ASRock FM2A88X Extreme6+ Motherboard Review

By Hank Tolman

Manufacturer: ASRock Inc.

Full Disclosure: AMD provided the product sample used in this article.

FM2+ Motherboards sporting the A88X chipset started appearing in October 2013, but the improved functionality over the latest FM2 motherboards only became truly apparent with the release of the Kaveri line of APUs in January 2014. Add to that the recent release of AMD drivers supporting the Mantle API, and the FM2+ motherboards start to make sense. Benchmark Reviews has the AMD A10-7850K APU and a couple of FM2+ motherboards on hand. This article is dedicated to reviewing the ASRock FM2A88X Extreme6+ Motherboard to discover what sets it apart from the rest of the FM2+ crowd.ASRock categorizes their high-end motherboards into three series; Extreme, Overclocking, and Gaming. The three different series of motherboards are easily distinguished by their color schemes. The Gaming motherboards have red highlights on the PCIe and RAM slots while the Overclocking motherboard’s highlights are yellow. The Extreme series motherboards are all black. The FM2A88X Extreme6+ motherboard is ASRock’s flagship FM2+ Extreme series motherboard. It is one of a long line of A88X motherboards released by ASRock. Of course, ASRock isn’t the only manufacturer to release a line of FM2+ motherboards. There is a lot of competition out there. Manufacturers can’t just rely on the chipset features to sell motherboards. Each company adds their specific features, thermal management systems, tweaks, and perks. Let’s get down to business and explore the ASRock FM2A88X Extreme6+ motherboard to find out what sets it apart.
*Specifications taken from ASRock website.

