I. Preface
Now on the market, intel's B series motherboards, its comprehensive product performance is really getting stronger and stronger, the materials used in power supply are becoming more and more luxurious, there are no shortcomings in memory, and the expansion ability is also steadily improving.
However, not long ago, when the B-series motherboard was paired with some high-end K-series processors, its power consumption could not be controlled, compared with the Z-series motherboard, the overall power consumption and temperature performance would be higher, and the heat could not be controlled when it was fully loaded.
Faced with this problem, intel soon launched the 104 microcode, which allows high-end K-series processors to exert their full strength on B-series motherboards, while power consumption and heat generation can also be effectively controlled.
In the past, many friends would be worried about whether the 104 microcode would affect the experience, but my friend is going to use GIGABYTE's B760M Ice Sculpture X motherboard with a 13700K processor, let's test it together to see how the 13700K processor performs under the default microcode and 104 microcode.
2. GIGABYTE Ice Sculpture X B760M Motherboard Unboxing & Appearance
▼The box of this Gigabyte B760M Ice Sculpture X motherboard is also white, which is very beautiful.
▼The appearance of the motherboard is very beautiful, not only the covering parts on the front of the motherboard are white, but also the PCB of the motherboard is also white, and the overall appearance is very good.
▼ The power supply is very luxurious, there are dense power supply inductors and capacitors around the processor, and the power supply circuit is also covered with metal auxiliary heat sinks to ensure stable operation.
▼The main PCIe slot part of the motherboard supports PCIe 5.0 x 16 up to 16, with alloy armor reinforcement on the outside, and the auxiliary fixed card slot adopts a quick and easy to disassemble design, and the wrench is very large, making it more convenient to disassemble and assemble the graphics card on a daily basis. The surface of the M2 solid metal heat sink has a beautiful coating, is very large, and supports quick release.
Part 3: GIGABYTE Ice Sculpture X B760M Motherboard Simple disassembly
▼ Simply remove the metal cover of the power supply part of the motherboard, you can see that there is 8 phases of power supply on the left side and 8 phases of power supply on the upper side, with a total of 16 phases of power supply, which is a 14+1+1 phase configuration.
▼The PWM main control chip of the power supply circuit is the NCP81530R of ON, which supports the maximum 8+2 phase control signal output, and its silk screen ending is R, which supports the latest Rev0.95 of intel.
▼The power supply on the left side is also 8 phases, and the 7 phases above are all DrMos, silk screen NCP302155, the maximum stable output current is 55A under the PWM control signal at 1MHz frequency, and the maximum stable output output is 60A under the PWM control signal at the frequency of 300KHz, which is very good. The bottom phase is the peripheral power supply of the processor, which adopts the upper and lower bridge design, one up and two down.
▼The power supply on the upper side is also 8 phases, all DrMos, silk screen NCP302155, the same maximum stable output current is 55A and 60A respectively, 7 on the left side are powered by Vcore, and 1 on the right side is powered by Vgt. This power supply circuit is still very good, the core power supply is 14 phases, all DrMos, using a multi-phase design, the core display power supply is 1 phase, and the peripheral power supply is 1 phase.
4. GIGABYTE Ice Sculpture X B760M motherboard installed
▼GIGABYTE's B760M Ice Sculpture X motherboard is an mATX specification, and there are more cases that can be matched with it, and the mushroom is paired with the Antik C8 chassis here, and the effect is also very good.
▼The motherboard is easily installed on the inside of the case, and the processor is also easily fixed to the motherboard.
▼The memory selection is ShadowDrive's HOF PRO 16GB*2 7000MHz DDR5 memory, and the graphics card is ShadowDrive's RTX4080 Super OC, which is all white hardware.
GIGABYTE's B760M Ice Sculpture X motherboard's ARGB lighting effect is Gen2 version, with richer colors and more fantastic effects.
▼In the middle of the power supply metal heatsink on the left side of the motherboard, there is also the AORUS LOGO, which also supports ARGB lighting effects and motherboard synchronization, and the effect is very good.
▼The M2 slot on the top of the motherboard supports quick release, but because it is an mATX motherboard, it is slightly closer to the PCIe slot.
▼The appearance of this set of HOF PRO DDR5 memory is very beautiful, there is an RGB light strip on the top and side, the soft light effect is very good, and the color transition is evenly distributed.
▼ The side and front of this RTX4080 Super OC graphics card support ARGB lighting effects, support motherboard synchronization, usually can echo well with the lighting effects of the whole machine, and it is also equipped with a white graphics card bracket as standard, and the graphics card bracket also supports ARGB lighting effects.
▼Antek C8 This case adopts a classic sea view room design, and the side and front are equipped with a large area of side-permeable glass as standard, which can better display the hardware inside the case.
▼The internal space of the case is very good, especially in terms of width, you can easily install a RTX4080 Super OC graphics card over the shoulder, and smooth wiring.
5. GIGABYTE Ice Sculpture X B760M Motherboard Test
▼ The configuration of the whole machine is at a glance, the processor is 13700K, the motherboard is GIGABYTE B760M Ice Sculpture X, and the graphics card is Shadowrac's RTX4080 Super OC.
1. Default microcode
▼ A simple test of the whole machine, the score of the whole machine is 281W, of which the processor alone scores 110.4W, which is very powerful.
