Today we have a chance to look at our first ASUS motherboard, the TUF X299 Mark 1. The Mark 1 is listed as a durable and reliable motherboard for enthusiasts and gamers. The TUF Mark 1 sits in the middle of the ASUS product stack and carries over the armor found on previous generation TUF boards and adds an updated theme and features to the latest iteration. 

ASUS TUF X299 Mark 1 Overview

ASUS's 'The Ultimate Force' (TUF) lineup of boards expanded from one board on the X99 chipset (Sabertooth) to two on X299 with the TUF X299 Mark 1 and X299 Mark 2. The Mark 1 the more feature rich version for X299, with two ethernet ports, eight SATA ports, and a front USB 3.1 (10 Gbps) header, as well as the whole armor look. 

There are three reinforced full-length PCIe slots for video cards and support up to three-way SLI and Crossfire. The physical slot configuration allows for three slot GPUs to fit in the primary GPU slots as well. For storage, both M.2 slots are connected via the chipset. One of the M.2 supports both SATA and PCIe devices, while the other is PCIe only. On the SATA side, all eight ports are connected natively through the chipset. SATA ports 5/6/7/8 do share bandwidth with the second PCIe x4 slot.

The TUF Mark 1 has a phone app that connects through the included Bluetooth module to aid in debugging. In addition, the board uses Q-LEDs at the top of the board to tell where the board gets stuck during POST. The 8-phase VRM is shared across a couple of the SKUs in the ASUS lineup, including the ROG X299 Strix XE, which we will have an in-depth review on as well. 

On the USB side of things, there are two USB 3.1 (10 Gbps) ports, one Type-A and one Type-C, which are handled by the ASMedia 3142 controller. The front panel USB 3.1 Type-C port managed by an ASMedia 1543 switch. The chipset delivers eight USB 3.0 ports in total, four at back panel and four via internal headers, and six USB 2.0 ports, four on the back panel and two via an internal header.

The X299 TUF Mark 1 uses an Intel I219-V Gigabit LAN controller and an I211-AT Gigabit LAN controller for network duties. Both devices are able to be accessed by the Turbo LAN software utility for traffic monitoring, routing, and other network functions. The board does not come with Wi-Fi capabilities. 

Overall performance from the X299 TUF Mark 1 was mid-pack for almost all benchmarks. Features such as Multi-Core Turbo are optional, and are offered when XMP is enabled. Overclocking was straight forward, with the board hitting 4.5 GHz similar to other products, although the 'Fast Tuning' option for auto overclocking gave a nice 4.3 GHz for all cores that was very near our manual CPU voltage. This would make a nice one-touch overclock with the right CPU.

The current price on the X299 Mark 1 is $340 with its little brother, the Mark 2 at $259. Outside of its own product line up the price point has it competing with the likes of the EVGA X299 FTW ($330), MSI X299 Gaming Pro Carbon AC ($330), GIGABYTE X299 AORUS Ultra Gaming Pro ($350), and the ASRock X299 Taichi XE ($322). 

ASUS X299 Strategy

ASUS brings a current total of eight X299 boards to choose from: the ASUS ROG Rampage VI Extreme making its home in the Republic of Gamers (ROG) enthusiast segment along with the ROG Rampage VI Apex and the ROG Strix X299-E Gaming and Strix X299-XE Gaming. The Prime segment consists of two boards - the Prime X299-A and the Prime X299-Deluxe. Last but not least the TUF lineup also consists of two boards, the TUF X299 Mark 2, and TUF X299 Mark 1. All boards are ATX or greater size so small form factor users will be forced to look elsewhere. 

ASUS' X299 Motherboard Lineup (12/6)
	AnandTech Review	Amazon	Newegg
ROG Rampage VI Extreme		-	$790
Prime X299-Deluxe		$474	$470
ROG Rampage VI Apex		$437	$430
ROG Strix X299-XE Gaming	upcoming	$370	$370
TUF X299 Mark 1	this review	$340	$340
ROG Strix X299-E Gaming		$320	$320
Prime X299-A		-	$296
TUF X299 Mark 2		$260	$260

Overall, the product stack has a number of feature points and price crossover between the segments. 

Information on Intel's X299 and our other Reviews

With Intel's release of the Basin Falls platform, encompassing the new X299 chipset and LGA2066 socket, a new generation of CPUs called Skylake-X and Kaby Lake-X were also released. The Skylake-X CPUs range from the 7800X, a hex-core part, all the way up to an 18-core 7980XE multitasking behemoth. Between the bookend CPUs are five others increasing in core count, as in the table below. The latter HCC models are set to be launched over 2H of 2017.

Skylake-X Processors
	7800X	7820X	7900X		7920X	7940X	7960X	7980XE
Silicon	LCC				HCC
Cores / Threads	6/12	8/16	10/20		12/24	14/28	16/32	18/36
Base Clock / GHz	3.5	3.6	3.3		2.9	3.1	2.8	2.6
Turbo Clock / GHz	4.0	4.3	4.3		4.3	4.3	4.3	4.2
Turbo Max Clock	N/A	4.5	4.5		4.4	4.4	4.4	4.4
L3	1.375 MB/core				1.375 MB/core
PCIe Lanes	28		44		44
Memory Channels	4				4
Memory Freq DDR4	2400	2666			2666
TDP	140W				140W	165W
Price	$389	$599	$999		$1199	$1399	$1699	$1999

Board partners have launched dozens of motherboards on this platform, several of which we will have an opportunity to look over in the coming weeks and months.

