ECS Z170-Claymore (LGA 1151) Motherboard Review

CPU & GPU Performance

Cinebench

Letting the Z170-Claymore out and combining it with the i7-6700K has provided some average results. It just goes to show that in Cinebench, the bandwidth offered by the motherboard is well within a reasonable tolerance of error for the CPU. As you would expect, overclocking sees a huge performance increase.

WPrime

wPrime works in a similar way to Cinebench, but the performance is measured in time rather than performance; the lower the number, the better the score. The results here are a little scattered with the more premium options taking the win by 6-7 seconds. Again, once overclocked, the system managed an impressive 158 seconds for the 1024M calculation.

SiSoft Sandra

The results from SiSoft Sandra are again, well within the margin of error for the CPU.

3DMark

PCIe bandwidth offered by the motherboard is no longer a limitation for the graphics card and you only really start seeing limitations when combining a high-end graphics card with a 3-4-year-old, low-end system. This means that the performance results here are only really impacted by the graphics card itself and possible software updates. The Z170 Claymore sits right in the middle of the pack when using the Extreme scores to sort the results.

Tomb Raider

A similar story here, although the Claymore drops to the bottom of the chart. That isn’t really an issue when you consider that the difference between top and bottom is just 2.3FPS at 1440p.

Bioshock Infinite

This time, we see a huge surge at 1080p but a slight dip at 1440p; this was consistent over three tests.