ASUS Maximus V GENE Review

Want to know how Intel Ivy Bridge runs on ASUS Republic of Gamer’s mATX mini-power house? Intel Z77 motherboard review with Core i5-3750K.

Reviewed with Intel’s 3rd Generation CPU Core i5-3570K (Ivy Bridge)

Product on review: Maximus V GENE

Manufacturer: ASUS
Street Price: £155 inc. VAT

In our new venture with Intel’s Z77 chipset and 3rd Generation CPUs (Ivy Bridge) we delve into the world of the Republic of Gamers Series for a look at the new Maximus V GENE.

In the M-ATX arena the GENE motherboards throughout the preceding generations have always been the very best of what you can get with a smaller form factor. You typically get all of the features from the bigger Republic of Gamers (ROG) motherboards but on a smaller PCB and at a smaller price-tag, meaning this is perfect for building a compact system.

Today we shall be taking a look at the Maximus V GENE, the first of the ASUS ROG motherboards to be released with some exciting new features such as SupremeFX III, GameFirst and much more. How will this new motherboard stack up against other popular rivals when using Intel’s notorious Ivy Bridge? Let’s find out!

What ASUS say

The ROG Maximus V GENE features the new Intel Z77 express chipset and comes with SupremeFX® III audio and network traffic management via Intel® Ethernet and ASUS GameFirst technology, affording smoother and more immersive gameplay. Containing display port and HDMI, the Maximus V GENE also includes Smart DIGI+ power control and the world’s first Dual Intelligent Processors from ASUS consisting of two dedicated onboard chips, the TPU and EPU. This also consists of multiple digital voltage controllers that allow for ultra-precise tuning of CPU, iGPU and DRAM power delivery while working with the TPU to ramp up performance to full potential for the ultimate user experience.