Other AnandTech Reviews for Intel’s Basin Falls CPUs and X299

• The Intel Skylake-X Review: Core i9-7980XE and Core i9-7960X Tested
• The Intel Skylake-X Review: Core i9-7900X, i7-7820X and i7-7800X Tested
• The Intel Kaby Lake-X Review: Core i7-7740X and i5-7640X Tested
• Intel Announces Basin Falls: The New High-End Desktop Platform and X299 Chipset
   
• ($400) The ASRock X299E-ITX/ac Review [link] 
• ($390) The ASRock X299 Professional Gaming i9 Review: [link] 
• ($360) The MSI X299 Gaming Pro Carbon Review [link] 
• ($340) The ASUS X299 TUF Mark 1 Review (this review) 
• ($300) The MSI X299 Tomahawk Arctic Review [link]
• ($289) The ASRock X299 Taichi Review [link]
• ($260) The MSI X299 SLI Plus Review [link]
   
• ($500) The GIGABYTE X299 Gaming 9 Review (planned) 
• ($400) The GIGABYTE X299 Gaming 7 Review (planned)
• ($350) The ASUS Strix X299-E Gaming Review (being tested) 
• ($330) The EVGA X299 FTW-K (arrived)
• ($290) The EVGA X299 Micro (arrived)
• ($?) The EVGA X299 Dark (planned)

To read specifically about the X299 chip/platform and the specifications therein, our deep dive into what it is can be found at this link.

X299 Motherboard Review Notice

If you’ve been following the minutiae of the saga of X299 motherboards, you might have heard some issues regarding power delivery, overclocking, and the ability to cool these processors down given the power consumption. In a nutshell, it comes down to this:

• Skylake-X consumes a lot of power at peak (150W+),
• The thermal interface inside the CPU doesn’t do much requiring a powerful CPU cooler,
• Some motherboard vendors apply Multi-Core Turbo which raises the power consumption and voltage, exacerbating the issue
• The VRMs have to deal with more power, and due to losses, raise in temperature
• Some motherboards do not have sufficient VRM cooling without an active cooler
• This causes the CPU to declock or hit thermal power states as to not degrade components
• This causes a performance drop, and overclocked systems are affected even more than usual

There has been some excellent work done by Igor Wallossek over at Tom’s Hardware, with thermal probes, thermal cameras, and performance analysis. The bottom line is that motherboard vendors need to be careful when it comes to default settings (if MCT is enabled by default) and provide sufficient VRM cooling in all scenarios – either larger and heavier heatsinks or moving back to active cooling.

This means there are going to be some X299 boards that perform normally, and some that underperform based on BIOS versions or design decisions. We are in the process of quantifying exactly how to represent this outside of basic benchmarking, so stay tuned. In the meantime, take a look at the next motherboard for review. 

Visual Inspection

The appearance of the latest TUF board from ASUS looks a lot different than its X99 based predecessor. The X299 dials back on the military-theme, with the armor covering a bit more of the Sabertooth. The armor around the back panel IO, PCIe area, and VRM shroud are mostly grey this generation, with black accent pieces covering the audio portion as well as covering the upper right-hand corner of the board. The back of the board also has armor for protection and rigidity purposes. The top part of the backplate is used to help cool the VRM it sits under with a thermal pad between the board and metal backplate. The DRAM slots alternate black and grey matching the shrouds and overall theme. The PCH and M.2 slot are actively cooled by a small fan underneath the PCIe shroud which routes the air over the PCH heatsink, down to the M.2 heatsink and out the bottom. RGB LEDs will have to come from the user using the single onboard header as the TUF X299 Mark 1 does not have any for looks. There are the Q-LED lights in the top right corner, and that is it. 

 

If there is one thing this board has a lot of that would be fan and pump headers. There are a total of 10, in fact. Up top above the left set of DRAM slots are four headers, CPU Fan, CPU OPT, CHA Fan3 and the ASST Fan header. Down the right side of the board are four more headers, CHA Fan 1/4/5 and the W PUMP+ header. On the bottom are the last two, CHA Fan 2, and H AMP Fan. All headers will support both 3-pin DC and 4-pin PWM devices for added flexibility in fan choice. Asus recommends the use of PWM fans on the H AMP Fan header on the bottom or to disable Q-Fan if using a 3-pin device.

The VRM section is 8-phase and controlled buy ASUS's own Digi+ VRM control chip (ASP1405I). Both the chokes and 10K Black Metallic Capacitors are certified military-grade for increased durability. The MOSFETs are Infineon OptiMOS 5 BSG0812ND and also considered military-grade. Power is fed to the VRM by an 8-pin EPS connector as well as an optional 4-pin next to it. In this picture, we also get a closeup of the four Fan headers in the top left-hand part of the picture.

The eight DRAM slots on the TUF X299 Mark 1 use a one latch system to keep the sticks in place. Surprisingly, the slots are not reinforced, although ASUS hasn't really focused on that 'feature' like other companies have. Certainly, that feature isn't needed but figured it would have been there since the board sits in the durable and reliable category. Memory capacity is 128GB with supported speeds up to DDR4-4133 for both quad channel (Skylake-X) and dual channel (KabyLake X) CPUs.

The right side of the board, starting from the top-right corner, is where the Q-LED lights are found. There are five lights in total. CPU, DRAM, VGA, and BOOT lights round out the active LEDs. These lights are useful during the POST process for troubleshooting as it gives users an idea of where to look for issues if the system isn't booting properly. Also located here is the MEMOK! button which will automatically tune the memory for compatibility and allow for a successful boot if memory is the culprit. The PWR LED lights up to indicate the system is ON, in sleep mode, or in soft-off mode. 

The right side is where to find the 24-pin ATX power connector, three chassis fan headers, the front panel USB 3.1 10 Gbps port, a front panel USB 3.0 port, and the eight SATA connections. 

The eight chipset connected SATA ports are in a standard configuration with all ports next to each other and oriented horizontally. Ports 5, 6, 7, and 8 share bandwidth with the second (bottom) PCIe x4 slot.

