Subsystem Testing
Memory Bandwidth
In this test, we see a score of 44.45GB/s using Intel defaults and slightly less using motherboard defaults. These two results are within the margin of error territory so I wouldn’t take anything away from the difference. Of course, a DDR4 motherboard has no chance of competing in this test with a DDR5 board, the DDR5 results are only included for reference between DDR4 vs DDR5 and do not reflect upon the merits of the motherboard.
DPC Latency
Up to this point, the GIGABYTE Z690 GAMING X DDR4 has worked remarkably well for the most part. (More on that later.) However, in the DPC latency test, we saw absolutely inexcusable and abysmal results. This was replicated repeatedly. I went through the startup menus, updated all the drivers, and couldn’t get this to stop happening.
However, I did perform a test and watched TV shows on Hulu, and Netflix, and videos on Youtube, and played some games and had no trouble with audio dropouts or other issues normally associated with systems that have DPC latency issues. It’s possible this is a false reading as it didn’t seem to impact the user experience at all.
At the end of the day, DPC latency issues are usually fixable with driver and firmware updates. Given that these readings didn’t seem to cause any discernable issues, I would chalk it up to an error with the application, though we haven’t seen that before either. When it comes to DPC latency, your mileage may vary.
M.2 Performance
In these tests, we can see the Corsair MP600 1TB M.2 NVMe SSD is performing just like it should be based on its specifications. Unlike mechanical drives, the performance is going to be far more consistent between motherboards. However, this confirms that the M.2 slots are indeed working as advertised and we aren’t experiencing any issues with reduced bandwidth or odd PCIe switching behavior.