Over the years we have reviewed a number of Republic of Gamers (ROG) motherboards, usually focusing on the high end Extreme and gaming ATX focused Formula. We probed the Maximus VI Impact late last year and it offered a sense of premium to the high end that no other mini-ITX did, but we concluded it would be a tough act to follow. The sequel is now here with the Maximus VII Impact, ready for Haswell.

ASUS Maximus VII Impact Overview

When we think about small powerful computers, many manufacturers and end users can produce something impressive in something smaller than a shoe box. Custom designs are what they are, but for general production, we tend to stick to the predetermined sizes of mini-ITX, micro-ATX and ATX. The ROG brand is constantly marketed by ASUS as one of the best places for gamers to source components, but in ASUS’ effort to offer more functionality it would seem that the mini-ITX sized PCB isn't enough. This is why the Maximus VII Impact (M7I) has five additional circuit boards alongside the actual motherboard itself.

Some of these we were familiar with from the Z87 version of the Impact - a right angled power board, a connected audio board, Impact Control for rear IO buttons and the mPCIe combo with M.2 support and dual band 802.11ac WiFi. For the M7I all of these have evolved into a new iteration, including the mPCIe combo with M.2 x4, and a new daughterboard for extra fan controls. This is in response to requests from users who needed more than two or three fan headers that normally accompanies this size of product. This new board gives two extra headers that are both PWM and DC controllable on a small PCB near the rear panel.

Asus is also supplementing the design with their ROG software and BIOS package.  From the BIOS perspective this means more overclocking options and presets with features like “GPU.DIMM Post” to indicate if slotted devices are detected at turn on. The software revolves around AI Suite III in a red and black livery with 5-Way Optimization as the key app.  Alongside these are GameFirst III, ASUS' in-house version of network prioritization software, and KeyBot which allows the users to define the top keyboard function key row as preset macro buttons. These features can work in conjunction with the updated version of Sonic Radar II which enables an onscreen visual representation of directional sound in game. As an update over the previous version of Sonic Radar, we can configure what frequency band of audio is the focus for the visual (low bass, mid-range or high frequency). On the audio side we get SoundStage which offers a selectable hardware filter adjustment. 

Benchmark wise, the impact comes out from our test suite rather well, scoring top marks in most of the tests due to the aggressive multicore turbo implementation going from idle to the maximum turbo frequency whenever CPU load is detected. POST times come in under 10 seconds, and load power consumption in our test-bed was under 150W for the system.

The Asus Maximus VII Impact is currently available for $240, making it the most expensive mini-ITX motherboard on the market, but it continues to lead the standard for premium small form factor gaming builds.

Visual Inspection

Out of habit, one of the first things I check on a mini-ITX motherboard is the power connector locations. Throughout the years the mainstay for mini-ITX power has been in the middle of the motherboard near the rear panel, meaning that cables have to stretch over components and causing potential air flow problems (and affectingthe look). Thankfully the Impact puts both the 24-pin and the 8-pin power connectors on the extreme right hand edge, where cable management should be pretty easy.

One of the downsides of a motherboard like the Impact is CPU cooler placements, as the socket is up against the Intel designated limits in at least two directions. In this instance it would seem that a closed loop liquid cooler might be best or custom water cooling for overclocking, although a stock cooler for base CPU speeds works as well. The motherboard has four fan headers – a 4-pin CPU at the top left, a 4-pin CHA on the right hand side and the final two on the CoolHub add-in card just to the left of the socket next to the rear IO.

This extra PCB gives two fully controllable headers as well as access to an LN2 mode switch for extreme overclockers.

One of the extra PCBs is the power delivery, now in its third iteration. For Z97 this one gets the new ROG look with ‘Impact Power Tech Inside’ written in the red accents. As shown in the picture above, the DRAM slots near this PCB do not have latches in order to fit everything on. This means users should be wary that their DRAM is firmly in place when installing.

On the right hand side of the motherboard beneath the power connectors are the power/reset buttons followed by a fan header and a USB 3.0 header in red to match the livery. The front panel header comes next, with enough space for ASUS to write on the board where each of the chassis connectors should go. At the bottom right of the motherboard just inside the DRAM slots are four SATA 6 Gbps ports, which unfortunately are all pointing in the same direction. This means that if a user has locking cables, the bottom cable can be an issue to remove.

