MSI Z68A GD80 G3 PCIe Gen 3.0 motherboard review - Game performance - Synthetic

by Hilbert Hagedoorn on: 08/04/2011 02:00 PM [ ] 0 comment(s)

DX10: 3DMark Vantage

3DMark Vantage focuses on the two areas most critical to gaming performance: the CPU and the GPU. With the emergence of multi-package and multi-core configurations on both the CPU and GPU side, the performance scale of these areas has widened, and the visual and game-play effects made possible by these configurations are accordingly wide-ranging. This makes covering the entire spectrum of 3D gaming a difficult task. 3DMark Vantage solves this problem in three ways:

1. Isolate GPU and CPU performance benchmarking into separate tests,
2. Cover several visual and game-play effects and techniques in four different tests, and
3. Introduce visual quality presets to scale the graphics test load up through the highest-end hardware.

To this end, 3DMark Vantage has two GPU tests, each with a different emphasis on various visual techniques, and two CPU tests, which cover the two most common CPU-side tasks: Physics Simulation and AI. It also has four visual quality presets (Entry, Performance, High, and Extreme) available in the Advanced and Professional versions, which increase the graphics load successively for even more visual quality. Each preset will produce a separate, official 3DMark score, tagged with the preset in question.

Above, you can see 3DMark Vantage, this time the overall P score. Again, due to the GPU switch from R5870 to GTX 580 we have to start from scratch again in matters of comparative results.

DX11: 3DMark 11

3DMark 11 is the latest version of what probably is the most popular graphics card benchmark series. Designed to measure your PCs gaming performance 3DMark 11 makes extensive use of all the new features in DirectX 11 including tessellation, compute shaders and multi-threading. Trusted by gamers worldwide to give accurate and unbiased results, 3DMark 11 is the best way to consistently and reliably test DirectX 11 under game-like loads.

Here's a first selection of 3DMark 11 as well, again over time accumulated data will build up. For 3DMark 11 we show the overall P score.

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MSI Z68A GD80 G3 PCIe Gen 3.0 motherboard review
A little while ago we tested the MSI Z68A-GD80 (B3) motherboard, a product with an absolutely gorgeous design. Merely weeks later another SKU based of this model has been released, the MSI Z68A-GD80 (G3). The G3 hints to something we have been hearing about for a while now, yes this is the debut of a PCI Express 3.0 compatible motherboard. A sincerely cool looking motherboard that is equipped with the latest gadgets, features and obviously that Z68 chipset.

MSI Z68A-GD80 motherboard review
So, today a closer look at Z68 technology and of course we'll review a unit, the Z68 motherboard tested, reviewed and spanked comes from MSI. We'll test their Z68A-GD80 motherboard. A sincerely cool looking motherboard that is equipped with the latest gadgets, features and obviously that Z68 chipset. Have a peek at the motherboard, and then let's head onwards into the review.