ROG's ultimate belief! How powerful is the overclocking brother from ASUS?

The ultimate flagship returns

ASUS Republic of Gamers ROG series has always been a fatal attraction for high-end gamers. And the Extreme series has won a lot of applause from those gamers who love to pursue the extreme. After being absent from the previous generation Z97 platform, the Extreme king returned and launched the ROG M8E equipped with Intel's latest 100 series chips. The newly upgraded ROG Maximus VIII Extreme has better configuration and materials, and more powerful expansion capabilities. It can be said that it is not only the flagship of the ROG Z170 series, but also the ultimate flagship of the Z170 series motherboards on the market.

When building the test platform, in addition to choosing the GeForce GTX 980 Ti MATRIX Platinum as the graphics card for testing, we also used Intel's latest Skylake i7 6700K as the CPU.

We don’t see ROG’s traditional red and black color scheme on this ROG M8E. The new M8E introduces silver-gray as a transitional color based on black. Compared with ROG’s previous vibrant style, the M8E appears to be more high-end and atmospheric in terms of visual effects.

ROG M8E uses the latest Intel Z170 high-speed chipset, which supports the LGA 1151 interface of the new generation of SKYLAKE Core 6th generation processors. ROG's very powerful power supply design can provide powerful overclocking assistance for the unlocked multiplier i7 Skylake series CPU, and maximize the stability of your U when running in different working conditions. As shown in the figure, ASUS ROG uses an 8+4+1 phase power supply design, of which 8 phases are for CPU power supply, 4 phases are for core graphics card power supply, and 1 phase is for SA power supply.

ASUS ROG M8E is not only powerful in overclocking performance, but also in expandability. The 4 PCI-E 3.0×16 slots can easily support 4-way CrossFire of N cards or 4-way SLI of A cards, and the 2 PCI-E×1 slots are prepared for players who need to install independent sound cards, and can achieve the same "top flagship" experience in graphics and sound effects.

The expandability of ASUS ROG M8E is also reflected in the motherboard buttons. In addition to the traditional jumpers, for the convenience of overclocking enthusiasts, a one-touch Memory OK, power on, restart and other buttons are provided below the memory slots. In addition, ASUS ROG M8E also provides voltage measurement points, PCI-E switches, dual-channel memory jumpers, Safe Boot and Retry buttons for restoring settings, and LN2 switches and Slow Mode jumpers for extreme mode, providing convenience for overclocking enthusiasts.

As a flagship motherboard, it has abundant accessories. The accessory box includes a Q-Shield baffle, 8 SATA data cables, 1 SLI and CrossFire soft bridge, 1 Q-connector jumper installation tool, 3 temperature sensor cables, an all-Chinese and very thick instruction manual, driver and software installation CD, M.2 fixing screws, CPU installation tool, ROG SATA cable label, ROG metal and round fan stickers, 3T3R Wi-Fi antenna, fan expansion card and fixing screws, 5-pin connecting cable for fan expansion card, 1 door handle hanger, OC Panel's 5.25-inch expansion rack and cable screws, etc. However, the most eye-catching one is the calculator-shaped OC Panel II.

OC Panel is a tool prepared by ASUS ROG for top overclocking enthusiasts. It can adjust various parameters from the hardware level without frequent restarts. Even when running benchmark software such as 3D Mark, it can change key parameters such as processor frequency, fan speed, and power supply voltage in real time. It can be said that the intuitive parameter display and simpler interactive methods of OC Panel II have greatly reduced the technical threshold for overclocking, making it easy for novices to overclock.

The other protagonist of this review is the GeForce GTX 980 Ti MATRIX Platinum, with its plasma copper color, orange logo, and unique exterior design, giving it a sense of lines and technology.

As a new member of the ROG980ti family, Platinum, like the M8E, is a graphics card positioned for overclocking. It is equipped with ASUS's exclusive DirectCU II heat pipe direct contact technology and patented wing-shaped blade zero-noise fan design, and adopts a 10mm heat pipe design to ensure that while providing maximum air volume, it can also bring 3 times the quietness effect, and the heat dissipation performance is improved by more than 30%.