▼ Take a brief look at the hardware specifications of 13700K, 8 large cores, 8 small cores, 24 threads, 30MB of L3 cache, very strong performance, and very cost-effective.
▼ Simple run CPU-Z, single-core score 866.4, multi-core score 12564.4, good performance.
▼ Game measurement, 2K resolution, full high image quality, outdoor scenes, the game frame rate is about 352 frames, and the performance is good.
▼The frame rate of the indoor game scene is slightly lower, around 340 frames, which is also very smooth.
▼ Equality of All Beings Odyssey, 2K resolution, extremely high image quality, the lowest volume cloud, and the frame rate of the corridor game is about 158 frames.
▼The game frame rate performance in outdoor scenes is also very good, at around 155 frames.
▼ Finally, the overall average frame rate of the game is around 159 frames, so you can play it freely.
▼ Cyberpunk 2077, 2K resolution, ray tracing super special effects, Popeye DLSS auto.
▼ The frame rate of the bar bar game is around 113 frames, and the performance is very good.
▼The frame rate of the outdoor beach game is about 130 frames, which is very smooth, and the effects of ray tracing and light and shadow are great and realistic.
▼ In the end, the overall average game frame rate is around 120.56 frames, and the overall game is very smooth and can be played.
▼ Heat dissipation test, simply run a CPU-Z stress test, the temperature of 13700K soared directly to 95 °C, the temperature is super high, the power consumption is about 230W, and the power supply temperature fluctuates around 51 °C.
▼ Single-baked FPU test, the power consumption is about 255W, the temperature of the 13700K processor goes directly to 100°C, the temperature is too high, the processor is downgraded, under the default microcode, the power consumption and temperature are difficult to control under the high load condition of 13700K. The power supply temperature fluctuates around 54°C, which is not high.
2. Replace 104 microcode
▼ Enter the motherboard BIOS, and select 104 microcode in the processor microcode.
▼ Anti-drop pressure here, mushrooms will habitually choose a higher gear, so that the voltage of the processor will be more intuitive and fast to set.
▼The core voltage part of the processor, different processors have different physiques, everyone sets them according to their own processor model and physique, and the mushroom processor is more general, and the voltage given will be a little higher.
3. 104 microcode test
▼ It's also Master Lu's test, the score of the whole machine fluctuates slightly, the processor and graphics card score are a little lower, and the memory score is a little higher, which feels like an error. In all subsequent comparison charts, the upper and left parts are 104 microcodes, and the lower and right sides are the default microcodes.
▼ Run the CPU-Z performance test, after replacing the 104 microcode, the single-core performance is slightly stronger, 1.1 points higher, and the multi-core performance is slightly weaker, about 100 points lower, it feels like an error.
▼After replacing the 104 microcode, PUBG, the same special effects, resolution settings, and the same position, the frame rate of outdoor games has increased from 352 frames to 417 frames, and the processor temperature has been reduced from about 60°C to about 45°C, with significant performance improvements and significant temperature drops.
▼ In indoor scenes, the temperature of the processor decreases significantly between the two game frames.
▼ Equality of All Beings Odyssey, the same resolution, special effect settings, the difference in the frame rate of the corridor game is obvious, after replacing the 104 microcode, the game frame rate is higher, from 158 frames to about 185 frames. The difference in processor temperature is also huge, with temperatures going up to around 85°C before and up to 65°C after that.
▼ Finally, the overall average frame rate has been increased by one frame, from 159 frames to 160 frames, and the minimum game frame rate and maximum game frame rate have been slightly improved.
▼Cyberpunk 2077, with the same resolution and special effect settings, the frame rate of the bar game is the same, all around 112 and 113 frames, and the temperature of the processor is greatly different, from 62 °C to 48 °C, which is significantly reduced.
▼In the end, the average frame rate of the overall game is almost the same, there is no difference in the number before the decimal point, there is a slight difference in temperature, and at 104 microcode, the temperature of the processor is lower.
▼ The last is the heat dissipation test, run a CPU-Z stress test, the processor power consumption fluctuates around 215W, the processor turbo frequency is normal, the temperature fluctuates around 79°C, and the power supply temperature is around 49°C.
▼ Single-baked FPU test, the processor power consumption is about 225W, the processor turbo frequency is normal, the temperature fluctuates around 77°C, and the temperature of the power supply part of the motherboard is about 54°C, and the performance is also very good.
6. Summary
The overall performance of the GIGABYTE B760M Ice Sculpture X motherboard is still very good, the motherboard is very beautiful, the PCB is painted in white, the cover on the front of the motherboard is also white, the surface has a very delicate treatment, and the overall texture is very good, especially when paired with some white theme hosts, the effect is very good. The ARGB lighting interface of this motherboard is Gen2, with richer colors and more beautiful effects.
For the power supply part, this motherboard adopts a 14+1+1 phase power supply specification, of which the core power supply is 14 phases, and the 60A DrMos is all in the same color, which can easily meet the power supply needs of some high-end intel processors. For example, the 13700K matched by the mushroom friend, after choosing 104 microcode, the power consumption of a single baked FPU is about 230W, which lasts for 5 minutes, and the power supply temperature of the motherboard is stable at about 54°C, which is very good.
This 13700K processor with B760M motherboard, choose 104 microcode, set the appropriate processor voltage, you can control the temperature and power consumption under the premise of excellent control, the performance and game frame rate performance are very OK, perfect!
Thank you!
The End