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Firmware
Maxsun recently updated the BIOS, making some necessary aesthetic improvements. While it’s still a bit dated compared to other board partners, the anime-themed update gives it a bit more style than the others we’ve seen. That said, it still lacks the typical Easy Mode, for whatever that may be worth to you. The BIOS screen has the major headings across the top (Main, Advanced, Power, Turbo, Startup, Security, and Exit) with detailed information on the left and system information (including CPU temp/speed, fan speed, vcore, memory frequency, and more) on the right (now one box opposed to each having its own ‘cell’).
You can overclock the system in the Turbo section, and there are plenty of options to tweak. Again, the BIOS has all the functionality you’re looking for, including overclocking and tweaking memory, but it still isn’t quite on par with the competition.
Software
Maxsun’s only Windows-based software is Maxsun Sync, which controls any attached RGBs. I can’t find any other application on the website for Windows-based overclocking and fan control, which is lacking compared to most other board partners. The Maxsun Sync app does offer several different RGB lighting modes, a couple of which you can tweak even further. It’s a functional application, but I’d like more functionality or another program for adjusting CPU parameters and fan control.
Test System / Comparison Products
We’ll be rolling out a new update soon to go along with upcoming platform launches. But for now our test system runs the Windows 11 64-bit OS with all updates applied as of mid-October 2023. We kept the same Asus TUF RTX 3070 video card from our previous testing platforms but have updated the driver to the latest, keeping our games, F1 22 and Far Cry 6, the same. Unless otherwise noted, we use the latest non-beta motherboard BIOS available to the public using ‘optimized default’ settings except for the memory (XMP). The hardware and drivers we used are as follows:
Test System Components
| CPU | Intel Core i9-14900K |
| Memory | Kingston Fury Beast DDR5-6000 CL36 (KF560C36BBEAK2-32) |
| Teamgroup T-Force Delta RGB DDR5- 7200 CL34 (FF3D516G7200HC34ABK) | |
| Klevv CRAS XR5 RGB (KD5AGUA80-80R380S) | |
| GPU | Asus TUF RTX 3070 |
| Cooling | Coolermaster MasterLiquid PL360 Flux |
| PSU | EVGA Supernova 850W P6 |
| Software | Windows 11 64-bit (22H2) |
| Graphics | NVIDIA Driver 537.42 |
Benchmark Settings
| Row 0 - Cell 0 | ▪ SYNTHETIC BENCHMARKS AND SETTINGS ▪ |
| Procyon | Version 2.6.848 64 |
| Row 2 - Cell 0 | Office Suite (Office 365), Video Editing (Premiere Pro 23.6), Photo Editing (Photoshop 25.0, Lightroom Classic 12.5) |
| 3DMark | Version 2.27.8177 64 |
| Row 4 - Cell 0 | Firestrike Extreme (v1.1) and Time Spy (v1.2) Default Presets |
| Cinebench R24 | Version ‘build unknown’ |
| Row 6 - Cell 0 | Open GL Benchmark - Single and Multi-threaded |
| Blender | Version 3.6.0 |
| Row 8 - Cell 0 | Full benchmark (all 3 tests) |
| Row 9 - Cell 0 | ▪ APPLICATION TESTS AND SETTINGS ▪ |
| LAME MP3 | Version SSE2_2019 |
| Row 11 - Cell 0 | Mixed 271MB WAV to mp3: Command: -b 160 --nores (160Kb/s) |
| HandBrake CLI | Version: 1.2.2 |
| Row 13 - Cell 0 | Sintel Open Movie Project: 4.19GB 4K mkv to x264 (light AVX) and x265 (heavy AVX) |
| Corona 1.4 | Version 1.4 |
| Row 15 - Cell 0 | Custom benchmark |
| 7-Zip | Version 21.03-beta |
| Row 17 - Cell 0 | Integrated benchmark (Command Line) |
| Row 18 - Cell 0 | ▪ GAME TESTS AND SETTINGS ▪ |
| Far Cry 6 | Ultra Preset - 1920 x 1080, HD Textures ON |
| F1 2022 | Ultra Preset - 1920 x 1080, Ultra High (default) Bahrain (Clear/Dry), FPS Counter ON |
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