Index
Introduction & Specifications
Unboxing & Layout
BIOS & Software
Multimedia, Multitasking & Gaming Benchmarks
Overclocking & Conclusion
BIOS and Software
ASUS, in my opinion has been the gold standard for motherboard software and utilities since as back as I can think of. All other chipset manufacturers have been merely playing catchup with ASUS’s offerings. Having said that, the BIOS provided on the Maximus VI Hero has got to be one of the largest and most functional BIOSes I’ve ever come to encounter. There have been quite a couple of things added here, a tool called “Secure Erase” which restores your SSDs to their original performance, a page where you can drag-and-drop the fine-tuning settings you use universally for quick access while overclocking, and a monstrous number of voltage and timing options you can tweak to fine tune your system to the highest accurate degree.
UEFI BIOS
If you’re familiar with the ASUS UEFI BIOS, you’ll feel right at home with the BIOS module provided with the Maximus VI Hero. The layout hasn’t changed principally since the P67 days, apart from a few additions here and there. ASUS EZ-Mode is ever so present, allowing to choose from three performance profiles i.e. Power Saver, Balanced and Performance. The motherboard accordingly overclocks your system to the values it feels are best suitable for your CPU configuration. I saw a video at newegg.com where an ASUS executive mentions that these values have been pre-defined according to the tests ASUS performed across a plethora of current gen CPUs. I have been using EZ-Mode for a long time and it works perfectly fine.
ROG motherboards set themselves apart from other ASUS’ mainstream offerings by the inclusion of the Extreme Tweaker menu. If you’re not comfortable with using the automated EZ-Mode, you can always fine tune the settings according to your preferences in the Extreme Tweaker menu. Here, you can adjust the target CPU, DRAM, cache, DMI/PEG clocks, and CPU graphics speeds.
The AI Overclock menu is also slightly enhanced, offering adjustments for cache ratio settings, internal PLL overvoltage, memory frequency, DRAM ratio, Xtreme Tweaking, CPU graphics Max. ratio, CPU level up, and EPU power savings. In the sub-menus you can access settings for DRAM Timing Control, GPU.DIMM POST, DIGI+ Power Control, Tweakers Paradise, and CPU Power Management.
Bundled Motherboard Software
Standard software utilities offered with the Maximus VI Hero are MemTweakit for memory timings and ROG GAMEFirst for network traffic prioritization.
ROG RAMDisk is a tool to help you get into the BIOS on the next boot if you have Windows 8’s FastBoot options enabled. This a new feature in the Intel Z87 based chipsets.
The ASUS TurboV software is back again, this time with an ROG based theme. You can access Fan Xpert2 through this software to adjust your fan speeds.
Index
Introduction & Specifications
Unboxing & Layout
BIOS & Software
Multimedia, Multitasking & Gaming Benchmarks
Overclocking & Conclusion
[…] Platinum GTX 760. The first RoG product we reviewed was the Maximus IV Hero motherboard, which we thoroughly enjoyed. While we have already reviewed the stock GTX 760 from NVIDIA, we decided to put the Striker […]