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ASUS Z97-DELUXE Motherboard Performance Review
By David Ramsey
Manufacturer: ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
Product Name: LGA1150 Intel Motherboard
Model Number: Z97-DELUXE
Price As Tested: DELUXE $289.99 (Newegg), DELUXE NFC WLC $399.99 (Newegg)
Full Disclosure: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. provided the product sample used in this article.
Benchmark Reviews provided you with an early look at the hardware features built into the ASUS Z97-DELUXE LGA1150 motherboard in this article. However, due to embargoes in effect at the time, we couldn’t provide performance figures. Now we can.
With Intel being the sole supplier of chipsets for their processors, all motherboards with the same CPU and supporting chipset will provide pretty much the same performance at stock settings. Vendors strive to distinguish their products with additional features, which can be as disparate as a clever new BIOS or entirely new hardware capabilities grafted on via custom or third-party silicon. From a performance perspective, ASUS has historically added value with enhancements to standard interfaces, such as their accelerated USB 3.0, and hardware and software features that make overclocking easier, even for the novice. With the Z97-DELUXE they’ve even added entirely new high speed interfaces: M.2 and SATA Express. If you’re looking for a future-proof board for your next rig, this could be it.
Test Methodology
However, in this article we’re concerned with pure computational performance. I’ll go over the features the motherboard provides to enable you to get the best from your silicon, and examine the variety of automatic tuning features it has. I’ll run benchmarks with the board at its stock settings, as well as with the settings reached with its automated overclocking features. Last, I’ll test under the highest overclock I can reach “by hand.”
Test System
- Motherboard: ASUS Z97-DELUXE
- Processor: Intel Core i7-4770K “Haswell” CPU
- System Memory: 8G (2x4G) DDR3-2133 at 11-12-11-30 timings
- Video Card: NVIDIA GTX580 reference card
- CPU Cooler: Thermalright Silver Arrow
- Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium x64
Benchmark Applications
- AIDA64 Enginner v4.30.2900
- SPECViewPerf 11
- x264HD 5.0
Let’s start with a look at the UEFI BIOS in the next section.
5 comments
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RealNeil
7 May 2014 at 10:43 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Very expensive buying into this platform. My Z87 board is looking good enough to me at the moment. I’ll wait for something drastic by way of new technology before I buy again.
David Ramsey
7 May 2014 at 10:47 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
As I said in my review: “If you have a Z87 or even a Z77 based motherboard, there’s little compelling reason to upgrade.”
About the only reason I could see jumping to a Z97 system is if you had a need for the SATA Express support.
SH
5 July 2014 at 1:00 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
I have the Z97 Pro. Do I need to turn the switches on the motherboard off in order to use the Asus AI Suite auto tune feature?
David Ramsey
5 July 2014 at 6:21 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
No. My understanding is that the switches are read at power-on by the BIOS, but if you’ve made subsequent modifications either manually or via ASUS’ auto-tune utilities, those will take precedence.
SH
5 July 2014 at 7:12 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Thank you for your reply, I always got an overclocking error whenever I tried to overclock using software with the switches on, I will be trying with the switches off and find out if I have a bad board or RAM. I’ll post my results.