Technical Specifications

CPU Intel® Socket 1155 for 3rd/2nd Generation Processors
Supports Intel® 22 nm CPU
Supports Intel® 32 nm CPU
Supports Intel® Turbo Boost Technology 2
Chipset Intel® Z77
Memory 4 x DIMM, Max. 32GB, DDR3 MHz Non-ECC, Un-buffered Memory
Dual Channel Memory Architecture
Supports Intel® Extreme Memory Profile (XMP)
Graphics
Integrated Graphics Processor
Multi-VGA output support : HDMI/DisplayPort ports
– Supports HDMI with max. resolution 1920 x 1200 @ 60 Hz
– Supports DisplayPort with max. resolution 2560 x 1600 @ 60 Hz
Supports Intel® HD Graphics, InTru™ 3D, Quick Sync Video, Clear Video HD Technology, Insider™
Multi-GPU Support Supports NVIDIA® SLI™ Technology
Supports AMD CrossFireX™ Technology
Supports LucidLogix® Virtu™ MVP Technology
Expansion Slots
2 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (x16 or dual x8, red)
1 x PCIe 2.0 x4 (black)
1 x mini-PCIe 2.0 x1 *3
Storage
Intel® Z77 chipset :
2 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s), red
2 x SATA 3Gb/s port(s), black
1 x eSATA 3Gb/s port(s), red
1 x mini-SATA 3Gb/s port(s), black
Support Raid 0, 1, 5, 10
Supports Intel® Smart Response Technology, Intel® Rapid Start Technology, Intel® Smart Connect Technology
ASMedia® PCIe SATA controller :
2 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s), red
LAN Intel®, 1 x Gigabit LAN Controller(s)
Audio
SupremeFX III built-in 8-Channel High Definition Audio CODEC
– Output Signal-to-Noise Ratio (A-Weighted): 110 dB
– Output THD+N at 1kHz: 95 dB
– Supports : Jack-detection, Multi-streaming, Front Panel Jack-retasking
Audio Feature :
– SupremeFX Shielding™ Technology
– 1500 uF Audio Power Capacitor
– Gold-plated jacks
– X-Fi® Xtreme Fidelity™
– EAX® Advanced™ HD 5.0
– THX® TruStudio PRO™
– Creative ALchemy
– Blu-ray audio layer Content Protection
– Optical S/PDIF out port(s) at back panel
USB Ports Intel® Z77 chipset :
4 x USB 3.0 port(s) (2 at back panel, blue, 2 at mid-board)
Intel® Z77 chipset :
8 x USB 2.0 port(s) (4 at back panel, black+white, 4 at mid-board)
ASMedia® USB 3.0 controller :
2 x USB 3.0 port(s) (2 at back panel, blue)
Overclocking Features
mPCIe Combo™ (mPCIe/mSATA combo card)
ROG Connect :
– RC Diagram
– RC Remote
– RC Poster
– GPU TweakIt
Extreme Engine Digi+ II :
– 8 -phase CPU power design + 4 -phase iGPU power design
– 2 -phase QPI/DRAM power design
ProbeIt
UEFI BIOS features :
– ROG BIOS Print
– GPU.DIMM Post
GameFirst
iROG
Extreme Tweaker
Loadline Calibration
USB BIOS Flashback
Overclocking Protection :
– ASUS C.P.R.(CPU Parameter Recall)
Special Features
ASUS Hybrid Processor – TurboV EVO :
– CPU Level Up
ASUS EPU :
– EPU
ASUS Exclusive Features :
– AI Suite II
– Ai Charger+
– USB 3.0 Boost
– Disk Unlocker
ASUS EZ DIY :
– ASUS O.C. Profile
– ASUS CrashFree BIOS 3
– ASUS EZ Flash 2
ASUS Q-Design :
– ASUS Q-LED (CPU, DRAM, VGA, Boot Device LED)
– ASUS Q-Slot
– ASUS Q-DIMM
– ASUS Q-Connector
Back I/O Ports
1 x DisplayPort
1 x HDMI
1 x eSATA 3Gb/s
1 x LAN (RJ45) port(s)
4 x USB 3.0
4 x USB 2.0 (one port can be switched to ROG Connect)
1 x Optical S/PDIF out
6 x Audio jack(s)
1 x Clear CMOS button(s)
1 x ROG Connect On/ Off switch(es)
Internal I/O
1 x USB 3.0 connector(s) support(s) additional 2 USB 3.0 port(s)
2 x USB 2.0 connector(s) support(s) additional 4 USB 2.0 port(s)
4 x SATA 6Gb/s connector(s)
2 x SATA 3Gb/s connector(s)
2 x CPU Fan connector(s)
3 x Chassis Fan connector(s)
1 x S/PDIF out header(s)
1 x 24-pin EATX Power connector(s)
1 x 8-pin ATX 12V Power connector(s)
1 x Front panel audio connector(s) (AAFP)
1 x System panel(s)
8 x ProbeIt Measurement Points
1 x Power-on button(s)
1 x Reset button(s)
1 x Go Button(s)
1 x mPCIe Combo header(s)
Accessories
User’s manual
I/O Shield
2 x SATA 3Gb/s cable(s)
4 x SATA 6Gb/s cable(s)
1 x SLI bridge(s)
1 x Q-connector(s) (2 in 1)
1 x ROG Connect cable(s)
1 x 12 in 1 ROG Cable Label(s)
1 x ROG Door Hanger(s)
BIOS 64Mb UEFI AMI BIOS, PnP, DMI2.0, WfM2.0, SM BIOS 2.5, ACPI2.0a Multi-Language BIOS
Support Disc
Drivers
Sound Blaster® X-Fi 2 Utility
Kaspersky® Anti-Virus
DAEMON Tools Pro Standard
ROG CPU-Z
ASUS AI Suite II
ASUS WebStorage
ASUS Utilities
Form Factor
uATX Form Factor
9.6 inch x 9.6 inch ( 24.4 cm x 24.4 cm )

Packaging & First Look

As is now customary for all Republic of Gamers (ROG) packaging – the Maximus V GENE is presented in a striking red box that has a flip lid. Turning this lid up reveals the fundamental features that come with this motherboard for those who are interested. Though this is only the packaging, its still nice to see attention to details and a step-up in this department.

