Gigabyte Z77X-UP4 TH Review: Thunderbolt Times Two
by Ian Cutress on September 17, 2012 11:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Gigabyte
- Z77
- thunder
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. Using the in game benchmark, Dirt 3 is run at 2560x1440 with full graphical settings. Results are reported as the average frame rate across four runs.
The Z77X-UP4 TH has a lane allocation of x16 in single GPU, x8/x8 in dual GPU and x8/x4/x4 in tri-GPU. As a result, it should perform as normal with the other boards in our Dirt3 testing, however it often seems to fall near the bottom. In the tri-GPU test, the boards are split clearly between those with PLX 8747 chips, those on PCIe 3.0 x8/x4/x4, and the final two that have x8/x8/x4 (PCIe 3.0/PCIe 3.0/PCIe 2.0). Having all the lanes go through the CPU rather than via the chipset makes a difference on that third card.
As seen regularly, NVIDIA testing fails to show much difference between the boards – even between MCE and non-MCE boards.
Metro2033
Metro2033 is a DX11 benchmark that challenges every system that tries 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 2560x1440 with full graphical settings. Results are given as the average frame rate from 4 runs.
Similar to Dirt3, the Z77X-UP4 TH does not seem to perform at the top end in our AMD testing.
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ElFenix - Monday, September 17, 2012 - link
"Despite all this, Gigabyte’s foray into the Thunderbolt world is spurned in part by the board we are reviewing today...."You probably meant 'spurred,' though that doesn't really fit either.
Also, the very first sentence should be more like "Because the exclusive license has expired...."
IanCutress - Monday, September 17, 2012 - link
Thanks for pointing the first one out - it should have been 'initiated in part'. As to the phrasing of the first sentence, I find it common enough where I am. Not sure if it's a UK thing or not, though US vs. UK idioms have been commented on in past reviews. As always, if anything catches your eye please feel free to email :)Ian
freedom4556 - Monday, September 17, 2012 - link
Speaking of UK vs US, I had to Google your Stella Artois reference, and I actually drink the stuff occasionally. Must have been a UK specific ad campaign.lurker22 - Monday, September 17, 2012 - link
I understand that Thunderbolt is a lot faster and a different usage than USB 3. Frankly, it's not so much better than USB 3 that consumers will pay for Thunderbolt. USB 3 is already leading, and Thunderbolt will be left behind like Firewire despite the tech being superior...dagamer34 - Monday, September 17, 2012 - link
It's rather meh on desktops since it's pretty easy to add new hardware internally, but it makes far more sense on laptops when you have limited number of ports. Having an external PCI-Express bus is interested, especially if external GPUs ever actually arrive at an affordable price point.Kjella - Monday, September 17, 2012 - link
If you're going to plug in one device, yes. I think the strength of Thunderbolt is as a laptop dock - plug in one cable and you got wired network, sound, keyboard, mouse, printers external screens, any USB 1/2/3.0 device, firewire, esata, external graphics card dock, regular 3.5" HDDs and whatnot. That can have a future in many companies I think who've now chosen laptops for higher flexibility - now you can have that and dock into a full system with one cable.sean.crees - Monday, September 17, 2012 - link
It will mean a lot if they ever put thunderbolt on a mini itx board. I know a lot of SFF enthusiasts who would love to try external graphics with a sub 10 liter enclosure. But on a full size ATX board it doesn't really mean a whole lot.Skidmarks - Tuesday, September 18, 2012 - link
That's possibly true but only time will tell.GeorgeH - Monday, September 17, 2012 - link
It really would've been nice to see some Thunderbolt testing. I realize Anand is hogging all of the shiny TB gear, but the review didn't really test the primary draw of this MB and as such is kind of useless.zanon - Monday, September 17, 2012 - link
Agreed. As the summary correctly states, the raison d'etre of this board are the TB ports. Even if it's just the overpriced Promise a review should give them some stress and see how they perform. Maybe it'll get easier if QNAP ever releases their JBOD.