System Specs & Memory Bandwidth

Ivy Bridge-E System Specs
  • Intel Core i7-4960X (3.6GHz)
  • Asrock X79 Extreme6
  • 16GB DDR4 RAM
  • Radeon R9 280X
  • Samsung SSD 850 Pro 512GB SSD
  • SilverStone Essential Gold 750w
  • Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit
AMD Vishera System Specs
  • AMD FX-8350 (4.2GHz - 4.40GHz)
  • Asrock Fatal1ty 990FX Professional
  • 8GB DDR3 RAM
  • Radeon R9 280X
  • Samsung SSD 850 Pro 512GB SSD
  • SilverStone Essential Gold 750w
  • Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit
Haswell System Specs
  • Intel Core i7-4770K (3.5GHz)
  • Asrock Z97 Extreme9
  • Asrock Z97 Extreme6
  • Asus Z97-Deluxe
  • Asus Z97-Pro WiFi/AC
  • Gigabyte Z97X-UD5H-BK
  • MSI Z97 Mpower Max AC
  • EVGA Z97 FTW
  • 8GB DDR3 RAM
  • Radeon R9 280X
  • Samsung SSD 850 Pro 512GB SSD
  • SilverStone Essential Gold 750w
  • Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit

All seven Z97 motherboards used the same DDR3-2400 memory using the XMP profile. Despite the fact that all of them operated the DDR3 memory at the same frequency using the same timings, we did see quite a variation in the results.

The Asus boards produced the best results with the Z97-Pro WiFi/AC hitting 30.6GB/s and the Z97-Deluxe 30.5GB/s. EVGA's Z97 FTW followed with 29.9GB/s while Gigabyte's Z97X-UD5H-BK offered 29.4GB/s.

From there, the MSI Z97 MPower Max AC and Asrock boards dropped down to 27GB/s, around 11% slower than Asus' motherboards.