The last article was about Gigabyte's Gaming 3 motherboard. Today I've picked Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 7 motherboard for review and load testing.
The Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 7 is one of the top motherboard offered by the company in its G1 Gaming series. Its based on the latest Intel Z97 chipset and is aimed towards hardcore gamers and audio enthusiasts. This high end motherboard is geared for multi-GPU support and Ultra durable components.
Lets take a closer look at Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 7 various features and performance under load.
Inside the box you will find:
In the lower region of Gaming 7 there are various audio components. These include the following:
Realtek ALC1150 Chip
Built-in Rear Audio Amplifier
Nichicon audio capacitors
EMI shield
An 8-Phase VRM design is fundamental to Gaming 7’s power delivery and just behind the heat-sinks resides an 8-pin EPS (CPU Power) socket.
Dotted around the motherboard and indeed the VRM area are 10K-Solid CAPs. These capacitors promise to deliver at least 10K hours of usage, offering ultra-low ESR even under severe CPU load
There are on board power and reset buttons present. Having these buttons in such a place makes it much easier to access when needed.
On the outer edge of the board there are voltage measurement points for measuring DRAM and CPU voltage. This feature is basically for advanced users and dedicated gamers as all these features help in overclocking efficiently.
Gigabyte had used the Killer E220 ethernet chip to control its networking and internet options over the otherwise Intel solution employed by other Z97 chipset board manufacturers. This not only increases the data transfer rate by upto 50% during gaming sessions but also upto 300% during video streaming.
Note: Gigabyte Game Controller is one of the many utility software that come bundles with the motherboard, it primarily helps gamers to stabilize the mouse movement for high precision on high DPI settings using the 'sniper mode' with the press of a user defined hot key.
So I put it to test using my Razer Deatadder 2013 maxed out at 6400 DPI and while taking sniper shots in games like COD: Ghosts and Counter Strike we did notice a slight difference in performance though marginal.
All in all its a good move by Gigabyte to put this in the Z97X Gaming 7 as its boon for those using gaming mouse that don't come with any suit from the manufacturer making gaming hassle free and more convenient.
Once you enter the BIOS, you will find yourself in the start screen of the new Startup Guide which can help with initial setting-up by guiding you through a few simple steps. You can also enable Fast Boot, specify your date and time, choose your boot device order and define the operation mode for your drives. BIOS access can be restricted by means of a password.
You can also switch to the classic mode in the BIOS if you don't like the new interface(which I don't think anyone would) and also you can switch between dual BIOS by simply pressing F2
CPU: Intel i5 4670K (overclocked to 4.7ghz at 1.2 volt)
GPU: AMD/ATI R9 280X
RAM: 4x8 Gb G.skill TridentX (2133 Mhz, 9-11-11-11-31-2N, 1.6 volts)
Cooler: Corsair H90
But increased drastically when overclocked, and reached upto 719
When normal mode the score was 36483 and went upto 43009 when overclocked.
The results of Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 7 were very impressive with just 150 micro seconds as the outcome.
The results can be seen here.
Shivani Mishra
Lets take a closer look at Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 7 various features and performance under load.
Unboxing
The Gaming 7 comes in an attractive packing. The company has ditched their green and black color combination for gaming motherboards and decided to go with the red and black color theme( which is personally my favorite). The box has the red eye logo and at the back all the specs are mentioned.Inside the box you will find:
- Installation guide
- User manual
- 4-SATA cables (2 Straight & 2 L shaped)
- SLI Bridge
- I/O shield
- Driver CDs
Features
More or less the features of gaming 3 and gaming 7 are same. Like SATA express ports, M.2 connector, Multi GPU support (both SLI and Crossfire), Intel 4th and 5th gen CPU support with future support for the upcoming Broadwell CPUs and UEFI dual Bios. However there are some points that need special mentioning.AMP-UP Audio:
The Gigabyte Z97X Gaming 7 features an AMP-UP audio processor paired with high end gold plated audio capacitors. This gives high quality sound and stronger or louder audio output. It also features an upgradable OP-AMP and onboard Gain Boost switches. Unless you are very particular with the audio output, you won’t need to change anything here, since by default they already produce great sound quality and amplification
Built-in Rear Audio Amplifier
Nichicon audio capacitors
EMI shield
Improved Heat Sink:
GIGABYTE has given Gaming 7 two sleek black and red heat-sinks. These heat-sinks cover the MOSFETs and are substantial in size but not bulky enough to cause obstruction for such devices as a CPU cooler.
