Gigabyte X99M-Gaming 5 Review

Overclocking

We've seen some small variations in overclocking since the X99 launch but in general, the ability to increase the Tj Max has often proved very useful when gunning for a maximum overclock. Sadly this isn't an option with the X99M-Gaming 5 but it didn't stop us landing on a stable 4.34GHz using a vcore of 1.33v, multiplier of 43x and boosting the baseclock by 1MHz too.

This is just about the fastest joint result we've seen so we have no qualms about recommending the X99M-Gaming 5 if you're looking to use it for benchmarking, while the good on-board cooling will likely lend itself to decent every day overclocks too.

That said, you'll need some hefty cooling as after 5-10 minutes in Prime95, the temperatures just toppled over the Tj Max and the CPU throttled back so while this is a great overclock, some of the benchmarks ended up being a little slower than expected as a result.

EFI

If we were to pick one area for improvement with the X99M-Gaming 5, it would probably be the EFI. It's not terrible, but it's not as clear and well laid out as MSI's and Asus's latest efforts. For example, the voltages are spread over several different sections, meaning it takes longer to enter many settings - the chipset and PCG core voltages are even the only options on one page so it would have made more sense to just lump these in with the CPU voltage options in our opinion, rather than having an entirely new page just for two options.













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