The ASUS ROG Maximus X Apex Review: X Marks the Spot, Literally
by Joe Shields on May 11, 2018 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Intel
- Asus
- ROG
- Aquantia
- 5G
- Coffee Lake
- Z370
Gaming Performance
AoTS Escalation
Ashes of the Singularity is a Real Time Strategy game developed by Oxide Games and Stardock Entertainment. The original AoTS was released back in March of 2016 while the standalone expansion pack, Escalation, was released in November of 2016 adding more structures, maps, and units. We use this specific benchmark as it relies on both a good GPU as well as on the CPU in order to get the most frames per second. This balance is able to better display any system differences in gaming as opposed to a more GPU heavy title where the CPU and system don't matter quite as much. We use the default "Crazy" in-game settings using the DX11 rendering path in both 1080p and 4K UHD resolutions. The benchmark is run four times and the results averaged then plugged into the graph.
Our AOTSe results here on the Z370 platform are just as close together as our results on the X299 platform. The results can tell us AOTSe can do all of its work with a 6C/12T processor without losing a step to the higher thread count CPUs. The Apex managed 44.9 FPS in 1080p and 32.8 FPS in 4K. The result all land in the bell curve, so no issues here.
Rise of the Tomb Raider
Rise of the Tomb Raider is a third-person action-adventure game that features similar gameplay found in 2013's Tomb Raider. Players control Lara Croft through various environments, battling enemies, and completing puzzle platforming sections, while using improvised weapons and gadgets in order to progress through the story.
One of the unique aspects of this benchmark is that it’s actually the average of 3 sub-benchmarks that fly through different environments, which keeps the benchmark from being too weighted towards a GPU’s performance characteristics under any one scene.
Rise of the Tomb Raider results for the Apex in 1080p is 92.8 FPS and 37.1 FPS in 37.1 FPS in 4K. The results are in close proximity to the others we have tested so far. So far, all of these runs are within a typical run variance and for all intents and purposes, wouldn't notice a difference.
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Flunk - Friday, May 11, 2018 - link
I suspect we're only a short distance from every single motherboard being labelled "gaming", at which point it doesn't mean anything anymore. Truthfully, I don't think it means anything now.tech6 - Friday, May 11, 2018 - link
...and most will have cheap voltage regulators and capacitors but pretty LEDs and a neat colored PCB.wumpus - Friday, May 11, 2018 - link
That's pretty much what I expect now (with the possible exception of buying a "non gaming" board for roughly the same price without the LEDs and fancy colors, presumably mostly sold by OEMs to business.Who else buys motherboards?
dgingeri - Friday, May 11, 2018 - link
...and yet another Asus board with far too few USB ports. Why are they going so cheap with the USB ports these days?DanNeely - Friday, May 11, 2018 - link
It's maxed out on back panel IO. What do you want them to drop to add another pair of ports?Also, although there's no block diagram provided, I suspect the board is maxed out on HSIO ports from the chipset, and could only offer 2.0 ports.
Fallen Kell - Friday, May 11, 2018 - link
I think his point is that there is prime real estate being taken up by two PS/2 ports which are about 10 years past their usefulness, especially in the day and age that we have PS/2 to USB connectors which cost next to nothing and/or are included now with any device that happens to still use the 20 year old port. Four additional USB ports could have been placed in the space used by those two PS/2.hosps - Friday, May 11, 2018 - link
You kids and your USB keyboards and mice. PS/2 is where it's at if you need an N-Key rollover capability that USB doesn't support.WannaBeOCer - Friday, May 11, 2018 - link
You old people and your lack of keeping up with new technology. USB does support N-Key rollover. Bought my Cherry MX Board 6.0 in 2015 with full N-Key rollover.Holliday75 - Saturday, May 12, 2018 - link
I'm still pissed serial ports are no longer included.ctbaars - Tuesday, May 15, 2018 - link
Where do I plug in my parallel port dongle? I'll pass ...