Testing results
We'd normally present a slew of graphs showing the performance of this board against others. There are however two problems with that approach this time around. The new platform, X99, means we have no comparison numbers from other boards based on this chipset. Comparison to, say, Z97 only compares one CPU against another. Besides, our motherboard numbers usually take the CPU results and replicate many of them. We use the same setup as found on this page.
So we're going to do things a little differently. We're listing the default benchmark scores in table format and then adding overclocking numbers on the right-hand side. The results will be padded out once comparison boards have been tested.
Overclocking was done by increasing the core voltage from 0.976V to 1.275V and upping the multiplier until the CPU could no longer complete the HandBrake run. It topped out at 4.5GHz, by the way. We appreciate that such moderate voltage is unlikely to tap into the benefits of the OC Socket, which Asus admits freely only comes into play once the VCore is ratcheted up to 1.6V-plus.
Performance |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Benchmark | Default |
Overclocked |
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| PiFast (LIB) | 18.8 seconds |
15.2 |
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| Cinebench R15 (HIB) | 1,324 marks |
1,712 |
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| wPrime (LIB) | 124.4 seconds |
93.4 |
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| HandBrake (HIB) | 67.4 fps |
86.8 |
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| PCMark 8 (HIB) | 5,922 marks |
6,099 |
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| Sandra (HIB) | 15.07 points |
16.91 |
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| 3DMark (HIB) | 10,195 marks |
10,447 |
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| BioShock (HIB) | 107.3 fps |
109.5 |
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| Batman: AO (HIB) | 119 fps |
122 |
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| Total War (HIB) | 99.1 fps |
99.7 |
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| SATA Read (HIB) | 480.3 MB/s |
- |
|||
| SATA Write (HIB) | 462.6 MB/s |
- |
|||
| USB Read (HIB) | 430.2 MB/s |
- |
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| USB Write (HIB) | 175.2 MB/s |
- |
Power idle (LIB) | 49 watts |
61 |
Power 2D load (LIB) | 151 watts |
221 |
Power 3D load (LIB) | 303 watts |
362 |
| LIB = lower is better HIB = higher is better |
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It's clear that the Core i7-5960X and Asus X99 motherboard make for a super-fast platform. The numbers are better than any other platform that has gone before. Overclocking helps in CPU-centric tests, obviously, to the tune of 30 per cent in Cinebench, but doesn't have as much of an impact when gaming at a full-HD resolution.