There is a single PCIe 3.0 x16 slot at the bottom of the board, and as we come round to the left hand side we approach the mPCIe Combo IV card. This is upgraded for Z97, featuring an 802.11ac 2T2R WiFi solution as well as an M.2 x4 slot for storage. The previous model relied on x1 connectivity , whereas this is a fully fledged M.2 enabled device.

Next to the combo card is the audio PCB, featuring the next iteration of SupremeFX. This means an enhanced Realtek ALC1150 solution with an EMI shield, filter caps, PCB separation (it would be hard to get more separated than this) with the front panel audio connector provided on the card. Due to the design the card only has three audio connectors despite being rated as a 7.1 solution – at some point ASUS might release an Impact with a full set of audio connectors, although this has to be engineered.

The rear panel of the motherboard integrates the Impact Control II PCB, giving users a two-digit debug LED as well as BIOS Flashback, ROG Connect, SoundStage and KeyBot buttons. Added into the mix are two digital video outputs (HDMI and DisplayPort), four USB 3.0 ports, four USB 2.0 ports, a PS/2 combination port and the Intel network port. Further along to the right are the audio and mPCIe combo card outputs.

The SoundStage button switches between four op-amp profiles in the audio in order to adjust various elements of the audio via the hardware rather than software in real-time. This works in conjunction with Sonic Studio to help enhance audio clarity in voice or boost in the low frequency spectrum, depending on the use. ASUS call this latter implementation a ‘smart EQ’.

Board Features

ASUS Maximus VII Impact
Price	US (Newegg)
Size	Mini-ITX
CPU Interface	LGA1150
Chipset	Intel Z97
Memory Slots	Two DDR3 DIMM slots supporting up to 16 GB Up to Dual Channel, 1333-3300 MHz
Video Outputs	HDMI (4096x2160 at 24Hz, 2560x1600 at 60Hz) DisplayPort (4096x2160 at 24 Hz, 3840x2160 at 60 Hz)
Network Connectivity	Intel I218-V 802.11ac 2T2R Dual Band WiFi
Onboard Audio	Realtek ALC1150 via SupremeFX
Expansion Slots	1 x PCIe 3.0 x16 1 x mPCIe 2.0 x1 (WiFi)
Onboard Storage	4 x SATA 6 Gbps, RAID 0/1/5/10 1 x M.2 x4
USB 3.0	4 x Rear Panel Ports (PCH) 1 x On-Board Header (PCH)
Onboard	4 x SATA 6 Gbps Ports 1 x USB 3.0 Header 1 x USB 2.0 Header 4 x Fan Headers TPM Header Front Panel Header LN2 Mode Header Power/Reset Buttons ROG_EXT Header ProbeIt Measurement Points
Power Connectors	1 x 24-pin ATX 1 x 8-pin CPU
Fan Headers	1 x CPU (4-pin) 1 x CHA (4-pin) 2 x CHA (4-pin) via CoolHub PCB
IO Panel	HDMI DisplayPort Two Digit Debug USB BIOS Flashback Button ROG Connect Button SoundStage Button Keybot Button 4 x USB 3.0 4 x USB 2.0 PS/2 Combination Port Intel Network Port SupremeFX Audio
Warranty Period	3 Years
Product Page	Link

ASUS Maximus VII Impact BIOS

The last ROG motherboard we reviewed was the Rampage IV Black Edition at the beginning of the year which brought a few of ASUS’ newer features to the X79 platform at the time. Fast forward almost a year and we get a big change all around. The main difference will be that ASUS now uses different fonts for different parts of the BIOS, allowing certain screens like EZ Mode and SPD Information to show more information on the screen at one time. The red and black ROG theme is here as well.

In the EZ Mode is the name of the motherboard, the BIOS version, the CPU installed, the speed of the CPU, the memory installed in each DIMM slot, the speed of the memory, the CPU temperature as a graph (useful if you forget to plug the CPU fan in), the CPU voltage, the motherboard temperature, a per-SATA port run down of what is attached, an option to enable XMP, the current fan speeds, a quick overview of the fan profile, a section for EZ System Tuning and Boot Priority.  As far as lists for the front page of a BIOS go, that list is pretty extensive and complete.  For a system builder or debugger, this is a lot of information all at once on the first screen.  Users have several options here, including selecting to manually adjust the fans:

For each fan header we can control it by DC or PWM, and either use one of the preselected fan profiles underneath the graph or select manual and adjust a three point gradient. Three points is OK for a custom gradient, although an option to set all fans to the same profile at once would be handy.

