ASUS TUF Z87 Gryphon Review
by Ian Cutress on February 3, 2014 10:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Asus
- Z87
- TUF
Gaming Benchmarks
Metro2033
Our first analysis is with the perennial reviewers’ favorite, Metro2033. It occurs in a lot of reviews for a couple of reasons – it has a very easy to use benchmark GUI that anyone can use, and it is often very GPU limited, at least in single GPU mode. Metro2033 is a strenuous DX11 benchmark that can challenge most systems that try to run it at any high-end settings. Developed by 4A Games and released in March 2010, we use the inbuilt DirectX 11 Frontline benchmark to test the hardware at 1440p with full graphical settings. Results are given as the average frame rate from a second batch of 4 runs, as Metro has a tendency to inflate the scores for the first batch by up to 5%.
| Metro 2033 | 1 GPU | 2 GPU |
| AMD | ||
| NVIDIA |
Dirt 3
Dirt 3 is a rallying video game and the third in the Dirt series of the Colin McRae Rally series, developed and published by Codemasters. Dirt 3 also falls under the list of ‘games with a handy benchmark mode’. In previous testing, Dirt 3 has always seemed to love cores, memory, GPUs, PCIe lane bandwidth, everything. The small issue with Dirt 3 is that depending on the benchmark mode tested, the benchmark launcher is not indicative of game play per se, citing numbers higher than actually observed. Despite this, the benchmark mode also includes an element of uncertainty, by actually driving a race, rather than a predetermined sequence of events such as Metro 2033. This in essence should make the benchmark more variable, but we take repeated in order to smooth this out. Using the benchmark mode, Dirt 3 is run at 1440p with Ultra graphical settings. Results are reported as the average frame rate across four runs.
| Dirt 3 | 1 GPU | 2 GPU |
| AMD | ||
| NVIDIA |
Civilization V
A game that has plagued my testing over the past twelve months is Civilization V. Being on the older 12.3 Catalyst drivers were somewhat of a nightmare, giving no scaling, and as a result I dropped it from my test suite after only a couple of reviews. With the later drivers used for this review, the situation has improved but only slightly, as you will see below. Civilization V seems to run into a scaling bottleneck very early on, and any additional GPU allocation only causes worse performance.
Our Civilization V testing uses Ryan’s GPU benchmark test all wrapped up in a neat batch file. We test at 1080p, and report the average frame rate of a 5 minute test.
| Civilization V | 1 GPU | 2 GPU |
| AMD | ||
| NVIDIA |
Sleeping Dogs
While not necessarily a game on everybody’s lips, Sleeping Dogs is a strenuous game with a pretty hardcore benchmark that scales well with additional GPU power due to its SSAA implementation. The team over at Adrenaline.com.br is supreme for making an easy to use benchmark GUI, allowing a numpty like me to charge ahead with a set of four 1440p runs with maximum graphical settings.
| Sleeping Dogs | 1 GPU | 2 GPU |
| AMD | ||
| NVIDIA |
Conclusions
Despite the deficit in the CPU department, the only manifestation that has in our gaming tests is using dual GPUs in Civilization V. All other tests are within statistical variation with other PCIe 3.0 x8/x8 based motherboards.
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FractinJex - Monday, February 3, 2014 - link
Im currently running this board in a CoolerMaster N200 mATX build and its awesome! Just like the sabertooth its rock solid and built to last until upgrade 4-5 years...i7 4770
MSI GTX 780 Ti 1225mhz
8gb 2400 Gskill
AX860
Firestrike score - 11313
tim851 - Monday, February 3, 2014 - link
>its rock solid and built to last until upgrade 4-5 years...<Yeah, unlike all the normal motherboards that explode after 3 years... *rollseyes*
5thaccount - Monday, February 3, 2014 - link
Yeah, haha, all my systems last far beyond 5 years - but that's because I refuse to use ASUS motherboards! ASUS hasn't made quality motherboards for 15 years. Every month I see hundreds of ASUS motherboards thrown out because they died or have some problems. MSI also has a high failure rate, but unlike ASUS, they actually honor their warranty.munim - Monday, February 3, 2014 - link
Yeah, haha, all my systems last far beyond 5 years - but that's because I refuse to use MSI motherboards! MSI hasn't made quality motherboards for 15 years. Every month I see hundreds of MSI motherboards thrown out because they died or have some problems. Asus also has a high failure rate, but unlike MSI, they actually honor their warranty.maximumGPU - Tuesday, February 4, 2014 - link
Love it!Senti - Monday, February 3, 2014 - link
Why so much hate towards Asus to even spam the same nonsense (zero examples) from multiple accounts?Asus does make nice boards, just a bit overpriced maybe.
My oldest MB still in use is Asus K8N4-E Deluxe: that's 8 years of use (with overclocking too)! Just had to replace CMOS battery recently.
FractinJex - Monday, February 3, 2014 - link
They are both trolls....I handle multiple MB vend/manf. on a daily basis and Asus is still one of the best consumer/enthusiast brands available simply as that....MSI is right up there as well with their xpower etcEtsp - Monday, February 3, 2014 - link
munim isn't supporting 5thaccount, they are pointing out how ridiculous 5thaccount's post is, by using the same exact wording and swapping the brands.Samus - Monday, February 3, 2014 - link
Lmfao is this guy serious? Asus has always made some of the best motherboards going way back to the 80's.5thaccount - Tuesday, February 4, 2014 - link
My hate is strictly for ASUS' motherboards and RMA process. Everything else I've seen from ASUS has been of reasonable to excellent quality. 'munim' is someone not related to me. I'm not going to give specific examples or identify myself, but since the 90s I've worked as a technician, at very large reseller (at one time was the largest reseller of video cards in the world - although we sold every other part too), and currently at an electronics recycling company. I see things on an enormous scale and from a unique perspective. We see tons of the latest technology running through our doors, and ASUS motherboards are a running joke (from my experience their reliability has been spotty since their Socket A / 462 boards - prior to that they were bulletproof). Anyhow, no one has to believe a word of what I just said - won't affect me one way or the other.