Maingear Apex Force Gaming PC: A Custom Liquid-Cooled Masterpiece
ATTO Disk Benchmark
The first thing we'll take a quick look at will be storage performance, to see how the 4TB TeamGroup T-Force A440 Gen4 NVMe M.2 SSD stacks up. With advertised sequential read/write speeds of 7000/6900 MB/s, it is not on the same level as top PCIe Gen5 drives in terms of sequential transfers, but for gaming puposes it is still plenty fast.
We saw read and write speeds just shy of the drive's rated specifications, which is expected when benchmarking a drive that is also home to the host OS. The drive peaked at about 6.9GB/s reads with writes just north of 6GB/s.
Speedometer 2.0
Web browsing and web app performance is an easy metric to overlook on a high end system, but it's one workload that you'll likely end up using every day a PC. The test was performed on Windows 11, using its native Edge Browser with all of the latest updates installed as of our review.
Here, the Maingear Apex Force put up a top score of 500, which is very impressive. The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D is certainly a great all-around CPU, even if its forte is high-frame rate gaming. In our review of the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, which uses newer benchmarks, it also landed near the top in web app performance, second to only the Ryzen 9 9950X in the newer Speedometer 3.0 benchmark.
Cinebench R23 Rendering Benchmark
Cinebench and in its various iterarions have been staples for enthusiasts and professionals, and of the benchmarking community, for years. This rendering benchmark will give us a glimpse at how the CPU in the Maingear Apex Force performs, using the same rendering engine as Maxon's Cinema 4D software.
The Apex Force scores 2,112 in the single-core test, and 23,087 in multi-core. As this is primarily a CPU that targets gaming, the most important metric here in our opinion is the single-core score, where it does well. The 9800X3D's 3D V-Cache is optimal for gaming workloads, but doesn't help much for CPU intensive tasks and with only 8 cores, this CPU isn't going to put up multi-threaded scores in-line with chips with higher core counts. Alternatives from Intel and AMD's own higher core-count CPUs typically have a sizable lead in this workload. For gamers wanting more multi-core performance, the Apex Force will also be available with the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D chip and Intel Core Ultra variants.
We should also note that the processor ran nice and cool during this test too, hitting a package temperature of only 77.5°C with a boost clock of 5,428.1 MHz at around 154W max power draw.
We should also note that the processor ran nice and cool during this test too, hitting a package temperature of only 77.5°C with a boost clock of 5,428.1 MHz at around 154W max power draw.
Blender 3D Rendering Benchmark
Blender 3D is another rendering workload that leans only on the CPU cores in the tests presented here.
As is the case with Cinebench, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D's 8-cores aren't going to compete with higher core count processors in this heavily threaded workload. Still, the Maingear Apex Force performs well, and is right on par with our similarly configured test bench.
As is the case with Cinebench, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D's 8-cores aren't going to compete with higher core count processors in this heavily threaded workload. Still, the Maingear Apex Force performs well, and is right on par with our similarly configured test bench.
Geekbench v5.4.1 System Benchmark
Geekbench uses a variety of quick and bursty workloads to test the performance of a system, including random number generation and file and image compression. It is a good, relaitve measure of single-core and multi-core performance, for comparisons between systems.
Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker isn't a graphically intense game by today's standards, but it benefits greatly from strong single-threaded CPU performance. The Maingear Apex Force was tested at 4K UHD with the Maximum quality preset here...
The Apex Force does very well here. The Ryzen 7 9800X3D and GeForce RTX 4090 combo put up chart-topping average framerates with the best minimum framerate of the group.
Forza Horizon 5 Racing Game Benchmark
While the 9800X3D's multi-core score doesn't impress, the single-core score is impressive and competes with the best of them. In fact, Maingear's tuning and the excellent cooling in this system result in the Apex Force putting up the best single-core score of the bunch.
PCMark 10 System Productivity and Content Creation Benchmark
Next, up we have some full-system testing with PCMark. We're reporting all test results from the PCMark 10 benchmark suite, which uses productivity, gaming, and content creation applications to simulate real-world use cases.