Also on the EZ Mode screen, by pressing F11 or selecting the option at the top, is the EZ Tuning Wizard.

This interface is for users to set up either a quick RAID solution or for a quick overclock. In terms of the overclock selections, it first shows the current system arrangement as above, and then asks about the typical CPU usage:

Then the cooling:

With this information at hand, it will give a final overclock prediction for the system which can be implemented with a restart.

Here it offers a 25% overclock on the CPU (3.5 GHz to 4.375 GHz) and 19% on the memory (DDR3-1600 to DDR3-1904).

ASUS puts all the juicy options for extreme overclocking in the advanced menu. We get taken straight into the Extreme Tweaker section:

The Extreme Tweaker initial menu contains a lot of the interesting options for overclocking, although some of them will be quite foreign. Motherboard manufacturers are currently in a decision making process whether to offer all the overclocking options in one single menu, or partition it off into sections. Due to the sheer number of options, sometimes the result is the mix between the two, such as here on the Impact.

Right off the bat we are given the indication that LN2 Mode is disabled and the first option is a series of overclocking presets:

For users with sufficient knowledge and cooling, these presets adjust some of the more obscure settings to a better default value in order to help break records.

The DRAM Memory timing options are equally as verbose as the Extreme Tweaker selection:

Six screens of DRAM options for 99.99% of owners is a bit manic, however there will be one user who might be able to squeeze out that extra MHz for a record to hang on ASUS’ wall. ASUS often produces overclocking guides for their BIOSes, so it might be worth heading over to the ROG forums to have a look for one.

In the DRAM menu we also get a series of options for memory presets:

Professional overclockers often have access to the best memory kits in the business, especially the rare or expensive ones. ASUS has a number of extreme overclockers internally to help drive these presets.

Digital Power control is also in the Extreme Tweaker section of the BIOS, with Load Line Calibration and VRM Switching frequencies being important options right at the top. A lot of these options are also in the operating system software.

If all the overclocking and DRAM options were not enough, there is another page for the ‘Tweakers’ Paradise’. Again, best refer to the ASUS ROG overclocking guide on this one.

Some of the CPU Power Management tools are here in Extreme Tweaker too, useful for turbo modes and power limits.

Moving away from the overclocking options puts us on the Main tab, giving the BIOS version of the board as well as the CPU name, speed, ME version, MAC Address of the NIC and memory info. This is more the entry screen we are used to without an EZ Mode, but it is worth noting that the three ROG ICs used for ASUS’ ROG line are all mentioned here as well with their respective version designations.

The Advanced tab fills out most of the rest of the BIOS, giving more options related to non-overclocking related tools such as controllers, PCIe operation, onboard devices and ROG custom effects.

The CPU Configuration menu allows users to enable VT-d or adjust the number of cores in operation. The Dynamic Storage Accelerator, to keep the storage in a high power mode for best performance, is disabled by default.

In the BIOS both RST and Smart Connect Technology are disabled by default, as well as Above 4G Decoding for GPU co-processors.

Each of the USB ports can be controlled manually, allowing system builders to save power or to adjust how USB ports are used if one of them fails:

Also by default the system has CPU Graphics Multi-Monitor disabled:

However all the directly usable onboard devices are enabled:

The ROG Effects option relates towards the Onboard LEDs and the Q-Code dual digit debug LED on the rear panel:

Users can disable this if they want fewer lights enabled when the system is powered on.

The Monitor tab is split into voltage/temperature monitors followed by fan monitoring and control. This is historically in separate menus on the channel motherboard line, but for ROG it gets split accordingly.

Users with fans attached to the motherboard can implement Q-Fan Tuning which will detect the dead point of each fan and adjust the fan profiles to match the lowest RPM up until the CPU hits a certain temperature.

Users can navigate to the Fan Speed Control option to have a textual based fan setting experience. Ideally ASUS would move the graphical fan controls here as well.

The Boot tab is similar to previous Z97 ASUS BIOSes, giving options for Fast Boot followed by Boot Order and Boot Override.

