Asus Rampage III Formula vs. Rampage III Extreme

A

Armpit

Gawd
Joined
Sep 1, 2002
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Seems like the only difference is the audio and slots, besides the price. Any other differences I should be aware of, this would support a i7 980X.
 
No. Yes.

The Forumla is a more complete board with all the newest features.
If you're not going to run Quad Fire or Tri+SLI+Physx, the Formula is the better buy.
 
Better audio, software i.e. GameFirst, 2 USB headers

The two front panel USB headers on the Formula alone makes it a more complete board.
The R3E only came with one front panel USB header which was ridiculous.

The R3E may have more BIOS options but the majority of users will never use them.
 
I went R3F for my personal build over the Extreme. I see no reason to go Extreme unless you're going to be filling all 4 physical PCI-E x16 slots with video cards (and really, aside from bench-markers who actually does that?), or really really want better stock NB cooling.
 
Good thread. I would like to see more thoughts on this. My current
build is an RE. Still going strong now for almost two years on water
at 4.0GHz, NB on water loop too, along with my 4870x2. Even though
I had to switch to an off board net card because the lightening fried
the the on board controller. That was real lucky.

All in all this has been an outstanding Chipset besides having problems
getting over that 4.2GHz mark. I tried everything for a long time and gave
up. Heat was not an issue with my quad 480 rad. Maybe it's the 0801
bios I'm still running. ANYWAY....

My only other gripe was paying good money for a board like this and
having to tear all the heat pipes off and re-doing the TIM. Unacceptable.

SO, my thoughts are this. I'm planning on doing another major build but
am seriously considering purchasing a R3F over an R3E. I wanna build
around the i7-975 EE. I want to be able to run a pair of SSD's in R0 and
a dual video cards or a x2 card. A nice audio card as well. Plus I want to
be able to max the RAM out. I game, and edit 15MP RAW photo files, and
edit HD movies.

Hmmm...which shall I buy??? Thanks for any feedback.
 
I just bought the Rampage III Formula and got it today :) I chose the Formula over the Extreme because of the Size of the board.

Standard ATX for the Win. Its harder to find a good case and do decent cable management with a EATX case IMO.

Plus I will never have more than 2 video cards, so to me the Extreme is a waste, its older, and more expensive.
 
All I can say is that I'm glad my R3E cost $300 less than a UD9.

I got an R3E because the R3F wasn't out yet. :(

That said, I am not disappointed in my R3E at all. It's a great board and anyone in the market for one shouldn't think twice.
 
RadioDude said:
a common misconception is that Rampage III extreme supports quad sli and that's just not true.

source: http://www.guru3d.com/news/quad-sli-on-asus-rampage-iii-extreme-is-not-possible/
Click to expand...

For that matter, the X58 chipset alone is limited in graphics card support to three graphics cards. Quad-SLI requires an additional bridge chip to be installed on the mobo. That drives up the cost of a motherboard even further. (The R3E is already expensive for a mobo that can only do triple SLI.)
 
Also, the R3F has an Intel LAN chipset, while the R3E has a Marvell. IMO, Intel LAN is so much better.

With RAM, R3E recognizes 1600 RAM w/out OC, while, R3F has to OC the RAM to achieve 1600. (I think. Correct me if I'm wrong.)
 
R3E has an Intel LAN chip... I have one and it is an Intel LAN solution. Fast as hell too.
 
Hmm...a sli expansion board? Nice try, but where will I put my PCI-express SSD and
sound card??? Some engineer not using their head?
 
keithallenlaw said:
Hmm...a sli expansion board? Nice try, but where will I put my PCI-express SSD and
sound card??? Some engineer not using their head?
Click to expand...

I think the fact that if you use the expansion card you can't even put the mobo in a case is more of a concern... :eek:
 
dbphelps said:
R3E has an Intel LAN chip... I have one and it is an Intel LAN solution. Fast as hell too.
Click to expand...

Thankfully, they both have Intel gigabit ethernet port(s).

I think the one problem with Rampage III boards, Formula and Extreme included, is that they are having an issue where if you increase the uncore past 4GHz, that will cause a decrease in performance. Not sure if Asus is making a new BIOS to fix this but it's definitely something to consider.
 
The Extreme also has the RC Blue-tooth support.

My only complaint about the Extreme is the lack of USB headers. The ones on there will be fine for my case. I'll have to buy a USB card when I go to install a card reader.
 
I sold my R3E for a R3Gene. The Gene is better along with the Formula.
Two USB headers, better onboard sound, GameFirst w/ Intel LAN and cheaper price tag.

I will only use one GPU from now on so having extra 16x PCI-E slots is a waste of money for me.
 
keithallenlaw said:
Hmm...a sli expansion board? Nice try, but where will I put my PCI-express SSD and
sound card??? Some engineer not using their head?
Click to expand...