The ASRock FM2A88X Extreme6+ Motherboard box sports a giant A-Style logo on the front and not much else. The A-Style logo shows off a circle of icons representing each of the A-Style features. If you flip the box over, the back lays out those icons and tells you what they all represent. We’ll get into the details of the A-Style features a little later on. Inside the box you’ll find the motherboard, some SATA cables, and the I/O shield. That’s it, unless you count the driver disc and manuals. It is a little on the skimpy side. Not much to see here, so we’ll move on. As part of the ASRock Extreme series of motherboards, the FM2A88X Extreme6+ is almost completely black, highlighted only by the gold lettering on the heatsinks and gold plating on the capacitors. The thermal management on ASRock FM2A88X Extreme6+ is also pretty modest. There is small, rectangular heatsink covering the chipset. It is accented with the word ASROCK and some stylish grooves. The only other heatsink covers a portion of the CPU VRM components. It is also a small, slightly stylized heatsink, but it only covers about half of the VRM. That’s all there is for thermal management on the motherboard. The four DIMM slots on the ASRock FM2A88X Extreme6+ are not color-coordinated, seeing as they are all black, but they are clearly labeled. DDR3_A1 is the closest to the APU socket, followed by A2, then B1, and B2 is closest to the 24-pin power connector. The FM2A88X Extreme6+ is touted as supporting RAM speeds of up to 2600MHz+ when overclocking. The A88X chipset itself supports 2400MHz RAM when overclocked and using an FM2+ APU. FM2 APUs support speeds up to 1866MHz. The four DIMM slots support up to 64GB of memory.While the FM2A88X Extreme6+ seems to be a little light-featured, it does have potential, especially where the PCIe slots are concerned. Unlike the Gigabyte G1.Sniper A88X, which only has a single PCIe x16 and a PCIe x4 for GPU expansion, the ASRock FM2A88X Extreme6+ has three full PCIe slots. The first two are PCIe x16 and are PCIe 3.0 when using an FM2+ APU. The third is a PCIe 2.0 x4 slot. Using these three PCIe slots, you can have a dual-graphics configuration at x8 and x8 with the first two slots and you can throw in a third GPU at x4. Using R7 graphics with an FM2+ A10 APU, you apparently even have a Quad CrossFireX configuration, using the on-die GPU as the fourth GPU. I suppose you could use three discrete R5 GPUs with an FM2+ A8 APU.A couple of other handy features on the FM2A88X Extreme6+ motherboard are the onboard power and reset buttons and the BIOS selector switch. Since I test motherboards a lot, I am a huge fan of the onboard power and reset buttons. Any overclocker or enthusiast who spends a lot of time inside their system will appreciate those buttons. The BIOS selector switch allows you easily switch back and forth between the two BIOS chips. That is very useful if you contract a virus that infects the BIOS or, more likely, if you try out a bad overclock that would normally require you to reset the CMOS.The ASRock FM2A88X Extreme6+ is home to seven SATA 3.0 6Gb/s ports. Six of them are horizontal facing, allowing you to use them even while using a long video card. The seventh SATA 6GB/s port is a vertical port that sits next to the two BIOS chips. Seven should be plenty. I hardly ever find myself using more than three or four. The A88X chipsets support RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 configurations, though, so who knows.To round out our closer look, let’s take a gander at the I/O panel. The A88X Extreme6+ I/O starts off with its only two USB 2.0 ports. Those ports sit on top of a Legacy PS/2 port. I just can’t condone the use of PS/2 anymore. If 64-key rollover isn’t enough for you, you need to re-evaluate your gaming style. You could be so much more. Of course, the legacy hardware doesn’t stop there. Right next to the PS/2 port is a D-Sub port on top of a dual-link DVI-D port. On the FM2A88X Extreme6+, the D-Sub port seems to have a function, though. With an FM2+ APU, the DVI and HDMI port can be used simultaneously, albeit with some restrictions. Basically, the two monitors have to be identical for it to work. But you could have quad-monitor output without a discrete graphics card on the FM2A88X Extreme6+. Next to the VGA and DVI ports are the HDMI port and DisplayPort.What comes next is a little interesting. The Extreme6+ has an HDMI input port. That’s not something you see every day. This input is basically a pass-through to your HDMI connected display. This makes hooking your computer up to your TV a lot more convenient; or hooking up a gaming or other device to your computer monitor. Hook your PS4, Xbox One, tablet, phone, or whatever you’d like into the HDMI input and you can toggle your monitor between the input device. You can even use the device on the display with your computer off. Pretty convenient. Rounding out the I/O panel are four USB 3.0 ports (colored blue), an eSata port, a Gigabit Ethernet port, and the audio ports, SPDIF and analog.
The key to selling motherboards is in the details. There are dozens of A88X motherboards that come in a variety of price ranges. What really sets each motherboard apart are the manufacturer specific features embedded in each board. ASRock sets itself apart from other manufacturers through a set of specific features that can really appeal to certain users. The ASRock FM2A88X Extreme6+ is home to ASRock’s A-Style features. A-Style is a series of lifestyle features that includes a lot of interesting functionalities. To start with, A-Style includes Home Cloud, which supports remote desktop and wake-on internet. You can control your PC from a smartphone, tablet, or computer from anywhere with an internet connection, even if your home computer is turned off. With wake-on internet, you can turn your computer on from anywhere. Home Cloud gives you complete access to your computer and all the files on it. You can view pictures or videos from your system, or stream music. I like this idea, especially for my wife. She is constantly complaining because her iPhone only has 8GB of storage. With all the apps, music, videos, and pictures on it, she doesn’t have any room to take more pictures! She doesn’t want to move them off the device, however. She wants to be able to show them to friends and family whenever she gets the chance; much to their chagrin, I am sure. Home Cloud could allow her to keep all those items at her fingertips while lightening the load on her smartphone. I’m more interested in Home Cloud for the document sharing, but there is plenty more you can do as well. You can monitor cameras hooked up to computer, or watch TV if your PC is connected. There are a lot of possibilities. ASRock and other manufacturers have really been improving the onboard sound quality of their motherboards. I remember a time when onboard sound wasn’t very good at all. That’s not the case as much anymore, but audiophiles might still be a little put off by a lot of onboard sound options. A new audio codec, built in amplifiers, component isolation, and the like are a few ways that motherboard manufacturers can really make their devices stand out from the rest without increasing the cost of the motherboard by too much. The ASRock FM2A88X Extreme6+ is home to Purity Sound, a combination of hardware and software audio solutions and technologies. The ASRock FM2A88X Extreme6+ uses the Realtek ALC1150 audio codec for 7.1 channel HD audio. The ALC1150 includes a 115dB signal to noise ratio Digital to Analog Converter (SNR DAC) with a differential amplifier. Purity Sound adds to that the Texas Instruments NE5532 premium headset amplifier with support for headphones up to 600 ohms to replace traditional audio capacitors. Rounding out Purity Sound is an EMI shielding cover for the codec and PCB isolated shielding to block noise from onboard components.Another of the features that ASRock uses to set the ASRock FM2A88X Extreme6+ apart from the competition is a high density glass fabric PCB designed to help with humidity and moisture issues. I really don’t have much of a problem with humidity shorting out any of my components because I live in Southern Arizona. If you happen to be from a more tropical environment, the high density glass fabric PCB on the ASRock FM2A88X Extreme6+ could extend the life of your motherboard. Along with a lot of other manufacturers, ASRock has moved to using gold capacitors for some of their higher-end products. The gold capacitors obviously cost more, but they are touted as being ultra-stable and extremely long-lasting. Interestingly enough, I’ve repaired a lot of motherboards over the last few years by replacing leaking capacitors, including solid caps. While the use of gold caps is relatively recent, I haven’t seen any leaking gold caps.The ASRock FM2A88X Extreme6+ uses a digital PWM design rather than a traditional analog design. This isn’t really unusual, but it is a very nice touch that should draw any potential overclockers. A digital VRM design allows overclockers to be much more precise in their voltage regulation. The ASRock FM2A88X Extreme6+ uses an 8+2 phase power design. In terms of voltage control, the Extreme6+ should be an excellent overclocker. In fact, back in October 2013, the ASRock FM2A88X Extreme6+ set a new FM2 record for overclocking, at 8.5GHz I might add. ASRock prides itself on their XFast555 technology, which is part of the A-Tuning software suite. XFast555 stands for 5x faster speeds in three categories; RAM, LAN, and USB. ASRock measures the 5x faster RAM speeds by creating a virtual disk from system memory and using Photoshop tests. XFast LAN testing was done by testing latency in WoW: Cataclysm after setting online gaming priority. Finally, ASRock used ATTO Disk Benchmark 4K read tests to show a 5x increase in read speeds. The A-Tuning suite also features another ASRock technology known as XBoost. By holding down X during starting, the ASRock FM2A88X Extreme6+ will automatically overclock your system components in order to get a 15.77% performance increase. You can also use Smart XBoost to set up a different single-button overclock profile. Alternatively, you can use other A-Tuning features such as EZ OC or OC Tweaker to overclock your system.