The bottom of the board with the shroud off shows the ASUS specific ALC1220S codec and Nichicon capacitors. Just to the right of it are three temperature sensor headers (via thermistors) above the front panel audio header. As we keep moving to the right there is a power button, Thunderbolt header, RGB LED, Chassis Fans, USB 2.0 header, the vertical M.2 slot and front panel headers.

In the PCIe segment of the board, as shown below, there are three full-length PCIe slots and two open-ended x4 slots. Two of three full-length slots are reinforced with a fortifying metal (ASUS calls this Safeslot) to support heavy video cards. The x4 slots are tied to the PCH while the three full-length slots are CPU connected. Also pictured here is the heatsink for the M.2 device to the right of the lower x4 slot.

Below is a simplified list of how the PCIe slots will work with each family of CPUs (talking PCIe lanes) when multiple cards are used (the "@" symbol is used to show slot preference for the configuration): 

ASUS TUF X299 Mark 1 CPU PCIe Layout
	44-Lane 1/2-Way	44-Lane 3-Way	28-Lane 1/2-Way	28-Lane 3-Way	16-Lane 1-Way	16-Lane 2-Way
PCIe 1	@x16	x16	@x16	x16	@x16	x8
PCIe 3	@x16	x16	@x8	x8	-	x8
PCIe 5	x8	x8	x4	x4	-	-
SLI	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	-	Yes
Crossfire	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

On the back IO panel we get a USB BIOS Flashback button and a stack of four USB 2.0 ports to start. This is followed by the TUF Detective USB port (for the BlueTooth unit for debugging), and USB 3.1 (10 Gbps) Type-A (Teal) and Type-C ports. Two network jacks on top of four (total) USB 3.0 ports and a 5-jack audio stack with SPDIF out round out the connectivity here. 

In The Box

We get the following (some not pictured):

• Vertical M.2 bracket
• 4 x SATA cables
• ASUS 2-Way and 3-Way SLI bridge
• M.2 screw package
• Support DVD / Users Guide / Cert. of Reliability
• 2-Way SLI HB bridge
• Q-Connector
• TUF stickers
• TUF dongle
• 3 x PCIe x16 slot dust covers
• 1 x PCIe x4 slot dust cover
• TUF VGA holder

BIOS

Our first glimpse of the ASUS TUF X299 Mark 1's BIOS (v. 0802) brings us to an EZ Mode Screen as the landing page. These screens give users a high-level view of the system and are allowed to change a few options. In this case, we see CPU and Memory type, temperature, the status of fans attached to the onboard headers with access to QFan, boot priority (adjustable), and EZ System Tuning. 

Using the EZ System Tuning and changing it to the 'Extreme Tuning' option yields a single core overclock of 4.6 GHz with an all core overclock of 4.4GHz. Voltage was set to 1.30V which overshoots what this specific CPU needs by around .15V. With our cooling and that voltage, we nearly hit 100C with multi-threaded testing (POVRay) so where it landed would not work without a better cooling solution. A beefier radiator or a delid would likely be useful in this case. 

Pressing F7 will drop us into the Advanced version of the BIOS where it shows all the options across the top. ASUS has a My Favorites section which has a lot of frequently used features from different sections all under one menu. Users are also able to customize the My Favorites section to their liking. The first screen we see when entering advanced mode is the Main screen. Here it gives high-level information about the BIOS, CPU, Memory, as well as the date/time. The only option one can adjust is the System Language. 

Sliding on over to the Ai Tweaker screen, this is where overclockers will spend most of their time tweaking their overclocks. The first option is the Ai Overclock Tuner which allows users to set XMP on their memory, or go into manual mode where BCLK can be assigned manually. When using the XMP setting, the ASUS BIOS will ask if "...you would like to apply the all core enhancement with the XMP settings for improved performance". Essentially, it is another way to enable MultiCore Enhancement and syncronizes cores to one multiplier instead of using the default Intel method of stepping downclocks when cores are used concurrently. 

DRAM Timing Control, where all memory timings can be adjusted, is found a bit down the page along with the External Digi+ Power Control for LLC, VRM, CPU Power Phase and thermal controls. The Internal CPU Power Management section gives options for enabling/disabling Speedstep, adjusting power limits, and VR fault management. Most will not need to play around inside the Internal CPU Power section unless they are really pushing the overclocks. 

The last screen we are showing in Ai Tweaker is where users can see the current voltage for the major domains as well as adjust them. 

The Advanced Section is where users will be able to enable/disable and configure items such as your PCIe lane control, adjustments for the PCH such as enabling or disabling SATA controllers, Audio, USB, RGB lighting, as well as LAN and Wi-Fi. 

Next is the Monitor section. Here you will get a 'state of the union' on system temperatures from the CPU and motherboard, to the DRAM and PCIe area among others. Each sensor has an option to be monitored or ignored. Towards the bottom of this section is where any fan speed adjustments will be made via their Q-Fan functionality. The ASUS software can test the abilities of attached devices and select thresholds once it 'learns' the capabilities of the attached fans/pumps. 

The Boot section does is where users are able to adjust boot order, boot speed, and force a specific device with boot override. 

The Tool section holds a couple useful utilities with the first being ASUS EZ Flash 3 Utility. This utility is what will be used to update the BIOS on the board. Next is a Secure Erase functionality for wiping SSDs to their factory fresh state. ASUS Overclocking profiles should be self-explanatory as to what that is. Last, ASUS SPD and Graphics card information reads from the installed DRAM modules and video card and gives information on what is installed. In the case of the Graphics Card Information, when using the ASUS Strix GTX 980 it shows clock speeds, GPU voltage, and temperature, as well as memory size and type. The SPD information for the DRAM modules is read from the sticks themselves. 

