Test Methodology
Comparison Motherboard Configurations |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
Gigabyte Z87X-UD3H |
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| MSRP | £113 |
£149 |
£115 |
£129 |
| BIOS | 3004 |
F3 |
1.1B2 |
F9 |
| Chipset Revision | Intel Z97 |
Intel Z87 |
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| CPU | Intel Core i7-4770K |
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| Memory | Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB DDR3 (2 x 8GB) |
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| Memory Timings | 9-10-9-27-2T @ 1,866MHz |
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| Integrated Graphics | Intel HD 4600 |
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| System Drive | Crucial M500 (240GB) |
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| Chassis | Corsair Graphite 600T |
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| Power Supply | Corsair AX750 |
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| Operating System | Windows 8.1 (64-bit) |
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CPU and Memory Benchmarks |
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| HEXUS PiFast | Our number-crunching benchmark stresses a single core by calculating Pi to 10m places | |||
| Cinebench R15 | Using Cinebench's multi-CPU render, this cross-platform benchmark stresses all cores | |||
| wPrime 2.1.0 | Another number-crunching benchmark that stresses all available CPU cores/threads | |||
| AIDA64 v4.30.2925 | Benchmark that analyses memory bandwidth and latency | |||
Multimedia Benchmarks |
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| LuxMark 2.0 | An OpenCL rendering benchmark | |||
| Musemage 1.9.6 | An OpenCL image-manipulation benchmark (64-bit) | |||
| Handbrake 0.9.9.1 | Free-to-use video encoder that stresses all CPU cores (64-bit) | |||
System Benchmarks |
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| PCMark 8 v2.0 | System-wide examination that uses the Home preset, run with OpenCL acceleration | |||
| 3DMark | Run at the Firestrike default test | |||
| SiSoft Sandra 2014 | Aggregate score that takes a composite of 12 system-wide benchmarks | |||
Gaming Benchmarks |
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| BioShock Infinite | 1,280x720, medium quality | |||
| GRID 2 | 1,280x720, high quality | |||
| Total War: Rome II | 1,280x720, medium quality | |||
Miscellaneous Benchmarks |
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| Power Consumption | While idling and when running wPrime and GRID 2 | |||
Notes
We have a four-way shoot-out for the Z97 launch. Intel's new chipset is represented in three unique flavours - Asus's Z97-A, Gigabyte's Z97X-UD5H and MSI's Z97 Gaming 5 - and all are pitted against a Z87 alternative in the form of a Gigabyte Z87X-UD3H. All four boards target varying price points, yet we don't expect there to be too much of a difference in benchmarks scores when a Core i7-4770K chip is placed at the helm.