ECS Black Series A970M-A DELUXE – PC performance graphics benchmarks of Graphics Cards

DESCRIPTION AND FUNCTIONALITY ECS A970M-A DELUXE

 Our sponsor, Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS), has provided the latest motherboard for gamers and enthusiasts for Socket AM3+: ECS A970M-A DELUXE from the popular Black Series brand line. 

  Packaging and equipment.

 The board is packaged in an attractive and stylish black cardboard box with a carrying handle.

The packaging is excellent, but the equipment is rather poor:

1. Motherboard

2.Documentation

3. Rear strip, for installation in the case

4. Disk with software

5. 5 SATA 6G cables

It is quite possible that when the board goes on general sale, the package will change for the better.

 Specification

The board is designed for installation of FX-Series and Phenom II processors from AMD with a Socket AM3 or Socket AM3+ pad, characterized by a TDP level of up to 140 W (which is indicated on the board).

 A970M-A DELUXE is equipped with popular, proprietary technologies such as: ECS Nonstop Technology, Anti Dust Technology (ADS), ECS EZ Charger, ECS EZ BIOS, eOC and MIBX

Passive cooling system of three separate gold-plated radiators;
Four 240-pin DIMM slots for up to 32 GB of dual-channel DDR3 RAM with a frequency of 2133+(OC)/1866/1600/1333 MHz;
Two slots each PCI Express 2.0 x16, PCI Express x1 and PCI;
Five SATA III ports;
Realtek ALC892 audio codec with support for THX TruStudio PRO technology, providing 7.1-channel HD Audio output;
Gigabit Ethernet controller Realtek RTL8111E;
PS/2 and eSATA ports located on the rear panel, an RJ-45 connector, eight USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports, an optical S/PDIF output, and five standard audio connectors.

The use of metal separators is an innovative technology that helps to separate the main components of the board from each other, thereby limiting the influence of temperatures on the components.

  5 levels of stability.

1. Extreme cooling thanks to the use of alloy ECS Hyper Alloy Choke, components emit 13% less heat compared to conventional ones.

2. Gilded throttles have an additional temperature reserve of 50 degrees;

3. ECS Hyper Alloy Choke helps increase overclocking potential by 30%;

4. Low electromagnetic interference. ECS Hyper Alloy Choke, the alloy with which the chokes are coated, also reduces electromagnetic interference affecting the environment;

5. High component life expectancy, which is achieved thanks to ECS Hyper Alloy Choke.

  15u Gold Contact – Three times higher protection

Provides three times higher protection against oxidation, as well as thermal and mechanical stress, which guarantees long service life, higher reliability and excellent contact.

  ECS EZ BIOS

The A970M-A DELUXE features the latest UEFI BIOS – ECS EZ BIOS. I was pleased with the full support of the Russian language

Which will allow you to flexibly configure each component in the system, and also has good overclocking functions, there is also good auto-overclocking. You can see more about the functionality of the BIOS in the video provided by ECS

3X power supply for ECS EZ Charger function

EZ Charger technology provides three times more power current than a regular USB port for USB devices. This feature is extremely useful, especially for iPhone, iPad and iPod devices. which require high current to charge faster in less time.

Motherboard Intelligent BIOS X (MIB X – Unique BIOS OC Interface)

Provides the most intuitive and convenient means of configuring CPU and memory clock mode or voltage settings for improved performance. The ECS OC profile offers 3 sets of OC operation values ​​for CPU and DRAM to achieve higher performance in a simple, fast and secure way. Supports custom BIOS settings and restores the latest best operating system configuration to create the most convenient operating system experience

Availability of SATA 6G ports

Double speed yes 6.0Gb/s unlike SATA 3.0 Gb/s

Hi-Speed ​​USB 3.0 Ports

Get lightning-fast speeds of up to 4.9Gb/s.

TEST RESULTS

Next, we will move directly to the gaming tests and determine how the gaming system based on the ECS Black Series A970M-A DELUXE motherboard behaves.

TEST PART

GPU test

Since our site is specific, we decided to conduct specific testing, which is somewhat different from the tests of other sites. We approached the adequacy of the AM3+ platform, in particular in the face of the ECS A970M-A DELUXE for modern games. The test processor was AMD Phenom II 1100T at base frequency.

Video cards based on the ECS A970M-A DELUXE platform were tested at maximum graphics quality using MSI Afterburner. We took two high-performance video cards HD 5850 and HD 7950 of the previous and previous generations and tried to determine whether this platform could fully provide comfortable playability in modern games. Let’s say right away that Assassin’s Creed III was not taken for testing due to very poor optimization for the processors of the game itself.

3DMark Vantage testing

Many people probably already know their results in 3DMark Vantage, and the result of 20000 parrots on one of today’s top video cards is the result of the low performance of the AM3+ platform. The previous generation video card showed results close to the nominal value.

3DMark 11 testing

3DMark 11 has a smaller impact of the platform on the performance of video cards, but it still occurs. As we can see, in super-heavy graphics modes, the platform’s performance limits are reduced to nothing.

Testing at maximum quality settings Call of Duty: Black Ops II

In Call of Duty: Black Ops II, the AM3+ platform did not limit video cards of any generation, showing almost maximum performance in standard and extra-heavy screen sizes.

Testing at maximum quality settings Hitman Absolution

In Hitman Absolution the same picture is observed as in Call of Duty: Black Ops II – system performance is limited by the graphics subsystem. 

Testing at maximum quality settings Far Cry 3

В Far Cry 3, as in previous tested games, an identical picture is observed – at maximum graphics quality settings, the weak link is not the AM3+ platform represented by the ECS Black Series A970M-A DELUXE, but the video card.

In our review, we made a short tour of the ECS Black Series A970M-A DELUXE motherboard so that ordinary users could become more familiar with the board itself, its characteristics and capabilities. This board is a good purchase both for building a new PC and for upgrading an old system.

We also tried to look at the prospects of the AM3+ platform itself as a whole and we can say with confidence that the gaming platform based on the ECS Black Series A970M-A DELUXE will cope with all tasks, and the weak point in the latest games is not the performance of the platform, but the graphics accelerator . So the AM3+ platform is not yet time to write off gamers; it is capable of adequately revealing the latest video accelerators, as our today’s representative ECS Black Series A970M-A DELUXE proved.