All manufacturers make great claims about voltage regulator efficiency, but ASRock and Asus bolster those claims at full load in the Z97 Extreme4 and Z97-A. Then again, a slight decrease in core voltage could produce similar results without causing a system crash.

Those reductions in power consumption are also seen in lower CPU temperatures, so lower full-load voltage does appear the most likely reason for saved energy. The question is, does this hurt overclocking?

Anyone really keen on overall performance charts can find one in this article’s image gallery. But the overall performance difference comes down to less than half of one percent. That means power savings translate almost directly into an efficiency improvement.

The Z79 Extreme4 wins the efficiency race, followed by the Z97-A.
- Gaming Raises The Mainstream
- ASRock Z97 Extreme4
- Z97 Extreme4 Software
- Z97 Extreme4 Firmware
- Asus Z97-A
- Z97-A Software
- Z97-A Firmware
- Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 5
- Z97X-Gaming 5 Software
- Z97X-Gaming 5 Firmware
- L337 Gaming Z97-Machine
- Z97-Machine Software
- Z97-Machine Firmware
- MSI Z97 Gaming 5
- Z97 Gaming 5 Software
- Z97 Gaming 5 Firmware
- Test Hardware And Benchmark Configurations
- Results: 3DMark And PCMark
- Results: SiSoftware Sandra
- Results: 3D Games
- Results: Audio And Video Encoding
- Results: Adobe Creative Suite
- Results: Productivity
- Results: File Compression
- Power, Heat, And Efficiency
- Overclocking
- Picking A Value Leader
I find it small
Not exactly the most comprehensive review, but here is Asus' take on NICs: http://rog.asus.com/312772014/labels/guides/tried-and-tested-why-intel-ethernet-is-still-better-for-gaming/
Latency is down the bottom of the page if you didn't realise.
It looks like they're testing at 10Mb/s though, which sort of invalidates all the latency results.
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Well, then i guess i'll have to hunt that info down because i do not like investing in mobos with cheap components, no matter how many features it has.
As to MSI, I wouldn't touch their cheap boards, but their Z77A-GD65 Gaming board really surprised me over how nice it is, and how cool the VRMs stay under load. If my primary were full ATX, I'd be using it there.