ASUS Crosshair V Formula Motherboard

Manufacturer: ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
Model Number: Crosshair V Formula
Product Name: AMD 990FX Motherboard
Price as Tested: $219.99 (Newegg)

Full Disclosure: The product sample used in this article has been provided by ASUS.

The long-awaited 990FX Chipset is finally here. The manufacturing partners have put together their offerings, each putting their personal touches to the design. Benchmark reviews is here with a look at the ASUS Crosshair V Formula 990FX motherboard and the all new 990FX Chipset. It's been a long time coming, and a full six months after the Intel P67-Express chipset means that AMD is behind the curve. A lot is expected of the new chipset and ASUS has a name to keep up with the Republic of Gamers series name.

The 990FX Chipset doesn't bring a whole lot of new stuff to the table. A higher RAM speed compatibility, a new socket, and SLI compatibility are about it. Even the SB950 southbridge is pretty much identical to the older generation SB850. The thing about that is, however, the 990FX and SB950 still offer a lot more in some ways than the P67-Express Chipset.

Namely, the 990FX Chipset offers a full 42 PCIe 2.0 lanes compared to 16 on the P67-Express. The SB950 gives you six SATA 6Gb/s ports, compared with only two from the Intel alternative. Neither chipset offers native USB 3.0 support, but ASUS has never been one to let that bother them. They fix this in the ASUS Crosshair V Formula motherboard with not just one, or even two, but three Asmedia USB 3.0 controllers for a total of 6 USB 3.0 ports. Additional features found on the Crosshair V Formula we will talk about in this article include:

• uEFI - User Extensible Firmware Interface (BIOS replacement) with Graphical User Interface
• Extreme Engine DIGI+ - Precision digital Voltage Regulator Module replaces analog management
• AI Suite II - Combines DIGI+ VRM, EPU, TurboV EVO, BT GO!, FAN Xpert, and Probe II software into one program
• ASUS DIP2 - Dual Intelligent Processors integrated onto the motherboard:
  - ASUS TPU (iROG Chip) (TurboV Processing Unit) Relieves parts of process-intensive tasks from CPU
  - ASUS EPU (Energy Processing Unit) Reduces power drain by up to 80%
• Go! Button - Automatically enables an overclocking profile you set in the uEFI

All motherboard manufacturers realize that the key to making their product stand out from the crowd of nearly identical motherboards is to add their own features. While some are common-place, like USB 3.0 ports that AMD oddly left of the 990FX chipset, others are rare. Some are seemingly cosmetic or serve a little used function. Whatever the case may be, all motherboards, even those from the same manufacturer, vary somewhat in their feature sets. Below is a table that outlines some of the ASUS motherboards so you can compare their features with those of the ASUS Crosshair V Formula motherboard.

The AMD 990FX Chipset

If you are feeling hard-pressed to find differences between the 990FX Chipset and the older 890FX Chipset, you'll be relieved to know that there aren't many. The AMD 990FX Chipset keeps everything almost completely the same as its older counterpart. Even the new SB950 southbridge is pretty identical to the SB850.

The AMD 990FX Chipset does, however, compete very well with its competition on the Intel side, the Intel P67 Express Chipset. For example, the P67 Express Chipset has a whopping total of 16 PCIe 2.0 lanes for graphics. That means your limited to one video card at x16 or two at x8/x8. You can add a third at x4, but you would be taking lanes from your USB/SATA ports to make up for it. Alternatively, motherboard manufacturers could add extra PCIe lanes from a third-party controller.

The AMD 990FX Chipset has 42 PCIe 2.0 lanes. For users with dual graphics cards, this means both have a full 16 PCIe 2.0 lanes to work with. You can also use up to four graphics card, all using 8 lanes. That is, however, motherboard dependant of course. For example, while the ASUS Crosshair V Formula 990FX motherboard supports up to four video cards, the lanes are divided as x16/x8/x8/x4.

Another advantage that the 990FX Chipset has over the P67 Express is the amount of SATA 6Gb/s ports available. With the Intel chipset, you are limited to a whopping two of them; unless the manufacturer decides to add more with a third-party controller. The AMD SB950 southbridge, on the other hand, offers six SATA 6Gb/s ports.

Interestingly enough, AMD didn't take the game to the next level by offering native USB 3.0 support. This leaves both the Intel and the AMD offerings needing a third-party chip to control USB 3.0 ports. The 990FX chipset does, however, support 14 USB 2.0 ports as well as the now standard PCI interface, HD Audio, native Gigabit LAN, and PATA ports through the SB950 southbridge.

