discussion EVGA P67 FTW Motherboard Review

[Eldonko]

Test Setup and Testing Methodology

Test Setup and Testing Methodology

Test Setup

Our test setup consists of an Intel i7 2600k Sandy Bridge CPU, EVGA P67 FTW motherboard, and a kit of G.Skill memory. Here are a few shots of the setup and hardware:

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First we have the whole test bench up and running. As you can see we used watercooling (Apogee XT) for the CPU along with two heatercores. A second GTX 460 was also added for SLI testing.

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Above you can have a closer look at the CPU and memory. The 2600k used for testing was from batch L040B165.

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While we are looking at the test setup, here are the ECP Panel and EVGauge in action. Unfortunately one of the LED sections on out ECP Panel is dim and looks strange when certain digits are displayed.


Overclocking Methodology

At Hardware Canucks, we understand we have a diverse reader base and to represent a variety of user types, we put the P67 FTW through a number of overclocking tests.

• Beginner Overclocker - To represent a beginner overclocker or a mainstream user that wants to have a quick and easy way to get some extra performance we used the Dummy OC setting found in the BIOS.
• Experienced Overclocker - To represent an experienced overclocker that is looking for the optimal 24/7 overclock to maximize system performance while keeping voltage and temperatures in check we overclocked the P67 FTW manually and stopped when we started to get concerned with voltage levels.
• Advanced Bencher - To represent the bencher that is looking for short benchmark runs at absolute maximum CPU and memory clocks we tested with sub-zero cooling and higher than recommended voltages. More on this is found in the sub-zero testing section.

We did stability testing a little differently for the Sandy Bridge platform than usual. The main stability test used was Linpack (LinX version 0.6.4) with memory usage set to 2,560MB and 25 loops run. In the enthusiast world, Linpack is a benchmark designed to measure performance on Intel CPUs in GFlops. However, it's also a very useful tool for checking the stability of a CPU and memory. LinX picks up very quickly and if you are able to complete a 25 loop test with the specifications above your system is likely stable or very close to it. Typically we would run LinX much longer than 25 loops and add in Prime95 and OCCT; however there have been reports of degrading Sandy Bridge CPU overclockability with running these types of torture tests for long periods.

To avoid risking damage to the processor, after LinX stability was achieved, 3 runs of 3DMark Vantage and 3 runs of 3DMark 11 were run to test 3D stability. Once an overclock passed these tests, this is the point deemed as “stable” for the purposes of this review.

Windows 7 Service Pack 1 was installed to take advantage of the Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX) with Sandy Bridge processors. Intel AVX is a 256-bit SIMD floating point vector extension of Intel architecture. The BIOS used for overclocking and benchmarking was version 679 1.18, dated 07/01/2011.


Benchmarking Methodology

Benchmarks in the System Benchmarks section will be a comparison of the i7 2600k at stock speed, at auto overclock speed as set by Dummy OC, and at maximum 24/7 overclock to give an idea of how much performance a user can gain when overclocking the P67 FTW. For SLI tests, the 24/7 overclocked speed was used to test performance between one and two GTX 460 video cards in 3D benchmarks and games.

For stock testing, optimized defaults were loaded putting the CPU at 3492Mhz (35 x 99.8) and memory at 665Mhz and 9-9-9-24 1T timings. Optimized defaults enable Turbo by default hence the 3492Mhz instead of 3400Mhz which is the stock speed of the processor. The auto overclocked speed on the i7 2600k for OC Tuner was 3991Mhz (40 x 99.8) with memory at 665Mhz and 9-9-9-24 1T timings. The overclocked speed on the i7 2600k for 24/7 stability was 5005Mhz (50 x 100.03) with memory at 1069Mhz and 9-9-9-28 1T timings. Nvidia ForceWare 275.33 drivers were used for 3D along with Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit SP1.

 

[Eldonko]

Overclocking Results

Overclocking Results

As we typically do for reviews, we put the P67 FTW through countless hours of overclocking; from auto to manual overclocking to sub-zero benchmarking where we used more voltage than most people should try. In this section we will go over our overclocking experience with the Dummy OC tool and then our manual overclocking results.

The Dummy OC utility is found in the BIOS’ overclocking section and once enabled it applies an automatic, pre-determined clock speed increase upon reboot. At first we thought this feature was broken since the clock speeds remained at stock values but after further testing we determined that EIST (Intel Speedstep) was the culprit. For whatever, Dummy OC refused to work its magic with EIST disabled.