The Tools tab is where more of the fun options exist, and users can disable the screen swipe animations here as well:

In the tool kit from ASUS is the BIOS flashing/updating utility, EZ Flash 2:

For the Z87 Impact we saw the first iteration of Secure Erase, which is similarly present here on the Z97 model:

This allows users to return their SSD back to its default factory-state (minus some wear) in terms of speed rather than doing hocus-pocus with hdparm and Linux. ASUS has noted that they put this tool in when they were confident it would work with most if not all the drives on the market.

ASUS still has the My Favorites page for easier overclocking or option setting. Here I selected a few of my most commonly used options when I am testing my maximum 24/7 overclock.

ASUS Maximus VII Impact Software

The process of installing ASUS’ software has not changed in a number of chipset generations - I have never had an issue with it personally, as it allows users to select which software to install in one go and sets to work. Some fresh installs take around 10 minutes and a few reboots to complete, but everything ends up done at the end. My only gripe is that the software attempts to install Norton by default, and the user has to scroll to the bottom of the list to deselect it.

The software package is split into several parts, and as such we took images starting with the desktop icons followed by the AI Suite software.

First up is the RAMDisk which allows users to set a designated space in the DRAM for either a RAM Cache or a RAM Disk depending on how you want to use it. The software also has an option to free up space in the RAM disk if the system starts to use too much DRAM for the software running.

ASUS Boot Setting is software I regularly use to adjust overclocks due to its ‘DirectBIOS’ button which restarts the system to go straight into the BIOS. It also offers a Fast Boot option and AC Power loss option.

Sonic Radar is software that implements an on-screen directional audio display during games. The best example for this is an FPS, where it detects which direction the audio is coming from and how strong it is – somewhat useful for picking out where that enemy is slowly moving. This is the second generation of Sonic Radar, so we get a few more options relating to how the display is shown (above) and what sounds it responds to best (below).

So for example here we can tune Sonic Radar to the high frequency range band and gun fire to specifically pick out if someone is walking or shooting nearby. The use of Sonic Radar during competitions is dubious depending on the rules however casual online play is easy enough to set up.

CPU-Z is a tool that overclockers use to verify CPU speeds as well as see other information about the system. ASUS has a deal with the makers of the software for an ROG themed version which is free to download but also comes with the ROG motherboards.

KeyBot is a new feature to the 9-series Haswell motherboards, allowing users to adjust their function keys to specific macro bindings. On the left shows the 12 F-Keys (and Delete) with their current functions, and users can implement a fast keyboard macro in the main section of the screen. As far as I can make out, one of the things missing here is being able to add in pauses or dictate where the mouse goes, which might be useful for work rather than gaming, although users can also learn something like AutoHotKey for more functionality.

The Smart Input option allows users to blast a quick string with a macro key press. As noted in the message underneath, this string is stored in the ROG microchip but is not encrypted, therefore if it were used for passwords if another user pressed the macro key it would type it out for them too.

Users can also bind the F keys to various media, applications or gaming functions as required. Some of these are replications of easy windows shortcuts (WIN + M for Show Desktop), although to aid some users they can be added here.

If a user wants to bind a specific program to a key, this can also be performed in the Shortcut menu option.

MemTweakIt is a tool for overclockers to adjust memory subtimings on the fly, and although it was introduced a couple of generations ago, Intel’s 4th Generation CPUs are not able to have their subtimings adjusted. As such it is currently used for reference only.

GameFirst 3 is ASUS’ attempt at their own network prioritization software. Normally motherboard manufacturers have the Realtek solution or get a license from cFos, but ASUS has brought it in-house for the ROG range. The functionality is much the same, giving users an option for separate modes or a custom prioritization on a per-application basis. When the software is first run it asks for a quick speed test of the system, however this needs Flash:

If ASUS were able to use the Speedtest API without Flash, this would be a better solution.

GameFirst 3 also allows the user to track the top applications that are using bandwidth, in case one happens to be randomly sending data across the tubes:

Users can also find all the details about their Network Information here too:

The main hub for the software is in AI Suite involves a menu interface for all the different options:

The main element in this is the Dual Intelligent Processors 5 screen which offers five different ‘apps’ for system control.