Really the only changes to the AMD 990FX chipset come in the form of CPU and RAM support. The 990FX chipset will, obviously, support the new AMD FX CPUs, set to be released not long after the release of the 990FX in the form of Zambezi processors. In true AMD fashion, the 990FX Chipset will not only support these new 32nm CPUs, but will also support 45nm AM3 CPUs in the form of Athlon-II or Phenom-II processors. On the RAM side, the 990FX makes 1866 MHz DDR3 RAM the standard, up from 1333 MHz on the 890FX. 1333 MHz is what the P67 Express chipset supports as well.

Closer Look: Crosshair V Formula

The ASUS Crosshair V Formula motherboard stays true to its Crosshair heritage in its appearance. The motherboard is the standard black and red throughout, which contrasts well with the silver components. The Crosshair V Formula motherboard certainly looks like it means business.

The Crosshair V is part of ASUS' Republic of Gamers series. As you can tell by the name, the Republic of Gamers series is focused on gaming and overclocking. There are three subsets to the ROG series, Gene, Formula, and Extreme. The ASUS Crosshair V Formula falls in the center category, making it, in ASUS' words, a great motherboard for hardcore gamers and overclockers. A lot of the features on the ASUS Crosshair V Formula motherboard attest to that.

The release of the 990FX chipset has been highly anticipated, especially since the Intel launched their P67 Express chipset back in January 2011. The new chipset brings with it the AM3+ socket, with support for AMD FX processors. AMD has a tendency to make their new sockets compatible with their old ones and the AM3+ socket is no different. With the new 990FX chipset, you can plug in your Athlon-II or Phenom-II CPU and be on your way. This allows for a slower upgrade path for users who have to buy a piece at a time.

Interestingly enough, the AM3+ Zambezi/Bulldozer will actually be able to run on socket AM3 motherboards as well. This is an interesting development which, quite honestly, begs the question, "Why should I upgrade to a 900 series motherboard?" In fact, since the 890FX chipset will support AM3+ CPUs, the only real difference is that the 990FX runs 1866MHz RAM standard. That's not a real dissuasion, though, because the 890FX chipset will run that too, on overclock. ASUS' response to the question of why you should upgrade is that the UEFI on the 900 series motherboards has been optimized for 6- and 8-core processors, where the 800 series BIOS was optimized for 4- and 6- core CPUs.

The DIMM slots on the ASUS Crosshair V Formula motherboard follow the same pattern as the Crosshair IV Formula board. There are alternating red and black slots. According to the manual for the Crosshair V Formula motherboard, dual-channel kits should be placed first in the black slots, then in the red slots. The 990FX Chipset bumps RAM compatibility up to 1866MHz, but the ASUS Crosshair V Formula motherboard can also support 2000MHz when overclocked and 2133MHz when overclocking and using an AM3 CPU. In total, the Crosshair V Formula motherboard can support up to 32GB of Non-ECC unbuffered memory.

One of the things the 990FX Chipset brings to the table is a plethora of SATA 6Gb/s ports. ASUS goes all the way with that idea and completely does away with any SATA 3Gb/s ports on the Crosshair V Formula motherboard. I agree with this viewpoint completely. Even though there are still very few 6Gb/s drives out there, a 6Gb/s port will handle slower drives just fine. Why keep that legacy stuff around if you don't have to? The Crosshair V Formula offers a total of seven SATA 6Gb/s ports on the inside and one eSATA 6Gb/s port.

Speaking of external ports, let's take a look at the I/O panel on the Crosshair V Formula motherboard. First up is a PS/2 port with two blue USB 3.0 ports under it. While getting rid of legacy SATA 3Gb/s ports, ASUS leaves a PS/2 port on the I/O panel for all the old-school gamers out there. Next to the PS/2 port, however, is something very nice; a clear CMOS button. For anyone that has practiced their hand at overclocking, this button is extremely useful. It will allow you to close up your case and not worry about overdoing it a little. On most motherboards, you have to clear the CMOS by moving a jumper back and forth.

In red, next to the CMOS reset button are the first two of eight rear panel USB 2.0 ports that sit above the eSATA 6Gb/s port. There is a S/PDIF port, two more blue USB 3.0 ports, and the final six USB 2.0 ports. The last USB 2.0 port on the Crosshair V Formula motherboard is the ROG USB port. The four blue USB 3.0 ports on the back panel combine with a header at mid-board to make a total of six USB 3.0 ports on the Crosshair Formula V motherboard.

Crosshair V Formula Detailed Features

The key to selling motherboards is offering more than the baseline features. ASUS has a legacy to keep up with the Crosshair V Formula motherboard. Their Republic of Gamers series promises to offer gamers only the best for gaming experience and overclocking. This starts with offering what the more than the bare minimum.

For some reason, AMD didn't integrate a native USB 3.0 controller into their 990FX chipset, just as Intel didn't with the P67 Express Chipset. To fix this, ASUS offers not 2, but 6 USB 3.0 ports on the Crosshair V Formula motherboard, controlled by triple Asmedia USB 3.0 controllers. ASUS went with Asmedia for the USB 3.0 controller over NEC for improved USB3 performance and the special Ai Charger+ function for charging portable devices. With a 5Gb/s signaling rate, USB 3.0 doesn't quite match up to SATA 6Gb/s. It does, however, far outpace older SATA 3Gb/s transfer rates.

