The ASRock AB350 Gaming K4 Motherboard Review: Dual M.2 at $90
by Gavin Bonshor on April 9, 2018 9:00 AM ESTGaming Performance
Ashes of the Singularity
Seen as the holy child of DirectX12, Ashes of the Singularity (AoTS, or just Ashes) has been the first title to actively go explore as many of DirectX12s features as it possibly can. Stardock, the developer behind the Nitrous engine which powers the game, has ensured that the real-time strategy title takes advantage of multiple cores and multiple graphics cards, in as many configurations as possible.
Rise Of The Tomb Raider
Rise of the Tomb Raider is a third-person action-adventure game that features similar gameplay found in 2013's Tomb Raider. Players control Lara Croft through various environments, battling enemies, and completing puzzle platforming sections, while using improvised weapons and gadgets in order to progress through the story.
One of the unique aspects of this benchmark is that it’s actually the average of 3 sub-benchmarks that fly through different environments, which keeps the benchmark from being too weighted towards a GPU’s performance characteristics under any one scene.
Thief
Thief has been a long-standing title in PC gamers hearts since the introduction of the very first iteration which was released back in 1998 (Thief: The Dark Project). Thief as it is simply known rebooted the long-standing series and renowned publisher Square Enix took over the task from where Eidos Interactive left off back in 2004. The game itself utilises the fluid Unreal Engine 3 engine and is known for optimised and improved destructible environments, large crowd simulation and soft body dynamics.
Total War: WARHAMMER
Not only is the Total War franchise one of the most popular real-time tactical strategy titles of all time, but Sega delve into multiple worlds such as the Roman Empire, Napoleonic era and even Attila the Hun, but more recently they nosedived into the world of Games Workshop via the WARHAMMER series. Developers Creative Assembly have used their latest RTS battle title with the much talked about DirectX 12 API so that this title can benefit from all the associated features that comes with it. The game itself is very CPU intensive and is capable of pushing any top end system to their limits.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
43 Comments
View All Comments
jimandroidpc - Thursday, April 12, 2018 - link
I understand, but why review with chips that are a year old and about to be replaced, if anything why not wait til 2xxx?? fwiw I bought this motherboard last year and everything I see in this review I saw already in other.punlished reviewsThe_Assimilator - Monday, April 9, 2018 - link
I just want a motherboard that dispenses with all the useless bells and whistles like LEDs, a bajillion PCIe slots, useless "reinforcement" on the PCIe slots, half a bajillion M.2 slots, pretty-but-useless VRM heatsinks, and "armour" over the IO panel.Instead I want ONE PCIe x16 slot, ONE M.2 slot, heatsinks that actually dissipate heat, a beefy VRM, a good BIOS, at least 6 SATA ports, and a TON of USB 3.1 gen 1 and 3.1 gen 2 ports and headers. And all of it can be whatever goddamn mish-mash of primary colours the manufacturer deigns, AS LONG AS IT GOD DAMN PERFORMS AND IS PRICED RIGHT.
svan1971 - Monday, April 9, 2018 - link
1 pcie m.2 slot.1 reinforced pcie x16 slot. sli and crossfire are dead.
Realtek 1150 Audio is fine.
Intel gigabit lan no killer shit.
excellent vrm cooling and a good bios. Is that to much to ask mb manufacturers?
Cygni - Monday, April 9, 2018 - link
Sorry, manufacturers aren't responsible for meeting your specific corner case needs.joos2000 - Monday, April 9, 2018 - link
If they want me to buy their product, they bloody well are.CheapSushi - Monday, April 9, 2018 - link
So go buy some cheap as shit Foxconn board already or something from Tyan and SuperMicro and quit bitching.CheapSushi - Monday, April 9, 2018 - link
There are already plenty of options, even mini-ITX ones, that are bare bones basic and affordable with those features from various generations. But it seems like that isn't obvious enough. So what we do end up having plenty of constantly is people who moan about what makes the PC world great in the first place, options, because the market doesn't exclusively build products for them and only them because anything else is just superfluous. They pretend to be enthusiasts but they're really just loud casuals.wagui - Monday, April 9, 2018 - link
You should be using SATA3_1 to reduce boot time, can you test that and with Full Screen Logo disabled?ZolaIII - Monday, April 9, 2018 - link
Thanks but no thanks. I would rather spent additional 10$ (20$ on common $80 MB) for better Realtek audio solution than waist it for a second M2 slot.Lord of the Bored - Wednesday, April 11, 2018 - link
A SATA-ONLY m.2 slot, at that.