorious arms dealer. Far Cry 2 is still a popular game and the open world environment can be taxing on even the latest hardware available today. Settings: 1920×1200, D3D10, Disable Artificial Intelligence(No), Full Screen, Anti-Aliasing(8x), VSync(No), Overall Quality(Ultra High), Vegetation(Very High), Shading(Ultra High), Terrain(Ultra High), Geometry(Ultra High), Post FX(High), Texture(Ultra High), Shadow(Ultra High), Ambient(High), Hdr(Yes), Bloom(Yes), Fire(Very High), Physics(Very High), RealTrees(Very High) Very similar results to previous P67 testing over the last couple of months. Resident Evil 5, known in Japan as Biohazard 5, is a survival horror third-person shooter video game developed and published by Capcom. The game is the seventh installment in the Resident Evil survival horror series, and was released on March 5, 2009 in Japan and on March 13, 2009 in North America and Europe for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. A Windows version of the game was released on September 15, 2009 in North America, September 17 in Japan and September 18 in Europe. Resident Evil 5 revolves around Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar as they investigate a terrorist threat in Kijuju, a fictional town in Africa. Within its first three weeks of release, the game sold over 2 million units worldwide and became the best-selling game of the franchise in the United Kingdom. As of December, 2009, Resident Evil 5 has sold 5.3 million copies worldwide since launch, becoming the best selling Resident Evil game ever made. An older game, but one we would consider a Direct X 10 'classic'. It runs well across a wide range of high end hardware, falling in line with previous P67 and X68 boards we have tested in recent months. Battlefield: Bad Company 2, released in March 2010 by Electronics Arts, is the most successful DirectX 11 title so far. Even though it contains a full single-player campaign during which the player has to work with a squad to secure a secret weapon, the game is most well known for its fast paced, exciting multiplayer squad action. A demanding game as shown by the results and a more difficult test for the lower end hardware in the review. The GTX580 is the ideal card for these settings, powering through it with high frame rates. Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. 2 is an arcade-style flight action game developed by Ubisoft Romania and published by Ubisoft. After the events of the first game, the H.A.W.X squadron is sent to Middle East, where a high level of violence is being registered, and the appearance of various insurgents leaders in various hotspots. The team also has to investigate the mysterious disappearance of Russian nuclear weapons. The player will be controlling three groups: one American (Hunter), one British (Munro) and one Russian (Sokov), each with its own pilots and supporting characters. There will also be references to other characters in the Tom Clancy universe. We are testing in full DX11 mode with all settings to maximum. All cards power through this engine without a problem. The GTX series is particularly strong with this optimised engnie. Aliens V Predator has proved to be a big seller since the release and Sega have taken the franchise into new territory after taking it from Sierra. AVP is a Direct X 11 supported title and delivers not only advanced shadow rendering but high quality tessellation for the cards on test today. To test the cards we used a 1080p resolution with DX11, Texture Quality Very High, MSAA Samples 1, 16 af, ambient occulsion on, shadow complexity high, motion blur on. We use this with most of our graphics card testing so cards are comparible throughout reviews. Alien V Predator is a demanding Direct X 11 title although all the cards on test today generate playable frame rates at these settings. Lost Planet 2 is a third-person shooter video game developed and published by Capcom. The game is the sequel to Lost Planet: Extreme Condition which is also made by Capcom, taking place ten years after the events of the first game, on the same fictional planet. The story takes place back on E.D.N. III 10 years after the events of the first game. The snow has melted to reveal jungles and more tropical areas that have taken the place of more frozen regions. The plot begins with Mercenaries fighting against Jungle Pirates. After destroying a mine, the Mercenaries continue on to evacuate the area, in which a Category-G Akrid appears and attacks them. After being rescued, they find out their evacuation point (Where the Category-G appeared) was a set-up and no pick up team awaited them. Lost Planet 2 runs on the MT-Framework 2.0, an updated version of the engine used in several Capcom-developed games. We are testing in DX11 mode with all settings on the highest. Direct X 11 features are on high. Another