ASUS carried over some of their offerings from the P67 platform and integrated them into the Crosshair V Formula motherboard as well. One of these is integrates is called the DIP2 (Dual-Intelligent Processors). The two processors are normally a TPU (TurboV Processing Unit) and an EPU (Energy Processing Unit) and focus on performance and power management. The TPU takes some stress off the CPU to increase performance and the EPU decreases power drain from system components. In the Crosshair V Formula motherboard, the TPU is replaced by the iROG chip. The DIP2 can be controlled using the ASUS AI Suite II that comes with the Crosshair V Formula motherboard or through the uEFI.

Along with the DIP2 for power and performance management, ASUS has integrated a digital power voltage regulator module on the Crosshair V Formula motherboard. They call it Extreme Engine DIGI+ and it consists of a programmable micro-processor that can match multiple PWM signals without power loss. This is an excellent feature for extra power management (something concerning just about everyone these days) because it makes the Crosshair V Formula motherboard more energy efficient by reducing dissipation through the use of digital power regulation. In addition, being digitally controlled, it doesn't cause excess heat to be created by the components.

The Extreme Engine DIGI+ on the Crosshair V Formula is slightly different than the DIGI+ VRM found on other ASUS motherboards. The Extreme Engine DIGI+ uses parallel connection much like a traditional multi-phase analogue VRM solution. This offers faster power delivery to the components because it is able to deliver power from both ends of each phase rather than sending it all the way through all the phases and then to the components. This also means it can deliver power with lower operating switching frequency. Within the uEFI, the Extreme Engine DIGI+ on the Crosshair V Formula motherboard allows you to control the power management to choose an auto Spread Spectrum mode that varies the VRM frequency dynamically, reduces interference, and increases system stability. For hardcore overclockers wanting to get the most out of their future 8-core processors, the Crosshair V Formula motherboard has an extra 4-pin CPU power connector as well.

You can also choose Fixed Frequency Mode that lets you pull more juice into overclocking by increasing the frequency in 10k Hz increments up towards 500k Hz. This is really outstanding in terms of overclocking, overvolting, and even under-volting. Rather than setting your voltage to 1.50V and getting only 1.45V of power, the digital controller offers the exact amount of power you designate. ASUS even includes a program called ASUS Probe II within the AI Suite II that increases your options as to setting power limits.

The Crosshair V Formula motherboard does some other things differently as well. The Republic of Gamers mindset is integrated throughout the board, including in the uEFI. To start off, ROG offers the GameFirst feature that pairs with the Intel GbE controller. I mentioned earlier that this was strange, but the reason ASUS integrates the Intel GbE controller onto the Crosshair V Formula motherboard is because of its high performance and extremely low power drain from the CPU. With GameFirst, you can supposedly connect directly to your game, if it's in the list, and the program will help keep latency low and transfer rates consistently high.

That bottom USB 2.0 port in white on the I/O panel is to connect your laptop, running RC TweakIT and GPU TweakIT to your computer to allow for on-the-fly tweaking of your overclock profile. This will allow you to see the results directly. Just flip the ROG Connect switch to on and connect another computer via the USB 2.0 port using the cable that comes with the Crosshair V Formula. The ROG features include some changes to the uEFI as well. In addition to enhanced tweaking and status checking, with the Crosshair V Formula motherboard, you can finally take a screen capture. Finally, for improved audio quality through your gaming headset, you can optionally purchase the Crosshair V Formula motherboard with the Thunderbolt add in card that adds a dedicated GbE controller for even less CPU pull and an Audio board co-designed with XONAR for enhanced sound quality designed specifically with gamers in mind.

In addition to the Crosshair V Formula motherboard's ability to be overclocked via ROG Connect and through the OC Tuner in the uEFI, the motherboard has a CPU Level Up button located near the onboard power and reset buttons. The CPU Level Up button appears blue when off and red when on. When activated, the CPU Level Up button will automatically overclock the system to a predetermined level the next time you power up the computer.

ASUS offers a whole list of Q's on the Crosshair V Formula motherboard. The Q-LED and RC Post offer help when dealing with post failures. The Q-Design includes Q-DIMMs with only a single latch for easy RAM installation, the Q-Slot for easy removal of PCIe cards, the Q-Shield that aids in easy installation of the motherboard, and the Q-Connector for easy connection of front panel I/O ports.

