Everyone should understand by now that ROG (Republic of Gamers) series products cater to two types of enthusiasts which includes extreme overclockers and hardcore gamers who want the fastest, best tuned ASUS products money can buy. Not only does the series offer the most robust features, they also offer their best in terms of software when you get right down to it. The ASUS Rampage III Extreme Black Edition motherboard is no exception. This is not an entry level motherboard with a pretty face. What you will find is a highly tuned Swan Song to the X58 platform boasting a BIOS overclocking enthusiasts demand along with full speed quad-PCI Express that supports the most power hungry video cards on the planet. Entry level users, beware. This board may both amaze and intimidate you! Allow me show you what we’re talking about.
Features and Specifications
The Rampage III Extreme Black Edition (BE) sports a magnificent red on black theme that can’t be mistaken for anything else. If the ROG LED badge doesn’t clue you in to what you’re looking at, the visible features will. Gamers will enjoy having four AMD CrossfireX and NVIDIA SLI friendly PCI Express 2.0 slots for setting crazy records or video perfection. The platform makes this possible but requires one extra power connector to feed extremely power hungry video cards. Overclockers have the BIOS, software and onboard tools to drain every last ounce of their LGA 1366 processor whether cooling with air, water or liquid nitrogen.
The only competing X58 motherboard that targets the gamer market is the GIGABYTE G1 Killer Assassin. While the Assassin integrates all of the features gamers need, the Rampage III BE includes a Thunder Bolt card that contains a Killer NIC and Xonar audio on top of the integrated Creative Labs X-Fi audio processor. The Killer NIC gives your games’ network traffic priority over anything else in the Windows stack. The Xonar Audio audio is extremely clean and pairs very, very well with high end 150 ohm or higher audio headsets. The cool thing about the Thunder Bolt card is that it can be used on another system.
ASUS claims that it’s something that adds value because you can take it with you to your next system. While you can’t do this with the Assassin, it’s quite rare to want to take something like this with you since your latest and greatest upgrade board may have something even better onboard.
If you don’t use the included Thunderboard card, you’ll find the integrated Creative Labs X-Fi audio quality to be much better than other solutions.
That brings us to pricing. Originally, the board fetched a near $600 premium but has slowly dropped to about $529.99 US/CA depending on your online source. And since this is likely the last kick at the X58 can, which is still one killer platform, it may be even lower. This makes the Rampage III Black Edition extremely competitive and within shooting distance of the G1.Killer Assassin and other premium boards. With the extra Thunderbolt card and WiFi/Bluetooth connectivity, the features alone may win the day if you find value in them.
What’s In The Box?
The ASUS Rampage III Extreme Black Edition definitely packs in a lot in the box. First off, you’ll get all the SLI and CrossFireX bridges you’ll need to max out all the slots. You’ll also find zip ties and labels for all your cabling, stickers for the side of your case and premium quality SATA cables to go with the bundle. These are pretty standard for most ROG boards in the series. There is also a break out bracket for the rear for additional USB connectivity as well as the ROG connect cable that allows you to tune your machine using a separate notebook. Just like you would when you tune the engine of your car.
Since this board also offers both WiFi and Bluetooth onboard, you’ll get antennas for those too denoted by the circular white things in the shot above. ASUS has pretty much given you everything you need to build a system right on the floor of a LAN party if you wanted to.
The most interesting part of the bundle is of course the Thunderbolt card which consists of both your premium audio and E2100 gaming NIC. As mentioned earlier, ASUS believes that the value proposition of this card is that you can take it and put it in any system you wish. That means if you upgrade, you can put that in your new system. Some may find value in that, but for most, everything that typically came with the system, goes with the system when we sell it or the board for an upgrade. Let’s talk about the E2100 a bit more on the next page.
