Z77X-UD5H Performance Review
So if you read up on my preview of the Z77X-UD5H you saw a physical review in which I went over every section of the motherboard, top to bottom I examined its every chip and described what to expect when you toss a CPU into the board. So today that is exactly what I will do, toss in a Sandy Bridge 2600K into the UD5H, first to gather how the system performance, how the BIOS acts, how the overclocking is, and examine many of the Z77 chipset’s new goodies. For beginners one of the biggest gains of Z77 for most is the inclusion of native USB 3.0 which not only is great for performance but also allows board makers to use more 3rd party controllers for things such as dual NICs and extra SATA6GB/s because there are only 8 PCI-E lanes from the PCH to the 3rd party Ices and usually at least two of those are occupied by USB 3.0 controllers. However there is one other interesting feature which isn’t part of the Z77 PCH, but rather one that has just been chosen to launch with Z77 and that is Lucid’s MVP. So I personally have been messing and testing for a while now with MVP, I have analyzed it, researched it, and finally put it through some analysis with micro stuttering to see what is really happening. I don’t think you will see an analysis quite like this anywhere else on the web, so please sit back and relax and enjoy the review .
For beginners I will start off where I left off, so if you didn’t read my physical review, please do so now. However it isn’t required unless you want some sexy shots of the board and some explanations of what everything does: Z77X-UD5H Physical Review
Now after testing the Z77X-UD5H with both 2nd and 3rd gen CPU, I can say the new boards are solid. Here are the main differences:
So to begin:
- BIOS Gallery
- Overclocking Results
- Benchmarks using 2600K
- MVP Testing and Results
- I/O Testing
- GIGABYTE Auto-Tune New* OC Program
- GIGABYTE Utilities
First off the BIOS:
So if you saw shots of GIGABYTE’s X79 BIOS, this isn’t much different except for the fact that the board is a picture of a UD3H for all full-sized models and the mATX boards all look like a Z77MX-D3H. However two things have changed, first of all the BIOS is much more responsive, it is actually feasible now to use a mouse in the BIOS as it will move as you move and not 2 seconds after. Second of all the BIOS seems very stable, the features are abundant, and we have a lot of extra memory timings settings. There is a Stability level setting in the memory section, which is important for 2800mhz+ OCing, it doesn’t’ change any latency, rather a resistor setting. Fan control for all fans is there, you can pick whether you are using a 3-pin or 4-pin (voltage or PWM) mode, and you can set CPU SMART fan speed separate from that of the other system fans. It isn’t done individually per connector, which some still want, but this way is a bit easier. Two major improvements for people who don’t ever use 3D Mode, first of all if you exit out of advanced mode you will enter the BIOS again in advanced mode instead of 3D mode. Second, number lock is engaged at default, and the BIOS won’t freeze if you toggle it!! This new UEFI version is much better than X79s.
Sandy Bridge On Z77 Overclocking Results:
Here are the LLC readings for the UD5H BIOS F6G.
The GIGABYTE Z77 boards are a HUGE increase over the Z68 boards, while the Z68 boards had a lot of issues, these boards are the exact opposite. Their OC potential is there as well, even in the lower phase count models. It is amazing how much work has gone into making the BIOS and the hardware great enough to OC to the max your CPU and memory can OC. There have been extra BIOS options added for memory OC, so the user can tune at their hearts desire, and then you can find tweaks others did not on other boards and the same board. That is what Z77 GIGABYTE offers, they are using their great ability to turn out a quality product, and that quality is what makes their boards OC great.
Let me say this, the problems that Z68 and X79 GIGABYTE boards have/had are all gone for Z77 :)
I will talk more about OCing and the BIOS when the 3rd generation core processor is released.. :)
My new OC bench is using a Zalman Liquid cooling system, the Zalman CNPS20LQ which is brand new, and comes in a pretty easy to fit form factor. It can be put where you fit most 120mm fans, and the rad isn’t that thick, however performance of cooling is really great. I was very surprised at how cool is kept my CPU. I have a Antec Khuler 920, and this Zalman has a smaller radiator, however with only one fan(which runs at lower RPM) it cooled better than the Antec.
I used the same Kingston 16GB quad channel kit, but this time in dual channel and on Sandy Bridge. I was easily able to use the XMP profile, and with a slight bump in QPI/VTT and IMC voltage I was able to get this baby up and running. Please note that you will need to set IMC voltage exactly 0.005v lower than the QPI/VTT for the voltages to increase or decrease from stock, for 3Rd generating this isn’t an issue as you don’t need to change these voltages for anything on air, but for Sandy bridge you need to change up these voltages, so you can remember to do that.
Blue seems to be the color of Z77 for GIGABYTE, I personally like black better, but I can’t always have it my way. The Zalman was easy to install and was actually easier to install than the Antec because you don’t need to use a screw driver.
BLCK does very well on this board with Sandy we are doing pretty good for air cooling.
Benchmarks:
So I had to go and basically redo all my older 3D benchmarks because for this review I updated all drivers, BIOSes, and benchmark versions to the most current. I only do this at a big launch because I like to keep everything consistent down to the 3DMark Vantage version and the GPU driver version when I bench 3DMark for instance. Variations can cause a lot of change; some of these scores are hundreds of points higher than my previous scores only due to GPU driver and benchmark version changes(it shows you how long it has been since I updated my drivers and benchmarks).
All Benchmarks run all at 4.5ghz to make sure clock for clock.
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