One of the most distinguishing features of the 990FX chipset is its ability to support more than CrossfireX video card configurations. The 990FX chipset also supports SLI. The ASUS Crosshair V Formula motherboard takes this idea and runs with it. With the Crosshair V Formula, you can do pretty much whatever configuration of SLI or CrossfireX that your heart desires. This includes up to 4-way SLI configurations through the use of Xpander support and 3-way CrossFireX configurations. Even with the support, however, it seems like you would be hard pressed to fit four video cards on the Crosshair V Formula motherboard. You would need single slot cards, or an alternative cooling solution might work, I suppose.

Crosshair V Formula Specifications

Motherboard Testing Methodology

At the start of all tests, the previous display adapter driver is uninstalled and trace components are removed using Driver Cleaner Pro. We then restart the computer system to establish our display settings and define the monitor. Once the hardware is prepared, we begin our testing. Each benchmark test program begins after a system restart, and the very first result for every test will be ignored since it often only caches the test. This process proved extremely important in the Resident Evil 5 benchmarks, as the first run served to cache maps allowing subsequent tests to perform much better than the first. Each test is completed five times, with the average results displayed in our article.

With the lack of anything significantly new on the 990FX Chipset, we expect no surprises out of the ASUS Crosshair V Formula motherboard. We have included in the testing a P67-Express build, an H67 setup, along with an X58 and a couple of 890GX systems. As many of the components as possilbe were kept the same throughout the test systems in order to get more reliable results. That being said, every system is different, and even two of the same components can perform differently from each other. These tests are meant to be a generic representation of the results we obtained through testing our systems and should not be considered comprehensive. Undoubtedly, some readers will wonder why a certain GPU or RAM was used rather than another, but the point is that the GPU and RAM were consistent throughout the platforms (expect, of course the RAM in the X58 platform). Similar variance in the results should be expected regardless of the other components used in the testing.

AMD 990FX Test Platform

• Motherboard: ASUS Crosshair V Formula (990FX/SB950)
• Processor: 3.7GHz AMD Phenom-II X4-980BE HDZ980FBK4DGM
• System Memory: 2x2GB Patriot Gamer Series DDR3
• Primary Drive: Filemate Solid GO 60GB SSD
• Power Supply Unit: Corsair CMPSU-850TX 850W 80-Plus Certified
• Graphics Adapter: MSI Radeon HD 6870 Twin Frozr III (Catalyst Control Center 11.5)

Intel P67 Test Platform

• Motherboard: ASUS Sabertooth P67 B3
• Processor: 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo) Intel Core i5-2500K
• CPU Cooler: Scythe Yasya
• System Memory: 2x2GB Patriot Gamer Series DDR3
• Primary Drive: Filemate Solid GO 60GB SSD
• Power Supply Unit: Corsair CMPSU-850TX 850W 80-Plus Certified
• Graphics Adapter: MSI Radeon HD 6870 Twin Frozr III (Catalyst Control Center 11.5)

Intel H67 Test Platform

• Motherboard: Intel DH67BL with BIOS 1596
• Processor: 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo) Intel Core i5-2500K
• CPU Cooler: Scythe Yasya
• System Memory: 2x2GB Patriot Gamer Series DDR3
• Primary Drive: Filemate Solid GO 60GB SSD
• Power Supply Unit: Corsair CMPSU-850TX 850W 80-Plus Certified
• Graphics Adapter: MSI Radeon HD 6870 Twin Frozr III (Catalyst Control Center 11.5)

Intel X58 Test Platform

• Motherboard: MSI X58 Pro LGA1366 Intel X58 ATX
• Processor: 2.66GHz Intel Core i7-920 Bloomfield/Nehalem BX80601920
• System Memory: Kingston 6GB (3 x 2GB) KVR1333D3K3/6GR
• Primary Drive: Filemate Solid GO 60GB SSD
• Power Supply Unit: Corsair CMPSU-850TX 850W 80-Plus Certified
• Graphics Adapter: MSI Radeon HD 6870 Twin Frozr III (Catalyst Control Center 11.5)

AMD 890GX Test Platform

• Motherboard: Biostar TA890GXB-HD (890GX/SB850)
• Processor: 3.6GHz AMD Phenom-II X4-975BE HDZ975FBK4DGM
• Processor: 3.2GHZ AMD Phenom-II X4-840 HDX840WFK42GM
• System Memory: 2x2GB Patriot Gamer Series DDR3
• Primary Drive: Filemate Solid GO 60GB SSD
• Power Supply Unit: Corsair CMPSU-850TX 850W 80-Plus Certified
• Graphics Adapter: MSI Radeon HD 6870 Twin Frozr III (Catalyst Control Center 11.5)

Benchmark Applications

• Operating System: Windows 7 Professional 64-Bit
• AIDA64 Extreme Edition v1.1
• PassMark PerformanceTest 7.0b1019 CPU and GPU Tests
• Futuremark PCMark Vantage v1.0.2.0 64-Bit
  • TV and Movies
  • Gaming
  • Music
• SiSoftware Sandra 2010.1.16.92 CPU and GPU Tests
• Maxon CINEBENCH R11.5 64-Bit
• Street Fighter IV benchmark
• x264Bench HD 3.0
• Handbrake 0.94 video transcoding