The five applications are TPU (overclocking), Fan Xpert 2 (fan control), DIGI+ Power Control (digital power control), Turbo App (overclocking on a per-application basis) and EPU (energy saving). These come together in the 5-Way Optimization tool at the top which implements a testing scenario for a complete overclock.

The TPU section allows users to have a per core or all core overclock with options for voltages. Unfortunately we do not have the diagrams related to showing voltages similar to the X99 range of motherboards.

For users on integrated graphics, these can be overclocked as well from the TPU segment of the software.

The fan controls are more integrated in the software than in the BIOS, where we are able to set all the fans at once with one button. The Fan Xpert 2 application allows users to adjust each fan separately, with options for spin up/spin down time and a demonstration of the low speed zone in the graph:

Or the user can implement the fan tuning software to find out the power/rpm profile of each of the fans being used:

The DIGI+ Power control gives options to adjust the limits of the power phases and thermal control to push them beyond specifications:

The Energy Processing Unit deals with how the system delivers power and can be adjusted to deal with low power situations to limit the maximum system power as well as adjusted fan profiles.

Turbo App is the newest member to this arrangement, offering an overclock setting on a per-application basis. This means that the highest priority application that is currently running determines the overclock settings. Thus for single threaded applications, users can adjust their overclock to something focusing on single core performance, as well as adjusting audio and LAN responsiveness.

USB 3.0 Boost, where possible, gives the opportunity to override the standard USB 3.0 driver in Windows 7 and implement a faster version (typically at the expense of latency). UASP type drives are also supported and sped up via this interface.

EZ Update gives an interface to check ASUS’ servers for the newest drivers and software. Unfortunately it still does not seem to work where I am, similar to previous iterations of the software.

USB BIOS Flashback almost feels like a legacy tool now, having been part of the ASUS ecosystem for several generations, but I have certainly had to use it a number of times to good effect. This allows the user to back up the BIOS and then install it without the need for a CPU, DRAM or GPU in the system.

ASUS Maximus VII Impact In The Box

Being part of the ROG brand, ASUS usually attempts to bolster the experience with a number of extra goodies in the box. With the Impact being filled with daughter boards, some detachable, these become the bulk of the extras. To that reason, we get the mPCIe Combo IV add on card with 802.11ac 2T2R dual band WiFi, the SupremeFX II sound add-in board and the CoolHub with two extra fan controllers off the bat. Added to this is a set of WiFi antenna, the driver disks, manuals, a set of stickers for easy cable labeling, the rear IO shield, four SATA cables and an extension cable for the front panel.

ASUS Maximus VII Impact Overclocking

Experience with ASUS Maximus VII Impact

ASUS’ main auto overclocking feature with the Impact for 24/7 use is the software via 5-Way Optimization in AI Suite 3. For those that are a little more adventurous, the BIOS offers a Gaming OC in the presets which implements a 47/46/45/44 multiplier based on 1-4 core loading. There is also the CPU Level Up options from 4.2 GHz to 4.6 GHz, ensuring that even some of the worst Haswell CPUs can at least aim for a reasonable speed enhancement.

On the manual overclock side, ASUS’ range of overclock options is practically insane. Unless you are a full time overclocking professional, or actually work on motherboard design, chances are slim that all the options make sense. But ultimately the high end overclocking market is where these boards are aimed at, so options for these users should be there. One could argue their relevance when LN2 mode is disabled, however.

Methodology

Our standard overclocking methodology is as follows. We select the automatic overclock options and test for stability with PovRay 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 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 (100ºC+). Our test bed is not in a case, which should push overclocks higher with fresher (cooler) air.

Results

One thing I did notice when overclocking was the lowest possible voltage I could manually apply was only 1.05 volts. Typically I start at 1.000 volts and work up, but this was not possible here.

Many thanks to...

We must thank the following companies for kindly providing hardware for our test bed:

Thank you to OCZ for providing us with PSUs and SSDs.
Thank you to G.Skill for providing us with memory.
Thank you to Corsair for providing us with an AX1200i PSU and a Corsair H80i CLC.
Thank you to MSI for providing us with the NVIDIA GTX 770 Lightning GPUs.
Thank you to Rosewill for providing us with PSUs and RK-9100 keyboards.
Thank you to ASRock for providing us with some IO testing kit.
Thank you to Cooler Master for providing us with Nepton 140XL CLCs.

