Maximus VI Formula Discussion Thread

[Raja@ASUS]

Maximus VI Formula Overview and Discussion Thread

The Maximus VI Formula should be available to purchase in a few weeks. A motherboard many have been waiting for, and for good reason. Plenty of cool features on offer, we won't go into them all, but have picked out some of the salient ones for you to check out below:

Board layout and features at a glance:

Gaming Features



SupremeFX

The Maximus VI Formula sports a specialized audio solution called SupremeFX. Based on Realtek’s latest ALC1150 chipset, the Cirrus Logic DAC and the TPA6120 headphone amplifier and an optimized PCB layout - isolating PCB layers and spacing sensitive traces away from other areas of the motherboard. Shielding is also utilized to minimize spurious noise from entering signal lines. High quality capacitors are used for power supply decoupling to minimize ripple and provide a low impedance at audio critical frequencies. The end result is a 120dB SNR, placing the Maximus VI Formula's onboard audio solution on par with the best discrete soundcards available.


On the software side, the latest addition to the package is Sonic Radar:

The Sonic Radar GUI

Sonic Radar is a HUD that is useful in FPS games. It shows a visual representation of where sounds are coming from. The location of footsteps, gunshots, explosions and anything else is shown in the 360 degree HUD while gaming:

BF3 – Sonic Radar showing direction of audio effects

The HUD can be made more transparent and its location on the screen changed. Sonic Radar very useful feature when gaming with stereo headsets, where surround effects are simulated and may not be easy to pinpoint.



On the subject of headsets, Perfect Voice has been added to improve the clarity of VOIP calls. It’s a software based filter that uses digital signal processing to remove noise pickup from your mic while making a call:

DSP helps reduce ambient noise for clearer comms

Perfect Voice works with any plug in microphone/headset to clean up voice transmission during calls.

ROG RAMDISK

With high density memory modules and kits becoming the norm, many of us have an abundance of free memory on our systems that never gets utilized. ROG RAM Disk has been coded to take advantage of that free space to help speed up the system.

ROG RAM Disk GUI

Unlike many free RAM drive tools, ROG RAM DISK has no size limitations – up to 80% of the free memory (not used by the OS) can be configured as a RAM drive.


To get you an idea of how fast a RAM drive is, check the screenshot below:

10000 MB/s sequential write speeds

Applications stored on ROG RAM DISK are written to hard storage (HHD/SSD) when the system is prompted for shutdown.



Of course, re-installing games to the RAM DISK would be a painful experience. That's why ROG RAM DISK has a feature know as Junction Mode.

Setting a junction point to a game folder allows critical game files to be transferred to the RAM DISK without interfering with the original installation. Just point the software at the game folder and it will take care of the rest. This way, critical files such as maps can be accessed directly from the RAM DISK, speeding up load times.



Discussing features is fine, but what really matters for many users in knowing a board can overclock and run stable. How about 24 hour stability testing? Here's a few screenies from JJ, showing the Maximus VI Formula running different memory configs and CPU overclocks:

Over 24 hours AIDA64 passed at 4.7GHz DDR3-2800 16GB 4x4




Over 24 hours AIDA64 passed at 4.6GHz DDR3-2133 32GB 8X4





4.8GHz DDR3-2400 AIDA 1 Hour - right at the limits of the CPU and cooling

Use this thread to discuss/share results when you get your boards folks

[TheSupremus]

I hope it's the first week of August. I am pretty much on the verge to either waiting a week or two more or simply moving over to MSI or HERO. Would be nice to hear something about the pricing as well...

Edit:

Nevertheless, thank you for the information

PS: Id discuss a results id get from my benches if I actually had a board, specially the Formula VI *wink* *wink*

I am @ 4.5Ghz AMD 555 BE - Asus M4N78 - GTX 460, upgrade is imminent :3

[Raja@ASUS]

Schedule shows channel availability approx week 31 - it's a matter of how long it takes to get to retailers and for them to get the boards on sale. Can't be any more specific than that, I know how it is waiting, but then I never get myself into a situation where I'm without a working PC while I wait for what i want

[LUXUS]

I think I'll buy this motherboard

[Raja@ASUS]

For North America, Newegg will have stock first (exclusive initially). We have been given a first week of August time-frame for boards being on sale at the Egg

[TheSupremus]

Is there anything you could tell us when it comes to the price? Nearer to the Hero price or Extreme?

[Raja@ASUS]

I'd say somethere around $299 approx give or take.

[BravoNyN]

north america first .. as usual

when will it be released in europe ?
we have people living here to you know!

[br4sco]

@BravoNyN you mean we have people willing to spend money kinda annoying though - just lift the NDA and give us some specifics pls

[Raja@ASUS]

No idea on that - I work for NA, and those other regions have their own reps and channel distribution. I'd suggest you email them to find out as they are not on the forum.