Most new motherboards have eschewed the traditional BIOS and use the UEFI format instead. The ASRock FM2A88X Extreme6+ is no different, of course. But the ASRock UEFI houses a number of features that you may not have seen before and that provide a lot of interesting functionality. You can find all of the traditional functionality you are used to in the ASrock UEFI, including an overclocking section and specific configuration utilities for the chipset, CPU, IO, and storage. There is also a hardware monitoring section that gives you temperature and voltage readings and lets you control your chassis fans. The standard boot section is available in the UEFI, letting you choose boot devices and preferences such as boot from LAN. The boot section is also where you enable fast boot, if you are so inclined.

Fast Boot basically cuts out the post altogether, making it extremely difficult to get back into the UEFI. It also lets you enable ASRock Instant Boot, which, according to ASRock, can get your boot times down to 1.5 seconds using the appropriate hardware configuration and Windows 8. Using Windows 8 and an Intel SSD, Instant Boot gave me a cold boot time of about 6 seconds. Not shabby at all. We are getting closer and closer to that Instant On that is so important in the age of tablets/smartphones. The new UEFI features can mostly be found in the Tools section of the UEFI. One of them is ability to use a USB key to startup your computer and log directly into Windows without having to worry about entering your logon password. This feature makes it so you can still completely secure your computer without having to remember a huge and complex password. Simply plug in the USB key and start up the system. Keep the USB key with you and no-one else can logon to your system.

Next up is the System Browser. If you are like me, then at some point you’ve had to remember the model number of your motherboard, or type of RAM you are using and you’d rather not have to open up your machine to figure it out. The System Browser gives you an overview of your machine and connected hardware. The ASRock UEFI also includes the UEFI Tech Service, an Easy RAID Installer, and an Easy Driver Installer. The Tech Service lets you send a report ASRock support personnel from the UEFI if you are experiencing technical difficulties while setting up your system.

The Easy RAID Installer and Easy Driver Installer were probably designed specifically with me in mind. Me and anyone else who finds themselves downloading just the LAN driver from the internet on a separate machine and sticking it on a thumb-drive in order to install it on a new build, that is. Easy Driver Installer does just that. It installs the LAN driver on your OS, then connects to the Internet and downloads the rest of the drivers. Easy RAID Installer is similar, but lets you install a RAID driver from a USB so you can install Windows on a RAID with your normally present Floppy Disk.