Test Setup

Test Setup
Processor	Intel Core i7-4770K ES 4 Cores, 8 Threads, 3.5 GHz (3.9 GHz Turbo)
Motherboard	ASUS Maximus VII Impact
Cooling	Cooler Master Nepton 140XL Corsair H80i Thermaltake TRUE Copper
Power Supply	OCZ 1250W Gold ZX Series Corsair AX1200i Platinum PSU
Memory	G.Skill RipjawsZ 4x4 GB DDR3-1600 9-11-9 Kit
Memory Settings	1600 9-11-9-27 1T tRFC 240
Video Cards	MSI GTX 770 Lightning 2GB (1150/1202 Boost)
Video Drivers	NVIDIA Drivers 337
Hard Drive	OCZ Vertex 3 256GB
Optical Drive	LG GH22NS50
Case	Open Test Bed
Operating System	Windows 7 64-bit SP1
USB 2/3 Testing	OCZ Vertex 3 240GB with SATA->USB Adaptor

System Benchmarks

Power Consumption

Power consumption was tested on the system while in a single MSI GTX 770 Lightning GPU configuration with a wall meter connected to the OCZ 1250W power supply. This power supply is Gold rated, and as I am in the UK on a 230-240 V supply, leads to ~75% efficiency > 50W, and 90%+ efficiency at 250W, 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.

Peak power consumption was just under the 150W mark, resulting in a low idle-to-peak variation of 86W. Idle numbers were actually quite high, though it is hard to pin down if this is down to general design choices or the daughterboard design resulting in small but extra losses.

Windows 7 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 7 starts loading. (We discount Windows loading as it is highly variable given Windows specific features.) 

Less than 10 seconds POST time is a good benchmark in which the Impact did well.

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.

Unfortunately our audio results were a little off due to a defect in our sound system. As shown in the image above, we had an odd situation where less than 300 Hz the THD+N response was some 30 dB different to what we would expect. ASUS sent us some results from a board in their offices that showed normal response, indicating that perhaps mine had a slight issue.

USB Backup

For this benchmark, we transfer a set size of files from the SSD to the USB drive using DiskBench, which monitors the time taken to transfer. The files transferred are a 1.52 GB set of 2867 files across 320 folders – 95% of these files are small typical website files, and the rest (90% of the size) are small 30 second HD videos. In an update to pre-Z87 testing, we also run MaxCPU to load up one of the threads during the test which improves general performance up to 15% by causing all the internal pathways to run at full speed.

USB 2.0 performance on the Impact was slightly better than our previous Z97 results, with USB 3.0 coming in ballpark.

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.

One of the super positive results to come from this review is the DPC Latency. The Impact came in at 29 microseconds, the same as the ASUS TUF Z97 Mark S, matching the best ever result.

CPU Performance

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, memory subtimings 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.

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 wins in the single thread version, whereas the multithread version has to handle the threads and loves more cores.

Compression – WinRAR 5.0.1: 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.

Image Manipulation – FastStone Image Viewer 4.9: link

Similarly to WinRAR, the FastStone test us updated for 2014 to the latest version. FastStone is the program I use to perform quick or bulk actions on images, such as resizing, adjusting for color and cropping. In our test we take a series of 170 images in various sizes and formats and convert them all into 640x480 .gif files, maintaining the aspect ratio. FastStone does not use multithreading for this test, and thus single threaded performance is often the winner.

Video Conversion – Handbrake v0.9.9: link

Handbrake is a media conversion tool that was initially designed to help DVD ISOs and Video CDs into more common video formats. The principle today is still the same, primarily as an output for H.264 + AAC/MP3 audio within an MKV container. In our test we use the same videos as in the Xilisoft test, and results are given in frames per second.

Rendering – PovRay 3.7: link

The Persistence of Vision RayTracer, or PovRay, 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.

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.

Gaming Performance

F1 2013

First up is F1 2013 by Codemasters. I am a big Formula 1 fan in my spare time, and nothing makes me happier than carving up the field in a Caterham, waving to the Red Bulls as I drive by (because I play on easy and take shortcuts). F1 2013 uses the EGO Engine, and like other Codemasters games ends up being very playable on old hardware quite easily. In order to beef up the benchmark a bit, we devised the following scenario for the benchmark mode: one lap of Spa-Francorchamps in the heavy wet, the benchmark follows Jenson Button in the McLaren who starts on the grid in 22nd place, with the field made up of 11 Williams cars, 5 Marussia and 5 Caterham in that order. This puts emphasis on the CPU to handle the AI in the wet, and allows for a good amount of overtaking during the automated benchmark. We test at 1920x1080 on Ultra graphical settings.

