Four Multi-GPU Z77 Boards from $280-$350 - PLX PEX 8747 featuring Gigabyte, ASRock, ECS and EVGA
by Ian Cutress on August 22, 2012 9:15 AM ESTEVGA Z77 FTW Software
Given that EVGA is relatively small company in the motherboard arena, they suffer a similar fate when it comes to driver install programs when compared to companies in a similar position. While the install disk seems aesthetically nice with a supposed one button install, in actual fact the user must be present to accept all the menu options to install each of the drivers. The major top tier manufacturers perform silent install options, available with most of the generic driver installs (Realtek et al.), and so it is a small wonder why they are not applied here. With regards software, the sole application, ELEET, is not installed with the drivers but separately though the ‘next’ menu on the install CD.
ELEET
The sole software program provided by EVGA on the Z77 FTW is the Eleet Tuning Utility. This for most intents and purposes is a glorified CPU-Z with an EVGA skin, with a few small extras. The first screen is identical to CPU-Z in that regard, showing all the CPU information.
Where Eleet differs from CPU-Z is in a few of the EVGA specific options, such as the monitoring screen which shows temperatures, voltages and fan speeds. Unfortunately with Eleet we do not get any form of fan controls, despite the fact that the fan options in the BIOS were quite verbose.
Also at hand with Eleet is an overclocking menu, which allows users to adjust the multipliers and the BCLK. However the version I was supplied on the Driver Disk was not applicable for Z77 or Ivy Bridge – users will have to register online with EVGA and download the latest version of Eleet in order to get it to work, otherwise the following screen will be shown:
Users will also have to enable ELEET in the OC menu in the BIOS for this option to function.
One of the more interesting features with ELEET is again for the overclocking crowd, by providing an on-the-fly affinity adjuster. This allows with a keypress the ability to modify how many CPU threads a program is using. In the world of competitive overclocking, we require benchmarks to have the top priority on the CPU cores to get the best scores, which is where this area of the program will help.
Overall, the software from EVGA is not that special for a regular user, and without any serious fan controls or GUI based BIOS update utility is lacking in significant substance.
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ultimatex - Wednesday, August 22, 2012 - link
I got this MOBO from Newegg the first day they had it available , I couldn't believe the price since it offered 8x8x8x8x , Picked it up the first day and havent looked back. Doesnt look as cool as the Asrock extreme9 but it still looks good. Awesome Job Gygabyte , Anandtech should have given them a Gold not bronze though since the fan issue is a minor issue.Arbie - Wednesday, August 22, 2012 - link
For gaming, at least, how many people are really going to build a 2xGPU system? Let alone 3x or 4x. The are so few PC games that can use anything more than one strong card AND are worth playing for more than 10 minutes. I actually don't know of any such games, but tastes differ. And some folks will have multi-monitor setups, and possibly need two cards. But overall I'd think the target audience for these mobos is extremely small.Maybe for scientific computing?
Belard - Wednesday, August 22, 2012 - link
Yep.... considering that most AAA PC games are just ports from consoles... having 3-4 GPUs is pointless. The returns get worse after the first 2 cards.Only those with 2~6 monitors can benefit with 2-3 cards.
Also, even $80 Gigabyte boards will do 8x x 8x SLI/CF just fine.
But hey, someone wants to spend $300 on a board... more power to them.
cmdrdredd - Wednesday, August 22, 2012 - link
"Only those with 2~6 monitors can benefit with 2-3 cards."Oh really? 2560x1440 on a single card is garbage in my view. I am not happy with 50fps average.
rarson - Wednesday, August 22, 2012 - link
If you're going multi-GPU on a single monitor, you're wasting money.Sabresiberian - Wednesday, August 22, 2012 - link
Because everyone should build to your standards, O god of all things computer.Do some reading; get a clue.
Steveymoo - Thursday, August 23, 2012 - link
Incorrect.If you have a 120hz monitor, 2 GPUs make a tonne of difference. Before you come back with a "no one can see 120hz" jibe. That is also incorrect.... My eyes have orgasms every once in a while when you get those ultra detail 100+ fps moments in battlefield, that look great!
von Krupp - Friday, August 24, 2012 - link
No. Metro 2033 is not happy at 2560x1440 with just a single HD 7970, and neither are Battlefield 3 or Crysis. The Total War series also crawls at maximum settings.I bought the U2711 specifically to take advantage of two cards (and for accurate colours, mind you). I have a distaste for multi-monitor gaming and will continue to have such as long as they keep making bezels on monitors.
So please, don't go claiming that multi-card is useless on a single monitor because that just isn't true.
swing848 - Monday, December 8, 2014 - link
At this date, December 2014, with maximum eye candy turned on, there are games that drop a refrence AMD R9 290 below 60 fps on a single monitor at 1920x1080 [using an Intel i5-3570K at 4GHz to 4.2GHz]Sabresiberian - Wednesday, August 22, 2012 - link
This is not 1998, there are many games built for the PC only, and even previously console-oriented publishers aren't just making ports for the PC, they are developing their games to take advantage of the goodness only PCs can bring to the table. Despite what console fanboys continue to spew, PC gaming is on the rise, and console gaming is on the relative decline.