Other UEFI features include the ability to Reboot to UEFI, the ASRock OMG (online management guard), and sound and visual effects that just might (but probably won’t) make you want to spend more time inside the UEFI. Reboot to UEFI is useful if you want to get into the UEFI but have fast boot enabled. It’s nearly impossible, since the post is pretty much disabled. That being said, reboot to UEFI can also be tedious, since it will force you to enter the UEFI every time you restart the system.
The Microsoft DirectX-11 graphics API is native to the Microsoft Windows 7 Operating System, and will be the primary OS for our test platform. DX11 is also available as a Microsoft Update for the Windows Vista OS, so our test results apply to both versions of the operating system. All of the tests in this review were run with DX11 graphics.

While a lot of gamers use the 1680×1050 desktop resolution, 1920×1080 is rapidly becoming the most popular. Because it is the more demanding of the two, I ran all of my tests at a resolution of 1920×1080. You can expect slightly better frame rates if you are using 1680×1050, but the difference probably won’t be dramatic.

I used a combination of synthetic and video game benchmark tests in this article to illustrate relative performance among graphics solutions. Our benchmark frame rate results are not intended to represent real-world graphics performance, as this experience would change based on supporting hardware and the perception of individuals playing the video game.

• Motherboards: ASRock FM2A88X Extreme6+, ASUS A88X Pro, Biostar HiFi Z87W, Biostar HiFi Z77X
• Processor: AMD A10-7850K ($185), AMD A10-6800K ($140), Intel Core i5-4670 ($220), Intel Core i3-3220 ($125)
• System Memory: 8GB AMD Radeon DDR3 2400MHz
• Disk Drive: Seagate 1TB SSHD ST1000LM014
• PSU: Corsair CMPSU-850TX 850W 80-Plus Certified
• Operating System: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit

• AIDA 64
• SiSoft Sandra 2014
• PCMark 8

Synthetic Benchmarks

• 3DMark
  • Firestrike, Cloudgate, Ice Storm
• 3DMark11
  • “Performance” settings (1280×720)
• Unigine Heaven Benchmark 4.0
  • Tesselation, Low Settings

Gaming Benchmarks

• Tomb Raider
  • Normal Settings
• Bioshock Infinite
  • Low Settings

• Battlefield 4
  • Normal Settings

AIDA64 is a full 64-bit benchmark and test suite utilizing MMX, 3DNow! and SSE instruction set extensions, and will scale up to 32 processor cores. An enhanced 64-bit System Stability Test module is also available to stress the whole system to its limits. For legacy processors all benchmarks and the System Stability Test are available in 32-bit versions as well. The Queen benchmark is a simple integer benchmark focuses on the branch prediction capabilities and the misprediction penalties of the CPU. The Photoworxx benchmark performs common photo and image editing tasks. The AMD APUs certainly excel in the Queen tests, but come down below the i5-4670 in Photoworxx. The next two benchmarks both go to the Intel CPU. The AES benchmark tests CPU performance using AES. The Hash benchmark measures CPU performance using SHA-1. The A10-7850K does better in the Hash tests, actually beating the previous generation A10-6800K. In the AES tests, it doesn’t quite make it. This integer benchmark measures combined CPU and memory subsystem performance through the public ZLib compression library. CPU ZLib test uses only the basic x86 instructions, and it is HyperThreading, multi-processor (SMP) and multi-core (CMP) aware. Once again, the A10-7850K can’t quite manage to keep up with the A10-6800K, let alone the i5-4670. The final benchmarks are the floating point benchmarks. Julia tests single-point precision (32-bit) and Mandel tests double-point precision (64-bit). Not only to the Intel CPUs dominate in these two tests, but the A10-7850K also loses out to the A10-6800K again. The VP8 benchmark measures video compression performance using the Google VP8 (WebM) video codec Version 1.1.0. The SinJulia benchmark measures the extended precision (also known as 80-bit) floating-point performance through the computation of a single frame of a modified “Julia” fractal. The A10-7850K dominates in the VP8 benchmark, but can’t keep up in SinJulia.
SiSoftware Sandra is a 32- and 64-bit client/server Windows system analyzer that includes benchmarking, testing and listing modules. It tries to go beyond other utilities to show you more of what is really going on under the hood so you draw comparisons at both a high and low-level in a single product. You can get information about the CPU, GPGPU, chipset, video adapter (GPU), ports, printers, sound card, memory, network, Windows internals even .NET and Java.