AIDA64 Extreme Edition Benchmark Tests

In November, 2010, FinalWire acquired and discontinued Lavalys EVEREST, updated it, and released it as AIDA64. AIDA64 is an industry leading system diagnostics and benchmarking solution for enthusiasts PC users, based on the award-winning EVEREST Technology. During system optimizations and tweaking it provides essential system and overclock information, advanced hardware monitoring and diagnostics capabilities to check the effects of the applied settings. CPU, FPU and memory benchmarks are available to measure the actual system performance and compare it to previous states or other systems. Furthermore, complete software, operating system and security information makes AIDA64 a comprehensive system diagnostics tool that offers a total of 100 pages of information about your PC.

All of the benchmarks used in our test bed rely on basic x86 instructions and consume very low system memory while also being aware of HyperThreading, multi-processors, and multi-core processors. While the AIDA64 CPU tests really only compare the processor performance more than it measures platforms, it still offers a glimpse into what kind of power each platform possesses.

Queen and Photoworxx tests are synthetic benchmarks that operate the function many times and over-exaggerate by several magnitudes what the real-world performance would be like. The Queen benchmark focuses on the branch prediction capabilities and misprediction penalties of the CPU. It does this by finding possible solutions to the classic queen problem on a chessboard. At the same clock speed theoretically the processor with the shorter pipeline and smaller misprediction penalties will attain higher benchmark scores.

Like the Queen benchmark, the Photoworxx tests for penalties against pipeline architecture. The synthetic Photoworxx benchmark stresses the integer arithmetic and multiplication execution units of the CPU and also the memory subsystem. Due to the fact that this test performs high memory read/write traffic, it cannot effectively scale in situations where more than two processing threads are used. The AIDA64 Photoworxx benchmark performs the following tasks on a very large RGB image:

• Fill
• Flip
• Rotate90R (rotate 90 degrees CW)
• Rotate90L (rotate 90 degrees CCW)
• Random (fill the image with random colored pixels)
• RGB2BW (color to black & white conversion)
• Difference
• Crop

The Zip Library test measures combined CPU and memory subsystem performance through the public ZLib compression library. ZLib is designed as a free lossless data compression library for use on virtually any computer hardware and operating system. The ZLib data format is itself portable across platforms and has a footprint independent of input data that can be reduced at some cost in compression.

The AES integer benchmark measures CPU performance using AES data encryption. It utilizes Vincent Rijmen, Antoon Bosselaers and Paulo Barreto's public domain C code in ECB mode and consumes 48 MB of memory.

In our next section we take a look at the results of the Passmark Performance Test.

Passmark Performance Test

PassMark Performance Test is a PC hardware benchmark utility that allows a user to quickly assess the performance of their computer and compare it to a number of standard 'baseline' computer systems. The Passmark Performance Test CPU tests all benchmark the mathematical operations, compression, encryption, SSE, and 3DNow! instructions of modern processors.

In our tests there were several areas of concentration for each benchmark, which are combined into one compound score. This score is referred to as the CPU Mark, and is a composite of the following tests: Integer Math, Floating Point Math, Find Prime Numbers, SSE/3DNow!, Compression, Encryption, Image Rotation, and String Sorting. For this review, we've also decided to run the memory benchmark, which results in a composite score based on the following tests: small block allocation, cached read, uncached read, write performance, and large block allocation.

With the IMC integrated onto the CPU die, communication between the CPU and the memory should be faster, and we can see through the Passmark Memory tests that bandwidth is improved. The 890GX chipset, even with the 3.6GHz Phenom-II X4-975BE, can't keep up.

PCMark Vantage System Tests

PCMark Vantage is an objective hardware performance benchmark tool for PCs running 32- and 64-bit versions of Microsoft Windows Vista or Windows 7. PCMark Vantage is well suited for benchmarking any type of Microsoft Windows Vista/7 PC: from multimedia home entertainment systems and laptops, to dedicated workstations and high-end gaming rigs. Benchmark Reviews has decided to use a few select tests from the suite to demonstrate simulated real-world processor usage in this article. Our tests were conducted on 64-bit Windows 7, with results displayed in the chart below.

