HARDWARE

Asus F2A85-V PRO Mainboard - A Socket FM2 Mainboard With Good Performance (Part 6)

6/24/2013 9:02:27 AM

Compare performance

As usual, we intend to compare the mainboard's speed in two modes: in nominal mode and during overclocking of all system components processor, integrated graphics core, memory. The first mode is interesting because it demonstrates how well the mainboards work with their default settings. There is a known fact that most users do not tweak their system, they simply choose the optimal BIOS settings and do nothing else. That is why we run a round of tests almost without interfering in any way with the default mainboard settings. The results on the diagrams are sorted out in performance descending order.

Nominal mode

We used Cinebench 11.5. All tests were run five times and the average result of the five runs was taken for the performance charts.

We used Cinebench 11.5.

We used Cinebench 11.5.

We used Fritz Chess Benchmark utility for a long time and it proved to be very illustrative. It generates repeatable results, its performance is scales perfectly depending on the number of involved computational threads.

Fritz Chess Benchmark Utility

Fritz Chess Benchmark Utility

X264 FHD Benchmark v1.0.1 test allows comparing system performance against an existing database of results. The average of five consecutive passes is presented on the diagram below:

X264 FHD Benchmark v1.0.1 Test

X264 FHD Benchmark v1.0.1 Test

We measure the performance in Adobe Photoshop CS6 using our own benchmark made from Retouch Artists Photoshop Speed Test that has been creatively modified. It includes the typical photo editing of four 24-megapixel images from a digital photo camera.

Measure the performance in Adobe Photoshop CS6

Measure the performance in Adobe Photoshop CS6

In the archiving test a 1 GB file is compressed using LZMA2 algorithms, while other compression settings remain at defaults.

The archiving test

The archiving test

Like in the data compression test, the faster 8 million of Pi digits are calculated, the better. This is where the number of processor cores doesn’t really matter, because it creates single-threaded loads.

The faster 8 million of Pi digits are calculated, the better.

The faster 8 million of Pi digits are calculated, the better.

The next graph shows the results of the 3DMark11 CPU test - Physics Score. This score is obtained in a special physics test that emulates the behavior of a complex gaming system working with numerous objects:

3DMark11 CPU test - Physics Score

3DMark11 CPU test - Physics Score

The benchmark integrated into Hitman Absolution game turned out to be very convenient. It can be launched directly from the game, from the game launcher utility and even from the command prompt. For a minimum acceptable result, we should use the lowest image setting and one of the lower resolutions.

Hitman Absolution

Hitman Absolution

Game Batman: Arkham City is eager to respond to any changes in the clock frequency of the CPU, but it uses DirectX 11.  We ran game’s integrated benchmark five times with high image quality settings and then take the average of the five runs for the diagrams.

Batman: Arkham City

Batman: Arkham City

Depending on the application, the leaders alternate throughout the entire session in the nominal mode. However, we can hardly see it on the graph: you will have to check out a comparative table with the exact scores to see the difference.  It is a known fact that related mainboards working in identical conditions shows the same performance, which is exactly what we see here.  Only in Batman:  Arkham City the performance difference is more obvious and is a little above 2%, but in absolute terms it is actually less than 1 frame per second, so it will not be noticeable in reality.

Overclocked mode

During overclocking both mainboards achieved the same results for the CPU, integrated graphics core and memory parts, which is why we also predicted the same performance numbers in our performance tests, too.

During overclocking both mainboards achieved the same results for the CPU, integrated graphics core and memory parts

During overclocking both mainboards achieved the same results for the CPU, integrated graphics core and memory parts

The two mainboard performed almost identically with two small differences.

The two mainboard performed almost identically with two small differences.

All in one, the results during overclocking are quite predictable.  The two mainboard performed almost identically with two small differences. First, look at the graphs you might think that all the results that have been arranged in alphabetical order, because Asus mainboard is always on top of the list.  Also, in some applications, the performance difference turns out to be a little higher than what we expect, because Asus mainboard seem to be working with the memory in a slightly more efficient manner. Specifically, when we compress files in 7-zip program, its performance advantages approached 3%.  Actually, it does not change anything for the user, because both systems will create an archive for about 1 minute and a half, and I suspect that if anyone noticed the difference between 92 and 95 seconds. However, we will have to take this fact into account during final mainboard scoring.

Energy consumption

We performed our power consumption measurements using an Extech Power Analyzer 380803.  This device is connected before the PSU and measure the power draw of the whole system (excl. monitor), including power losses occur in the PSU itself. In idle mode, we start the system and wait until it stops accessing hard drive. Then we use LinX to load the CPU, and LinX and MSI Kombustor working simultaneously - to produce complex heavy load.

Since Turbo Core technology lowers the processor frequency below the nominal value under heavy CPU load, the real power consumption of the system in nominal mode cannot be measured accurately. Therefore, we must find a compromise and disable CPB Mode parameters in mainboard's BIOS. This is a pretty serious allowance which changes the behavior of the system dramatically, but we believe that the results are reliable enough to observe. The problem is the Linx utility load CPU extremely heavy, more than you expected from conventional programs. As a result, despite the CPB Mode parameter is disabled, the measured system power consumption under heavy load created by LinX turned out to be the same as we observed in the actual application launched with enabled Turbo Core technology. We applied the same principles when we selected utilities for creating complex system workload. When we chose programs responsible for heavily loading individual system components, we made sure that they created about the same need for power as real application would in every-day usage scenarios. Results on the chart below are sorted in an ascending order for power consumption.

Gigabyte Mainboard consumes less power

Gigabyte Mainboard consumes less power

During this review we often see Asus mainboard is slightly ahead in the race,  but things changed to their complete opposite during the power consumption tests: this is where the Gigabyte mainboard consumes less power. Unlike the performance test, the difference is obvious and sometimes even extremely clear. However, Asus F2A85-V PRO mainboard does also have a few reserves left: you can disable the EPU Power Saving Mode parameter in the mainboard BIOS.  You may adjust the savings range to your liking, depending on the specific system functionality and usage model. For us, we decided to leave it at Auto. In this case, the power consumption of the system based on various mainboards can be comparable. The next chart shows the difference between the nominal and power-saving mode on the same Asus mainboard.

The difference between the nominal and power-saving mode on the same Asus mainboard.

The difference between the nominal and power-saving mode on the same Asus mainboard

However, once we get to overclocking, Gigabyte mainboard again took the lead from Asus: it consumes less power in any mode of operation and under any type of load. The systems power consumption will be very similar only in very compute-intense applications. In all other cases, Asus mainboard will consume more energy, while its performance is actually the same.

Gigabyte consumes less power in any mode of operation and under any type of load.

Gigabyte consumes less power in any mode of operation and under any type of load.

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