EVGA Z170 Classified Motherboard Review

[Crashman]

Skylake processors offer great per-core performance and overclocking capability, but only have sixteen PCIe 3.0 lanes for graphics. EVGA has a solution, but is it worth the added cost?

EVGA Z170 Classified Motherboard Review : Read more

 

[AndrewJacksonZA]

I think I'll add this to my wishlist... I would like for it to be available in white, but then again, if a user is running four graphics cards, how much of the motherboard will actually be seen?

 

[firefoxx04]

Not sure how I feel about the price. Surely you can get a socket 2011-3 board for the same price?

Either way you are going to need expensive ddr4 and the cost of the cheapest haswell-e chip isn't that much more than the top of the line skylake i7.

Going with those board and a quad core might get you support for more gpus but it's still not the same as the native support that haswell-e offers and I bet the price is similar. I don't have time to crunch numbers so it's just speculation.

I just feel that anyone who needs that kind of graphics power is going to understand why they might want haswell e over skylake right now.

 

[SylentVyper]

Not sure how I feel about the price. Surely you can get a socket 2011-3 board for the same price?

Either way you are going to need expensive ddr4 and the cost of the cheapest haswell-e chip isn't that much more than the top of the line skylake i7.

Going with those board and a quad core might get you support for more gpus but it's still not the same as the native support that haswell-e offers and I bet the price is similar. I don't have time to crunch numbers so it's just speculation.

I just feel that anyone who needs that kind of graphics power is going to understand why they might want haswell e over skylake right now.

This. If I'm running 4 GPUs, they're most likely going to be one of the top performing GPUs out anyway, and I wouldn't want a 4c/8t i7 trying to power 4 980 Ti's along with trying to compute what you're going to be running (4k or more).

5820k with EVGA Classified board:

[PCPartPicker part list](http://pcpartpicker.com/p/TnLtLk) / [Price breakdown by merchant](http://pcpartpicker.com/p/TnLtLk/by_merchant/)

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
**CPU** | [Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/intel-cpu-bx80648i75820k) | $379.99 @ B&H
**Motherboard** | [EVGA Classified EATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-motherboard-151hee999kr) | $374.27 @ Amazon
| *Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts* |
| **Total** | **$754.26**
| Generated by [PCPartPicker](http://pcpartpicker.com) 2015-11-11 10:37 EST-0500 |


6700k with Classified:

[PCPartPicker part list](http://pcpartpicker.com/p/FyRfLk) / [Price breakdown by merchant](http://pcpartpicker.com/p/FyRfLk/by_merchant/)

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
**CPU** | [Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/intel-cpu-bx80662i76700k) | $374.99 @ Newegg
**Motherboard** | [EVGA Z170 Classified EATX LGA1151 Motherboard](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-motherboard-151sse179kr) | $399.99 @ Amazon
| *Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts* |
| **Total** | **$774.98**
| Generated by [PCPartPicker](http://pcpartpicker.com) 2015-11-11 10:38 EST-0500 |


The Haswell-E is actually slightly cheaper, and you get more brute force. I would probably spring for a higher end chip though, if I'm already spending over $2k on GPUs alone

 

[xenol]

Huh, the broadcasting of PCIe data over the video cards since they're using the same data feels like a pretty damn elegant solution.

*Armchair engineering moment* Maybe in the future instead of these chips being necessary, the GPUs boot up in PCIe x1 to send data and the CPU can figure out if there's a multi-GPU setup or not, and if there is, broadcast to all the GPUs.

I'm doubting GPUs need a full x16 duplex communication anyway, most of their bandwidth is receiving.

 

[Crashman]

Not sure how I feel about the price. Surely you can get a socket 2011-3 board for the same price?

This. If I'm running 4 GPUs, they're most likely going to be one of the top performing GPUs out anyway, and I wouldn't want a 4c/8t i7 trying to power 4 980 Ti's along with trying to compute what you're going to be running (4k or more).

