ASUS Maximus III Gene Review - PAGE 7

Test Setup

To test ASUS' Maximus III Gene, I will be using Intel's Core i7 870 paired with 4GB of memory running at 1600 MHz. The same platform is used for past and upcoming products as well. Turbo Boost will be disabled during testing in order to ensure consistent benchmark results and provide reliable comparisons between the motherboards.

Intel Core i7 "Lynnfield" (Socket LGA1156)

• Processor : Intel Core i7 870
• Memory : Mushkin HP3-12800 2x 2GB
• Video Card : NVIDIA GTX 260 Core 216
• Hard Drive : Seagate 7200.11 750GB
• Power Supply : Mushkin XP-800AP
• Operating System : Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate 64 bit

Settings

Here is a CPU-Z screenshot showing all the exact settings that are going to be used in this review.

Comparison setups

Intel Core i7 "Bloomfield" (Socket LGA1366)

• Processor : Intel Core i7 920
• Motherboard : MSI X58M
• Memory : Mushkin HP3-12800 3x 2GB
• Video Card : NVIDIA GTX 260 Core 216
• Hard Drive : Seagate 7200.11 1TB
• Power Supply : Mushkin XP-800AP
• Operating System : Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate 64 bit

AMD Phenom II "Deneb" (Socket AM3)

• Processor : AMD Phenom II 965
• Motherboard : Gigabyte GA-MA790FXT-UD5P
• Memory : Mushkin HP3-12800 2x 2GB
• Video Card : nVidia GTX 260 Core 216
• Hard Drive : Seagate 7200.11 1TB
• Power Supply : Mushkin XP-800AP
• Operating System : Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate 64 bit

Benchmarks used

There is be a set of system benchmarks and the other half is gaming oriented. Bioshock requires a custom run since it does not have a benchmarking tool. For this one, Fraps will be used to record the framerates, while for all the other gaming tests, the built-in benchmarking tool will be used. For all of these, the tests will be ran at three different resolutions : 1280x1024, 1680x1050 and 1920x1200.

• SiSoftware Sandra 2009
• HandBrake
• POV-Ray
• WinRAR
• Cinebench
• HD Tune
• Futuremark PCMark Vantage
• Crysis Warhead
• Bioshock
• Far Cry 2
• Left 4 Dead