ASUS Maximus II Formula P45 Motherboard

 
The ‘must have’ online multiplayer FPS of 2007/8. This is the fourth incarnation of Infinity Wards best-selling series and is set to become a stalwart of the FPS genre. The training sequence was run 5 times with the fps being recorded via Fraps and the average fps then deduced. All settings were set to the maximum possible for this test and were then run again with CrossfireX enabled (below).
 
 
 
Crossfire X enabled
 
 
 
F.E.A.R. is a game based on the Lithtech Jupiter EX engine. It has volumetric lighting, soft shadows, parallax mapping and particle effects. Included in the game is a benchmark facility that taxes the entire PC system. This benchmark was run a total of 5 times, with the highest and lowest results being excluded and an average being calculated on the remaining 3 results. All settiings were set to the maximum possible for this test and were then run again with CrossfireX enabled (below).
 
 
 
CrossfireX Enabled 
 
 
 
Oblivion from Bethseda is now an ‘old’ game by today’s standards, but is still one of the most visually taxing games out there. The benchmark was run in the wilderness with all settings set to the maximum possible. Bloom was used in preference to HDR. The test was run five times with the average FPS then being deduced.
 
 
 
CrossfireX Enabled
 
 
Result Observations
 
Real world gaming is where the Maximus II begins to show its true colours, beating the competition in both single and multiple GPU configurations by unremarkable, yet clear margins. So despite early setbacks in our CPU benchmarking, the Maximus has found its feet here and it has become quite clear that as a gaming platform based on the P45 chipset, the Maximus II appears to be the best choice.