Once we figured out the Dummy OC issue, applying an auto overclock was easy and it boosted the CPU speed to 3991Mhz (40 x 99.8) while memory remained at stock. An 800Mhz overclock with the click of a button is nice but compared to competing boards from ASUS and Gigabyte, the auto overclocking feature on the FTW is quite basic. We’re used to auto overclocking features netting around 500Mhz more headroom than the P67 FTW and they overclock the memory on top of that. Combine this with the strange EIST issue and we have to say Dummy OC needs quite a bit of work.

For manual overclocking we know our chip is capable of 5Ghz since we have achieved this milestone on a number of boards so we went right for that speed. We started with a CPU overclock and went right for the 50x multi and 100.0 BCLK without touching the memory frequencies. From experience, we knew our 2600K needs about 1.42v (load) to maintain 5Ghz so we set VDroop to Without VDroop and tried 1.42v. Although this was stable it was far more voltage than we needed.

The FTW really overvolts when you turn VDroop off and on top of that, sensors read lower voltage than actual. Reducing voltage until we lost stability we ended up at 1.395V set in the BIOS. This gave 1.388V in Windows idle and 1.411V measured with a DMM. Under load the voltages got even higher with 1.423V in Windows load and 1.455V actual under load. So in the end the CPU gets 0.06V more than one may think from their BIOS setting if Without VDroop is selected. Below 1.455v (actual) we started to see instability so the FTW did need about .035v more than several other boards we tested to achieve 5Ghz.

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The next step was to maximize the memory overclock to go along with the 5Ghz on the CPU. Our G.Skill memory is rated for 1067 @ 9-9-9 so that was a natural first step. With 1:8 memory frequency selected, 1.65V was all we needed for stability. With a few other boards we were able to add a bit more VCCIO and vDRAM and tighten to 7-9-7 but the FTW was having none of that and didn’t even allow 8-9-8 at 1067Mhz. Since we only tested one memory kit we can’t conclusively state there will be an issue for every memory modules out there but when compared to some other boards we tested, the FTW was a disappointment in the memory clocking department. We also saw a ton of 45 errors on the debug LED, which is ironically not listed in the manual.

We ran the FTW for a few weeks using the 5Ghz overclock and we are happy to report full 24/7 stability.

 

[Eldonko]

Sub-Zero Overclocking Results

Sub-Zero Overclocking Results

Intel dropped a bombshell on the benching community with the release of Sandy Bridge since overclocking these processors doesn’t carry the simple equation of higher volts + cooler temperatures = higher CPU speed. BCLK is hardly overclockable at all, generally capping out at 107 or 108 at the most and overclocking is all done based on multiplier changes. This makes unlocked K-series chips like the 2600K desirable for overclockers while lower-end models won’t have the ability to drastically increase their clock speeds.

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The phase change cooler used in these tests is a large single stage unit with a 10,500 btu rotary compressor, a mix of r410a and r22a gasses, and a 5 foot flex line. The cooler is tuned for a 300W heat load at -30C so it can handle Sandy Bridge with ease. Temps were low -50s idle and around -42C loaded at 1.60v. The 2600K we tested had no cold bug and it reacted normally to the sub-zero temperatures.

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As you can see in the above pictures, the ECP Panel does not go below 2C for temperature readings while EVGauge tops out at 6Ghz. However, there only have been a few Sandy Bridge chips that have ever reached that speed anyways.

The P67 FTW worked great in sub-zero environment and exhibited no cold bugs, boot issues or anything else out of the ordinary. All-in-all, the board was very easy to work with.

In the end we were able to match our test CPU’s max of 5760Mhz; a speed achieved with a few other boards in the past. Regardless of voltage or multi, Sandy Bridge chips have a speed cap, and we were lucky enough to get one that approaches the 5800Mhz mark and the FTW seems to have the capability to reach the limits of our CPU sample.

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Above you will find some of the best 2D runs we were able to achieve. With 2D benching memory clocking became an issue with the FTW since the memory couldn’t be tightened to 7-9-7 as we have been able to do in the past. Despite the memory issues however, we managed to get some impressive runs.

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We were able to bench 3D and CPU intensive benchmarks at around 5700Mhz and short benchmarks such as PIFAST and 1M up to 5750Mhz.