Last is a screenshot of the Q-Fan control for adjusting fans or pump on the headers. There are pre-defined curves as well as being able to set the curve manually. All headers are of the hybrid variety and support both DC and PWM control (with some caveats discussed a bit later). 

Software

The first piece, or pieces, of software comes from the included support CD. The driver section will give users the option to install multiple drivers including the Intel Chipset driver and Management Interface, Realtek Audio, Intel LAN, Intel Turbo Boost Max, as well as Google Chrome Browser and Norton Security. The Utilities section offers options for ASUS AI Suite 3, AURA RG, Daemon Tools, an ASUS skinned CPU-Z, Turbo LAN, and WinZip. The manual and other documents are also stored on this disc. As far as function goes, I installed what you see below using the tool and it went without a hitch.

ASUS also has an EZ Update application where users are able to reach out to the web and check for new versions of their installed software. In our case, this was captured after I installed the latest versions so nothing showed up in the query. 

The TUF comes with ASUS' Thermal Radar 3 application. This comprehensive software is able to monitor the board's many onboard sensors, adjust clock speeds and voltages for overclocking, control fans, and EPU for power saving adjustments. The Recorder heading is a monitoring section showing graphs of CPU Core Voltage, PSU rails, System Temperatures as well as fan speeds. Overall a fairly comprehensive product. In my limited use with it, I did not run into any quirks. 

For controlling any RGBs, ASUS has their AURA software with seven different modes as well as speed adjustment for each. RGB LEDs can be synchronized or run independently. 

The TUF X299 Mark 1 uses a Realtek ALC1220 codec as well as its software for sound manipulation. It supports DTS as well and includes a small footprint application for making adjustments to it. 

ASUS also has network monitoring and manipulation software named Turbo LAN. This software suite is able to display current network activity as well as shaping traffic by prioritizing programs via a slider. There are also more advanced functions (see gallery), cFoS speed tests, and a monitoring graph. 

Board Features

The mid-range TUF X299 Mark 1 packages a range of features which should be able to satisfy most users. Unique to it is the Thermal Armor and M.2 Heatsink, as well as the Thermal Radar 4 and TUF Ice for better control over system cooling and temperature monitoring. The TUF Detective 2 app connects a device to the motherboard via Bluetooth for error diagnosing or adjusting system settings. 

ASUS TUF X299 Mark 1
Warranty Period	5 Years
Product Page	Link
Price	$339.99 Amazon US
Size	ATX
CPU Interface	LGA2066
Chipset	Intel X299
Memory Slots (DDR4)	Eight DDR4 Supporting 128GB Quad Channel Up to DDR4 4133
Network Connectivity	1 x Intel I219V GbE 1 x Intel I211 GbE
Onboard Audio	Realtek ALC S1220A
PCIe Slots for Graphics (from CPU)	3 x PCIe 3.0 - 44 Lane CPU: x16/x16/x8  - 28 Lane CPU: x16/x8/x4  - 16 Lane CPU: x8/x8/x1
PCIe Slots for Other (from PCH)	2 x PCIe 3.0 x4
Onboard SATA	8 x - RAID 0/1/5/10
Onboard SATA Express	None
Onboard M.2	1 x PCIe 3.0 x4 and SATA mode 1 x PCIe 3.0 x4 mode only
Onboard U.2	None
USB 3.1	ASMedia ASM3142  1 x Type-A 1 x Type-C 1 x Onboard Header
USB 3.0	Chipset 4 x Back Panel 4 x Onboard Headers
USB 2.0	Chipset 4 x Back Panel 2 x Onboard Headers
Power Connectors	1 x 24-pin ATX 1 x 8-pin CPU 1 x 4-pin CPU (optional)
Fan Headers	1 x 4-pin CPU 1 x 4-pin CPU OPT 5 x Chassis 1 x Assistant 1 x H AMP 4 x W PUMP
IO Panel	2 x LAN (RJ45) ports 2 x USB 3.1 10 Gbps, Type-A and Type-C 4 x USB 3.0 4 x USB 2.0 1 x SPDIF out 5 x Audio Jacks 1 x USB BIOS Flashback Button(s) 1 x TUF Detective USB port

 

Test Bed

As per our testing policy, we take a high-end CPU suitable for the motherboard that was released during the socket’s initial launch and equip the system with a suitable amount of memory running at the processor maximum supported frequency. This is also typically run at JEDEC sub timings where possible. It is noted that some users are not keen on this policy, stating that sometimes the maximum supported frequency is quite low, or faster memory is available at a similar price, or that the JEDEC speeds can be prohibitive for performance. While these comments make sense, ultimately very few users apply memory profiles (either XMP or other) as they require interaction with the BIOS, and most users will fall back on JEDEC supported speeds - this includes home users as well as industry who might want to shave off a cent or two from the cost or stay within the margins set by the manufacturer. Where possible, we will extend our testing to include faster memory modules either at the same time as the review or a later date.

Readers of our motherboard review section will have noted the trend in modern motherboards to implement a form of MultiCore Enhancement / Acceleration / Turbo (read our report here) on their motherboards. This does several things, including better benchmark results at stock settings (not entirely needed if overclocking is an end-user goal) at the expense of heat and temperature. It also gives, in essence, an automatic overclock which may be against what the user wants. Our testing methodology is ‘out-of-the-box’, with the latest public BIOS installed and XMP enabled, and thus subject to the whims of this feature. It is ultimately up to the motherboard manufacturer to take this risk – and manufacturers taking risks in the setup is something they do on every product (think C-state settings, USB priority, DPC Latency/monitoring priority, overriding memory sub-timings at JEDEC). Processor speed change is part of that risk, and ultimately if no overclocking is planned, some motherboards will affect how fast that shiny new processor goes and can be an important factor in the system build.

