- Back to homepage
- Related articles
  Related articles

Trio of Z87 OC Motherboards Tested

Motherboards/Intel S1150 by leeghoofd @ 2013-07-26

Today we will be looking at 3 high end Overclock optimized mainboards for Intel's 4th generation processors. Madshrimps received the Z87-OC Formula sample from ASRock, the Gigabyte Z87X-OC and MSI's Z87 XPOWER flagship. Three boards, although all listed in total different price categories, targeted specifically at the enthusiast crowd. Fully equipped to squeeze the last MHz out of your Haswell. Due to the specific nature of these particular boards we have adapted the review method slightly to go more into the efficiency aspect instead of listing all of the onboard features/chips.

Stock 3D Results

Time to get some graphic performance going. The ATI Catalyst 13.4 driver was installed for the ASUS HD7970. All games were maxed out in resolution (1920 x 1080) and detail for our 24" monitor.

First up the Synthetic Futuremark 3DMARK11. The MSI XPOWER comes out on top, being followed on it's heels by the ASRock and Gigabyte offering. The Intel board starts to loose some of it's colour.

Close call again between the ASRock and the MSI board in the Resident Evil 6 benchmark, the Gigabyte however is comfortable in the lead, while the Intel board closes the ranks. The same tendency remains throughout the tests, the 3 OC boards battling it out and the Intel mostly trailing big time.

Comment from Teemto @ 2013/07/26

Really like the editor's note

Comment from NordWolfe @ 2013/08/03

Finally somebody with the balls to tell it like it is. Now I would just like somebody to call-out Intel, for their woeful/unacceptable manufacturing quality control on their CPUs, and AMD, for their incompetence that permits these abuses from their rivals. At least, so it seems, AMD is now hiring the right people for their CPU division. Hope this pays off quickly so that Intel loses it’s arrogance, and total lack of respect for it’s customers. For that to happen we need many more true reviewers, such as yourself, and not Corporate Whores, such as we see in most sites, and youtube channels.
I salute your courage, integrity, and the knowledge you have on your mission.
Cheers.

Comment from leeghoofd @ 2013/08/04

Thx guys for the feedback. It's not what the manufacturers or people from the PR team want to read, but at least it's the truth based on hard facts... apreciated that my hard works is applauded

All information and graphics contained in Madshrimps are sole property of the Madshrimps crew and may not be reproduced or copied in any manner without written permission from us.