E2100 Killer Networking
Bigfoot Networks produces high end network processing units (NPU). The Thunderbolt card offers both the E2100 Killer NIC as well as a Xonar audio processor onboard. Typically, Windows drivers/software aren’t optimized for gaming which adds to network latency. Gamer know that latency is the mother of all evil when in the heat of battle. The E2100 Thunderbolt combo is able to give your games and supporting game software network priority that is customizable. This makes sure sure that the game data gets handled immediately and directly by skipping the Windows stack. Games will load more efficiently getting you in quicker than your typical LAN connections.
Setting this program up was super easy. There is an initial automated set up procedure that registers and prioritizes your installed programs that access the network. The software is intuitive enough to go from installation to in game domination within 5-10 minutes. Chances are that you’ll notice a more fluid gaming experience now that you’re eliminating missing game packets coming and going to the server. It’s almost like a legal hack.
Test System Set Up
One thing I would like to point out is that your power source is extremely important if you plan setting any kind of overclocking record or filling every PCIE graphics slot. While the board is tuned to run efficiently, it does its best work with a very good power supply. Don’t forget to plug in the 4-pin Molex connector at the bottom to give the PCIE auxiliary power if you’re running multiple high end graphics cards.
Since the G1 Killer Assassin is the closet competition, we’ll be adding the board to the comparison chart. The rest of the list is part and parcel to our testing standards.
- Processor: Intel Core i7-990X Gulftown Processor
- Motherboard 1: ASUS Rampage III Extreme Black Edition (as tested)
- Motherboard 2: GIGABYTE G1.Killer Assassin
- Memory: Patriot Memory Division II 12GB 2000MHz DDR3
- Graphics: ZOTAC Geforce GTX 580 AMP! Edition
- Power Supply: Antec TPQ-1200
- OS Drive: Seagate Barracuda 500GB
- SATA2/3 Tests: Kingston HyperX 120GB SSD
- USB 3.0 Test: Rosewill RX-358-U3B (w/2TB Western Digital)
- OS: Windows 7 Pro 64-bit
Since SATA3 platter drives haven’t noticeably benefited from motherboard SATA3 (6Gbp) controllers, I decided to use the Kingston HyperX 120GB SSD to test any native and/or third party controllers like the Marvell. This SSD will saturate the bus effectively as well as show us what these platforms can really do in terms of storage. The latest BIOS and NVIDIA 280 series drivers were used.
Overclocking Performance
Like many of the ROG series boards, the Rampage III Extreme Black Edition features a BIOS not intended for the binary challenged.The very first page provides you with every CPU, memory and chipset setting needed to max out your CPU’s hidden potential. The voltage tuning is especially aggressive which LN2 users need more so than regular overclockers. It will take some time to become proficient versus the GIGABYTE G1 Killer Assassin which still uses the previous generation BIOS and is arguably quicker to get running.
Starting off with the CPU bus clock, the maximum the board and processor provided at 1.48 to 1.5 volts was 160MHz. The CPU multiplier was especially loose up to 30 which netted a total of 4.8GHz. Try as I did, my particular Core i7-990X isn’t the best for overclocking as I’ve maxed it out here before on the GIGABYTE GA-X58A-OC board. That’s how it goes when overclocking sometimes. It’s luck of the draw. However, my Core i7-975X faired better at 170MHz BClock with a 29 multiplier with the same voltage settings.
Now, some folks don’t have or may not want to put the binary time in to get a max overclock. That’s just fine. There are two ore-programmed extreme settings for 3.7GHz and 4.2GHz. Both worked perfectly for the Core i7-975X, 980X and 990X processors. The system performance gains are very obvious running 4.2GHz paired with a couple of high end video cards. Add your SSD of choice and fly through the gaming world.
Benchmark Suite Configuration
Typically, our suite includes Sysmark 2007, Cinebench R11.5, Right Mark Audio, SANDRA and Crystal Disk Mark to test a motherboard’s entire range of capabilities. But since this is a “Republic of Gamers” motherboard, we’re adding 3DMark11, Batman: Arkhum Asylum, Metro 2033, Unigine Heaven 2.0 Demo, and Battlefield Bad Company 2 to the mix. This covers the higher end series of DirectX graphics intensive games.