The packaging for Maximus V GENE

A flip lid with more info on key features

Within the box the motherboard sits in its own black box with plastic lid to tease a preview. Other than this we have an abundance of included items within the bundle:

• User’s manual
• I/O Shield
• 2 x SATA 3Gb/s cables
• 4 x SATA 6Gb/s cables
• SLI bridge
• Q-connector
• ROG Connect cable
• ROG Cable Label
• ROG Door Hanger

It’s good to see so many items included in the bundle – check out our ASUS Maximus V GENE Unboxing for even more details from another perspective.

Lots of items included in the bundle

With the packaging out of the way we can now focus on the motherboard itself. Below is our first glimpse of Maximus V GENE. If you haven’t already guessed, this motherboard is mATX and first impressions could be deceiving – though this motherboard may look cute it certainly packs a punch.

Following on from previous ROG motherboards the Maximus V GENE has black and red ports, slots and heatsinks and arrives with a high-end feature-set such as onboard power buttons, onboard dedicated audio via SupremeFX and many more features which we will be taking a close look at on the following pages .

Maximus V GENE may be mATX but it packs a punch

Closer Look

Moving in for a closer look then we first of all come to the CPU socket. This is of course LGA1155, supporting Intel’s 2nd and 3rd Generation of CPUs – Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge. Around the CPU socket we have a dual heatsink design with a single heatpipe running through. Maximus V GENE has an 8+4+2 digital phase power design. Around the motherboard and the CPU socket we have 10K black capacitors and these offer up to 20% better thermal endurance – ASUS actually claim that these CAPs can offer up to 10K hours of operation at 105C. Behind the heatsinks is an 8-pin CPU power socket.

A burly heatsink design covering the MOSFETs

Turning our attention to the memory slots there is support for dual channel DDR3 from 1066MHz up to 2666MHz (OC) and a maximum capacity of 32GB and there is also support for Intel XMP.

Beside the memory slots and 24-pin ATX power is a small red button with the label “GO BUTTON” this acts as MemOK! Providing a safe-boot beyond POST and into windows. This GO BUTTON also has a secondary feature of being able to load a pre-defined overclock setting – these options can be set in the BIOS.

Immediately next to this GO BUTTON are the voltage read points which are typically used by advanced Overclockers for getting critical information when pushing the limits.

Finally, also in the picture on the other side of 24-pin ATX power is the native USB 3.0 port for getting USB 3.0 to the front of the computer chassis.

Memory slots and a variety of useful features

Moving to the storage there is a combination of SATA 2 and SATA 3 connectivity. The two black ports are SATA 2 3Gb/s and the two red ports immediately next to these are SATA 3 6Gb/s (supplied by Intel Z77 whilst the other two ports are SATA 3 6Gb/s but supplied via AS Media.

SATA 2 and SATA 3 connectivity for HDDs

Behind these storage ports is a large heatsink covering the Intel Z77 chip and USB 2.0 headers with an LED Debug – if you aren’t familiar with this feature, the LED panel displays various codes as you boot beyond POST and into Windows. A particular code will display if you are having specific issues with a particular component such as memory and then referring back to the user manual with this code helps to identify what is wrong with the system so that you can be on your way to a solution.

Intel Z77 heatsink and LED debug

On the next page we will continue our tour of the Maximus V GENE.

Closer Look (Continued)

An area that most will be interested in is the PCI Express section. Here there is 2 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (x16 or dual x8, red) and 1 x PCIe 2.0 x4 (black). The top PCI-E 3.0 slot is x16 whilst the lower slot is x8 so if you are going to be using a single graphics card then it’s advisable to use the top slot whilst using a dual card configuration will this will drop to x8. It’s also worth mentioning that NVIDIA SLI and AMD Crossfire are both supported on this motherboard.

PCI-Express 3.0 slots with support for NVIDIA SLI and AMD Crossfire

The eagle eyed amongst you will have noticed the onboard power buttons right from the start. These are positioned at the very bottom of the motherboard and are extremely useful if you are going to be making use of a system that is outside of a computer chassis – it means you do not have to hook up computer chassis power/reset buttons.