The Apex Force puts up a decent result here, but for productivity purposes it is clear that some of the Intel chips or AMD's own non 3D-Vache options with more cores and higher clocks perform better overall.
The Apex Force puts up a decent result here, but for productivity purposes it is clear that some of the Intel chips or AMD's own non 3D-Vache options with more cores and higher clocks perform better overall.
3DMark Time Spy DirectX 12 Gaming Benchmark
3DMark Time Spy Extreme is a synthetic DirectX benchmark test from UL. It features a DirectX 12 engine built from the ground up to support bleeding-edge features like asynchronous compute, explicit multi-adapter, and multi-threading. Time Spy is designed to test the DX12 performance of the latest graphics cards using a variety of techniques and varied visual sequences. This benchmark was developed with input from AMD, Intel, Microsoft, NVIDIA, and the other members of the UL Benchmark Development Program, to showcase the performance and visual potential of graphics cards driven by close-to-the-metal, low-overhead APIs.
With an overall score of 29,428 and a graphics score of 35,481, the Apex Force doesn't quite take the lead, but it is clustered at the very top with some of the most powerful rigs we've tested. The Intel chips put up better CPU scores in this test, which results in a higher overall score, but that strong graphics score shows the Maingear Apex Force, even with an 8-core 9800X3D, is right in the mix with the best of them.
3DMark Port Royal DirectX Raytracing Benchmark
We also tested the cards with UL's DirectX Ray Tracing Feature test. This test is laser-focused on path-tracing performance, and uses few of the card's other resources.
The Apex Force runs on par with other systems we've reviewed with a similar GPU, which is to say it tops the chart here.
Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker MMORPG Benchmark
The Apex Force does very well here. The Ryzen 7 9800X3D and GeForce RTX 4090 combo put up chart-topping average framerates with the best minimum framerate of the group.
Forza Horizon 5 Racing Game Benchmark
Forza Horizon 5 is a gorgeous DirectX 12 game on the PC, with a built-in benchmark that uses various advanced graphic techniques, including ray tracing with realistic shadows, and large, complex maps. Once again, the systems were tested at 4K with high image quality settings.
Score another victory for the Maingear Apex Force. Maingear's tuning, coupled with the excellent cooling in the system, propel the Apex Force with its 9800X3D and RTX 4090 stright into the pole position.
Score another victory for the Maingear Apex Force. Maingear's tuning, coupled with the excellent cooling in the system, propel the Apex Force with its 9800X3D and RTX 4090 stright into the pole position.
Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy Benchmark
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is an action-adventure game where you play as Star-Lord and lead the rest of the Guardians from mission to mission. The game’s minimum requirements call for a Radeon RX 570 or GeForce GTX 1060-class GPU, but it also supports some of the latest graphics technologies, including DXR and DLSS. With all of the in-game image quality settings maxed out, this game can be pretty punishing.
The Maingear Apex Force tops the chart yet again. The system's Ryzen 7 9800X3D helps boost both the minimum and average framerate, putting the system a touch ahead of the Origin PC Neuron, which was also packing an RTX 4090.
The Maingear Apex Force tops the chart yet again. The system's Ryzen 7 9800X3D helps boost both the minimum and average framerate, putting the system a touch ahead of the Origin PC Neuron, which was also packing an RTX 4090.
F1 2022 Formula 1 Racing Benchmark
F1 22 is a Formula One racing simulation from Codemasters, and like previous version of the game, it sports impressive visuals. This version of the game supports DirectX 12 with ray tracing, and it incorporates support for a number of AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) and NVIDIA technologies (like DLSS). We tested the games with its Ultra High graphics preset, with ray-tracing and TAA enabled at 4K to see what these systems could do.
The Maingear Apex Force that we tested was configured and tuned for optimal gaming performance and it shows. The systems put up the best framerates of the group, besting our in-house test systems and custom builds from Alienware and Origin, which featured the same GPU.
The Maingear Apex Force that we tested was configured and tuned for optimal gaming performance and it shows. The systems put up the best framerates of the group, besting our in-house test systems and custom builds from Alienware and Origin, which featured the same GPU.