ASUS ROG GeForce GTX 980 Ti MATRIX Platinum can display the GPU load in real time through the LED breathing light, and intuitively reflect the performance through the change of four colors. In order to deal with emergencies more effectively, ASUS ROG also provides users with a safe mode that restores the default BIOS settings with one click, and with the liquid nitrogen mode switch, it can increase the performance of the graphics card to the limit.

The large area of ​​blackened brushed metal back panel has a large number of heat dissipation holes in key locations such as the graphics card power supply. The oversized ASUS|MATRIX on the back panel looks very domineering.

Is overclocking still necessary in an era of excess performance?

How powerful is the combination of ROG Maximus VIII Extreme and ROG GeForce GTX 980 Ti MATRIX Platinum? In the 3D mark 11 running score, it can reach a high score of 8675 at default frequency, which not only leaves its brother Poseidon series behind, but also exceeds the data of the reference version Titan X.

In the game, ROG's "overclocked brother" is also the same. With 4K resolution and full special effects turned on, "Mad Max" runs stably at more than 60Fps, so even if you change to a bigger and better monitor in the future, you don't need to worry about whether the gaming experience will be affected by the change in resolution. For ROG GeForce GTX 980 Ti MATRIX Platinum, 4K is far from its limit.

For PC gamers, this is actually an era of overperformance. Due to the limitations of game engine technology, graphics cards such as Nvidia GeForce GTX970 can run very smoothly with full special effects at default frequency, and overclocking or higher configurations seem to be a bit useless. However, with the advent of VR devices such as HTC vive and Oculus, the gaming industry has also ushered in new ways of playing. For a better immersive VR experience, overclocking has become more meaningful.

On Steam, the largest gaming platform, a number of VR games that support HTC vive and Oculus Rift have been launched, with more than 50 titles to date. However, if you want to enjoy VR, you also need to use the SteamVR Performance Test tool provided by Steam to evaluate whether your current system meets the standard for running VR. If it does not meet the standard, SteamVR Performance Test will also determine whether it is limited by the graphics card, CPU, or both.

However, judging from the official configuration, VR's PC requirements are not very affordable. SteamVR Performace Test recommends:

Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 680 or higher Processor: Intel i5-4590, AMD FX 8350 or higher Memory: 4GB or higher Video Output: HDMI 1.4, DisplayPort 1.2 or higher
USB Port: USB 2.0 or higher port Operating System: Windows 7 SP1 or higher

It can also be seen from the comments below the SteamVR Performace Test that even a powerful GPU like the 980TI cannot get full marks in the test. After all, maintaining 90FPS without frame loss at high resolution is not an easy task.

However, just like the positioning of ROG M8E: M8E is born to break records. Since M8E and 980ti matrix platnum are both ROG gamer series, even overclocking is more than two. Only in the system's built-in OC mode, ROG Maximus VIII Extreme and ROG GeForce GTX 980 Ti MATRIX Platinum scored a full score of 11 points. However, VR games are still in their infancy, so ROG Maximus VIII Extreme and ROG GeForce GTX 980 Ti MATRIX Platinum have not yet reached their limits.

The core frequency of ROG GeForce GTX 980 Ti MATRIX Platinum in the default state is 215Mhz higher than the 1076Mhz of the public version, reaching an astonishing 1291Mhz. After overclocking, Platinum can even surpass Titan X in running points. For gamers who love overclocking, they should not have to worry about the highest quality of mainstream games for at least two years.

Conclusion

Powerful power supply design and stable temperature control give this pair of "overclocking brothers" from ASUS seemingly unlimited overclocking potential, coupled with their own super performance and cool eye of the loser. For the sake of faith, are you ready to pay for this set that costs up to 12,000 yuan?

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.