Bioshock Infinite

Bioshock Infinite was Zero Punctuation’s Game of the Year for 2013, uses the Unreal Engine 3, and is designed to scale with both cores and graphical prowess. We test the benchmark using the Adrenaline benchmark tool and the Xtreme (1920x1080, Maximum) performance setting, noting down the average frame rates and the minimum frame rates.

Tomb Raider

The next benchmark in our test is Tomb Raider. Tomb Raider is an AMD optimized game, lauded for its use of TressFX creating dynamic hair to increase the immersion in game. Tomb Raider uses a modified version of the Crystal Engine, and enjoys raw horsepower. We test the benchmark using the Adrenaline benchmark tool and the Xtreme (1920x1080, Maximum) performance setting, noting down the average frame rates and the minimum frame rates.

Sleeping Dogs

Sleeping Dogs is a benchmarking wet dream – a highly complex benchmark that can bring the toughest setup and high resolutions down into single figures. Having an extreme SSAO setting can do that, but at the right settings Sleeping Dogs is highly playable and enjoyable. We run the basic benchmark program laid out in the Adrenaline benchmark tool, and the Xtreme (1920x1080, Maximum) performance setting, noting down the average frame rates and the minimum frame rates.

Battlefield 4

The EA/DICE series that has taken countless hours of my life away is back for another iteration, using the Frostbite 3 engine. AMD is also piling its resources into BF4 with the new Mantle API for developers, designed to cut the time required for the CPU to dispatch commands to the graphical sub-system. For our test we use the in-game benchmarking tools and record the frame time for the first ~70 seconds of the Tashgar single player mission, which is an on-rails generation of and rendering of objects and textures. We test at 1920x1080 at Ultra settings.

ASUS Maximus VII Impact Conclusion

At the beginning of this review, we mentioned that the Maximus VI Impact, the version from Z87, would be a tough act to follow. Both products cater for Haswell and Broadwell processors, so the major benefit from the hardware point of view is the Z97 additions. On the Maximus VII Impact this means M.2 x4 support, but Asus has in turn upgraded the package overall.

The most obvious upgrade on the hardware side is the addition of the new fan header PCB that allows more fans (particularly those located at the rear of the board) to be used and controlled. This has been added in response to enthusiasts who want more fan header control - a typical mini-ITX motherboard might have two or three headers, and the Impact with the CoolHub card ups the total to four. We also get SoundStage as a hardware solution for optimized audio in different scenarios.

The BIOS and software are both upgraded to their Z97 versions. For the BIOS this means complete fan control, XMP enabling in EZ mode, a full range of overclocking functions, the auto overclocking wizard and configured overclock modes specifically for the motherboard. On the software side of the equation we have upgraded versions of AI Suite 3 including 5-Way Optimization, Turbo App, Sonic Radar 2, GameFirst 3 and also new software such as KeyBot. The auto overclocking rules here have also been upgraded to allow users to specify peak voltages and temperatures for the test along with longer stress tests and AVX/memory testing.

Performance for the Maximus VII Impact is good all around, especially with DPC Latency coming top out of any other motherboard we tested, tying with the TUF Z97 Mark S. Multicore turbo is enabled, ensuring that stock performance is also near the top if our benchmark list. The only odd mark was with the audio tests, with our sample had a low sub-100 Hz response. After speaking with Asus, it would seem that my review sample is suspect. However due to the detachable audio card, replacing it doesn't require a completely new motherboard.

Expensive motherboards often find respite in being some of the best in the business. The Maximus VII Impact is the most expensive mini-ITX motherboard available, but it still ends up in that mid-to-high $200-$250 bracket in terms of overall Z97 pricing. The Maximus VII Impact also has to compete with the cheaper mini-ITX boards around $130, such as those in our $140 mini-ITX roundup that might perform similarly at stock. What the Maximus VII Impact does differently in exchange for the extra is component quality, enhanced engineering and more options, giving a system builder an opportunity to do more. That is the ultimate strength in the ROG Impact line.