Test Setup
Processor	Intel i9 7900X (10C/20T, 3.3G, 140W)
Motherboard	ASUS TUF X299 Mark 1 (BIOS version 0802)
Cooling	Corsair H115i
Power Supply	Corsair HX750
Memory	Corsair Vengeance LPX 4x8GB DDR4 2666 CL16 Corsair Vengeance 4x4GB DDR4 3200 CL16
Memory Settings	DDR4 2666 CL16-18-18-35 2T
Video Cards	ASUS Strix GTX 980
Hard Drive	Crucial MX300 1TB
Optical Drive	TSST TS-H653G
Case	Open Test Bed
Operating System	Windows 10 Pro 64-bit

 

Many thanks to...

We must thank the following companies for kindly providing hardware for our multiple test beds. Some of this hardware is not in this testbed specifically but is used in other testing.

Thank you to ASUS for providing us with GTX 980 Strix GPUs. At the time of release, the STRIX brand from ASUS was aimed at silent running, or to use the marketing term: '0dB Silent Gaming'. This enables the card to disable the fans when the GPU is dealing with low loads well within temperature specifications. These cards equip the GTX 980 silicon with ASUS' Direct CU II cooler and 10-phase digital VRMs, aimed at high-efficiency conversion. Along with the card, ASUS bundles GPU Tweak software for overclocking and streaming assistance.

The GTX 980 uses NVIDIA's GM204 silicon die, built upon their Maxwell architecture. This die is 5.2 billion transistors for a die size of 298 mm², built on TMSC's 28nm process. A GTX 980 uses the full GM204 core, with 2048 CUDA Cores and 64 ROPs with a 256-bit memory bus to GDDR5. The official power rating for the GTX 980 is 165W.

The ASUS GTX 980 Strix 4GB (or the full name of STRIX-GTX980-DC2OC-4GD5) runs a reasonable overclock over a reference GTX 980 card, with frequencies in the range of 1178-1279 MHz. The memory runs at stock, in this case, 7010 MHz. Video outputs include three DisplayPort connectors, one HDMI 2.0 connector, and a DVI-I.

Further Reading: AnandTech's NVIDIA GTX 980 Review

 

Thank you to Crucial for providing us with MX300 SSDs. Crucial stepped up to the plate as our benchmark list grows larger with newer benchmarks and titles, and the 1TB MX300 units are strong performers. Based on Marvell's 88SS1074 controller and using Micron's 384Gbit 32-layer 3D TLC NAND, these are 7mm high, 2.5-inch drives rated for 92K random read IOPS and 530/510 MB/s sequential read and write speeds.

The 1TB models we are using here support TCG Opal 2.0 and IEEE-1667 (eDrive) encryption and have a 360TB rated endurance with a three-year warranty.

Further Reading: AnandTech's Crucial MX300 (750 GB) Review

 

Thank you to Corsair for providing us with Vengeance LPX DDR4 Memory, HX750 Power Supply, and H115i CPU Cooler. 

Corsair kindly sent a 4x8GB DDR4 2666 set of their Vengeance LPX low profile, high-performance memory for our stock testing. The heatsink is made of pure aluminum to help remove heat from the sticks and has an eight-layer PCB. The heatsink is a low profile design to help fit in spaces where there may not be room for a tall heat spreader; think a SFF case or using a large heatsink. Timings on this specific set come in at 16-18-18-35. The Vengeance LPX line supports XMP 2.0 profiles for easily setting the speed and timings. It also comes with a limited lifetime warranty. 

Powering the test system is Corsair's HX750 Power Supply. This HX750 is a dual mode unit able to switch from a single 12V rail (62.5A/750W) to a five rail CPU (40A max ea.) and is also fully modular. It has a typical selection of connectors, including dual EPS 4+4 pin four PCIe connectors and a whopping 16 SATA power leads, as well as four 4-pin Molex connectors.

The 135mm fluid dynamic bearing fan remains off until it is 40% loaded offering complete silence in light workloads. The HX750 comes with a ten-year warranty. 

In order to cool these high-TDP HEDT CPUs, Corsair sent over its latest and largest AIO in the H115i. This closed-loop system uses a 280mm radiator with 2x140mm SP140L PWM controlled fans. The pump/block combination mounts to all modern CPU sockets. Users are also able to integrate this cooler into the Corsair link software via USB for more control and options. 

Benchmark Overview

For our testing, depending on the product, we attempt to tailor the presentation of our global benchmark suite down into what users who would buy this hardware might actually want to run. For CPUs, our full test suite is typically used to gather data and all the results are placed into Bench, our benchmark database for users that want to look at non-typical benchmarks or legacy data. For motherboards, we run our short form CPU tests, the gaming tests with half the GPUs of our processor suite, and our system benchmark tests which focus on non-typical and non-obvious performance metrics that are the focal point for specific groups of users.

The benchmarks fall into several areas:

Short Form CPU

Our short form testing script uses a straight run through of a mixture of known apps or workloads and requires about four hours. These are typically the CPU tests we run in our motherboard suite, to identify any performance anomalies.

