Testing Methodology
Comparison Motherboard Configurations |
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MSI X99S Gaming 9 AC |
Gigabyte GA-X99 Gaming 5 |
Asus X99-Deluxe |
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| MSRP | £290 |
£200 |
£290 |
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| BIOS | 1.3B3 |
F5 |
5501 |
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| Chipset Revision | Intel X99 (Intel 9.4.2.1019 driver) |
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| CPU | Intel Core i7-5960X |
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| Memory | Corsair Vengeance LPX 2800 16GB DDR4 (4 x 4GB) |
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| Memory Timings | 15-15-15-36-2T @ 2,133MHz |
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| Discrete Graphics | EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Ti (340.52 drivers) |
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| System Drive | Crucial MX100 (512GB) |
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| Chassis | Corsair Graphite 600T |
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| Power Supply | Corsair AX760i |
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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 | ||||||||||
| Handbrake 0.9.9.1 | Free-to-use video encoder that stresses all CPU cores (64-bit) | ||||||||||
Gaming Benchmarks |
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| BioShock Infinite | DX11, 1,920x1,080, ultra quality | ||||||||||
| Batman: Arkham Origins | DX11, 1,920x1,080, enhanced quality | ||||||||||
| Total War: Rome II | DX11, 1,920x1,080, ultra quality | ||||||||||
Miscellaneous Benchmarks |
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| Overclocking and Power | Maximum CPU and memory frequencies, plus power consumption when gaming | ||||||||||
Notes
We've historically had a large number of benchmarks detailing performance between chipsets. Due to the levels of integration in the processor practically all modern motherboards benchmark at the same levels, give or take a per cent or two, so 15 graphs showing near-identical performance isn't what you (or we) want to see.
We're running six benchmarks - three CPU, three gaming - to see if the boards perform at the expected levels. This is more of a sanity check than anything else. Of rather more importance is how well the boards are able to overclock the CPU and Corsair DDR4 memory.