Asus Maximus IV Extreme Intel P67

Seany84

Seany84

Seany84

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15 Dec 2010
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Hi all,

I am looking at buying the following components for my new rig:

  • Asus Maximus IV Extreme Intel P67
  • i7-2600k 3.4GHz
  • Corsair XMS3 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-16000C9 2000MHz

I had a ASUS P5E3 Deluxe Wifi AP @N motherboard that seems to be having awful difficulties with my two new ATI 6950's (flashed to 6970).

Individually the cards work fine but in crossfire I am getting terrible performances in games like Call of Duty: Black Ops and Crysis.

I had a previous thread in the Graphics forum and I think we came to the conclusion that the fault lies with motherboard.


When browsing the specifications of the Maximus IV I noticed:
  • 4 x PCIe2.0 x16 slots (single @x16, dual @x8, triple @x8, x16, x16 )

Q1 I presume this means that both of my ATI cards will run at PCI x8?

Q2 Does this mean I will not get full throughput from my graphics cards? :(

It's a lot to spend on a motherboard so I would like to ask your advice as I want my cards running at 100% potential.

Q3 Does this motherboard support triple channel DDR3 memory? If not, what would be the best suited memory?

Thanks in advance.
 
Last edited:
Q1: Yes
Q2: Yes, but it's not going to be a very noticible difference.
Q3: No, it only supports dual-channel. There's a 4GB kit of the same Corsair XMS3 ram (2x2GB), or you can up it to 8GB (2x4GB).

If you're really worried about not gettign max throughput from SLI/Crossfire graphics cards, you're better off waiting for the next chipset, which is due later this year. Sandy bridge is aimed at the mainstream market.
 
Thanks for the reply. I'm very surprised at this.

What's the point in having 4x PCIex slots that don't run at least two in 16x..

I wasn't bothered about the triple channel memory but not having 16x is a deciding factor.

So I will have to wait months for a 2nd generation motherboard that has what I want. hmmm

Hang on a second.. Will this one support 2x 16PCIex:
Gigabyte P67A-UD7 Intel P67 Chipset
 
Last edited:
Well like I said, P67 isn't supposed to be a high-end chipset, if you're trying to build a super high-end dual or tri GPU system with it, you're starting with the wrong foundation. ;)
 
Darien said:
Well like I said, P67 isn't supposed to be a high-end chipset, if you're trying to build a super high-end dual or tri GPU system with it, you're starting with the wrong foundation. ;)
Click to expand...

Oh.. I thought these 2nd gen i7's are the high-end? Any recommendations?
 
Stormar said:
you be fine with a sandybridge set up for gaming you don,t need anything else.
Click to expand...

I thought the Sandybridge i7 outperforms the 1st gen i7? Am I right or wrong?

I'm fairly sure even an i5 would do but as I'm willing to spend the cash I was just wondering which one was better.


Thanks
 
Stormar said:
best bet is decide for yourself,but as i said the sandy is good for what you want.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/100?vs=288
Click to expand...

Thanks I compared the i7-2600k versus the i7 950 as they are very close in price. I think that's a fair comparison.

Unquestionably the 2nd gen is better in this case. Glad that was cleared up :)

I was hoping to get a motherboard that supports at least 3x PCIx 16x simultaneously but I obviously can't have everything.. yet! :)

New build will be used for 90% games etc other 10% sw development :cool: Sandybridge will cover all bases.

If I was to wait, does anyone know how long or what motherboard will support 3-4 PCIx x16 slots?
 
Oh right. Learn something new every day.

Thanks for the help. This looks like a decent motherboard so I think I will go with this one. I don't think triple channel memory is worth the wait.. ?
 
well the way i look at it is like this,if you wait for the next gen stuff,by the time you get it,there be some other new gen coming out,in other words waiting and you never build a pc :)
 
yes you are spot on. By the time that comes out sure DDR4 or something else will be knocking on the door. Time to bite the bullet :)


Thanks for the help.
 
The new sandy bridge CPU's ARE better than the old i7's (or at least close to equal for a far lower price), but that is a different issue to your problem - which is wanting 2 PCIe 16x slots.

If you're worried about the 5% performance difference between 8x/8x and 16x/16x, or you want to run tri SLI/Crossfire, then you will either have to fork out for a board with a NF200 chip or similar, or wait till the new chipset is released later this year. The new CPUs for that chipset will probably blow sandy bridge out of the water as well.

TBH I don't understand people wanting three GPUs in their case, but hey different strokes.
 
Darien said:
If you're worried about the 5% performance difference between 8x/8x and 16x/16x
Click to expand...

Didn't think the performance was only degraded by 5%..

Also, I just wanted the option of being able to expand to tri-Crossfire.. Not a major factor. Two PCIx x16 will be fine.

New build will be:

New:
  • Gigabyte P67A-UD7 Intel P67 Chipset (Socket 1155)
  • i7-2600k 3.4GHz
  • 2x G.Skill RipJawX 4GB (2x2GB)
  • Benq XL2410T 120Hz
  • NZXT Phantom Enthusiast
Current:
  • 750W ThermalTake ToughPower
  • 2x Raptors 150GB in RAID0
  • 2x 750GB 7200RPM WD
  • 1x 2TB 7200RPM WD
  • 2x ATI HD 6950's (flashed to 6970 fw)

Should sort out this Crossfire problem I was having :D
 
I need a minimum of 240GB for my primary partition. Running quite a few large DB's, development tools and my games :)

I had to sacrifice one thing and that was the upgrade to SSD. I will probably upgrade my RAID0 Raptors to the new ~700MB R/W SSD in the next few months. When my bank account recovers :)

Can't believe it's that close between the i5 for 160 and the i7 for almost £70 more. Very tempting now.
 
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