Power and reset buttons at the bottom of Maximus V GENE

Lastly the rear IO ports. For a mATX motherboard ASUS have certainly packed in a decent assortment of features here. From left to right we have:

• Clear CMOS button
• Mini PCI-E (See ASUS Maximus V GENE video for more details
• ROG connect button
• 4x USB 2.0 (3x black 1x white – used for ROG connect cable)
• eSATA (3Gb/s) port
• 2x USB 3.0 ports
• Optical S/PDIF
• HDMI/Display port
• Gigabit LAN (RJ45)
• 2x USB 3.0 ports
• 8 channel audio (via SupremeFXIII)

The audio jacks as mentioned are supported via the SupremeFX chip. This is located in the bottom corner of the board and is now within its 3rd generation – ASUS have included software to work in conjunction with this chip to supply an enhanced audio experience.

What ASUS say about SupremeFX III

A bounty of industry standards are supported, including EAX® 5.0 Advanced HD, Creative® ALchemy and THX® TruStudio™ PRO, so the same great audio experiences found in live performances, films and recording studios are reproduced faithfully right on the PC. When bundled with the Sound Blaster® X-Fi MB2 suite, the SupremeFX III™ is the perfect choice to provide an exceptional gaming experience with realistic sound effects.

Lots of features on the rear IO

SupremeFX III supplies the 8 audio jacks with premium sound quality

Test Setup & Overclocking

CPUs Intel Core i5-3570K (3.40GHz) Ivy Bridge
Cooling Alpenfohn K2 – Mount Doom
Motherboard ASUS Maximus V GENE
Memory Corsair Vengeance 8GB 2133MHz CL11 DDR
Graphics XFX R7970 Black Edition
Storage Kingston HyperX 240GB SSD
PSU OCZ Fatal1ty 750W

Benchmarks

Cinebench 11.5 – CPU Score
x264 HD 4.0 – 1st and 2nd pass encoding
SiSoftware SANDRA 2012 – CPU & Memory benchmarks
AIDA64 – CPU benchmarks
3DMark 11 – DX11 3D Performance and Extreme preset
Games – DIRT 3, Skyrim and Battlefield 3

Other Software
Core Temp
LinX stress Test
CPU-Z

Overclocking

As previously mentioned in our Intel Core i5 Sandy Bridge Roundup – overclocking with Ivy Bridge is identical to Sandy Bridge. It is achieved by altering the multiplier rather than the BCLK. So the BCLK stays at 100MHz and the multiplier is modified. So if we have 100MHz on the BCLK and 40 for the multiplier this will obviously output 4GHz.

For this section of the review the maximum overclock was achieved by using the Intel Core i5 3750K and monolith CPU cooler – Alpenfohn K2 with 2x 120mm and 1x 140mm fans. The multiplier for Core i5-3570K was nudged up in small increments starting with 43 and upon booting into windows LinX was run 5 times in order to observe temperatures and confirm stability.

The 3750K managed to overclock up to 48 – 4.8GHz from 3.40GHz, a 41% overclock. This is a significant increase and required 1.40 vcore and PLL overvoltage enabled. I pushed for the 5GHz milestone but sadly the temperatures increased far too high under load when nudging up vcore to achieve such a frequency. The temperatures rose to over 90*C.

This maximum overclock will be used throughout our benchmarks – as well as stock 3570K frequency with turbo boost enabled.

ASUS Maximus V GENE BIOS

For this review we have produced a video to give a guided tour of the BIOS – revealing key features. The video is below – we hope you like it!

Power Consumption

It’s interesting to note the power consumption across all motherboards. Although they are using P67 and Z68 chipsets, energy results can fluctuate between manufacturers due to the features and specifications that are integrated. First of all, for the idle tests the system is cold booted into Windows and no additional applications are executed – the watts are noted on the external energy monitor we use and then the system is loaded with 3DMark 11 – watts are again monitored for the duration of the test and the highest rated wattage result is then noted down. Below are the results of this energy test.

