FINAL FANTASY XIV
1920 X 1080 => 6038


Today the best high-performance integrated graphics Intel HD Graphics 4000 is about eight times better than the VGA AMD Radeon 7970.
In the past, with each generation of high-end platforms, there has been a 30-50 fold gap in the 3D performance of integrated graphics compared with VGA.
In the last two years, 3D performance in each generation of integrated graphics has increased at a multiple rate, and the actual gap with VGA has been getting smaller and smaller.
However, for high-end 3D games, I recommend that you choose better performance VGA, which will be faster at high resolution and when special effects are fully enabled.

Diablo3
1920 X 1200 special effects set to maximum => 100 FPS


Typical single-player game mode about 100 FPS


The 3D demands of Diablo3 are not very stringent, so if your budget is limited, the AMD Radeon 7770 provides very good performance.
I previously used the NVIDIA GTX 560Ti, and at high resolution and with special effects fully enabled, it almost always ends up around 100 pages.
Under the conditions of multiplayer warfare and in a complex environment, it was relatively easy to drop pages.
In a test, when I used the 7970, the actual performance significantly exceeded the maximum display of 100 pages.
Although sometimes the status reached 160 pages, within a very short time after starting, Diablo3 reached the maximum number of pages displayed at 100.

Temperature Performance (room temperature about 31 degrees)
System Standby - 36 to 42


Running LinX with CPU at full speed - 84 to 92


Ivy Bridge’s temperature was higher than Sandy Bridge’s by about 10 degrees, and this point needs to be emphasized.
In addition, each core of a 3770K differs in quality, and at OC 4.7GHz, you will see a gap in data ranging from a minimum temperature of 84 and a maximum of 92 degrees.
Due to the approach of summer, room temperatures are rising, and if you want to overclock to 4.6GHz and above, using a high-end heat sink is very important.

Power Consumption Test
System Standby - 78W


Running LinX with the CPU at full speed - 181W


The Intel Core i7-3770K is made with a 22nm process, and the power consumption performance is better than the previous 32nm generation.
Standby consumption is lower than the previous generation platform by more than 20W, and at full speed during burn-in, power can also be reduced to about 50W.
The 22nm CPU’s power consumption performance saves more electricity.

I’ll share with you the temperature performance of the ECS cooling module while overclocking.
The large gold cooling module next to the CPU had a standby temperature of 41.1 degrees and the temperature of the CPU at full speed was 51.3 degrees.
The golden heat sink above the Z77 chipset had a standby temperature of 45.3 degrees and with the CPU running at full speed, the temperature was 49.5 degrees.
ECS's new, large gold-colored cooling system, in addition to its advantages in size and appearance, achieved a very good level of heat dissipation.

ECS Z77H2-A2X
Advantages
1. A rarely seen gold product line, with packaging and the motherboard product well matched.
2. The UEFI interface features and overclocking performed well.
3. The unique wireless LAN and Bluetooth dongle provided two communication transmission methods.
4. The QoolTechTM IV cooling modules are beautifully designed and achieve a high level of heat dissipation.
5. An internal Mini PCI Express port, as well as support for Mini SATA and Mini PCI Express devices.
6. Use of eight driver MOS power supplies, native PCI-E Gen3, CPU/DDR3 installed with 15μ gold contacts

Disadvantages
1. Need to add a DisplayPort output.
2. If the voltage options included a step-down function, it would be better.
3. Room for improvement in market visibility and sales service channels.



Performance rating ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ 85/100
Components rating ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ 88/100
Specifications rating ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ 80/100
Appearance rating ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ 88/100
Performance to price rating ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ 83/100

The current price of the ECS Z77H2-A2X is about US$220, equivalent to about NT$6600.
In the mid-range market where the Z77 is positioned, there are many higher-priced Z77 motherboards.
Touted as the Golden Board, in terms of appearance, materials, heat dissipation and stability, it can be considered a golden product line.
In terms of durability, running at a temperature of 50 degrees for a 72-hour burn-in stability test, there is room for improvement in user confidence.

The ECS gold thermal module performs well in heat dissipation, and while overclocking at a high clock speed, in standby mode or running at full speed the temperature difference is small.
The overclocking ability is better than before, and I’m guessing that it was more careful attention to the UEFI interface that improved stability.
If the voltage can be lowered, I personally feel that the overall function of the ECS UEFI will be better.
ECS has launched quite a few Z77 motherboards, with specifications and price points ranging from entry level to high end.
In the market for mid-range Z77H2-A2X products, the cost to performance value is quite good.
Seeing that each generation of ECS software and hardware has made more-or-less steady progress, I also hope that the company can continue working on its own-brand products.
If ECS can improve their sales channels and warranty service, I believe consumers will have more brands and more affordable motherboards to choose from.

In early June at Computex, we photographed this ECS show girl emphasizing the gold line, and we’re sharing that here with you.


This article is also post in my log, WIND3C, All comments are welcome.