Z97 Motherboard Group Test - Asus, ASRock, Gigabyte and MSI

Performance Analysis

There was very little between all the boards at stock speed on test in the image editing benchmark, although the Gigabyte GA-Z97X-SLI did manage to top one of our best-performing Z87 boards - the Maximus VI Impact. Even then, there was just 60 points separating first and last place.

The Maximus VI Impact consistently outperformed other Z87 motherboards in the video encoding test and the same is true here, with the fastest Z97 motherboard, ASRock's Fatal1ty Z97 Killer, still a good 60 points behind and the Maximus VII Ranger over 100 points adrift. It was even further behind in our multi-tasking test, which we've found can vary a lot between motherboards depending on their default CPU settings. Again the Maximus VI Impact was top. Overall, the Maximus VII Ranger came last but only by just over 100 points - less than five per cent - slower than the top-scoring Impact.


Still at stock speed, The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim saw just a couple of frames per second difference in the minimum frame rate, with the ASRock Fatal1ty Z97 Killer yet again topping the chart, albeit by just 2fps. There was a 2fps difference in the minimum frame rate in the Total War: Shogun 2 CPU test, although here in percentage terms, there was a bigger gap due to the lower frame rate. Interestingly, the Z87 Asus Maximus VI Hero came last with 28fps while all but the Asus Maximus VII Ranger managed a minimum frame rate of 29fps.

Things were even closer in SATA 6Gbps performance, with just 1MB/sec separating top and bottom read and write speeds using the Intel Z97-powered ports. MSI's Gaming 7 was the only board to feature a third party SATA controller in the form of an ASMedia ASM1061 chip and as per usual, you'll want to avoid this if you've got a SATA 6Gbps SSD - the best it could manage was 382MB/sec.


Overclocking-wise, the only motherboard on test to miss the 4.8GHz mark was Gigabyte's GA-Z97X-SLI. Overall in the Media Benchmarks, this resulted in score 100 points short of the top-scoring ASRock Fatal1ty Z97 Killer. There was less than 9fps difference in overclocked minimum frame rate in The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, where the GA-Z97X-SLI somehow just about claimed the top spot. The extra clock speed also saw over 10 per cent added to the CPU test frame rates in Shogun 2, although there was very little difference between the boards on test.

The Asus Maximus VII Ranger was the king of the load power consumption chart, consuming less than any other board at stock speed and when overclocked. The ASRock Fatal1ty Z97 Killer is the board to avoid if you want to keep power consumption to a minimum - it drew 17W more at stock speed and 14W more once overclocked, despite also being clocked at 4.8GHz.

Final Thoughts on Z97

The first question that might be on some people's minds is at what point is upgrading to Z97 worth it? There's still a slightly grey cloud hanging over Broadwell and with the Haswell refresh/Devil's Canyon K-series CPUs and Intel's Z87 chipset and the company hasn't confirmed if the latter will fully support either of the future ranges of CPUs. With Devil's Canyon just around the corner, we'll hopefully get some concrete information on this, but what does look likely is that Z97 will be fully compatible with both.

Whether or not the better overclocking we've seen with Z97 boards in general - three out of four hit 4.8GHz which only one Z87 board managed - is due to some behind the scenes tweaking in support of the new CPUs is anyone's guess at the moment, but we do have high hopes for the Devil's Canyon, especially with the supposed improved thermal interface between the core and IHS.

In short, while Z97 is obviously compatible with all current LGA1150 CPUs, unless you're planning on upgrading to Devil's Canyon anyway or are desperate to get on the M.2 SSD bandwagon, there isn't really a need right now to upgrade. However, we'd feel safe in investing in a Z97 board in terms of future-proofing if you're otherwise looking for a new board. In any event, there are plenty of Core i7-4770K and Core i5-4670K bargains around at the moment as well.


Conclusion

Despite all the boards on test sitting within £40 of each other, there's clearly two tiers in this group test and they sit in the £110 price and and £130-40 price range. The extra cash nets you either the Asus Maximus VII Ranger or MSI's Gaming 7 and both boards offer many extra features compared to their cheaper competitors, so if you're after more than simply a good overclocking board sporting Intel's new chipset, this is where your money should go.

It's an extremely difficult choice between the two, though; with Asus' prowess in the ROG department plus a wealth of useful software and EFI features and a slightly cheaper price tag, it just edges the Gaming 7 overall. That said, we're sure you'd be equally happy with the superb Gaming 7, which also offer SATA Express, albeit via an optional adaptor.

At the lower end, things are equally tight and it's also worth noting that both boards support M.2 and SATA Express too. The ASRock Fatal1ty Z97 Killer managed a slightly higher overclock and also looks fantastic, but the Gigabyte GA-Z97X-SLI offers better dual graphics support plus slightly better features and layout. As such it gets our vote if you want to keep your money splurging below £110.

ASRock Fatal1ty Z97 Killer

Asus Maximus VII Ranger


Gigabyte GA-Z97X-SLI


MSI Gaming 7