ASRock X99 Extreme 11 Review: The Most Extreme X99 Motherboard?
Test Setup & PCMark 8
Test System Configuration Notes: When configuring our test system for this article, we first updated the BIOS, rebooted, then entered the UEFI BIOS again to set the board to its "normal" mode via the one-click tuning menu. We have found that the "optimized" mode overclocks the processor as high as possible, so it could give this particular chip and setup an unfair advantage over the other X99 board we tested. Once we had set the board to "normal" we saved the settings, re-entered the BIOS and ensured the memory speed was set to DDR4-2133 (its maximum, officially supported speed). Our test rig is made up of an Intel Core i7-5960X Haswell-E octa-core CPU, Corsair H100 AIO water cooler, 16GB of Corsair Vengeance DDR4 2666Mhz, an 1300W CoolerMaster PSU, an Nvidia GTX 980 GPU and a Corsair Neutron XT 240GB SSD. Upon restart, we then installed a fresh copy of Windows 8.1 Pro 64-Bit to a formatted 240GB solid state drive.
When the Windows installation was complete, we fully updated the OS, and installed the drivers necessary for our components. Auto-Updating and Windows Defender were then disabled and we installed all of our benchmarking software, performed a disk clean-up, cleared any prefetch and temp data, and ran the tests.
Reported OCing scores were generated using EX OC feature of the A-Tuning utility as mentioned above. I was able to hit just shy of 4.5 GHz stable (4498.70 to be exact).
Futuremark's PCMark 8 is the latest version of the PCMark whole-system benchmarking suite. It has updated application performance measurements targeted for a Windows 8 environment and uses newer metrics to gauge relative performance. Below is what Futuremark says is incorporated into the base PCMark suite and the Home, Creativity, and Work suites--the three modules we have benchmark scores for you here.
The PCMark test is a collection of workloads that measure system performance during typical desktop usage. This is the most important test since it returns the official PCMark score for the system The PCMark test is a collection of workloads that measure system performance during typical desktop usage. This is the most important test since it returns the official PCMark score for the system.
The Home test includes workloads that reflect common tasks for a typical home user. These workloads have low computational requirements making PCMark 8 Home suitable for testing the performance of low-cost tablets, notebooks and desktops. Home includes workloads for web browsing, writing, gaming, photo editing, and video chat. The results are combined to give a PCMark 8 Home score for your system.
The Creativity test includes workloads typical of enthusiasts and professionals who work with media and entertainment content. With more demanding requirements than the Home benchmark, this benchmark is suitable for mid-range computer systems. PCMark 8 Creative includes web browsing, photo editing, video editing, group video chat, media transcoding, and gaming workloads.
The Work test measures your system's ability to perform basic office work tasks, such as writing documents, browsing websites, creating spreadsheets and using video chat. The Work benchmark is suitable for measuring the performance of typical office PC systems that lack media capabilities. The results from each workload are combined to give an overall PCMark 8 Work score for your system.
This is our first full-on X99 review as well as our first outing using the PCMark 8 benchmark suite. So for now, we are comparing the ASRock x99 Extreme 11 performance at stock speeds and then again overclocked to 4.5GHz against the ASUS X99-Deluxe Haswell-E motherboard.
At stock speeds, the ASRock board was in line with the ASUS offering, within typical variance between motherboards of the same chipset.
When the Windows installation was complete, we fully updated the OS, and installed the drivers necessary for our components. Auto-Updating and Windows Defender were then disabled and we installed all of our benchmarking software, performed a disk clean-up, cleared any prefetch and temp data, and ran the tests.
Reported OCing scores were generated using EX OC feature of the A-Tuning utility as mentioned above. I was able to hit just shy of 4.5 GHz stable (4498.70 to be exact).
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Futuremark's PCMark 8 is the latest version of the PCMark whole-system benchmarking suite. It has updated application performance measurements targeted for a Windows 8 environment and uses newer metrics to gauge relative performance. Below is what Futuremark says is incorporated into the base PCMark suite and the Home, Creativity, and Work suites--the three modules we have benchmark scores for you here.
The PCMark test is a collection of workloads that measure system performance during typical desktop usage. This is the most important test since it returns the official PCMark score for the system The PCMark test is a collection of workloads that measure system performance during typical desktop usage. This is the most important test since it returns the official PCMark score for the system.
The Home test includes workloads that reflect common tasks for a typical home user. These workloads have low computational requirements making PCMark 8 Home suitable for testing the performance of low-cost tablets, notebooks and desktops. Home includes workloads for web browsing, writing, gaming, photo editing, and video chat. The results are combined to give a PCMark 8 Home score for your system.
The Creativity test includes workloads typical of enthusiasts and professionals who work with media and entertainment content. With more demanding requirements than the Home benchmark, this benchmark is suitable for mid-range computer systems. PCMark 8 Creative includes web browsing, photo editing, video editing, group video chat, media transcoding, and gaming workloads.
The Work test measures your system's ability to perform basic office work tasks, such as writing documents, browsing websites, creating spreadsheets and using video chat. The Work benchmark is suitable for measuring the performance of typical office PC systems that lack media capabilities. The results from each workload are combined to give an overall PCMark 8 Work score for your system.
That’s a darn fine performance boost we have there. In fact I would wager good coin, that we have not reached the ceiling either. Our moderately aggressive OC achieved through decidedly passive one-click OC tuning is really good. However a seasoned overclocker with more adequate cooling than our Corsair H100 AIO solution, could likely take things further.
This is our first official X99 review as well as our first outing using the PCMark 8 benchmark suite. So for now, we are comparing the ASRock x99 Extreme 11 performance at stock speeds and then again overclocked to 4.5GHz against the ASUS X99-Deluxe Haswell-E motherboard.
That’s a solid performance boost we have there. In fact I would wager good coin, that we have not reached the ceiling either. Our moderately aggressive OC achieved through decidedly passive one-click OC tuning is really good. However a seasoned overclocker with more adequate cooling than our Corsair H100 AIO solution, could likely take things further.This is our first full-on X99 review as well as our first outing using the PCMark 8 benchmark suite. So for now, we are comparing the ASRock x99 Extreme 11 performance at stock speeds and then again overclocked to 4.5GHz against the ASUS X99-Deluxe Haswell-E motherboard.
At stock speeds, the ASRock board was in line with the ASUS offering, within typical variance between motherboards of the same chipset.