TV and Movies Suite

• TV and Movies 1 (CPU=50%, RAM=2%, GPU=45%, SSD=3%)
  • Two simultaneous threads
  • Video transcoding: HD DVD to media server archive
  • Video playback: HD DVD w/ additional lower bitrate HD content from HDD, as downloaded from net
• TV and Movies 2 (CPU=50%, RAM=2%, GPU=45%, SSD=3%)
  • Two simultaneous threads
  • Video transcoding: HD DVD to media server archive
  • Video playback, HD MPEG-2: 19.39 Mbps terrestrial HDTV playback
• TV and Movies 3 (SSD=100%)
  • HDD Media Center
• TV and Movies 4 (CPU=50%, RAM=2%, GPU=45%, SSD=3%)
  • Video transcoding: media server archive to portable device
  • Video playback, HD MPEG-2: 48 Mbps Blu-ray playback

Gaming Suite*

• Gaming 1 (CPU=30%, GPU=70%)
  • GPU game test
• Gaming 2 (SSD=100%)
  • HDD: game HDD
• Gaming 3 (CPU=75%, RAM=5%, SSD=20%)
  • Two simultaneous threads
  • CPU game test
  • Data decompression: level loading
• Gaming 4 (CPU=42%, RAM=1%, GPU=24%, SSD=33%)
  • Three simultaneous threads
  • GPU game test
  • CPU game test
  • HDD: game HDD

Music Suite

• Music 1 (CPU=50%, RAM=3%, GPU=13%, SSD=34%)
  • Three simultaneous threads
  • Web page rendering - w/ music shop content
  • Audio transcoding: WAV -> WMA lossless
  • HDD: Adding music to Windows Media Player
• Music 2 (CPU=100%)
  • Audio transcoding: WAV -> WMA lossless
• Music 3 (CPU=100%)
  • Audio transcoding: MP3 -> WMA
• Music 4 (CPU=50%, SSD=50%)
  • Two simultaneous threads
  • Audio transcoding: WMA -> WMA
  • HDD: Adding music to Windows Media Player

* EDITOR'S NOTE: Hopefully our readers will carefully consider how relative PCMark Vantage is as "real-world" benchmark, since many of the tests rely on unrelated hardware components. For example, per the FutureMark PCMark Vantage White Paper document, Gaming test #2 weighs the storage device for 100% of the test score. In fact, according to PCMark Vantage the video card only impacts 23% of the total gaming score, but the CPU represents 37% of the final score. As our tests in this article (and many others) has already proven, gaming performance has a lot more to do with the GPU than the CPU, and especially more than the hard drive or SSD (which is worth 38% of the final gaming performance score).

Next we look at the results of the SiSoftware Sandra CPU tests.

SiSoftware Sandra

SiSoftware Sandra (the System ANalyser, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant) is an information & diagnostic utility. It should provide most of the information (including undocumented) you need to know about your hardware, software and other devices whether hardware or software.

It works along the lines of other Windows utilities, however it tries to go beyond them and show you more of what's really going on. Giving the user the ability to draw comparisons at both a high and low-level. You can get information about the CPU, chipset, video adapter, ports, printers, sound card, memory, network, Windows internals, AGP, PCI, PCI-X, PCIe (PCI Express), database, USB, USB2, 1394/Firewire, etc.

The SANDRA DhryStone and Whetstone tests are CPU tests that run completely within the CPU + cache memory itself. These tests are perfect for seeing general efficiency per processing core. Dhrystone is basically a suite of arithmetic and string manipulating programs and is an older CPU tests. Even so, it remains a simple and accurate way to show RAW CPU processing performance. The whetstone benchmark primarily measures floating-point arithmetic performance.

Continuing on with CPU centered testing, we have the results of the Cinebench tests.

Cinebench R11.5 Benchmarks

Maxon Cinebench is a real-world test suite that assesses the computer's performance capabilities. Cinebench is based on Maxon's award-winning animation software, Cinema 4D, which is used extensively by studios and production houses worldwide for 3D content creation. Maxon software has been used in blockbuster movies such as Spider-Man, Star Wars, The Chronicles of Narnia and many more. Cinebench Release 11.5 includes the ability to more accurately test the industry's latest hardware, including systems with up to 64 processor threads and the testing environment better reflects the expectations of today's production demands. A more streamlined interface makes testing systems and reading results incredibly straightforward.

The Cinebench R11.5 test scenario uses all of a system's processing power to render a photorealistic 3D scene, "No Keyframes" the viral animation by AixSponza. This scene makes use of various algorithms to stress all available processor cores. The OpenGL graphics card testing procedure uses a complex 3D scene depicting a car chase with which the performance of your graphics card in OpenGL mode is measured. During the benchmark tests the graphics card is evaluated by way of displaying an intricate scene that includes complex geometry, high-resolution textures, and a variety of effects to evaluate the performance across a variety of real-world scenarios.

For a more real-world perspective, we have video transcoding tests up next.

x264 HD Benchmark 3.19 Test

Tech ARP's x264 HD Benchmark comprises the Avisynth video scripting engine, an x264 encoder, a sample 720P video file, and a script file that actually runs the benchmark. The script invokes four two-pass encoding runs and reports the average frames per second encoded as a result. The script file is a simple batch file, so you could edit the encoding parameters if you were interested, although your results wouldn't then be comparable to others.