Dotted around the motherboard and indeed the VRM area are 10K-Solid CAPs. These capacitors promise to deliver at least 10K hours of usage, offering ultra-low ESR even under severe CPU load
Power and Reset buttons:
7 segment LED display:
The LED display helps in checking real time voltage and gives LED codes throughout the POST process and helps to ascertain any issues with booting.Dedicated Bios Button:
Next to the power button, there are two switches – one enables/disables dual BIOS and one allows you to switch between the primary and secondary BIOS.Voltage Measurement Points:
Gold plated Capacitors:
These capacitors are very durable and help in achieving high performance. They are only offered in the GA Z97X-Gaming 7 and not in its smaller cousins.LED Path trace:
This provides looks to the motherboard along with isolation of audio components from the rest of the board. Performance with style indeed.6 Fan support:
The Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 3 provides installation support for 4 PWM fans. The Opt fan support means an additional CPU fan pin header that can be used to install water coolers and get CPU power support and operate at full speed.
Killer™ E2200 Gaming Network
Gigabyte Easy Tune app & Cloud center app:
Gigabyte’s EasyTune allows users to tune their system settings or adjust system and memory clocks and voltages in a Windows environment, hence you don't always need to open BIOS to change settings.With Smart Quick Boost, one click is all it takes to automatically overclock your system. It can also be used to control fan speeds. The Cloud Station app lets you connect and share your smartphone and tablets data wirelessly via your PC.
Note: Gigabyte Game Controller is one of the many utility software that come bundles with the motherboard, it primarily helps gamers to stabilize the mouse movement for high precision on high DPI settings using the 'sniper mode' with the press of a user defined hot key.
BIOS:
The gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 7 comes with UEFI Dual BIOS. So if by chance your BIOS crashes, you'll always have a backup bios. The new BIOS has very appealing looks and is very user friendly. Even if you're installing the mobo for the first time, you'll feel at ease. It runs at full-HD resolution of 1920 x 1080P offering a seamless experience providing enhanced set of details for users to tune and look at while overclocking the motherboard.
Once you enter the BIOS, you will find yourself in the start screen of the new Startup Guide which can help with initial setting-up by guiding you through a few simple steps. You can also enable Fast Boot, specify your date and time, choose your boot device order and define the operation mode for your drives. BIOS access can be restricted by means of a password.
You can also switch to the classic mode in the BIOS if you don't like the new interface(which I don't think anyone would) and also you can switch between dual BIOS by simply pressing F2
Load Tests:
For load testing we used the following setup:
CPU: Intel i5 4670K (overclocked to 4.7ghz at 1.2 volt)
GPU: AMD/ATI R9 280X
RAM: 4x8 Gb G.skill TridentX (2133 Mhz, 9-11-11-11-31-2N, 1.6 volts)
Cooler: Corsair H90
Cinebench 15
As shown in the picture, the Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 7 was performing decently in normal mode. The performance was good enough at 580.But increased drastically when overclocked, and reached upto 719
AIDA CPU Queen
The motherboard when tested on AIDA CPU Queen, performed well on both normal and overclocked modes.When normal mode the score was 36483 and went upto 43009 when overclocked.
Winrar v3.7 Corporate Edition
To check the CPU performance on OC we used WinRar v3.7 Corporate edition and compressed and de-compressed a miscellaneous data file of 570MB and took the average of both the times to obtain the result which came at 12 seconds.
DPC Latency
Other than these popular tests, we included the DPC latency test to see the motherboard's highly acclaimed audio performance.DPC Latency Checker is a Windows tool that analyses the capabilities of a computer system to handle real-time data streams properly. It may help to find the cause for interruptions in real-time audio and video streams, also known as drop-outs.The results of Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 7 were very impressive with just 150 micro seconds as the outcome.
Crysis3
We ran Crysis 3 at ultra high settings and 1080p resolution enabling the mantle API and frames were measured using FRAPS.
Tomb Raider
Since, the Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 7 is a gaming motherboard, we were not satisfied by just one game. So we ran Tomb Raider 2013 as well to see the performance of the mobo.The results can be seen here.
Conclusion
The Gigabyte Z97X Gaming 7 motherboard priced at around Rs. 18000 is a worthy pick for a gamer who wants the best of everything available in the market today without throwing in a load of cash. The motherboard not only offer a plethora of rich features like the M.2 SATA connector and support for Intel Broadwell CPUs that not only make it future proof but also has great utility based features like AMP UP and Killer E2200 ethernet that make it a complete package.
Stable over-clocking without much hassle and cool looks complimented by a 4 year domestic warranty leaves no stone unturned by Gigabyte. So next time when you head to the market for some motherboard shopping do consider buying the Gigabyte Z97X Gaming 7 motherboard and believe me you'll thank me later.
I give it a 9/10
Video review for the Z97X Gaming 7 is now online so do watch.
I give it a 9/10
Video review for the Z97X Gaming 7 is now online so do watch.
Shivani Mishra
About the Guest Author:
An Engineer by profession and a writer by passion. Trying to solve others problems and learning in the due course.
An Engineer by profession and a writer by passion. Trying to solve others problems and learning in the due course.
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Your work is very helpful,each and every detail has been described perfectly...in short awesome work.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for the kind words.
DeleteWould try to bring you many more quality articles in future.
Keep visiting.