Lucid VIRTU MVP

LucidLogix Virtu MVP featuring HyperFormance™ Technology boosts your discrete graphics card up to 60% beyond its original performance through the test of 3DMark Vantage. Designed for Intel® processor graphics and Windows® 7 PCs, it perfectly combines the performance of discrete graphics cards with fast computing iGPU. Also with the newly designed Virtual Sync, users can enjoy a smoother gaming experience by eliminating tearing artifacts. LucidLogix Virtu MVP could also dynamically assign tasks to the best available graphics resource, based on power, performance and system load. This allows users to fully utilize 3x faster video conversion with Intel® Quick Sync Video technology while retaining high-end 3D rendering and gaming performance, provided by both NVIDIA® and AMD graphic cards. When the discrete graphics card is not required, power consumption goes automatically down to near zero, making the system more environmentally-friendly. For users searching for perfection, LucidLogix Virtu MVP provides great graphical performance and the best flexibility and efficiency.

An interesting feature that first appeared on the desktop environment with the Sandy Bridge architecture was the integrated graphics on the CPU. This meant that regardless of if you had a discreet graphics solution you always had the ability to use “Built in” processing power to watch movies, view 3D content and take part in some casual gaming.

With Ivy Bridge, Intel have stepped up with new graphics architecture by delivering full DX11 functionality. With HD-4000 there is a significant increase in execution units which mean even greater performance enhancements when compared to HD 2000/3000 – found on Sandy Bridge CPUs. To the end user this should translate to being able to handle 1080p movies, more complex gaming titles and even more intense 3D renders.

The Maximus V GENE has HDMI/Display ports to allow connectivity to Intel’s IGP with support via Lucid VIRTU MVP. What VIRTU does is – it allows the user to utilise both discrete GPU and Intel’s IGP (built in graphics on the CPU) without the need to change hardware or switch the outputs.

VIRTU brings in many unique features, a great deal of them are associated with power management – relating to heat, fan speed, and other useful elements. There are two different modes to use when considering VIRTU:

i-Mode
This provides the user with Intel features and power saving options when not being used for 3D gaming. Display must be connected to video output on the motherboard to use this feature.

d-Mode
This mode allows gamers to enhance their 3D experience and performance – combining a discrete graphics solution and the iGPU. In this mode we can use VIRTU to assist with things like transcoding and media encoding in general. The overriding thought on this is that even entry level AMD and NVIDIA graphics cards have their own technologies for handling media encoding such as AMD Stream and NVIDIA CUDA – both of these technologies are deemed as being exceptional alternatives and don’t offer any real advantage over VIRTU using IGP for these types of task.

Display drivers for discreet graphics card must be installed prior to VIRTU drivers.

For more information on VIRTU please go to: Lucidlogix Virtu MVP

ASUS AI Suite II

As with many ASUS motherboards the Maximus V GENE is bundled with AI Suite II. This software not only gives critical information on important aspects of the system but also brings in some very useful features that can be taken advantage of.

I won’t be covering every aspect of AI Suite II but will be giving a brief overview. The system information tab provides important information on the motherboard, CPU and memory specifications – seen below.

Another interesting feature with AI Suite II is the ability to update the BIOS. Going to the update tab gives you a selection of options – you can either update the BIOS with the latest version with this software or download the file for use within the BIOS.

Under the tools tab there is an abundance of applications that can be used including TurboV EVO, FAN Xpert 2 and others. Probe II is a particularly interesting feature that provides on-the-fly information regarding the voltages, temperatures, fan speeds and allows for alerts to be set in place.

Fan Xpert 2

Those who have used ASUS AI Suite II before will surely know of FAN Xpert. But those who haven’t may not so we will go over this feature briefly. FAN Xpert is now in its 2nd evision and allows for the tweaking of fan speeds throughout the system. Not only does this include areas such as the CPU cooler fans but also the customisation of speeds for the computer chassis fans too. This enables the user to have full control of airflow/noise levels without the need of a physical fan controller.