Handbrake 0.9.4 Video Transcoder

HandBrake is an open-source, GPL-licensed, multiplatform, multithreaded video transcoder program designed to convert MPEG video (including DVD-Video) into an MPEG-4 video file in MPEG-4 Part 14 (.mp4) or Matroska (.mkv) containers. The program is used to convert DVDs into other forms so they can be viewed on portable media devices and with most media players. While Handbrake was originally developed for BeOS, it is now available for Linux, Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X.

Handbrake is a readily available program that easily handles and utilizes multiple CPU cores and threads. This makes it an ideal program for us to use to test CPU performance. The amount of time it takes for Handbrake to convert a media file scales very nicely based on the clock speed and available cores of the CPU. For this test, I used a 4.34GB video file in MPEG format to be converted to MP4 format using the "iPhone &iPod Touch" presets. I recorded the total time in (min:sec) that it took to transcode the video file.

Street Fighter IV Benchmark

PC-based video games can depend heavily on the CPU if the attached GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) is less powerful, or the graphics settings are configured so low that they create no strain on the video card and must rely purely on system processing speed; a phenomenon known as CPU-dependence. The opposite is true when the video game has a powerful video card installed, and can handle all graphical demands without receiving assistance from the CPU. Benchmark Reviews has proven consistently that, with a high end GPU in use, frame rates are not often noticeably impacted by changes in processor or RAM.

Capcom's Street Fighter IV is part of the now-famous Street Fighter series that began in 1987. The 2D Street Fighter II was one of the most popular fighting games of the 1990s, and now gets a 3D face-lift to become Street Fighter 4. The Street Fighter 4 benchmark utility was released as a novel way to test your system's ability to run the game. It uses a few dressed-up fight scenes where combatants fight against each other using various martial arts disciplines. Feet, fists and magic fill the screen with a flurry of activity. Due to the rapid pace, varied lighting and the use of music this is one of the more enjoyable benchmarks.

Street Fighter IV uses a proprietary Capcom SF4 game engine, which is enhanced over previous versions of the game. In terms of 3D graphical demand, Street Fighter IV is considered very low-end for most desktop GPUs. While modern desktop computers with discrete graphics have no problem playing Street Fighter IV at its highest graphical settings, integrated and mobile GPUs have a difficult time producing playable frame rates with the lowest settings configured.

While PC games are generally playable regardless of CPU, the Street Fighter IV game is surprisingly dependent on the CPU. That is why it is included here.

ASUS Crosshair V Formula Final Thoughts

Like most desktop computing enthusiasts, I have been looking forward to the release of the 990FX chipset for quite some time; since about January 2011 to be exact. When Intel released the P67-Express chipset and their Sandy Bridge processors, they took the market by force. Even though AMD has released updated versions of their Phenom-II processor like (like the Phenom-II X4-980BE used here), the gap between the two competitors was far too wide. With that in mind, the release of the 990FX chipset is far overdue. Of course, as Intel can attest, sometimes it is better for all involved if the product you release is finished. That way you don't have to recall a bunch of motherboards because of an SATA 6Gb/s port issue.

We'll have to wait a little longer to see what kind of a performance increase the Zambezi/Bulldozer CPUs bring to decide if the wait was worth it. By itself, the 990FX chipset doesn't bring a lot to table. There are few upgrades, like support for future 8-core processors. While the AM3 motherboards will support 4- and 6-core Zambezi/Bulldozer CPUs, it's still unclear how compatible the older chipsets will be with 8-core CPUs. At the very least, there will be a BIOS update to deal with. The uEFI on the ASUS 990FX motherboards has also been tuned specifically for increased 4- and 6-core optimization, as well as 8-core optimization of course. The only other differences between the 990FX chipset and the 890FX chipset are the SLI support and DRAM native 1866Mhz supported speeds, not that you couldn't have run those speeds on most 890FX boards.

With those being the only changes, the 990FX Chipset doesn't offer much in the way of a performance increase yet. While we are all hoping for some high end competition with Intel in terms of performance from the Zambezi/Bulldozer CPUs, I'd be personally satisfied with the same price/performance ratios we have seen so far. For that last few generations of CPUs and chipsets, AMD has trailed behind Intel in terms of raw CPU power and performance, but they have made up for it with their prices. The Intel 1156 CPUs compared to the 800 series chipset and Athlon-II and Phenom-II CPUs were the best examples of this, but with the Sandy Bridge CPUs, that all changed. Intel CPUs of comparative price to Sandy Bridge CPUs just couldn't keep up.

