GIGABYTE X99-Gaming G1 WIFI Motherboard Review
by Ian Cutress on December 18, 2014 10:00 AM ESTGaming 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.
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Meegul - Thursday, December 18, 2014 - link
The aesthetic of the motherboard would be nice. That is, if it weren't for those green capacitors by the audio chip. Seriously, with a good looking red and black motherboard, what is such a color doing on it? Otherwise, it looks like a pretty good motherboard, albeit a bit pricey even for an X99 motherboard.chizow - Thursday, December 18, 2014 - link
They're colored that way because Nichicon makes them that way and has for years. Audiophiles who know the difference will notice this immediately and prefer this over a black or red tinned version.https://www.google.com/search?q=nichicon+audio+cap...
Unfortunately for this board, the Nichicon audio caps aren't enough to save the lackluster sound output, which ends up sounding extremely low bitrate and crushed/dumpy at higher output levels (adjusting input load level does not help).
If you have a few add-in boards installed, chances you don't see these caps anyways.
stux - Thursday, December 18, 2014 - link
[img]http://www.hardwareheaven.com/reviewimages/gigabyt...[/img]leetruski - Friday, December 19, 2014 - link
Those look like electrolytic capacitors rather than solid state. Is there a particular reason as to why they would have gone with those? Seem kind of out of place on a premium board.JeffFlanagan - Friday, December 19, 2014 - link
>Unfortunately for this board, the Nichicon audio caps aren't enough to save> the lackluster sound output
Who's still using onboard sound output? Audiophiles will use the USB DAC-UP ports to attach a nice external DAC, and the rest of us are using HDMI audio. A motherboard is about the worst place possible to encode audio due to all the electrical noise from the rest of the MB.
Stuka87 - Thursday, December 18, 2014 - link
The board looks nice, and has a ton of great features (3 year warranty is nice). Although I really question the built in wifi on a gaming board. Wifi is terrible for gaming. Random latency spikes make online gaming an aggravating experience.Morawka - Thursday, December 18, 2014 - link
ever heard of wifi direct? you'll need it for xbox one controllers, Nvidia shield controllers, etc..there are tons of wifi direct hardware on the market nowadays.
imaheadcase - Friday, December 19, 2014 - link
So? Still does not change the fact wifi is terrible for gaming.chizow - Friday, December 19, 2014 - link
I think the point is, its not either/or, it can be both. You can always hardwire your ethernet connection and use the wifi direct for connecting peripherals that use it for the best of both worlds...aliquis - Monday, March 5, 2018 - link
Hi Morawka.I just want to know how that WiFi Direct Connection using your Xbox One or Nvidia Shield controller is working for you ...
Even if it worked with any wireless card which the later doesn't do AFAIK and likely not the former either the Nvidia Shield one also need to have an Nvidia graphics card so it's complete garbage.
It's disturbing Valve doesn't have Steam controller support built in in their Steam Link =P