CPU Performance

Readers of our motherboard review section will have noted the trend in modern motherboards to implement a form of MultiCore Enhancement / Acceleration / Turbo (read our report here) on their motherboards. This does several things, including better benchmark results at stock settings (not entirely needed if overclocking is an end-user goal) at the expense of heat and temperature. It also gives in essence an automatic overclock which may be against what the user wants. Our testing methodology is ‘out-of-the-box’, with the latest public BIOS installed and XMP enabled, and thus subject to the whims of this feature. It is ultimately up to the motherboard manufacturer to take this risk – and manufacturers taking risks in the setup is something they do on every product (think C-state settings, USB priority, DPC Latency / monitoring priority, memory subtimings at JEDEC). Processor speed change is part of that risk, and ultimately if no overclocking is planned, some motherboards will affect how fast that shiny new processor goes and can be an important factor in the system build.

For clarification, the X99 Sabertooth does not have MultiCore Turbo enabled by default.

Point Calculations – 3D Movement Algorithm Test: link

3DPM is a self-penned benchmark, taking basic 3D movement algorithms used in Brownian Motion simulations and testing them for speed. High floating point performance, MHz and IPC wins in the single thread version, whereas the multithread version has to handle the threads and loves more cores. For a brief explanation of the platform agnostic coding behind this benchmark, see my forum post here.

3D Particle Movement: Single Threaded

3D Particle Movement: MultiThreaded

Compression – WinRAR 5.0.1: link

Our WinRAR test from 2013 is updated to the latest version of WinRAR at the start of 2014. We compress a set of 2867 files across 320 folders totaling 1.52 GB in size – 95% of these files are small typical website files, and the rest (90% of the size) are small 30 second 720p videos.

WinRAR 5.01, 2867 files, 1.52 GB

Image Manipulation – FastStone Image Viewer 4.9: link

Similarly to WinRAR, the FastStone test us updated for 2014 to the latest version. FastStone is the program I use to perform quick or bulk actions on images, such as resizing, adjusting for color and cropping. In our test we take a series of 170 images in various sizes and formats and convert them all into 640x480 .gif files, maintaining the aspect ratio. FastStone does not use multithreading for this test, and thus single threaded performance is often the winner.

FastStone Image Viewer 4.9

Video Conversion – Handbrake v0.9.9: link

Handbrake is a media conversion tool that was initially designed to help DVD ISOs and Video CDs into more common video formats. The principle today is still the same, primarily as an output for H.264 + AAC/MP3 audio within an MKV container. In our test we use the same videos as in the Xilisoft test, and results are given in frames per second.

HandBrake v0.9.9 LQ Film

HandBrake v0.9.9 2x4K

Rendering – PovRay 3.7: link

The Persistence of Vision RayTracer, or PovRay, is a freeware package for as the name suggests, ray tracing. It is a pure renderer, rather than modeling software, but the latest beta version contains a handy benchmark for stressing all processing threads on a platform. We have been using this test in motherboard reviews to test memory stability at various CPU speeds to good effect – if it passes the test, the IMC in the CPU is stable for a given CPU speed. As a CPU test, it runs for approximately 2-3 minutes on high end platforms.

POV-Ray 3.7 Beta RC4

Synthetic – 7-Zip 9.2: link

As an open source compression tool, 7-Zip is a popular tool for making sets of files easier to handle and transfer. The software offers up its own benchmark, to which we report the result.

7-zip Benchmark

System Performance Gaming Performance 2015
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  • Ryangadz - Friday, July 31, 2015 - link

    Also, the work being done in architectual renderings within gaming engines is super impressive. If you aren't familiar with Unreal Engine 4's lighting system its definitely worth looking into. I don't do much in the way of rendering stills anymore because interactive is so much more useful to clients and consumers. Client want to add 10 more desks to an office? Not a problem just move the wall and (even procedurally) drop in more desks all with real-time lighting. Its getting to the point where even I have trouble discerning real v. Baked GI v. Real-time faked GI. Do you think the client can tell... Or even cares?
  • OldCOP - Tuesday, September 8, 2015 - link

    A dyslexic renderest, how interesting
  • isamudysan - Tuesday, August 25, 2015 - link

    HAHAHAHAHA!!!! 6 x99 boards for years?!!! didn't know x99s were made years ago; and, where's your proof of these 6 x99s that has been running flawlessly for years?

    "without giving a source this is even more likr UFO sightings....."

    LOL
  • Pinhead* - Thursday, November 5, 2015 - link

    I agree! I built with three Asus X99 Deluxe board in the past year and they are all running beautifully. Someone is overclocking and blaming their mistakes erroneously on the boards...
  • MeeDeeGee - Friday, October 8, 2021 - link

    I've been running two ASUS X99 boards for years. Never had a problem and the boards are awesome. ASUS ROG X99 Strix with an i7-6950X 10-Core and ASUS TUF X99 Sabertooth with an i7-6800K. Excellent quality and reliability.
    I read the posts that you linked and the guys are idiots, they were overclocking, so it serves them right to fry things. I never overclock because it is a waste of time (yeah like you really will notice that extra 2% more benchmark numbers in real world applications). Plus it voids your warranty, and wears out your components faster. Serves them right. There is nothing wrong with the ASUS X99.
  • Zinc64 - Wednesday, July 22, 2015 - link

    Didn't bother checking the TUF Detective app?

    Seems like a neat tool for anyone with a tablet lying around...
  • LordanSS - Wednesday, July 22, 2015 - link

    I hope someday be able to get one of these for a future build... whatever comes after Skylake maybe? Who knows.

    Most of my issues are not from dust gathering inside (dust filters + positive pressure alleviates most of that problem) but humidity instead.

    It's quite difficult for one of my systems to live through 2 years. My Ivy Bridge i7 proc will complete 3 years in a few months, but I already had to replace the motherboard (was an Asus P8Z77-V) a couple months ago. Sadly, Brazil doesn't get the nice warranty periods and RMA possibilities that US customers have. We do get very high humidity tho! =/
  • ericloewe - Wednesday, July 22, 2015 - link

    Realtek 8111 as the second GbE controller? What the hell were they thinking?!
  • lmcd - Wednesday, July 22, 2015 - link

    That's as the first GbE controller ;) Likely bundled with the RealTek 1150 solution.
  • steve4king - Wednesday, July 22, 2015 - link

    The "Thermal" armor concerns me as it seems like it would be more of an insulator than anything. Unless there ducting to force air under the plastic, it will just block airflow to the motherboard's smaller components.

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