I know by writing this, I'm sure to be accused of being biased toward AMD but my true desire is to see competition thrive and flourish. This will help keep prices down and performance increasing steadily. Up until the Sandy Bridge release, I think that AMD systems have been preferable to Intel systems for gaming, while Intel systems had the edge for more CPU intensive processes. Even with the Sandy Bridge release, Intel didn't do much with the P67-Express system to appeal to extreme gamers or even overclocking enthusiasts. They locked the processors, stuck with minimal PCIe 2.0 lanes, and even offered up only two SATA 6Gb/s ports. The CPUs are amazingly powerful and they run cool. For CPU intensive processes, the Sandy Bridge release was a huge success.

But gaming isn't a CPU intensive process anymore. Hardcore gamers know that it's all about the GPU for gaming. A good quad-core CPU will give as much performance as any other with the right GPU. With that in mind, I think the 990FX offers a lot to gamers, just like the 890FX did. 42 PCIe 2.0 lanes give plenty of room for multiple video cards. Now that the 990FX chipset offers SLI support, gaming possibilities even better. The other thing the 990FX chipset still offers a lot in the way of overclockability. This ability is enhanced by ASUS in the Crosshair V Formula motherboard and I intend on exploring this more in a future article.

ASUS Crosshair V Formula Conclusion

IMPORTANT: Although the rating and final score mentioned in this conclusion are made to be as objective as possible, please be advised that every author perceives these factors differently at various points in time. While we each do our best to ensure that all aspects of the product are considered, there are often times unforeseen market conditions and manufacturer changes which occur after publication that could render our rating obsolete. Please do not base any purchase solely on our conclusion, as it represents our product rating specifically for the product tested which may differ from future versions. Benchmark Reviews begins our conclusion with a short summary for each of the areas that we rate.

In terms of pure computing performance, the ASUS Crosshair V Formula 990FX motherboard really doesn't improve a whole lot over the last generation 800 series chipsets. That's mostly due to the fact that the 900 series is nearly the same as the 800 series with very minimal differences. While performance may not be far superior to the older generation of chipset, the integration of the uEFI on the Crosshair V Formula helps boost performance by making performance tuning more convenient and easier. The Crosshair V Formula motherboard comes packed with a lot of different software to make tuning and performance better. The ROG Connect with GameFirst software is targeted specifically toward increasing latency performance in games.

The Crosshair V Formula motherboard maintains a very similar appearance to its predecessor, the Crosshair IV Formula. The motherboard keeps the standard red and black coloring familiar to ASUS AMD chipset boards. The Republic of Gamers logo is found on the southbridge heatsink and a couple of other places on the Crosshair V Formula motherboard, showing off ASUS' dedication to desktop enthusiasts. With the Crosshair V Formula motherboard, ASUS went a little less flashy on the heatsinks. Personally, I am glad for the change. The Sydney Opera House was getting old.

There are a few constructional and design features on the Crosshair V Formula motherboard that are of particular note. For one, the traditional 8-pin CPU power connector is located on the Crosshair V Formula, but there is also an additional 4-pin CPU power connector as well. This extra 4-pin connector is specifically for use when overclocking the still unreleased 8-core AMD processors. Another construction feature is the parallel connected Extreme Engine DIGI+. Additionally, ASUS integrates a Go! Button for on-the-fly overclocking to a profile you set in the uEFI. An alternate on-the-fly overclocking button can be found in the CPU Level Up button, which sits next to some other cool constructional features; the onboard power and reset button. A CMOS reset button rounds out the handy tools integrated into the Crosshair V Formula motherboard itself.

Like a lot of ASUS offerings recently, the Crosshair V Formula motherboard is full of features that provide all kinds of functionality. The mid-level Republic of Gamers series board focuses on hardcore gamers and providing them the best features for them. The Extreme Engine DIGI+ works to bring power quickly and efficiently to the components while the EPU helps you avoid power drain when it's not necessary. The ROG chips on the Crosshair V Formula motherboard provide the TurboV functions of the TPU and ROG brings other features like ROG Connect, TweakIT, and GameFirst. ROG Connect is specifically useful for hardcore overclocking enthusiasts as it allows you to connect another computer to overclock while running your programs to see the performance increase in real-time. The Crosshair V Formula motherboard also offers support for 3-way CrossFireX and 4-way SLI with an Xpander. Even the audio on the Crosshair V Formula motherboard has gamers in mind with the SupremeXF X-Fi 2. In terms of functionality, the Crosshair V Formula motherboard is top notch.

The ASUS Crosshair V Formula 990FX motherboard sells for $219.99 (Newegg). That's really not bad at all for the amount of features found on the board. Seven SATA 6Gb/s ports, six USB 3.0 ports, and ASUS even went higher than normal on the audio and LAN, choosing the Intel GbE and SupremeFX X-Fi 2. The $219 price tag puts you lower than many enthusiast boards, but a little high for a mainstream offering. However, with all the features the Crosshair V Formula motherboard offers, I think it certainly sits above mainstream.

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How did ASUS do with the Crosshair V Formula motherboard? Leave your comments below or discuss in our Forum.

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