demanding, if dull game. The Direct X 11 engine can task a system, although with the high end hardware in an overclocked state the results are very good across all the cards on test today. Metro 2033 is an action-oriented video game with a combination of survival horror and first-person shooter elements. The game is based on the novel Metro 2033 by Russian author Dmitry Glukhovsky. It was developed by 4A Games in Ukraine and released in March 2010 for the Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows. The game utilizes multi-platform 4A Engine, running on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Microsoft Windows. There is some contention regarding whether the engine is based on the pre-release X-Ray engine (as claimed by Sergiy Grygorovych, the founder of GSC Game World, as well as users who have seen the 4A Engine SDK screenshots, citing visual similarities, shared resources, and technical evaluation of the pre-release 4A Engine demo conducted at the request of GSC Game World), or whether the engine is an original development (as claimed by 4A Games and Oles’ Shiskovtsov in particular) who claims it would have been impractical to retrofit the X-ray engine with console support). The PC version includes exclusive features such as DirectX 11 support and has been described as “a love letter to PC gamers” because of the developers’ choice “to make the PC version [especially] phenomenal”. Another demanding engine and one that separates the men from the boys. The HD6950 struggles at these settings, and the HD6970 barely maintains playable frame rates. Dead Space 2 is a survival horror third-person shooter. The player controls Isaac Clarke from a third-person point of view, looking over the character’s right shoulder. The game features no HUD elements, relying on holograms projected from the player character and his weapons to show information such as messages and ammunition count, respectively. Player health and stasis is shown by a visual indicators located on Isaac’s back. Isaac must fight an alien organism that infects and takes control of human corpses, turning them into “Necromorphs”, mutating their bodies. Necromorphs must be dismembered as the alien organism controls host bodies via tentacles extending into their limbs. Other, larger types of Necromorphs that cannot be dismembered will often have yellow, glowing pustules, indicating weak spots. Occasionally, when an enemy gets close enough to Isaac, they will grab a hold of him, and the player must repeatedly press a key to fend off the enemy, with failure to do so leading to death of the player character. CPU limiting is a problem with this test, even with an overclocked Core i7. Still it is hardly a concern as the frame rate results are incredible, even from the single HD6970. Batman: Arkham Asylum is played as an over-the-shoulder, third-person perspective action-adventure game. The player controls Batman as he makes his way around the island and structures of Arkham Asylum. In addition to running, jumping and crouching, Batman is also able to glide from heights using his cape, and use his grapple gun to ascend short heights or escape and hide from foes onto gargoyle statues. In order to track Joker and other enemies, the player can switch in and out of “detective mode,” which activates special visors in Batman’s Cowl. In this mode, most of the game world is rendered in darker colors, but objects of interest and people are highlighted, including limited x-ray ability to detect the location of people. Special objects with which Batman can interact, either directly or using various gadgets gained over the course of the game, are also highlighted. In some sections of the game, the detective mode is augmented to detect compounds, fingerprints, and other clues, which are used to direct the player to the next location to explore. A classic game which was received well by both the critics and public. At this super high resolution the HD6990 has no problem generating some fantastic frame rate figures. BattleForge is a video game developed by EA Phenomic and published by Electronic Arts. It was released on Windows in March 2009. A demo was released in the same month. BattleForge is a card based RTS. It revolves around trading, buying and winning through means of micro-transactions. Micro-transactions are not required for playing the game, only for buying new cards. It supports DirectX 11 providing full support for hardware tesselation. Excellent Crossfire scaling at this resolution, peaking at an average of 81 fps. Crysis Warhead, like the original Crysis, is set in the near future when an ancient alien spacecraft is discovered on an island east of the Philippines. The single-player campaign has the player assume the role of former SAS Delta Force operator Sergeant Michael Sykes, referred to in-game by his call