ASUS have listed some key benefits to FAN Xpert 2 below:

– Fan Auto Tuning, where the optimal fan speed of each individual fans connected are tweaked by the intelligent fan control algorithm, bringing users the fan usage experience of the future, ideal for first time system builders. The tweaked fan profiles may vary with the change of the fans fitted as well as the location in which the fans are fitted.

– Detection of Fan Characteristics, where the full characteristics of each individual fan connected can be viewed in either pure text or diagram form for a better understanding of the fans used.

– Setting to a Fixed Fan Speed, where the users are given the opportunity to fix the speed of each individual fans at a certain speed rather than a ratio. This is quite similar to what is available on the external fan control kits provided by third-party vendors.

– Redefinition of Fan Curve, where the fan curve of each individual fan fitted can be easily altered with simple drag and put of mouse curser. FAN Xpert 2 will also show the absolute lowest fan ratio of any fans previously tweaked via Auto Tuning for a more precise management of fans. Of course, users can also allow the fan to stop if desired.

– Redefinition of Fan Responsiveness, where the user are now given the opportunity to alter how fast each fans should respond to the change in its reference temperature. A good use of this function can help to reduce unpleasant fan noise due to sudden change in fan speed while enhancing the effectiveness of the same cooling solution to extend the life of onboard components. Users are able to make changes to the speed up and speed down delay to make the fans operate exactly how they liked it.

– Fan Position Search, where FAN Xpert 2 will force stop all chassis fans outside the one the user looks for, to allow quick and easy location of fan position.

– Rename fan headers, where the name of each fan headers can be altered to the desired naming for more convenient applications.

Below is a video from NewEgg – with ASUS giving a live demo of FAN Xpert 2.

On the next page we will take a look at a feature that is found within this tools section called – USB 3.0 Boost.

USB 3.0 Turbo Boost – Does it really work?

Within the ‘Tools’ section of AI Suite II is a feature called USB 3.0 boost. The idea with this feature is that all of the USB 3.0 ports found on Maximus V GENE can be configured to “Turbo” mode to significantly boost the transfer rates of any USB device that is inserted.

So to investigate whether this feature really does work I plugged in a Kingston DataTraveler Ultimate 32GB USB 3.0 and ran Flash Memory Toolkit – an application that allows for the benchmarking of USB drives/sticks by monitoring read/write transfer rates with different sized files.

To discover the effectiveness of USB 3.0 Turbo Boost I ran the benchmark in Normal mode and Turbo mode on the same drive – below are the results.

As you can see, turbo mode boosts the transfer rates significantly – over 1MB/s faster in some cases. So this feature does actually work and it’s advisable if you are going to use this motherboard and a USB 3.0 device to get AI Suite II loaded and Turbo Mode enabled in order to benefit from this useful tool.

Encoding Performance – X264 HD

Simply put, this test measures how fast your machine can encode a short, DVD quality MPEG-2 video clip into a high-quality x264 video clip. What’s x264, you ask? It’s more or less the next-generation Xvid/DivX codec. I think it’s ideal for a benchmark because the application (x264.exe) reports fairly accurate compression results (in frames per second) for each pass of the video encoding process, and it uses multi-core processors very efficiently.

x264 HD gives results for 2 passes when compressing an MPEG-2 clip into x264. It presents 4 separate results for each pass giving a total of 8 – all results are given in FPS. For each pass I have averaged out the results.

Processing Features Performance – AIDA64

Get your copy of AIDA64 here!

This simple integer benchmark focuses on the branch prediction capabilities and the misprediction penalties of the CPU. It finds the solutions for the classic “Queens problem” on a 10 by 10 sized chessboard. At the same clock speed theoretically the processor with the shorter pipeline and smaller misprediction penalties will attain higher benchmark scores. For example — with HyperThreading disabled — the Intel Northwood core processors get higher scores than the Intel Prescott core based ones due to the 20-step vs 31-step long pipeline. CPU Queen test uses integer MMX, SSE2 and SSSE3 optimizations.

