Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H-WiFi Review

ccokeman - November 13, 2012
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Testing:

Testing the Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H WiFi will involve running it through OCC's test suite of benchmarks, which includes both synthetic benchmarks and real-world applications, to see how each of these products perform. The gaming tests will also consist of both synthetic benchmarks and actual gameplay, in which we can see if similarly prepared setups offer any performance advantages. The system will receive a fully updated, fresh install of Windows 7 Professional 64-bit edition, in addition to the latest drivers for each board and the latest AMD Catalyst drivers for the XFX HD 7970. To ensure as few variables as possible, all hardware will be tested at their stock speeds, timings, voltages, and latencies – unless otherwise stated. Turbo Boost is disabled to make a fair comparison without skewing results.

Testing Setup:

Processors: Core i7 3770K
CPU Cooling: Corsair Hydro Series H100
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H WiFi
Memory: Mushkin 993997 Redline PC317000 9-11-10-28 16GB
Video Card: XFX HD 7970 Black Edition
Power Supply: Corsair AX1200
Hard Drive: Corsair Force GT 240GB
Optical Drive: Lite-On Blu-Ray
Case: Corsair Obsidian 650D
USB 3.0 Dock: Thermaltake Black X 5G
OS: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit

Comparison Boards:

ASUS P8Z77 WS
Asrock Z77 Extreme 4
ASUS P8Z77-V Deluxe
Asrock Z77 OC Formula

Overclocking:

Core i7 3770K @ 4.7 GHz (100 MHz x 47)

Looking at the results generated by the Z77X-UD5H WiFi you can truly see that based strictly on the capabilities of the hardware installed in each of the comparison boards as well as the Z77X-UD5H WiFi that you will get a certain level of overclocking margin with each board. That being said each board that I have tested has delivered roughly the same overclock on the CPU and memory. It just comes down to to the ability of the board to supply a steady supply of current and have the settings available in the BIOS to allow the end user to tweak for the highest level of performance. In that respect Gigabyte's Z77X-UD5H-Wifi was able to deliver all that my CPU and memory have to offer at 4.7GHz on the Core i7 3770K and 2400MHz on the Mushkin Redline Hynix BFR based modules. To reach 4.7GHz on the CPU required 1.325v while the memory was happy with 1.66v, both set in the BIOS. Under the 3D Power section PWM Phase control was set to Extreme, Vcore voltage response was set to Fast, and LLC was set to Extreme. All other voltages were let at the auto settings.

Manual tuning is not the only way to overclock on Gigabyte's platform. Each manufacturer, Gigabyte included, have a comprehensive set of tuning and tweaking utilities to allow the user to tweak from within the OS. Gigabyte provides its Easy Tune 6 utility with the software package and can be downloaded separately. Using this utility you can manually tweak or you can use on of the preset options Auto Tuning section. Three preset overclocks can be utilized. The 4.43GHz turned out to be the best combination for the installed hardware and proved to be Prime 95 stable for at least a couple hours. The 4.68Ghz Level 3 boost was a bit too aggressive for my hardware as it was set in the tool. Further manual tuning was needed to tune out the instability. Even so an almost 1GHz clock speed increase by just pushing a button is nothing to sneeze at.

Maximum Overclock:

Each CPU and motherboard has been tested for stability at the clock speeds listed when in an overclocked state. These clock speeds will be used to run the test suite and will show the performance increase over the stock settings in the overclocked scoring.

Benchmarks:

Scientific & Data: