ASUS P8P67 Motherboard Review

Test Setup

The test systems used are as follows:

Software & Settings

• Nvidia driver 260.99; highest quality filtering, all optimizations off
• Windows 7 64-bit Ultimate
• All games are patched to their latest versions.
• vsync is off in the control panel and is never set in-game.
• No AA enabled in any game; all in-game settings for all games at “maximum” or “ultra” with AF always at its lowest
• All results show average frame rates except as noted.
• Highest quality sound (stereo) used in all games.
• Windows 7, all DX10 titles were run under DX10 render paths
• Windows 7, all DX11 titles were run under DX11 render paths

Benchmarking Notes

Throughout the testing, most of the hardware and all of the software (except motherboard drivers) remained the same. The only exceptions are for the platform changes, motherboard, processor and memory.

All game benchmarks were run at both 1024×768 and 1440×900 resolutions. The lower the resolution, the more CPU and less GPU strain is generated. Nothing new has really been implemented in the PCI Express arena and therefore the testing is more focused on the CPU and memory subsystem output.

The Unigine Heaven 2.1 Benchmark was also run at these resolutions with Tessellation set to Normal. Both 3DMark tests were run at their default settings. PhysX was turned off for all tests.

All game benchmarks feature both CPUs at 3.4GHz.

CPU speeds tested and reasons are as follows:

• Q9550S @ 2.83GHz (Stock)
• i7-2600K @ 3.4GHz (Stock)
• Q9550S @ 3.4GHz (match the i7 clock for clock)
• Q9550S @ 3.8GHz (max overclock)
• i7-2600K @ 3.8GHz (match the C2Q’s max clock)

The i7’s HyperThreading remained on for all tests.

Disclaimer

The comparison being done here is of the ASUS P8P67 motherboard based on the Intel P67 chipset versus the older ASUS P5E Deluxe based on the Intel X48 chipset. It is a new mid-range versus old high-end evaluation. Please keep this in mind and be objective about the test results.

The charts are very straightforward and the numbers will speak for themselves so I will keep my comments to a minimum.