Processing Power Performance – Cinebench

CINEBENCH can measure systems with up to 64 processor threads. This test scene contains approximately 2,000 objects which in turn contain more than 300,000 polygons in total, and uses sharp and blurred reflections, area lights, shadows, procedural shaders, antialiasing, and much more. The result is displayed in points (pts). The higher the number, the faster your processor.

Bandwidth Performance – SiSoftware SANDRA

SANDRA isn’t always a benchmark that is included in hardware reviews but I believe it shouldn’t be ignored. SANDRA provides a vigorous package that tests your system in a rather large array of benchmarks. There are many aspects of benchmark that can be executed. We will be considering – CPU and memory tests.

3D Performance – 3DMARK 11

Designed to measure your PC’s gaming performance 3DMark 11 makes extensive use of all the new features in DirectX 11 including tessellation, compute shaders and multi-threading. Trusted by gamers worldwide to give accurate and unbiased results, 3DMark 11 is the best way to consistently and reliably test DirectX 11 under game-like loads.

3DMark 11 is a very popular 3D performance benchmark suite and needs little introduction. For the test settings both Performance and Extreme presets are run with ‘benchmark only’ being selected. This provides good analysis. Many will only test the performance preset, using the extreme mode we can examine the board under much more severe stressing – at 720p and 1080p.

Gaming Performance – DIRT 3, Skyrim & Battlefield 3

It’s important for us to perform a number of game benchmarks as well as the synthetic tests because gamers will want to know if there are any significant benefits. So here we have a selection of popular gaming titles, critically acclaimed and action-packed.

Settings
DIRT 3
– 1680×1050 4xMSAA – Ultra Quality *Benchmark tool*
Skyrim
– 1680×1050 2xAA – Very High Quality *FRAPS – 1st episode*
Battlefield 3
– 1680×1050 2xAA – Ultra Quality *FRAPS – Sepur Fedelis*

The gaming titles selected demand GPU power over CPU power – in each test the difference is rather marginal.

Conclusion

Although Intel’s Z77 motherboards have been on the market for many weeks now, without the launch and availability of their 3rd Generation of CPUs codenamed Ivy Bridge the true potential of these motherboards has been somewhat a mystery. We have deliberately held off reviewing any of our motherboards until IVB launch because Z77 and IVB work hand-in-hand. Who wants to see the old Sandy Bridge used in a Z77? I didn’t think so!

Down to the Maximus V GENE then, this motherboard is undoubtedly a little stick of dynamite. Its visual aesthetics are in keeping with the ROG series, to which enthusiast and gamer alike simply adore. For such a small motherboard the features are all there too. If you think you are missing out due to the size then think again.

In our benchmark tests the Maximus V GENE pushed the boundaries and exceeded expectations. Overclocking yielded even greater results with the Intel Core i5 3570K. Novice users can enter the BIOS make changes and take advantage of features as can advanced users too – the audience isn’t specific but all groups are catered for thanks to the expanse of features.

Feature-wise Maximus V GENE is laden with useful resources and tools. USB 3.0 Turbo Boost is a feature we have looked at in this review and we demonstrated the true effectiveness of tool. There are many more aspects we could go on to explore too – ASUS Flashback BIOS is another great feature that allows you to flash the BIOS without even having the system booted and with any components installed. All you need is the PSU hooked up to a bare motherboard and the BIOS on a USB stick and voila! The BIOS is ready to be flashed.

Pricing sits at around £155 for the Maximus V GENE which is very reasonable for a ROG motherboard with such status. You get feature after feature along with the performance too. The only drawback that I am conscious of is that this is a mATX motherboard and they don’t always suit everyone – especially if you are building inside a mid-full tower chassis this motherboard will look very lonely. It ideally needs to be within a smaller, compact computer chassis such as the recently reviewed SilverStone Fortress FT03.

Pros
+ Very powerful mATX offering
+ Many items within the bundle
+ Feature laden
+ Leader in almost all performance benchmarks
+ Features to cater basic to advanced users
+ Overclocking yields huge benefits
+ USB 3.0 Turbo Boost is effective

Cons
– The only current Z77 ROG motherboard available is MATX