Performance

As a whole we are changing the way we look at our motherboard testing slightly. The truth is a lot of the standard benchmarks you see in our reviews as well as others aren’t really needed. These tests actually test components like the CPU and video card more than anything else. Because of that we have trimmed down our testing slightly to make it easier for you to take in. We still do some testing though to make sure none of the boards that we test have any glaring issues but overall you should only see a slight variation in numbers. That variation isn’t a big deal; it is only the big variances that we are looking for. Having cleared that up, I would also like to point out that testing like our Audio and storage testing still are important as they are sub systems that the motherboard manufactures have control over, be sure to check out those sections as well.

It’s really interesting to see the variances in our results. There are only slightly different but when you see the results like in Bioshock, Tomb Raider, and Hitman where the two Asus boards are spot on with the same results. It does make sense though; they are fundamentally very similar boards. Both of the boards perform close to each other as well as the MSI board. There isn’t anything that is standing out here that we should be looking into in more detail. Both the Z87 Pro and Z87 Plus will perform well in any situation assuming you pair it up with a CPU and GPU that fit your needs.