 

[Eldonko]

System Benchmarks

SuperPI Benchmark

SuperPi calculates the number of digits of PI in a pure 2D benchmark. For the purposes of this review, calculation to 32 million places will be used. RAM speed, RAM timings, CPU speed, L2 cache, and Operating System tweaks all effect the speed of the calculation, and this has been one of the most popular benchmarks among enthusiasts for several years.

SuperPi was originally written by Yasumasa Kanada in 1995 and was updated later by snq to support millisecond timing, cheat protection and checksum. The version used in these benchmarks, 1.5 is the official version supported by hwbot.

Results: A 12% increase in SuperPI 32M is noted going from stock speed of 3492Mhz (Turbo is on by default) to Dummy OC speed of 3991Mhz on the i7 2600k and P67 FTW. Jumping up to the manual overclock speed of 5005Mhz a 31% gain is noted. A 31% boost in PI time is a very nice gain and well worth the effort to overclock.


CINEBENCH R11.5

CINEBENCH 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.

In this system benchmark section we will use the x64 Main Processor Performance (CPU) test scenario. The Main Processor Performance (CPU) test scenario uses all of the system's processing power to render a photorealistic 3D scene (from the viral "No Keyframes" animation by AixSponza). This scene makes use of various algorithms to stress all available processor cores. The test scene contains approximately 2,000 objects which in turn contain more than 300,000 polygons in total, and uses sharp and blurred reflections, area lights, shadows, procedural shaders, antialiasing, and much more. The result is displayed in points (pts). The higher the number, the faster your processor.

Results: The CINEBENCH R11.5 results also show an impressive increase in performance in rendering moving from a stock system to two levels of an overclocked system. For CPU rendering, a 17% to 44% improvement (in points) is noted when moving to Dummy OC and manual OC speeds.


Sandra Processor Arithmetic and Processor Multi-Media Benchmarks

SiSoftware Sandra (the System ANalyser, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant) is an information & diagnostic utility. The software suite provides most of the information (including undocumented) users like to know about hardware, software, and other devices whether hardware or software. The name “Sandra” is a (girl) name of Greek origin that means "defender", "helper of mankind".

The software version used for these tests is SiSoftware Sandra Professional Home XII.SP2c and the two benchmarks used are the Processor Multi-Media and Processor Arithmetic benchmarks. These three benchmarks were chosen as they provide a good indication of three varying types of system performance. The multi-media test shows how the processor handles multi-media instructions and data and the arithmetic test shows how the processor handles arithmetic and floating point instructions. These two tests illustrate two important areas of a computer’s speed and provide a wide scope of results.

Results: Sandra processor arithmetic and multi-media show very impressive improvements on an overclocked system, with 43% gains in performance across the board in arithmetic and multi-media for the manual overclock and 14% gains for the Dummy OC overclock.


MaxxMem Benchmark

Created by MaxxPI², the MaxxMem benchmark tests your computer’s raw memory performance, combining copy, read, write and latency tests into one global score. This memory benchmark is a classic way to measure bandwidth of a memory subsystem.
MaxxMem uses continuous memoryblocks, sized in power of 2 from 16MB up to 512MB, starting either writing to or reading from it. To enable high-precision memory performance measurement, they both internally work with multiple passes and averages calculations per run.

Further, the main goal was to minimize (CPU) cache pollution on memory reads and to eliminate it (almost completely) on memory writes. Additionally, MaxxMem operates with an aggressive data prefetching algorithm. This all will deliver an excellent judge of bandwidth while reading and writing.

Results: Moving from stock speed to Dummy OC speeds of 3991Mhz we see modest gains of 5-14% in memory read, write, and copy. When we move memory speed up to 1069Mhz (1T) and CPU speed to 5005Mhz we see substantial gains of 45-52% in memory read, write, and copy!

The results are similar when looking at latency, a modest 10% gain is noted at Dummy OC settings but when a manual overclock is implemented the gains jump up to 33%. These findings show that it is not only CPU power will give you the best performance, but optimizing your memory goes a long way as well.

 

[Eldonko]

SLI Testing

SLI Testing

This section will put the P67 FTW to the test and provide an overview of single card vs. SLI performance. The objective here is to see how much we gain by adding a second GPU to the system. For SLI testing, two GTX 460s were used, both running at a speed of 763/950. All tests were completed using Nvidia ForceWare 275.33 drivers and Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit. In the following tests, all SLI comparisons were run at manual overclock settings (5005Mhz/1069Mhz 9-9-9 1T).