I'm convinced, sometimes people buy stuff just to say they have the best.....without fully thinking it through. It's nice to still have a voice of reason here. The R3E-ROG board, while very nice, is incredibly expensive. It comes with one USB header...most folks will need at least two and possibly three. It comes with an extra cooler in a box to make it appear Asus is going all out and giving you something extra special...fact is, the height of the heatsink will interfere with most CPU coolers and RAM and it won't get used. The board has and extra 4 pin molex for additional power...at a 90 degree angle and facing downward on the bottom near the 1394 header. Without a huge case or test stand, it will be next to impossible to have the room to hook that up, without bending the heck out of the cabling. It's too much money to have these afterthoughts.
 
I just installed my Xfi Gamer sound card on my RE3, and I can't believe how bad the on board sound is on this board. Asus has not released an updated driver for yet, and it just stinks. Ventrillo just drove me nuts until I made the switch. I love the board, but the sound is just down right terrible, static, and glitches.
 
I have the Formula III and I couldn't be happier with the results. Great layout, just the right amount of features, and booted up with no issues. Onboard sound is pretty good too. Clean and clear. It is a huge step up from my aging and now dead DFI board.

Overall I would get the Formula over the Extreme if you never plan to use Bluetooth and the other extra features.
 
I'd have to recommend the formula over the extreme as well, it's just a more complete board. I'd also consider the gene if you're not going to put the pci area to heavy use, very affordable for a ROG 1366 board.
 
Skull_Angel said:
I'd have to recommend the formula over the extreme as well, it's just a more complete board. I'd also consider the gene if you're not going to put the pci area to heavy use, very affordable for a ROG 1366 board.
Click to expand...

I have the Rampage III Gene mATX board and i'm looking to upgrade to a full size ATX board because i'm running two GTX 460s in SLI and my gfx card temps can be wildly uneven. I have noticed high IOH (northbridge) temps on the Gene - does the Formula suffer from the same high chipset temps?
 
From what I understand the Formulas IOH temps are lesser than the Rex's at any given MHz/volts. I only have the rex, but this it what I gathered from data on this sight and others.
 
I have owned many X58 boards with the exception of the RampageEx3 and the Rampage Formula3.
I love Gigabytes boards. All of them. They clock easy and have tons of features.
Now let me clarify why I am considering Asus.... The UD5 was, IMO, the best board there is Price/performance ratio however, The revision 2 UD5 is awful. It will not clock nearly as well as the rev.1 and they call it "UNLOCKED PERFORMACE". Personally I think they destroyed the best X58 board made. Some say it just has immature Bios at the moment but I say, How can you take 12 phase constant power and change it to 16 phase power ( 8 on 8 off) and call that more performance? That ruined the board. So I am considering the RF3 for the newer features. My business partner has owned the RE3 and sent it back to Asus because it didnt clock approx 10 processors close to what the UD boards will clock those same processors. A combination of 6 core Gulfs, Wests and many Quadcores as well.
So has anyone owned a Gigabyte UDx board REV 1.0 ( Not talking about the REV2.0 boards as these are the reason I am changing boards) And made a switch to ASUS and feel it is for the better?
 
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alexrud said:
I have the Rampage III Gene mATX board and i'm looking to upgrade to a full size ATX board because i'm running two GTX 460s in SLI and my gfx card temps can be wildly uneven. I have noticed high IOH (northbridge) temps on the Gene - does the Formula suffer from the same high chipset temps?
Click to expand...

I run the GENE as well, but the hot NB is something that has been well documented since the last version, so I made sure to 'block it. I would suggest a fan blowing directly on the undersized heatsinks for the chipsets if you plan on air cooling. FWIW, the SB could use a waterblock as well, and there are no all in one solutions made for the GENE to cool the SB/NB/FETs like with the Extreme and Formula boards. I ended up using a NB cooler by watercool and their NB/SB cooler for this. I managed to cram two GTX 580's onto the GENE and still have the slot between for my X-Fi Titanium card by converting the 580's to single slot (watercooled). I swore off having SLI at one time as well (after 7900GTX's... 8800GTS 512's, and then GTX285's), but I got lured back in order to do nVidia surround. I know, I know... back to SLI, but seriously, there is nothing quite like having 6 feet of monitor space. If I had to buy a board again today, it would most likely be the Formula. The only way I consider the GENE is if I know it would be watercooled... without this there just isnt enough slot space for the goodies.

Oh, and you really might want to consider the sabertooth board as well...http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/motherboards/2010/11/18/asus-sabertooth-x58-review/8

It outperforms most of the ROG boards, and if you are considering those, this is worth a look as well. My short list would include the Formula and the Sabertooth (with the GENE if watercooled) and overlooking the Extreme.
 
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