The ASUS Z370-I Gaming Review: Mini-Me Mega Motherboard
by Joe Shields on May 21, 2018 11:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Intel
- Mini ITX
- Asus
- Coffee Lake
- Z370
- Z370-I Gaming
Gaming Performance
Ashes of the Singularity
Ashes of the Singularity is a Real Time Strategy game developed by Oxide Games and Stardock Entertainment. The original AoTS was released back in March of 2016 while the standalone expansion pack, Escalation, was released in November of 2016 adding more structures, maps, and units. We use this specific benchmark as it relies on both a good GPU as well as on the CPU in order to get the most frames per second. This balance is able to better display any system differences in gaming as opposed to a more GPU heavy title where the CPU and system don't matter quite as much. We use the default "Crazy" in-game settings using the DX11 rendering path in both 1080p and 4K UHD resolutions. The benchmark is run four times and the results averaged then plugged into the graph.
Our AOTS results here on the Z370 platform are just as close together as our results on the X299 platform. The Z370-I managed 43.1 FPS in 1080p and 32.4 FPS in 4K.
Rise of the Tomb Raider
Rise of the Tomb Raider is a third-person action-adventure game that features similar gameplay found in 2013's Tomb Raider. Players control Lara Croft through various environments, battling enemies, and completing puzzle platforming sections, while using improvised weapons and gadgets in order to progress through the story.
One of the unique aspects of this benchmark is that it’s actually the average of 3 sub-benchmarks that fly through different environments, which keeps the benchmark from being too weighted towards a GPU’s performance characteristics under any one scene.
Rise of the Tomb Raider results for the Z370-I Gaming in 1080p are 93.1 FPS and 36.5 FPS inin 4K. The results are in close proximity to the others we have tested so far. So far, all of these runs are within a typical run variance.
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Ian Cutress - Monday, May 21, 2018 - link
Correct; updated.hansmuff - Monday, May 21, 2018 - link
A DisplayPort connector! Yay! Too many Mini-ITX have been skipping those, including some ASUS boards.ಬುಲ್ವಿಂಕಲ್ ಜೆ ಮೂಸ್ - Monday, May 21, 2018 - link
"it is worth nothing that the Type-C connector isn't USB 3.1 (10 Gbps)"
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It must be worth something or why even have it?
LOL
Mr Perfect - Monday, May 21, 2018 - link
What are the BIOS defaults like?We've got a couple older Z170 Asus Maximus VIII Impact machines around, and for some reason the BIOS defaults to all non-standard values. If you want to run things at stock/standard you have to specifically change them to be that. It's especially annoying because BIOS updates reset all of your settings to Asus' defaults.
Asus has some nice hardware, but I really don't feel like fighting them on BIOS defaults.
nimi - Tuesday, May 22, 2018 - link
What do you mean by non-standard values? Did you accidentally load a overclocking profile or something?12345 - Tuesday, May 29, 2018 - link
It's very common for intel motherboards to set very high voltages for stuff like system agent. This very board will auto set vccio and vccsa to like 1.2-1.3v when the bios itself describes default as like .96vnimi - Tuesday, May 22, 2018 - link
You forgot to edit the copy/pasted lineup table on the first page, it claims this review is for the Maximus X Apex with the Z370-I Gaming "in testing".AnnoyedGrunt - Tuesday, May 22, 2018 - link
I've been very intrigued by the mini-ITX format for a new build. I'd be doing an AMD version, but from what I can see, if you aren't going to do SLI, the mini-ITX boards offer a great value. You get intel networking, intel wi-fi, Realtek 1220 sound, NVME storage slots, all in a small package with a reasonable cost.ATX boards with those features tend to be quite a bit more expensive, especially on the AMD side (or you sacrifice some of the features).
Of course, once you load up a build with an ATX PSU, large cooler, GPU, ODD (I still buy CD's and need a way to rip them) the size starts to be similar to a regular ATX build. Still, I like the minimalist approach to the motherboard.
-AG
imaheadcase - Tuesday, May 22, 2018 - link
You pointed out exact reason why not to get this, so this board should be used in most builds no problem. Its really nice simply to have a small case as well.creed3020 - Tuesday, May 22, 2018 - link
Error in the table at the bottom of page 1. The note [this review] is in the wrong row. Looks like a C&P error from the previous review of the ROG mITX board.