Before jumping straight into SLI testing we would like to go over some differences in results based on the combination of PCI-E slots used. First we tested slots 4 and 6, both x16 slots that go through the NF200 chip via switches. Then we reran all tests using slots 2 and 6 to gauge the difference in performance. Slot 2 bypasses the NF200 and goes direct to the CPU but we weren’t sure if this is the case when two cards are installed.

We found that for all tests, slots 2 and 6 gave better results than slots 4 and 6 for a dual GTX 460 setup. This tells us that slot 2 is likely still going direct to CPU at x8, thus reducing latency and improving results. We have seen in the past that NF200 is ideal for tri-SLI setups but for the most part dual SLI running through NF200 lags in performance compared to a board running SLI without NF200. The ideal solution is to have NF200 bypassed totally with a dual card setup and then have NF200 kick in with a tri-card setup. The FTW is half way there since one GPU can connect directly to the CPU.

The results that follow are using slots 2 and 6 as these gave the best performance the P67 FTW can offer.


3DMark 11 Benchmark:

3DMark 11 is the most recent release by Futuremark, creators of the 3DMark suite. 3DMark 11 is the latest version of the world’s most popular benchmark for measuring the graphics performance of gaming PCs. Designed for testing DirectX 11 hardware running on Windows 7 and Windows Vista the benchmark includes six all new benchmark tests that make extensive use of all the new features in DirectX 11 including tessellation, compute shaders and multi-threading.

After running the tests 3DMark gives your system a score with larger numbers indicating better performance. Trusted by gamers worldwide to give accurate and unbiased results, 3DMark 11 is the best way to test DirectX 11 under game-like loads.

For our testing, we will use the Performance setting with all other settings at default. The build version is the latest Advanced version of 3DMark 11.

Results: For a pure graphics benchmark like 3DMark11, the P67 FTW is no slouch when running SLI and shows a gain in 3DMarks (performance preset) of 3,131 or an improvement of 80%.


3DMark Vantage Benchmark:

3DMark Vantage is a recent release by Futuremark, creators of the 3DMark suite. This program was the first Futuremark version of 3DMark designed exclusively for Windows Vista. 3DMark Vantage consists of 2 CPU and 2 GPU tests as well as and 6 feature tests all of which are very hardware intensive. Four presets are available to allow for those with older PCs to benchmark just as easily as those with cutting edge hardware. For our testing, we will use the Performance setting with all other settings at default. The build version is the latest patched version of Vantage v1.0.1.

Results: Similar to 3DMark 11, the P67 FTW also shows a nice improvement in Vantage with a gain of 80% when a second GTX 460 is added.


World in Conflict Benchmark:

The World in Conflict in-game benchmark is a great test to show video card performance in real gaming situations. Under the Graphics menu in options, you can choose a variety of video settings and there is a "Run Benchmark" button. The actual benchmark uses all of the game’s graphic capabilities and is a good indication which settings will be optimal for a user’s system. For the tests below resolution was set to 1920x1080 and graphics was set to “Very High” which gives fullscreen anti-alias at 4x and anisotropic filtering at 4x.

Results: In a gaming benchmark that simulates gaming situations, the performance gained when running SLI vs. a single card is on par with 3DMark improvements. When adding a second GTX 460, average FPS improves 81%!


Street Fighter IV Benchmark:

This benchmark tool from Capcom was originally released for users to test the capabilities of their PC for the release of Street Fighter 4. The benchmark contains several bouts, filled with hadoukens and kicks to the face and provides users with a score and average frames per second. For our tests we are more concerned with FPS as this is a good indication of how SLI will run in a gaming situation. Settings used were Cx16QAA and a resolution of 1920x1080.

Results: Yet another gaming benchmark with excellent gains in FPS from SLI. A second GTX 460 improves FPS by 87%!


Far Cry 2 Benchmark:

Far Cry 2 is the popular first-person shooter from Ubisoft's Montreal studio, and the first game to utilize the new visually stunning Dunia Engine. The Benchmarking is excellent and does a great job in giving an accurate measurement of gaming situations. We ran the Long Ranch demo in DX10 mode at 1920x1080 with all settings set to very high and anti-aliasing set to 4x.

Results: The Far Cry 2 DX10 Benchmark is very graphics dependant and shows how the P67 FTW gets the best out of a second video card. FPS sees a nice gain from a second GTX 460 with an improvement in average FPS of 84%.

