ASUS TUF Z87 Gryphon Review
by Ian Cutress on February 3, 2014 10:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Asus
- Z87
- TUF
Many thanks to...
We must thank the following companies for kindly providing hardware for our test bed:
Thank you to OCZ for providing us with 1250W Gold Power Supplies.
Thank you to G.Skill for providing us with memory kits.
Thank you to Corsair for providing us with an AX1200i PSU, Corsair H80i CLC and 16GB 2400C10 memory.
Thank you to ASUS for providing us with the AMD GPUs and some IO Testing kit.
Thank you to ECS for providing us with the NVIDIA GPUs.
Thank you to Rosewill for providing us with the 500W Platinum Power Supply for mITX testing, BlackHawk Ultra, and 1600W Hercules PSU for extreme dual CPU + quad GPU testing, and RK-9100 keyboards.
Thank you to ASRock for providing us with the 802.11ac wireless router for testing.
| Test Setup | |
| Processor |
Intel Core i7-4770K Retail 4 Cores, 8 Threads, 3.5 GHz (3.9 GHz Turbo) |
| Motherboards |
ASRock Z87 Extreme6/AC (ATX) ASRock Z87 OC Formula/AC (ATX) ASRock Z87M OC Formula (mATX) ASRock Z87E-ITX (mITX) ASUS Z87-Pro (ATX) ASUS Maximus VI Impact (mITX) ASUS TUF Z87 Gryphon (mATX) Gigabyte Z87X-UD3H (ATX) Gigabyte Z87X-OC (ATX) MSI Z87-GD65 Gaming (ATX) MSI Z87 Xpower (ATX) MSI Z87I (mITX) |
| Cooling |
Corsair H80i Thermalright TRUE Copper |
| Power Supply |
OCZ 1250W Gold ZX Series Corsair AX1200i Platinum PSU |
| Memory |
GSkill TridentX 4x4 GB DDR3-2400 10-12-12 Kit Corsair Vengeance Pro 2x8 GB DDR3 2400 10-12-12 Kit |
| Memory Settings | XMP (2400 10-12-12) |
| Video Cards |
ASUS HD7970 3GB ECS GTX 580 1536MB |
| Video Drivers |
Catalyst 13.1 NVIDIA Drivers 310.90 WHQL |
| Hard Drive | OCZ Vertex 3 256GB |
| Optical Drive | LG GH22NS50 |
| Case | Open Test Bed |
| Operating System | Windows 7 64-bit |
| USB 2/3 Testing | OCZ Vertex 3 240GB with SATA->USB Adaptor |
| WiFi Testing | D-Link DIR-865L 802.11ac Dual Band Router |
Power Consumption
Power consumption was tested on the system as a whole with a wall meter connected to the OCZ 1250W power supply, while in a dual 7970 GPU configuration. This power supply is Gold rated, and as I am in the UK on a 230-240 V supply, leads to ~75% efficiency > 50W, and 90%+ efficiency at 250W, which is suitable for both idle and multi-GPU loading. This method of power reading allows us to compare the power management of the UEFI and the board to supply components with power under load, and includes typical PSU losses due to efficiency. These are the real world values that consumers may expect from a typical system (minus the monitor) using this motherboard.
While this method for power measurement may not be ideal, and you feel these numbers are not representative due to the high wattage power supply being used (we use the same PSU to remain consistent over a series of reviews, and the fact that some boards on our test bed get tested with three or four high powered GPUs), the important point to take away is the relationship between the numbers. These boards are all under the same conditions, and thus the differences between them should be easy to spot.
In our power consumption test, handling under 500W is standard for a Z87 motherboard, although the result was a little high compared to other boards. OCCT and Long Idle numbers in general were relatively low.
Windows 7 POST Time
Different motherboards have different POST sequences before an operating system is initialized. A lot of this is dependent on the board itself, and POST boot time is determined by the controllers on board (and the sequence of how those extras are organized). As part of our testing, we are now going to look at the POST Boot Time - this is the time from pressing the ON button on the computer to when Windows 7 starts loading. (We discount Windows loading as it is highly variable given Windows specific features.) These results are subject to human error, so please allow +/- 1 second in these results.
The Gryphon falls just short of our goal 12 seconds Windows 7 + dual GPU POST time.
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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.