EVGA Z370 FTW Motherboard Review

By Thomas Soderstrom
published

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How We Test

Our three previous ATX form-factor Z370 boards set the baseline for comparing EVGA’s Z370 FTW.

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SoundIntegrated HD Audio
NetworkIntegrated Gigabit Networking
Graphics DriverGeForce 382.53

Back during the X299 launch, I upgraded my test bed to handle the tremendous heat produced by the Core i9-7900X. Our award-winning Fractal Design S24 liquid cooler system sample serves the same purpose for the newer, lower heat Core i7-8700K. Cooler Master’s HAF-XB provides an optimal layout to blow the Celsius S24’s fans sufficiently over each motherboard’s voltage regulator.

Comparison Products
EVGA Z370 FTW
ASRock Z370 Taichi
Gigabyte Z370 Aorus Gaming 7

Settings that are more granular typically allow overclockers to more-easily reach their target, but EVGA’s listed 1mV setting steps are deceiving in that we can’t really tell where we’ll end up without excessive testing. For example, DRAM voltage measured at the slot shot straight from 1.340V to 1.365V after changing its setting from 1.320V to 1.325V. CPU core voltage appeared to change in 8mV intervals, though the increments shown in firmware were still just 1mV.

Benchmark Settings

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Synthetic Benchmarks and Settings
PCMark 8Version 2.7.613Home, Creative, Work, Storage, Applications (Adobe & Microsoft)
3DMark 13Version 4.47.597.0Skydiver, Firestrike, Firestrike Extreme Default Presets
SiSoftware SandraVersion 2016.03.22.21CPU Arithmetic, Multimedia, Cryptography, Memory Bandwidth
DiskSPD4k Random Read, 4k Random Write128k Sequential Read, 128k Sequential Write
Cinebench R15Build RC83328DEMOOpenGL Benchmark
CompuBenchVersion 1.5.8Face Detection, Optical Flow, Ocean Surface, Ray Tracing
Application Tests and Settings
LAME MP3Version 3.98.3Mixed 271MB WAV to mp3: Command: -b 160 --nores (160 Kb/s)
HandBrake CLIVersion: 0.9.9Sintel Open Movie Project: 4.19 GB 4k mkv to x265 mp4
BlenderVersion 2.68aBMW 27 CPU Render Benchmark, BMW 27 GPU Render Benchmark
7-ZipVersion 16.02THG-Workload (7.6 GB) to .7z, command line switches "a -t7z -r -m0=LZMA2 -mx=9"
Adobe After Effects CCRelease 2015.3.0, Version 13.8.0.144PCMark driven routine
Adobe Photoshop CCRelease 2015.5.0. 20160603.r.88 x64PCMark driven routine (light and heavy)
Adobe InDesign CCRelease 2015.4, Build 11.4.0.90 x64PCMark driven routine
Adobe IllustratorRelease 2015.3.0, Version 20.0.0 (64-bit)PCMark driven routine
Game Tests and Settings
Ashes of SingularityVersion 1.31.21360High Preset - 1920x1080, Mid Shadow Quality, 1x MSAACrazy Preset - 1920x1090, High Shadow Quality, 2x MSAA
F1 20152015 Season, Abu Dhabi Track, RainMedium Preset, No AFxUltra High Preset, 16x AF
Metro Last Light ReduxVersion 3.00 x64High Quality, 1920x1080, High Tesselation, 16x AFVery High Quality, 1920x1080, Very High Tesselation, 16x AF
The Talos PrincipleVersion 267252Medium Preset, High Quality, High Tesselation, 4x AFUltra Preset, VeryHigh Quality, VeryHigh Tesselation, 16x AF


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Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom is a Senior Staff Editor at Tom's Hardware US. He tests and reviews cases, cooling, memory and motherboards.
20 Comments Comment from the forums
  • WildCard999
    About time EVGA spaced out the PCIE slots for the FTW board. For those that don't know the older boards had multiple PCIE slots however only the top two could be used for SLI and the spacing was atrocious causing high temps on the top GPU.
    Reply
  • Questors
    "...we don’t need no stinking RGB” is the mantra we keep hearing from a small group of enthusiasts who pine for the more traditional “blacked out” aesthetic. Before that, a similarly small group was asking “why would I want Wi-Fi on a desktop.” But we digress.

    You should digress. I still don't have WIFI on my desktop and don't want it. I also don't want the proverbial Christmas tree flashing lights out my PC chassis. It looks like an ensemble of emergency vehicles at a bad accident scene.

    There is no need for your uppity attitude against those who have different wants than you.
    Reply
  • AnimeMania
    I can't believe you didn't show a nice picture of the input/output ports. That is the first thing I look at on a motherboard and then the twinkley lights. I don't know a lot about motherboards.
    Reply
  • dennphill
    Amen to Questors!
    Reply
  • Crashman
    20530935 said:
    "...we don’t need no stinking RGB” is the mantra we keep hearing from a small group of enthusiasts who pine for the more traditional “blacked out” aesthetic. Before that, a similarly small group was asking “why would I want Wi-Fi on a desktop.” But we digress.

    You should digress. I still don't have WIFI on my desktop and don't want it. I also don't want the proverbial Christmas tree flashing lights out my PC chassis. It looks like an ensemble of emergency vehicles at a bad accident scene.

    There is no need for your uppity attitude against those who have different wants than you.
    You have no idea what any one of us specifically wants. Our only task concerning added features is to consider whether people are buying it and how much it costs to implement when writing up the value portion. Wi-Fi on Desktops is nothing more than an example of a feature that has been growing longer.

    Someone once told me he was looking for a board that had four USB connections on the back and a single header for front USB. "Uppity" would be to demand someone produce it.

    Reply
  • Crashman
    20531064 said:
    I can't believe you didn't show a nice picture of the input/output ports. That is the first thing I look at on a motherboard and then the twinkley lights. I don't know a lot about motherboards.
    Click on the oblique image. It expands :)

    Reply
  • 1800Allen
    "We don’t see any voltage-mode options for the PWM fan headers, nor do we see custom fan slopes."

    There is a setting in the SMART fan menu to set your own curve and they had some options as to what temp for the curve to run against too.
    Reply
  • Crashman
    20532617 said:
    "We don’t see any voltage-mode options for the PWM fan headers, nor do we see custom fan slopes."

    There is a setting in the SMART fan menu to set your own curve and they had some options as to what temp for the curve to run against too.
    Going by what little I can remember of the board, you got a choice of factory-programmed slopes and no choice in PWM or voltage control. Do you have more specifics there?

    Reply
  • nickbaldwin86
    Waiting for the Classy to be released. but this FTW has been out of stock since the day it was released or maybe day after. hoping the Classy board has a little more room for the 8700K to play with.
    Reply
  • Crashman
    20533152 said:
    Waiting for the Classy to be released. but this FTW has been out of stock since the day it was released or maybe day after. hoping the Classy board has a little more room for the 8700K to play with.
    Tom's Hardware News says it was released the beginning of October, correct? It was available when I did a price check at the end of November, so that's like six weeks. Maybe it was out of stock between those dates?
    Reply