CPU Short Form Benchmarks
Three Dimensional Particle Movement v2.1 (3DPM)	3DPM is a self-penned benchmark, derived from my academic research years looking at particle movement parallelism. The coding for this tool was rough, but emulates the real world in being non-CompSci trained code for a scientific endeavor. The code is unoptimized, but the test uses OpenMP to move particles around a field using one of six 3D movement algorithms in turn, each of which is found in the academic literature.
	The second version of this benchmark is similar to the first, however it has been re-written in VS2012 with one major difference: the code has been written to address the issue of false sharing. If data required by multiple threads, say four, is in the same cache line, the software cannot read the cache line once and split the data to each thread - instead it will read four times in a serial fashion. The new software splits the data to new cache lines so reads can be parallelized and stalls minimized.
WinRAR 5.4	WinRAR is a compression based software to reduce file size at the expense of CPU cycles. We use the version that has been a stable part of our benchmark database through 2015, and run the default settings on a 1.52GB directory containing over 2800 files representing a small website with around thirty half-minute videos. We take the average of several runs in this instance.
POV-Ray 3.7.1 b4	POV-Ray is a common ray-tracing tool used to generate realistic looking scenes. We've used POV-Ray in its various guises over the years as a good benchmark for performance, as well as a tool on the march to ray-tracing limited immersive environments. We use the built-in multi threaded benchmark.
HandBrake v1.0.2	HandBrake is a freeware video conversion tool. We use the tool in to process two different videos into x264 in an MP4 container - first a 'low quality' two-hour video at 640x388 resolution to x264, then a 'high quality' ten-minute video at 4320x3840, and finally the second video again but into HEVC. The low-quality video scales at lower performance hardware, whereas the buffers required for high-quality tests can stretch even the biggest processors. At current, this is a CPU only test.
7-Zip 9.2	7-Zip is a freeware compression/decompression tool that is widely deployed across the world. We run the included benchmark tool using a 50MB library and take the average of a set of fixed-time results.
DigiCortex v1.20	The newest benchmark in our suite is DigiCortex, a simulation of biologically plausible neural network circuits, and simulates activity of neurons and synapses. DigiCortex relies heavily on a mix of DRAM speed and computational throughput, indicating that systems which apply memory profiles properly should benefit and those that play fast and loose with overclocking settings might get some extra speed up.

 

System Benchmarks

Our system benchmarks are designed to probe motherboard controller performance, particularly any additional USB controllers or the audio controller. As general platform tests we have DPC Latency measurements and system boot time, which can be difficult to optimize for on the board design and manufacturing level.

System Benchmarks
Power Consumption	One of the primary differences between different motherboads is power consumption. Aside from the base defaults that every motherboard needs, things like power delivery, controller choice, routing and firmware can all contribute to how much power a system can draw. This increases for features such as PLX chips and multi-gigabit ethernet.
Non-UEFI POST Time	The POST sequence of the motherboard becomes before loading the OS, and involves pre-testing of onboard controllers, the CPU, the DRAM and everything else to ensure base stability. The number of controllers, as well as firmware optimizations, affect the POST time a lot. We test the BIOS defaults as well as attempt a stripped POST.
Rightmark Audio Analyzer 6.2.5	Testing onboard audio is difficult, especially with the numerous amount of post-processing packages now being bundled with hardware. Nonetheless, manufacturers put time and effort into offering a 'cleaner' sound that is loud and of a high quality. RMAA, with version 6.2.5 (newer versions have issues), under the right settings can be used to test the signal-to-noise ratio, signal crossover, and harmonic distortion with noise.
USB Backup	USB ports can come from a variety of sources: chipsets, controllers or hubs. More often than not, the design of the traces can lead to direct impacts on USB performance as well as firmware level choices relating to signal integrity on the motherboard.
DPC Latency	Another element is deferred procedure call latency, or the ability to handle interrupt servicing. Depending on the motherboard firmware and controller selection, some motherboards handle these interrupts quicker than others. A poor result could lead to delays in performance, or for example with audio, a delayed request can manifest in distinct audible pauses, pops or clicks.

Gaming

Our gaming benchmarks are designed to show any differences in performance when playing games. 

System Performance

Not all motherboards are created equal. On the face of it, they should all perform the same and differ only in the functionality they provide - however, this is not the case. The obvious pointers are power consumption, but also the ability for the manufacturer to optimize USB speed, audio quality (based on audio codec), POST time and latency. This can come down to manufacturing process and prowess, so these are tested.

Power Consumption

Power consumption was tested on the system while in a single GPU configuration with a wall meter connected to the Corsair HX 750 power supply. This power supply is Platinum rated. As I am in the US on a 120 V supply, leads to ~87% efficiency > 75W, and 92%+ efficiency at 375W, 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 long idle testing, the TUF X299 Mark 1 used the most power in our testing so far, and the OS idle testing also showed the same results as the TUF using more power. When it's loaded up with a Prime 95 blend, however, it settles down in the lower end of power use and hits 208W, over 30W behind the higher boosting MSI boards that implement Multi-Core Enhancement. 

Non UEFI 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 look at the POST Boot Time using a stopwatch. This is the time from pressing the ON button on the computer to when Windows 10 starts loading. (We discount Windows loading as it is highly variable given Windows specific features.

Post times for the TUF X299 were middle of the pack getting through the POST in 28.1 seconds with everything enabled. The stripped time dropped by over a second to 26.9. 

Rightmark Audio Analyzer 6.2.5

Rightmark:AA indicates how well the sound system is built and isolated from electrical interference (either internally or externally). For this test we connect the Line Out to the Line In using a short six inch 3.5mm to 3.5mm high-quality jack, turn the OS speaker volume to 100%, and run the Rightmark default test suite at 192 kHz, 24-bit. The OS is tuned to 192 kHz/24-bit input and output, and the Line-In volume is adjusted until we have the best RMAA value in the mini-pretest. We look specifically at the Dynamic Range of the audio codec used on board, as well as the Total Harmonic Distortion + Noise.

Due to circumstances currently out of our control, we were unable to get RMAA results for this board. The problem does not lie with the board itself. Once we are able to get it working properly, the space will be updated with data. 

DPC Latency

Deferred Procedure Call latency is a way in which Windows handles interrupt servicing. In order to wait for a processor to acknowledge the request, the system will queue all interrupt requests by priority. Critical interrupts will be handled as soon as possible, whereas lesser priority requests such as audio will be further down the line. If the audio device requires data, it will have to wait until the request is processed before the buffer is filled.