sign, Psycho. Psycho’s arsenal of futuristic weapons builds on those showcased in Crysis, with the introduction of Mini-SMGs which can be dual-wielded, a six-shot grenade launcher equipped with EMP grenades, and the destructive, short ranged Plasma Accumulator Cannon (PAX). The highly versatile Nanosuit returns. In Crysis Warhead, the player fights North Korean and extraterrestrial enemies, in many different locations, such as a tropical island jungle, inside an “Ice Sphere”, an underground mining complex, which is followed by a convoy train transporting an unknown alien object held by the North Koreans, and finally, to an airfield. The engine is still a system killer, all these years later, but modern day hardware can finally generate the frame rates we wanted when it was released ! The game that has been used for years as the benchmark of system performance. A single card proves to be close to the borderline, but with two, the frame rates increase significantly. Devil May Cry 4 is an action game that was published and developed by Capcom in 2008 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Windows platforms. The game is the fourth installment to the Devil May Cry series. In the game, the player controls both Nero and Dante, the game’s protagonist and the series’ title character as they fight enemies in close combat using firearms, swords, and other weapons. The characters Lady and Trish from previous games in the series makes an appearance, along with new characters Nero, Kyrie, Credo, Gloria, and Agnus. The game is set after Devil May Cry but before Devil May Cry 2. We used Super high settings with HDR on high and 8aa and 16af to improve the image quality as much as possible. With even a single card, this game is playable at 7680×1080, although adding another certainly helps to increase the frame rates. Left 4 Dead 2 is a cooperative first-person shooter game. It is the sequel to Valve Corporation’s award-winning Left 4 Dead. Like the original, Left 4 Dead 2 is set during the aftermath of an apocalyptic pandemic, and focuses on four survivors fighting against hordes of the infected. The survivors must fight their way through levels, interspersed with safe houses that act as checkpoints, with the goal of reaching a rescue vehicle at the campaign’s finale. The gameplay is procedurally altered by an artificial intelligence engine dubbed the “Director” that monitors the players’ performance and adjust the scenario to provide a dynamic challenge. Several new features have been introduced: new types of infected, melee weapons, and a story-arc that connects the game’s five campaigns together. Another classic based on Valve's Source engine and used within many games today. Great results at this high resolution, even in single card mode. Gigabyte have been producing some very fine products in 2011, and the Z68X-UD7-B3 is certainly going to help define their status as one of the leading manufacturers of enthusiast grade motherboards. The bundle is comprehensive, offering cables, several drive bays and even multiple SLI adapters for hardcore system configurations. The 24 Phase PWM ensures that the motherboard is stable, even under heavily overclocked situations. At 4.8ghz-5.0ghz the only thing limiting the overclocking potential is the cooling. We also know for a fact that enthusiasts users don't care about onboard graphics capabilities on a board like this, and the Gigabyte Z68X board is a great pairing for a high end single or multi card configuration. Our Core i7 2600k delivered great results with this motherboard and while we managed to achieve 5 ghz when overclocking, the temperatures were too high for 24/7 use, which is why we tested at 4.8ghz with more reasonable voltage settings. The overall stability and performance is without question and we didn't experience any hard locking, apart from when we tried to push the 2600k past safe limits to 5.1ghz. We like the fact that Gigabyte have ditched the useless Lucid Hydra concept and opted for the Nvidia NF200 chip, as it brings 16x/16x bandwidth to both PCI E slots when using an SLI or Crossfire setup. We can't say this really gives any noticeable benefits in our dual card testing, but it is a good extra to have. Additionally, if you want to run 3 way SLI this board would bring gains to the table as it would run in 16x/8x/8x rather than a 8x/8x/4x configuration. Pros: Great build quality including 2oz copper PCB Appearance is fantastic Dual Gigabit LAN great for multi card configurations 24 Phase PWM offers highest levels of stability when overclocking Cons: It is an expensive motherboard KitGuru says: If you have under £300 budgeted for a new Intel Sandybridge motherboard then this is a great choice.

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Gigabyte Z68X-UD7-B3 Motherboard Review

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