GIGABYTE Z97X-Gaming G1 Black Edition Review

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3D and Gaming Benchmarks

3D and Gaming Benchmarks

In the 3D and Gaming Benchmarks section we will show numerous benchmark comparisons of the 4770K and using the stock speed (turbo enabled), highest stable software overclock of 4.3Ghz, and our manual overclock of 4.7GHz. This will illustrate how much performance can be gained by the various overclocking options this board has to offer.

For reference the CPU speeds, memory speeds, memory timings, and uncore speeds used for these tests are as follows:

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3DMark Fire Strike Benchmark

<i>The latest version of 3DMark from FutureMark includes everything you need to benchmark everything from smartphones and tablets, to notebooks and home PCs, to the latest high-end, multi-GPU gaming desktops. And it's not just for Windows. With 3DMark you can compare your scores with Android and iOS devices too. It's the most powerful and flexible 3DMark we've ever created.

The test we are using in this review is Fire Strike with Extreme settings which is a DirectX 11 benchmark designed for high-performance gaming PCs. Fire Strike features real-time graphics rendered with detail and complexity far beyond what is found in other benchmarks and games today.</i>

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Valve Particle Simulation Benchmark

Resolution: 1920x1200
Anti-Aliasing: 4X
Anisotropic Filtering: 16X
Graphic Settings: High

<i>Originally intended to demonstrate new processing effects added to Half Life 2: Episode 2 and future projects, the particle benchmark condenses what can be found throughout HL2:EP2 and combines it all into one small but deadly package. This test does not symbolize the performance scale for just Episode Two exclusively, but also for many other games and applications that utilize multi-core processing and particle effects. As you will see the benchmark does not score in FPS but rather in its own "Particle Performance Metric", which is useful for direct CPU comparisons. </i>

<i>Please note: For clarity sake we have removed the SLI numbers from the chart as this benchmark is not SLI aware and the result for both single and dual GPU were the same.</i>

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Sleeping Dogs Gaming Benchmark

<i>Sleeping Dogs is an open world action-adventure video game developed by United Front Games in conjunction with Square Enix London Studios and published by Square Enix, released on August 2012. Sleeping Dogs has a benchmark component to it that mimics game play and an average of four runs was taken.

The settings used in the testing below are the Extreme display settings and a resolution of 1920x1200. World density is set to extreme, high-res textures are enabled, and shadow resolution, shadow filtering, screen space ambient occlusion, and quality motion blur are all set to high.</i>

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Metro: Last Light Gaming Benchmark

<i>Metro: Last Light is a DX11 first-person shooter video game developed by Ukrainian studio 4A Games and published by Deep Silver released in May 2013. The game is set in a post-apocalyptic world and features action-oriented gameplay. The game has a benchmark component to it that mimics game play. Scene D6 was used and an average of four runs was taken.

The settings used in the testing below are Very High for quality and a resolution of 1920x1200. DirectX 11 is used, texture filtering is set to AF 16X, motion blur is normal, SSA and advanced physX turned on and tessellation is set to high.</i>

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BioShock Infinite Gaming Benchmark

<i>BioShock Infinite is a first-person shooter video game developed by Irrational Games, and published by 2K Games released in March 2013. The game has a benchmark component to it that mimics game play and an average of four runs was taken.

The settings used in the testing below are UltraDX11 for quality and a resolution of 1920x1200.</i>

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Tomb Raider Gaming Benchmark

<i> Tomb Raider is an action-adventure video game. Published by Square Enix released in March 2013. The game has a benchmark component to it that mimics game play and an average of four runs was taken.

The settings used in the testing below are Ultimate default settings for quality, VSync disabled and a resolution of 1920x1200.</i>

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With these results a few things are blatantly obvious. Firstly, the PLX chipset still impacts single video card performance in a very minor way. In addition, the Z97 chipset offers only minor improvements over Z87 when it comes to gaming scenarios. This is not all that unexpected as Z87 is a good chipset that can still be the basis of a great system.

 

[AkG]

Conclusion

Conclusion

Before we begin let's address the true elephant in the room: Z97. It is only an incremental upgrade over Z87 which really doesn’t drastically change the chipset equation. If you own a Z87 system and are not interested in the potential of upgrading to Broadwell, there’s really no reason to run out and buy a new motherboard. Granted, SATA Express does offer some potentially awesome benefits but SSDs which support the standard will be very, very expensive and on larger boards like the Black Edition at least, PCIe-based drives will likely provide even better performance for a very minor premium. If you have an older 6-series or 7-series board, now might be a great time to upgrade though.

While Intel’s new chipset may not bring anything new to the table, the same can’t be said about the motherboards themselves. The GIGABYTE Gaming G1 WiFi Black Edition is an excellent example of how this generation is effectively incorporating new features and, more importantly, revisiting existing features in an effort to improve them.

The Gaming G1 WiFi Black Edition is a step up from its predecessor, the G1.Sniper 5 in nearly every way imaginable. It offers a mature design with an excellent layout, an upgraded heatsink design that accepts standard water cooling barbs, a well-rounded BIOS with multiple options for modification, an excellent integrated sound card and yet still manages to incorporate all the highlights of previous generations.

Since the Black Edition targets gamers, some interesting features have been rolled into its design. For example, GIGABYTE has decided to largely bypass Intel’s CPU-based PCI Express lanes for GPU communications by adding a PLX hub. This allows the G1 to offer full x16 / x16 PCI-E 3.0 bandwidth for dual GPU solutions while each card in quad GPU setups will access eight lanes. There isn’t any way to bypass PLX’s offering which means the potential for minor latency increases but it effect upon gaming will be completely unnoticeable. From a pure gaming standpoint this one addition makes the G1 one of the most capable Z97 boards currently available

Even if you don’t own a SATA Express SSD the included port will be ready and waiting for when a storage upgrade is necessary. Factor in what is easily one of the best onboard audio solutions available, two great Network Controllers, a good if not spectacular 802.11AC wireless accessory, and the only things anyone can hold against the GIGABYTE Gaming G1 Black Edition is its price, and the lack of an M.2 port. Even here these issues are not insurmountable as the price is well within reason for a PLX-enabled motherboard, and the lack of M.2 is not a deal breaker. If you absolutely need M.2 support, a x4 PCIE adapter card can be found for a few bucks.

Obviously GIGABYTE has spent a lot of time and effort improving their motherboards from a hardware perspective, but sadly the same cannot be said on the software side. While the BIOS is excellent (and much better than the G1.Sniper 5's) their Easy Tune overclocking application is a still showing rough edges that should have been rounded off long ago. It may have been improved over what the Z87 G1.Sniper 5 shipped with but it’s still not as easy or as trustworthy as it could be.

Even with the less than perfect software taken into account the GIGABYTE Gaming G1 Black Edition is an excellent gaming motherboard. It offers a solid platform for gamers, more than enough overclocking headroom for enthusiasts and has an envious feature list. Provided you can get past its premium over all the fully capable mid-range boards out there, we highly recommend giving it consideration for your upgrade needs.

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