If the device drivers of higher priority components in a system are poorly implemented, this can cause delays in request scheduling and process time.  This can lead to an empty audio buffer and characteristic audible pauses, pops and clicks. The DPC latency checker measures how much time is taken processing DPCs from driver invocation. The lower the value will result in better audio transfer at smaller buffer sizes. Results are measured in microseconds. 

DPC Latency is in the expected range, below 300, reading 256us. This results places the TUF Mark 1 in the middle of the pack. 

CPU Performance, Short Form

For our motherboard reviews, we use our short form testing method. These tests usually focus on if a motherboard is using MultiCore Turbo (the feature used to have maximum turbo on at all times, giving a frequency advantage), or if there are slight gains to be had from tweaking the firmware. We leave the BIOS settings at default and memory at JEDEC (DDR4-2133 C15) for these tests, making it very easy to see which motherboards have MCT enabled by default.

Rendering - Blender 2.78: link

For a render that has been around for what seems like ages, Blender is still a highly popular tool. We managed to wrap up a standard workload into the February 5 nightly build of Blender and measure the time it takes to render the first frame of the scene. Being one of the bigger open source tools out there, it means both AMD and Intel work actively to help improve the codebase, for better or for worse on their own/each other's microarchitecture.

Rendering – POV-Ray 3.7: link

The Persistence of Vision Ray Tracer, or POV-Ray, is a freeware package for as the name suggests, ray tracing. It is a pure renderer, rather than modeling software, but the latest beta version contains a handy benchmark for stressing all processing threads on a platform. We have been using this test in motherboard reviews to test memory stability at various CPU speeds to good effect – if it passes the test, the IMC in the CPU is stable for a given CPU speed. As a CPU test, it runs for approximately 2-3 minutes on high-end platforms.

POV Results have the TUF X299 in the middle of the pack. A negligible difference behind the Gaming Pro Carbon AC, while the Tomahawk Arctic runs away with this benchmark again due to the MCT/E implementation. 

Compression – WinRAR 5.4: link

Our WinRAR test from 2013 is updated to the latest version of WinRAR at the start of 2014. We compress a set of 2867 files across 320 folders totaling 1.52 GB in size – 95% of these files are small typical website files, and the rest (90% of the size) are small 30-second 720p videos.

WinRAR results put the TUF in a tie for the second-best time at 33.6 seconds between the two MSI offerings. 

Synthetic – 7-Zip 9.2: link

As an open source compression tool, 7-Zip is a popular tool for making sets of files easier to handle and transfer. The software offers up its own benchmark, to which we report the result.

7-Zip results have our ASUS board in the middle of the pack tightly grouped pack. 

Point Calculations – 3D Movement Algorithm Test: link

3DPM is a self-penned benchmark, taking basic 3D movement algorithms used in Brownian Motion simulations and testing them for speed. High floating point performance, MHz, and IPC win in the single thread version, whereas the multithread version has to handle the threads and loves more cores. For a brief explanation of the platform agnostic coding behind this benchmark, see my forum post here.

The TUF lands towards the bottom of the 3DPM tests. 

Neuron Simulation - DigiCortex v1.20: link

The newest benchmark in our suite is DigiCortex, a simulation of biologically plausible neural network circuits, and simulates activity of neurons and synapses. DigiCortex relies heavily on a mix of DRAM speed and computational throughput, indicating that systems which apply memory profiles properly should benefit and those that play fast and loose with overclocking settings might get some extra speed up. Results are taken during the steady state period in a 32k neuron simulation and represented as a function of the ability to simulate in real time (1.000x equals real-time).

In the DigiCortex testing the TUF was towards the lower end of another tightly packed set of results. 

Gaming Performance 2017: AoTS Escalation

Ashes of the Singularity is a Real Time Strategy game developed by Oxide Games and Stardock Entertainment. The original AoTS was released back in March of 2016 while the standalone expansion pack, Escalation, was released in November of 2016 adding more structures, maps, and units. We use this specific benchmark as it relies on both a good GPU as well as on the CPU in order to get the most frames per second. This balance is able to better display any system differences in gaming as opposed to a more GPU heavy title where the CPU and system don't matter quite as much. We use the default "Crazy" in-game settings using the DX11 rendering path in both 1080p and 4K UHD resolutions. The benchmark is run four times and the results averaged then plugged into the graph. 

Our AOTSe testing continues to be a tight-knit data set with a half frame per second (FPS) separating things in 4K UHD and almost two FPS in the more CPU heavy 1080p results. 

Overclocking

Experience with the ASUS TUF X299 Mark 1

Automatic overclocking with the ASUS TUF was as simple as selecting which preset I want on the EZ System Tuning from within the BIOS or through the AI Suite/TUF software. The first setting attempted was named Extreme Tuning. When setting this option, the board gives a warning about the cooling required. This yielded a 39% overclock (there is a splash screen during POST showing this info) which came out to 4.6 GHz on all cores and ~1.30V. We know from our past manual testing of this chip, those voltages are a bit high for this CPU and will not pass our tests as the setup overwhelms our AIO cooler. The next step below that is Fast Tuning. When applying this option, the board sets the CPU to all cores running 4.3 GHz and voltage sits at 1.25V on load. We were able to pass our stability tests without issue here. Just be careful with the Extreme Tuning setting and that the right cooling is there for the job as its settings can overwhelm a lot of coolers on the market.  