Overclocked results will be added in to some of the benchmarks where it best benefits the system. In some cases, the CPU is not the bottleneck given the 1920 x 1200 resolution of the test system. And, of course, if the system can’t make it through 3 passes of Sysmark 2007, it’s not considered stable when overclocked.
Sysmark 2007
This program benchmarks a computer’s overall performance rating the system in E-Learning, Video Creation, Office Productivity, and 3D Modeling. E-Learning uses Adobe Flash to execute rich image, video, and audio in a web page presentation of learning materials. Video Creation creates a video rendering using special effects and images from multiple sources that are HD in content. Office Productivity uses common office applications used in communication, data processing, project management, and file manipulation. And, 3D Modeling, creates a flyby animation and photo-realistic building image using a large architectural presentation.
While users won’t typically use this platform for professional applications like the ones used in the benchmark, it’s still a testament to the stability built in to the Rampage III Black Edition. It’s extremely aggressive when it comes to controlling power requirements. It’s just that good.
Cinebench R11.5
The Rampage III Black Edition shows that the it gives the Core i7-990XE a little more room to stretch. That equates in to just a little extra performance if you intend to use the ROG platform for any CPU intensive rendering. Otherwise, the platform rises again to the overclocking occasion if you need the extra CPU head room.
3DMark11
We’re looking at very similar results while each platform is running its optimal levels. I thought it interesting that the Rampage III Black Edition was noticeably faster in single video card tests. This will appeal to any extreme gamers that prefer a single high performance video card like the GTX 580.
Unigine Heaven 2.0 Demo
If you haven’t tried running the free Unigine Heaven Demo at extreme DirectX11 and maxed out settings, it will straight up slap your video card performance back to 1999. I just wanted to show you that the Rampage III Black Edition is well tuned for such such brutal configurations and game titles.
Batman: Arkhum Asylum
Maximum settings in this game can still cause your system to chug especially when using high physics settings. Both platforms are comparable right up to the point overclocking comes in to play. The extra CPU frequency gives them both extra frames but the Rampage III Black Edition can go just a bit farther.
Metro 2033
I’ve said it before. This game is truly the new “Crysis” as it includes a very brutal benchmark. Cranking up the details makes both systems work harder no matter the video card configuration.
From the numbers, you can see it looks awesome and is still quite playable. Frame rates are comparable at default but separate a bit further once the Black Edition gets going. It’s those extra BIOS optimizations coming in to play once again. When it comes to this game title, every bit counts and we’ll take it.
Battlefield: Bad company 2
BC2 is a graphics hungry first person shooter game that relies heavily on a steady stream of data provide a respectable gaming experience. That means your network (and internet for that matter) needs to be running optimally. It’s also more mature than Battlefield 3 so we’ll continue to lean on this benchmark till patches make the new game more stable. More on that in the Killer Network section.
Basically, it takes a good system to keep up at max settings. In terms of performance, the Rampage III Black Edition provides ample power and stability to the graphics cards running max settings. Since the graphics are doing the bulk of the work, it makes sense that the Assassin and Black Edition are separated by only a couple frames. They are THAT close.
Now that we’ve got all the software benchmarks out of the way, let’s beat on the hardware a little bit. Next up is a look at the two major things on this board which is the gaming grade audio and networking as well as a look at the IO performance.
Killer E2100 vs Killer E2100
The E in the model refers to it being “embedded” or integrated keeping it simple. The comparison test here mainly takes aim at the implementation of the E2100 network processor. The test results will reveal if the engineering isn’t up to par.
I’d like to say the battle was fierce but it was actually pretty uneventful varying only by .5 MB/s between the boards. Killer Networks really did their job to make sure the E2100 works perfectly and easily on whatever platform. The software is great for ensuring that games get complete network priority when you need it.
But I also found the Black Edition’s Wifi and Bluetooth mini-card extremely useful. The latencies and bandwidth were surprisingly low especially for regular network use. That also includes the integrated Intel 5286 network processor. Of all the platforms tested to date, ASUS engineers did a very good job of optimizing performance in that respect.