The A10-7850K does extremely well in the Memory Bandwidth tests, unsurprisingly. The APU also outperforms the more expensive i5-4670 in the Sandra Aggregate score. The cryptography benchmarks, like in the AIDA64 tests, go to the Intel CPU.

It is also no surprise that the A10-7850K completely destroys all of the other CPUs in the GP Processing tests. It also does well in the Arithmetic processing tests, but not nearly as well in the Multi-Media tests, which don’t actually depend as much on the GPU as you might think.

CINEBENCH is a cross-platform testing suite that measures hardware performance and is the de facto standard benchmarking tool for leading companies and trade journals for conducting real-world hardware performance tests. With the new Release 15, systems with up to 256 threads can be tested. CINEBENCH is available for both Windows and OS X and is used by almost all hardware manufacturers and trade journals for comparing CPUs and graphics cards.Next, let’s look at DX-11 performance.

3DMark11 is Futuremark’s latest iteration of the video card software benchmark suite, building on the features of 3DMark Vantage and 3DMark 06 as well as earlier version. It’s optimized and intended for testing DirectX-11 capable hardware running under Windows Vista or Windows 7.

• 3DMark11
  • “Extreme” settings, 1920×1080 resolution

The Unigine Heaven benchmark is a free publicly available tool that grants the power to unleash the graphics capabilities in DirectX-11 for Windows 7 or updated Vista Operating Systems. It reveals the enchanting magic of floating islands with a tiny village hidden in the cloudy skies. With the interactive mode, emerging experience of exploring the intricate world is within reach. Through its advanced renderer, Unigine is one of the first to set precedence in showcasing the art assets with tessellation, bringing compelling visual finesse, utilizing the technology to the full extend and exhibiting the possibilities of enriching 3D gaming. The distinguishing feature in the Unigine Heaven benchmark is a hardware tessellation that is a scalable technology aimed for automatic subdivision of polygons into smaller and finer pieces, so that developers can gain a more detailed look of their games almost free of charge in terms of performance. Thanks to this procedure, the elaboration of the rendered image finally approaches the boundary of veridical visual perception: the virtual reality transcends conjured by your hand. The Heaven benchmark excels at providing the following key features:

• Native support of OpenGL, DirectX 9, DirectX-10 and DirectX-11
• Comprehensive use of tessellation technology
• Advanced SSAO (screen-space ambient occlusion)
• Volumetric cumulonimbus clouds generated by a physically accurate algorithm
• Dynamic simulation of changing environment with high physical fidelity
• Interactive experience with fly/walk-through modes
• ATI Eyefinity support

• Unigine Heaven 3.0
  • High Shaders, Extreme tessellation,8xAA, 4xAF

The new 3DMark includes everything you need to benchmark your hardware. With three all new tests you can bench everything from smartphones and tablets, to notebooks and home PCs, to the latest high-end, multi-GPU gaming desktops. And it’s not just for Windows. With 3DMark you can compare your scores with Android and iOS devices too. It’s the most powerful and flexible 3DMark we’ve ever created. Up next are the gaming benchmarks.
The Tomb Raider game includes a benchmark in it that highlights the TressFX features used in the game. TressFX is specifically a hair quality physics feature that aids in realistic looking hair in games. Each strand of hair is given dozens of connections in a chain-like fashion. Each strand can be affected by gravity, wind, and head movements. The hair is also given collision, so that the overlapping hairs don’t merge together and they don’t penetrate solid surfaces like the character’s head.
Bioshock Infinite, by Irrational Games, was one of the most highly anticipated games of its time. According the vast majority of reviews on the game, it didn’t disappoint. Having played it, I can tell you that the story line grabs you and doesn’t let go. The moral and ethical quandries and twisting plot will keep you in front of your screen for hours on end. The graphics are nothing to shake a stick at either. That being said, Bioshock Infinite was built on the aging (although still widely used) Unreal Engine 3. That same engine has been in use since DX9 and was designed to take full advantage of shader hardware. In Bioshock Infinite, of course, the engine uses DX11 features to make the graphics that much more realistic.

The graphics engine behind Battlefield 4 is called Frostbite 3, which offers more realistic environments with higher resolution textures and next-generation particle effects. A first-time ‘networked water’ fluid system allows players in the game to see the same wave at the same time. Tessellation has also been improved since Frostbite 2 in BF3. That’s it for the benchmarks.

– Very Skimpy on the Accessories
– Visually Boring

• Performance: 8.00
• Appearance: 7.00
• Construction: 8.75
• Functionality: 8.75
• Value: 9.00