Manual overclocking was also easy through the ASUS BIOS. Unlike ASRock's BIOS, ASUS' overclocking options are all under one section, AI Tweaker. Users are able to change the vast majority, if not all options, for ambient overclocking of the CPU. Options like the CPU multiplier, BCLK, and Voltages for multiple domains are all found in the same section. The TUF did not have any issues with either set of memory and using the XMP profile so we were set there. The TUF also did not have an issue with setting the memory to 3600 MHz and running tests either (not pictured). 

About the only thing to note here with this board are some of the sensor readings. CPUz doesn't seem to read vCore. When setting automatically or manually, the value remains close to what is seen in the picture below around .9V or so. OCCT was also unable to read the proper voltage. I am not entirely sure why this is happening, however, my theory is CPUz/OCCT are not hitting the proper registers for that value as the TUF has a few unique ICs for its Temperature monitoring/Thermal Radar. The good news is, the ASUS Thermal Radar 3 software picked it up accurately as well as my go-to temperature monitoring software, Coretemp. 

I am pleasantly surprised to say that shroud covering the VRM heatsink didn't seem to cause any issues and did not see witness throttling in our testing.

Overclocking Methodology

Our standard overclocking methodology is as follows. We select the automatic overclock options and test for stability with POV-Ray and OCCT to simulate high-end workloads. These stability tests aim to catch any immediate causes for memory or CPU errors.

For manual overclocks, based on the information gathered from the previous testing, starts off at a nominal voltage and CPU multiplier, and the multiplier is increased until the stability tests are failed. The CPU voltage is increased gradually until the stability tests are passed, and the process repeated until the motherboard reduces the multiplier automatically (due to safety protocol) or the CPU temperature reaches a stupidly high level (90ºC+). Our test bed is not in a case, which should push overclocks higher with fresher (cooler) air.

Overclocking Results

Just as we saw on all the boards tested so far, we topped out at 4.5 GHz before we were temperature/cooling limited. In the 4.3 to 4.5 GHz clock speed range, the TUF did manage to use the least amount of voltage to pass our tests by a small margin of .005V. Truth be told, we read our voltages from software where read points are not found, so there is built in 'play' in the values listed. The voltage reduction didn't help push us past 4.5 GHz nor did it help with temperatures enough to worry about it. The ASUS BIOS does not show which level of LLC is active and was left on auto for testing. This yielded a WYSIWYG voltage from what was set in the BIOS to load. At 4.5 GHz and 1.225V, the system pulled 323W from the wall which was surprisingly the highest value of the boards tested so far. 

Conclusion

The ASUS TUF X299 is priced at $340 on Amazon which, by price, puts it square in the crosshairs of the EVGA X299 FTW ($330), MSI X299 Gaming Pro Carbon AC ($330), GIGABYTE X299 AORUS Ultra Gaming Pro ($350), and the ASRock X299 Taichi XE ($322). 

The TUF line of motherboards are designed to be reliable and durable 24/7 motherboards. The Thermal Armor keeps dust off the board and with the fan, cools the chipset and M.2 device in the slots below it. The back plate not only protects the board from physical damage and improves rigidity, with the thermal pads between it and the back of the VRM, also helps to keep that area cooler as well. Though we did not see issues in our testing, I would have liked not to see the VRM heatsink covered (on any board) with a shroud to help with airflow. Outside of that, the Thermal Armor does look good to me. I'll admit, sometimes its nice not to see the all the little bits on the board. Clearly, that is a subjective opinion, appearance, but the look of the armor has come a long way since it started.

Feature-wise, the TUF X299 Mark 1 has a lot of things going for it. The 8-phase digital VRM is shared with other boards in the lineup (Strix XE, Mark 1, Prime X299-A) and held its own during testing. Overclocking landed just where we expected it to at 4.5 GHz as we are thermally limited with the test system and parameters. The TUF did allow for a slightly lower voltage at the same clocks, but not enough of a difference to increase clocks or lower temperatures. Since we measure via software, the readings aren't as accurate so the difference was truly negligible. 

Outside of that, the board gives users the full complement of six SATA ports supported by chipset as well as two M.2 slots. The first sits under the M.2 heatsink and is cooled by the chipset fan, while the second slot is a vertical M.2 slot located just below it. The vertical M.2 slot is a creative use of space and with the supplied mounting, will sit there securely. It does take some geting used to looking at a 4" stick jutting out of your motherboard though! Last, the latest USB 3.1 ports (Type-A and Type-C) are found on the back panel as well as support for a front panel USB 3.1 Type-C. 

The TUF Detective 2 software for Android worked fine and showed high-level system information including a section for the debug codes. Users are able to connect to the included Bluetooth dongle and power your system on/off, reboot it, and even clear the CMOS. A useful tool indeed, however, a debug LED would have likely saved a bit of money, accomplishes the same goals, may cost less, and easier to gather information from without having your phone/tablet handy at all times. 

If gaming is going to be your primary use the TUF Mark 1 has you setup nicely, specifically in the multi-GPU space. 3-Way SLI/Crossfire is supported with a 28/44-lane CPU, and triple slot spacing helps the oversized heatsinks access to cooler air. The dual Intel network ports also have traffic priortizing software, Turbo LAN, used to adjust traffic for the best online performance of whatever application is selected as a priority.

Overall the ASUS TUF X299 Mark 1 is a sound foundation for the X299 platform with its PCIe slot configuration, dual Intel NICs, two M.2 slots, and eight SATA ports. The TUF Armor helps with both rigidity (back plate) keep dust out off the board, as well as the cooling it provides for the M.2 device and PCH heatsink. The back plate even assists with VRM cooling. Performance in our testing landed where expected for the given clock speeds so nothing is outstanding in that respect. If saving money is a concern, the TUF X299 Mark 1 is a bit less expensive and carries over a lot of the features, but less of the armor/aesthetics. If the TUF Mark 1 meets all your needs, and require a more rugged, protected board, there is no need to shy away from it.