 

[Eldonko]

Conclusion

Conclusion

We here at Hardware Canucks have been eagerly anticipating the P67 FTW since our review of the P55 FTW in 2009. The P55 FTW was really at the top of the P55 echelon and was as close to perfection as any other P55 board we reviewed. The waiting did become a bit painful when the P67 FTW was very late to market and then again when some boards experienced issues with vCore adjustment. That said, with the seven months of additional time to put out a top notch board we naturally had very high expectations for the FTW.

This is one board which seems to have a serious overclocker focus and is built that specific niche above all else. Onboard voltage read points, debug LED, power, reset, and clear CMOS buttons, extra power for PCI-E and 12v, and triple BIOS support via a BIOS switch are all features that an enthusiast will want and in some cases need. The board is also very pleasing visually and any user would be happy to have it in their case.

However it appeared that even after a seven month delay, the P67 FTW is still going through some minor teething pains and in some cases bugs are still being worked out. When overclocking we came across a variety of issues which began with overvolting and the under reporting of voltage when “Without VDroop” is selected. The misrepresentation of actual core voltage can be potentially dangerous for intermediate users that don’t take actual measurements with a DMM.

We were also unable to tighten our PSC memory past 9-9-9 which wasn’t the case with any other board we have tested up to this point. This may sound like a minor issue but if you are a bencher that lives by milliseconds a handicap like this could be a deal breaker if it repeats with other kits as well. It should also be mentioned that the UEFI BIOS is not as attractive as we expected and there is no mouse support at this time but it is quite functional.

On the processor overclocking front, things went quite well. Other than the minor memory issue we encountered overclocking to 5Ghz and even sub-zero benchmarking on the FTW was a breeze. We were easily able to max out our chip at 5760Mhz and run 3D benchmarks over 5700Mhz, achieving some nice scores in the process. For SLI performance the board was on par with most and produced results up to 90% better with a second GTX 460. Dummy OC on the other hand was more than a little lack as it gave a mere 800Mhz overclock and does not overclock memory. We have seen other boards’ auto overclocking features high much higher clock speeds while including memory speed increases so we feel this is something EVGA could an should improve on.

The FTW’s accessory bundle may be huge and the ECP Panel and EVGauge on the K2 board were great additions but there were a few minor issues here as well. There is absolutely no way to tell the difference between the SATA 2 and SATA 3 cables since they aren’t labeled and the EVGauge cord is very short which provides little flexibility for mounting. The ECP Panel also contained a faux pas since screws weren’t included and the ones it uses are smaller than any PC screw out there. However, according to EVGA this oversight will be addressed in upcoming FTW shipments and anyone missing the screws can have them shipped free of charge with a call to customer service.

Going back to the board’s design, the P67 FTW has a TON of PCI-E slots, (seven in total) more than just about any other board out there. This gives great flexibility for video cards and they’ll surely have plenty of breathing room once installed.

The price of the P67 FTW does put it a fair bit below other flagship P67 boards with NF200 chips so currently EVGA has an advantage on the price point. Also since there is an option to buy the P67 FTW without the ECP Panel and EVGauge for up to $35 less so this turn out to be a clincher for users who want a tri-SLI board but don’t want to spend a fortune. All-in-all the FTW is a good board for the money and judging from EVGA’s track record we expect a good number of the issues to be resolved via future BIOS updates so in time EVGA’s flagship P67 board could become a dominating force.


Pros

- Attractive board, excellent layout
- Triple BIOS support with BIOS switch
- Onboard power, reset, and clear CMOS buttons
- Voltage read points
- Huge bundle of accessories
- EVGauge and ECP Panel are nice additions
- Manual overclocking was very easy
- ELEET is a great overclocking tool
- A ton of PCI-E slots for GPU placement flexibility
- Cheaper than most other NF200 boards


Cons

- UEFI BIOS looks like a legacy BIOS and has no mouse control
- Memory clocking was not the best
- Board overvolts when “without vdroop” is selected
- Software voltage readings are low
- Board needs a bit more voltage than others for 5Ghz
- Dummy OC not up to par with competitor solutions
- ECP Panel uses non standard screws that are not included (for the time being)
- EVGauge cord is very short
- Less SATA 6Gb/s and USB 3.0 ports than competitor boards
- No labels on SATA cables

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