Benchmarks
We ran the benchmarks at 4.5GHz on both motherboards on an identical Windows 7-64bit Setup.
3DMark
Vantage CPU
Score
3DMark
Vantage
GPU Score
3DMark11
Physics Score
3DMark11
GPU Score
Battlefield 3
SuperPi 1.5X 1M
wPrime 1024
X79-UD7
44911
22215
14146
5523
92.56
476.3
127.684
G1.Assassin2
45220
22309
14121
5529
93.328
479.549
129.057
probably buy it for, as it isn’t
just the Creative 20K2. It is
also all the DDR memory,
DACs/ADCs, AMPs, Nichicon
capacitors, EMI shield, and
even a single phase PWM
which take up a large chunk
of the on-board PCB. If that
isn’t enough for you the
Bigfoot NIC also carries
many of those attributes;
1GB DDR2, Spansion Flash
ROM, Marvell PHY, and has
a two single phase VRMs.
For the G1 series GIGABYTE
adds extra fan support which
previously was absent on all
its previous boards, this is
made possible by an extra
Winbond HW monitoring chip
which works in conjunction
with the iTE SIO. GIGABYTE
has even added more fan
control into the UEFI, so that 3
of the fan headers have smart
fan control from the UEFI.
Now we move to the
BIOS, as this is one of the
most interesting parts of
this board. The 3D BIOS
consists of an interactive
picture of the board which
can be viewed from another
angle, as well as the ability
to select parts of the board
which you want to control. If
you want to change the SATA
port settings all you have
to do is click on the SATA
ports, if you want to change
the VRM settings you can
click on the VRM heatsink.
It is pretty well laid out,
but we find ourselves not
using it. We prefer using
the advanced mode, as it’s
faster to use a keyboard
than to click on options.
It’s like clicking on an onscreen keyboard compared
to typing. Of course if you
don’t know your way around
the BIOS the 3D mode will
be much easier for you,
which might be the case
with many of this board’s
buyers. We imagine that
the majority of first-time/
returning G1 owners will
have an easy time setting up
this board. We didn’t hit any
major snags, but we didn’t
really use any BIOS earlier
than F7.
Overclocking is one
arena where we feel the
G1 Assassin 2 can do a bit
better. In the same conditions
as the UD7 the G1 Assassin
gave us a slightly lower CPU
OC. We were however easily
able to get 4.8GHz stable as
well as 2133MHz memory
on the G1 Assassin 2, on the
UD7 I was able to do 4.9GHz
and 2400MHz memory
under the same conditions.
When the X79-UD7 first
released I was at the same
4.8 and 2133 until a better
overclocking BIOS came out,
which is probably a matter of
time for the Assassin 2. We
found that 4.8 GHz in itself
is enough for anyone who is
using this board to handle
unless you have a phase
change cooler because at
4.8GHz stable on our CPU
was getting way too hot! This
board does lack on-board
power and reset buttons, but
surprisingly we have a bunch
of interesting buttons on the
back panel. For the first time
on a G1 board we have Clear
CMOS, Dual BIOS button,
and a simple 1-Touch OC
button which will OC all CPU
cores to 4G.
[ Sin ]
Summary
Despite a slightly lower
CPU OC, only 4-DIMMs,
price, and lack of power
and reset buttons we
think that GIGABYTE
did a pretty good job
with this G1 Assassin2.
Everything works as it
should, and the UEFI is
pretty nice. We do think
there is some room for
improvement in terms of
the BIOS overclocking,
and while the
overclocking might need
to be improved, the other
features are working
just as advertised. Like
previous G1 boards, the
gaming efficiency as
compared to the UD7 is
a bit better. What will
really determine whether
this board is right for you
is if you want the Creative
20K2 audio package,
Bigfoot NIC and extra fan
control as those are the
defining features that you
are paying extra for.
Would you buy it?
Yes, if I had enough money
in my wallet and were
looking for a nice sound
card at the same time.
The Score
8/10
2012 | Issue 18 The OverClocker 27