5820k with EVGA Classified board:

Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor $379.99
EVGA X99 Classified EATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard $374.27
**Total** | **$754.26**

6700k with Classified:

Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor $374.99
EVGA Z170 Classified EATX LGA1151 Motherboard $399.99
**Total** | **$774.98**

EVGA X99 Classified does not support 4-way SLI on the Core i7-5820k

Then again, 3-way SLI gets more performance per card, maybe you don't need the fourth card.

 

[kittle]

Neat idea to improve gaming performance. But i suspect it will play major havok with GPU Compute based tasks when it sends the same data to all cards vs selected cards.

I dont suppose any of the benchmarks verified this?

 

[Crashman]

Neat idea to improve gaming performance. But i suspect it will play major havok with GPU Compute based tasks when it sends the same data to all cards vs selected cards.

I dont suppose any of the benchmarks verified this?

I'm pretty sure the entire idea is to combine the fastest CPU with the fastest graphics configuration in games. The switch can still act in non-broadcast mode, but you're probably better off with more cores and more direct lanes if you're running compute apps.

 

[mapesdhs]

Mbd makers have been doing this sort of thing for years, but it died out after Z77, possibly Z87. Heck, I have an ASUS P55 board that can do x8/x8/x8/x8, I hold a few 3DMark P55 records with it using three 980s.

Thus, I hope site reviewers don't treat this as something new because it isn't. SylentVyper is right, X99 makes more sense for 3 or 4 GPUs, though I'd use an ASUS board rather than EVGA, it'd oc better. My favourite is the X99-E WS (which supports x16/x16/x16/x16 and is only +50 over the Classified) but I suppose others might opt for the Deluxe or whatever. I wouldn't buy the 5820K though (and one can't if one wants 4-way GPU), it restricts PCIe options too much, affecting other things like M.2 availability, etc.

 

[Crashman]

Mbd makers have been doing this sort of thing for years, but it died out after Z77, possibly Z87. Heck, I have an ASUS P55 board that can do x8/x8/x8/x8, I hold a few 3DMark P55 records with it using three 980s.

Thus, I hope site reviewers don't treat this as something new because it isn't. SylentVyper is right, X99 makes more sense for 3 or 4 GPUs, though I'd use an ASUS board rather than EVGA, it'd oc better. My favourite is the X99-E WS (which supports x16/x16/x16/x16 and is only +50 over the Classified) but I suppose others might opt for the Deluxe or whatever. I wouldn't buy the 5820K though (and one can't if one wants 4-way GPU), it restricts PCIe options too much, affecting other things like M.2 availability, etc.

Chill dude, this is the first Z170 tested with the part, we have Z97s and Z87s with the same part. And before that Nvidia had a PCIe 2.0 version.

 

[dudmont]

Had this in my pcpartpicker skylake build since it came out. Think about this, you can sli and have no less than three m.2 pcie3x4 ssds. Can't do that with a 5820. Probably can't do with a 5930(*pondering Homer Simpson style). Buy 2 PCIE m.2 adapter cards, you could set up 2 950 pro 512, in raid. Lots of interesting options.

 

[Max_x2]

Considering the price, I don't quite see why it got the editor's approbation... Most tests were close to falling in the margin of error, too. Plus, isn't over 2 GPU's way, wayyy overkill? Even at 4K, would this be enough to push 3 4k monitors?

 

[Crashman]

Considering the price, I don't quite see why it got the editor's approbation... Most tests were close to falling in the margin of error, too. Plus, isn't over 2 GPU's way, wayyy overkill? Even at 4K, would this be enough to push 3 4k monitors?

Maybe as a jab at EVGA's competitors for not doing the same thing for around $250?

 

[mapesdhs]

Chill dude, this is the first Z170 tested with the part, we have Z97s and Z87s with the same part. And before that Nvidia had a PCIe 2.0 version.

I'm perfectly chill. (I live in Scotland, already cold enough here, hehe) Just pointing out that this method isn't new, and for a while it did fade away. It's a bit weird, for example, that the Maximus VI Extreme has a far better PCIe config than the Maximus VIII Extreme (talk about a step backwards, which is a shame because the legacy M4E is awesome).

Ian.