Creative X-Fi vs Creative X-Fi
Again, this test comes down to quality of audio due to implementation. Engineering variables like trace routes and component placement drastically effect audio performance. Using RightMarkAudio, I tested the integrated X-Fi audio processor and Thunderbolt card which includes ASUS Xonar audio.
Regardless of implementation, both boards’ X-Fi produced admirable audio performance and quality. You can’t tell the difference playing a game on either platform at typical volumes. But, crank up the audio and you can tell the Assassin offers slightly richer, better volume especially through the front panel audio via its left and right channel amplifiers. On both, audio is also very clean without the typical hum/interference that can filter through when running the front audio jacks.
Things changed when testing through the discrete Thunderbolt card. Granted, the gaming audio with the Creative X-Fi is far superior to any integrated Realtek or VIA audio but the Xonar’s music and voice quality was surprising to say the least. The musicality was definitely something you don’t get with standard run of the mill integrated solutions.
IO and SATA Testing – SANDRA Network and CrystalDiskMark
We typically test IO performance mainly to make sure you folks aren’t getting shorted performance on a platform you spent your hard earned money. Keep in mind that most add-on or peripheral PCI/PCIE cards often out perform integrated IO components. This time around we’re testing SATA performance with a SATA3 SSD given these are high performance motherboards.
The only interesting result seems to come in the form of USB 3.0 testing yet again. Both platforms use Renesas controllers (formerly known as NEC). The Rampage III Black Edition seems to offer better implementation and faster performance. It may not seem like much, but we take what we can get. It may help that the enclosure we use has an ASMedia chip onboard which is a division of ASUS themselves.
Is the Rampage III Black Edition the Best X58 Gaming Motherboard?
The ASUS Rampage III Black Edition is a far more aggressive overclocking platform than the GIGABYTE G1.Killer Assassin. This makes sense given that the Assassin offers only a 16 Phase VRM while their best overclocking models utilizing 20 or more phases. The Rampage II Black Edition offers a much more sophisticated VRM that has to appease high end liquid nitrogen overclocks. However, stock performance between the two is very close meaning most users aren’t going to notice the difference. Where the G1.Killer Assassin will appeal to more mainstream gamers, the Rampage III Black Edition takes it up a notch to try to please overclockers as well.
The two platforms battle for audio supremacy through their featured Creative X-Fi audio. The G1.Killer Assassin and Rampage III Black Edition will rock any gamers earlobes off as they both offer a proper headphone amplifier onboard. However, the Rampage III Black Edition brings the Thunderbolt Xonar card to the table offering impressive high quality stereo performance. Music is really a joyous experience. Plus, the Rampage III Black Edition does offer WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity whereas the G1.Killer Assassin does not. The software and accessory bundle is without question another bonus in favor of the Rampage III Black Edition. There’s tons of extras including ASUS bundled software which is always a nice feature to have for getting the most out of your system.
Ultimately, answering the question of “which one” really depends on the user. Do you want high-end overclocking, tweaking and the ROG board design? Or are you less likely to get your overclock and more likely to spend most of your time gaming rather than tweaking? GIGABYTE focused the G1.Killer Assassin more towards gamers who value stable gaming performance over tweaking while ASUS tries to appease both markets with one board. There is a huge gap in pricing though.
Today, the GIGABYTE is well over $100 – 150 less in some markets and once you weigh that in, the Rampage III Black Edition really becomes the premium board that it was built to be without apology. If you love to tweak and can’t leave any settings alone, spend the extra money for the Rampage III Black Edition. It’s the perfect Swan Song for the mighty X58 and should help LGA1366 socket users hold out just a bit longer against its Z68 and X79 siblings.
Pros
- High end overclocking performance and stability
- Republic of Gamers reputation and design
- Great accessories and software bundle
- Maximum Killer, WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity
- Dual BIOS chips for plenty of OC profiles
- Thunderbolt Killer-Xonar combo card
Cons
- Time for a new ROG theme?
- Premium price for premium product
Overall Rating: 9.0 / 10.0
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