Motherboard peripheral performance
To provide a closer look at the peripheral performance you can expect from these motherboards, we've complied Ethernet, USB, Firewire, Serial ATA, and audio performance results below. You'll notice that there isn't much variance from one board to another, but there are a few things worth pointing out. The Rampage Formula and DX48BT2 are highlighted and in bold to make them easier to pick out from the crowd.
| NTttcp Ethernet performance | ||
| Throughput (Mbps) | CPU utilization (%) | |
| Asus P5E3 Deluxe (88E8056) | 939 | 14.6 |
| Asus P5E3 Deluxe (RTL8169) | 379 | 40.0 |
| Asus P5K3 Deluxe (88E8056) | 937 | 15.2 |
| Asus P5K3 Deluxe (RTL8169) | 362 | 37.8 |
| Asus Rampage Formula (1) | 941 | 17.6 |
| Asus Rampage Formula (2) | 943 | 15.4 |
| Gigabyte X48T-DQ6 (1) | 930 | 46.7 |
| Gigabyte X48T-DQ6 (2) | 931 | 46.6 |
| Intel DX48BT2 | 941 | 13.3 |
| XFX MB-N780-ISH9 (1) | 819 | 21.5 |
| XFX MB-N780-ISH9 (2) | 814 | 20.5 |
| XFX MB-N790-IUL9 (1) | 822 | 17.4 |
| XFX MB-N790-IUL9 (2) | 829 | 21.6 |
The Rampage Formula and DX48BT2 both do well in our Ethernet performance test, with the Intel board registering the lowest CPU utilization of the lot.
| HD Tach Firewire performance | ||||
|
Read burst speed (MB/s) |
Average read speed (MB/s) |
Average write speed (MB/s) |
CPU utilization (%) |
|
| Asus P5E3 Deluxe | 42.3 | 37.5 | 28.8 | 1.7 |
| Asus P5K3 Deluxe | 42.3 | 37.4 | 28.8 | 0.7 |
| Asus Rampage Formula | 33.1 | 30.1 | 21.7 | 1.0 |
| Gigabyte X48T-DQ6 | 42.1 | 37.5 | 28.7 | 2.3 |
| Intel DX48BT2 | 42.0 | 37.6 | 28.7 | 2.0 |
| XFX MB-N780-ISH9 | 42.2 | 37.5 | 21.8 | 3.0 |
| XFX MB-N790-IUL9 | 42.2 | 37.6 | 21.8 | 1.3 |
Repeat after me, Asus: I will not use slow VIA Firewire chips on $300 motherboards.
| HD Tach USB performance | ||||
|
Read burst speed (MB/s) |
Average read speed (MB/s) |
Average write speed (MB/s) |
CPU utilization (%) |
|
| Asus P5E3 Deluxe | 33.9 | 32.5 | 29.9 | 4.3 |
| Asus P5K3 Deluxe | 33.9 | 32.6 | 25.9 | 4.0 |
| Asus Rampage Formula | 33.9 | 32.6 | 29.9 | 5.7 |
| Gigabyte X48T-DQ6 | 33.9 | 32.6 | 30.1 | 5.7 |
| Intel DX48BT2 | 33.9 | 32.6 | 29.9 | 4.0 |
| XFX MB-N780-ISH9 | 33.9 | 32.6 | 32.3 | 4.0 |
| XFX MB-N790-IUL9 | 33.9 | 32.6 | 32.3 | 7.7 |
Nothing to see here. Move along.
| HD Tach Serial ATA performance | |||||
|
Read burst speed (MB/s) |
Average read speed (MB/s) |
Average write speed (MB/s) |
Access time (ms) |
CPU utilization (%) |
|
| Asus P5E3 Deluxe | 133.5 | 75.2 | 101.0 | 2.0 | 8.4 |
| Asus P5K3 Deluxe | 133.7 | 75.2 | 98.7 | 3.7 | 8.3 |
| Asus Rampage Formula | 132.7 | 75.2 | 93.7 | 3.3 | 8.4 |
| Gigabyte X48T-DQ6 (GSATA) | 129.5 | 75.2 | 47.4 | 5.3 | 8.1 |
| Gigabyte X48T-DQ6 (ICH9R) | 133.2 | 75.2 | 94.5 | 2.7 | 8.3 |
| Intel DX48BT2 | 132.0 | 75.2 | 96.7 | 2.0 | 8.3 |
| XFX MB-N780-ISH9 | 131.9 | 75.2 | 87.0 | 4.0 | 8.4 |
| XFX MB-N790-IUL9 (JMB362) | 109.8 | 75.3 | 42.7 | 20.3 | 8.7 |
| XFX MB-N790-IUL9 (nForce 790i) | 132.2 | 75.2 | 87.5 | 3.3 | 8.3 |
Yeah. Uh-huh.
| RightMark Audio Analyzer audio quality | |||||||||
| Overall score | Frequency response | Noise level | Dynamic range | THD | THD + Noise | IMD + Noise | Stereo Crosstalk | IMD at 10kHz | |
| Asus P5E3 Deluxe | 4 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 3 |
| Asus P5K3 Deluxe | 4 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 3 |
| Asus Rampage Formula | 4 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 3 |
| Gigabyte X48T-DQ6 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 3 |
| Intel DX48BT2 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 4 |
| XFX MB-N780-ISH9 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 3 |
| XFX nForce N790-IUL9 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 3 |
So much for audio risers. The Rampage Formula's SupremeFX card does little for the board's score in our RightMark Audio Analyzer signal quality tests. The Rampage doesn't score any better than the BT2 with its Sigmatel codec.
