ASRock Z97 OC Formula Motherboard Review: Less Lamborghini, More Yellow
by Ian Cutress on October 2, 2014 10:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- ASRock
- Overclocking
- Z97
Gaming Benchmarks
F1 2013
First up is F1 2013 by Codemasters. I am a big Formula 1 fan in my spare time, and nothing makes me happier than carving up the field in a Caterham, waving to the Red Bulls as I drive by (because I play on easy and take shortcuts). F1 2013 uses the EGO Engine, and like other Codemasters games ends up being very playable on old hardware quite easily. In order to beef up the benchmark a bit, we devised the following scenario for the benchmark mode: one lap of Spa-Francorchamps in the heavy wet, the benchmark follows Jenson Button in the McLaren who starts on the grid in 22nd place, with the field made up of 11 Williams cars, 5 Marussia and 5 Caterham in that order. This puts emphasis on the CPU to handle the AI in the wet, and allows for a good amount of overtaking during the automated benchmark. We test at 1920x1080 on Ultra graphical settings.
Bioshock Infinite
Bioshock Infinite was Zero Punctuation’s Game of the Year for 2013, uses the Unreal Engine 3, and is designed to scale with both cores and graphical prowess. We test the benchmark using the Adrenaline benchmark tool and the Xtreme (1920x1080, Maximum) performance setting, noting down the average frame rates and the minimum frame rates.
Tomb Raider
The next benchmark in our test is Tomb Raider. Tomb Raider is an AMD optimized game, lauded for its use of TressFX creating dynamic hair to increase the immersion in game. Tomb Raider uses a modified version of the Crystal Engine, and enjoys raw horsepower. We test the benchmark using the Adrenaline benchmark tool and the Xtreme (1920x1080, Maximum) performance setting, noting down the average frame rates and the minimum frame rates.
Sleeping Dogs
Sleeping Dogs is a benchmarking wet dream – a highly complex benchmark that can bring the toughest setup and high resolutions down into single figures. Having an extreme SSAO setting can do that, but at the right settings Sleeping Dogs is highly playable and enjoyable. We run the basic benchmark program laid out in the Adrenaline benchmark tool, and the Xtreme (1920x1080, Maximum) performance setting, noting down the average frame rates and the minimum frame rates.
Battlefield 4
The EA/DICE series that has taken countless hours of my life away is back for another iteration, using the Frostbite 3 engine. AMD is also piling its resources into BF4 with the new Mantle API for developers, designed to cut the time required for the CPU to dispatch commands to the graphical sub-system. For our test we use the in-game benchmarking tools and record the frame time for the first ~70 seconds of the Tashgar single player mission, which is an on-rails generation of and rendering of objects and textures. We test at 1920x1080 at Ultra settings.
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dgingeri - Thursday, October 2, 2014 - link
I am very unimpressed with both the port layout and the slot layout. It's just not good. I guess for that price, there's not much to complain about, but I would pay more for a better slot layout, more USB ports, and a DisplayPort from the iGPU.zent - Thursday, October 2, 2014 - link
Did you disable 'Multi Core Enhancement' before setting the CPU Ratio on 'all core'?Kogan - Thursday, October 2, 2014 - link
I haven't seen an overclocking-per-board comparison recently. It seems that's what these boards are made for (to get higher, more stable overclocks than other boards). Or are we at a point now where the board really doesn't matter and you'll get the same stable overclocks (on air) with a $90 board?CrazyElf - Thursday, October 2, 2014 - link
Ian, would recommend this over the Gigabyte Z97X SOC Force and the MSI Z97 MPower?I like the fact that this board ships with conformal coating, and compared to the SOC Force, it does seem to have the advantage of having an M.2 slot.
The MSI board also has an M.2, but the VRM design is much weaker and probably not good for an OC board. 12x PowerPAK, a downgrade from the Z87 MPower I fear.
Otherwise, all 3 are very much OC-oriented boards that are relatively stripped down.
mfenn - Thursday, October 2, 2014 - link
Ian, I really like the use of crops of the motherboard top-down shot when pointing our various features. It adds a nice visual touch to the review.ddriver - Thursday, October 2, 2014 - link
Why AMD systems in "application" benchmarks but no AMD systems in gaming benchmarks?Looks like "we are only gonna show AMD doing 2-4 times worse than intel, but not gaming cuz AMD isn't doing that bad there"...
ddriver - Thursday, October 2, 2014 - link
And LOL, it is not all bad, gonna give you Xeon benches instead, cuz that's what people buy Xeons for...Flunk - Thursday, October 2, 2014 - link
The CPU isn't that important for gaming numbers, it's the GPU there so there isn't much point in running all those tests on even more hardware. Not only that, but AMD hardware is irrelevant in this comparison because it's a motherboard review. It only really matters how it compares to other socket 1150 Motherboards.ddriver - Thursday, October 2, 2014 - link
Either AMD is relevant or not. Why is it relevant enough to include in application benchmarks but not relevant enough to include in the gaming benchmarks? What dictates that decision? Cuz the only obvious factor is that AMD suks in apps while it is not all that bad in gaming...If anything, there are more people buying AMD systems for gaming that people buying Xeon systems for gaming, yet we have Xeon gaming benches...
poohbear - Friday, October 3, 2014 - link
1 thing to note about this mobo is that if u use more than 2 pci-e slots u must install a molex connector at the bottom of thd mobo (pointing down, so hard to get to after installing it & impossible to get to in a small case cause PSU will block it). Otherwise a solid mobo that would make a good foundation for any system.Theres not much to differentiate all the z97 mobos apart in the $200 price range, but Asrock does provide alot more options for the price compared to their competitors....