New Asus, MSI, Gigabyte & Asrock Z790 Motherboards, Stock Power Limits Are Still A Mess!

[Music] welcome back to Harbor onbox today we're taking a look at a range of new Intel z790 motherboards designed to take advantage of the new 14th generation core series which as I'm sure by now you probably know is just 13th gen renamed anyway if you're on the market for a new system or platform upgrade and you've decided to go with Intel's LJ 1700 platform these new z790 motherboards might be wor being aware of but before we get into it today's sponsor spot is brought to you by ug green and the new nexe 100 W mag safe charger this compact premium desktop charger provides an array of charging options with 15 W wireless charging provided on the top of the device three USB ports and an impressive 100 W output from a single USB type-c port the 100 W mag safe charger also features Gan technology which prevents battery degradation with effective temperature management then for those of you on the go ug Green's 25,000 Milah 145 W power bank has enough power to fully charge your smartphone six times with support for fast laptop charging and includes a smart digital display Ur Green's bidirectional charging technology allows the power bank to be fast charged to 100% within 2 hours by using a 65 W PD charger while also fast charging connected devices these ug green products are compatible with a huge range of devices so for more information and excellent Black Friday deals for up to 50% off please check the links in the video description Okay so we've got 11 boards in total from the likes of Asus ASRock MSI and gigabyte ranging from $280 all the way up to $1,200 so let's check out each Port individually see what features they have to offer and then we'll take a look at some vrm thermal testing it's kind of crazy to me that z790 needed a refresh given there were already more ddr4 and ddr5 z790 motherboards then well even I could keep track of take the Asus tough gaming series for example which already had three ATX models and we're only talking about a sub brand here Asus also offers z790 motherboards under their Rog Prime and pro art series anyway we already had the tough gaming z790 plus D4 which was available with and without WiFi and then there was the ddr5 version the tough gaming z790 Plus Wi-Fi Now added to the mix is the new flagship the tough gaming z790 Pro Wi-Fi the board does look remarkably similar to the plus both pack the same 1660 amp power stage Vore vrm and many of the same features with the only real change here being that one of the PCI 4.0 * 1 slots has been converted to a Time 16 slot but it's still only wide for times 1 bandwidth oh and the front USB 20 GB a second Port now supports 3 wat PD fast charging and that's it I guess that's fine though the tough gaming plus was already a good board but the issue right now is the price as it stands the plus can be had for $25 us with the more expensive in stock listings up around $230 us meanwhile all listings for the new pro model are at $280 us making it at least 22% more expensive and therefore you should avoid it until the and Plus pricing is much more similar next up we have the Asus Rog striis z790 d a gaming Wi-Fi 2 coming in at $360 which is the same price as the original model so that's good now stuff like power delivery That Remains the Same with 16 70 power stages making up the vcore side of the vrm and really even the cooling is much the same so most of the changes here are purely aesthetic the noteworthy changes here include UD support for Wi-Fi 7 with asus's new Q antenna feature which is pretty simple really now you can just push the WiFi antenna Connections in you don't have to screw them in it's a nice touch but for something that you're probably only ever going to do once seems a little bit unnecessary now one of the PCI 4.0 time 16 slots has been removed and replaced with an additional PCI 4.0 m.2 slot and then around at the io panel there's an additional two USB 2.0 ports which is nice but the audio has been downgraded with just two rear Jacks resulting in Rog Supreme FX 5.1 support whereas the original had 7.1 support other than that though the boards are much the same in terms of features still this second version it's a nice little upgrade at the same price point and it ensures 14th generation support out of the box certainly one of the coolest looking highend motherboards that I've laid eyes on is the new Asus Rog Maximus z790 dark hero and as the name suggests this is a revision of the original hero model and like a lot of these refreshed Asus boards the bulk of the changes are aesthetic which is a bit disappointing to learn but there are at least a few noteworthy upgrades on offer here though none of them justify the price increase speaking of which the dark hero it costs $700 us while the original version can currently be had for $530 us so what does the new model offer for that 32% price premium well apart from the aesthetic changes you get uh Wi-Fi 7 so I suppose that's cool faster Wireless speeds for all those Wi-Fi 7 devices you definitely don't have and that feature includes the upgrade from Bluetooth version 5.3 to 5.4 and that's the same across all of these Wi-Fi 7 models the m.2 configuration though has changed though it is hard to say if it's an upgrade the original hero relied on a PCI expansion card for an additional two m.2 slots one of them being PCI 5.0 and the other 4.0 with three more 4.0 M do2s on board giving the board five in total so three on the board and two V an expansion card the dark hero though does away with the expansion card and now includes all five M do2s on board and the primary 5.0 m.2 is found above the primary PCI time 16 slot you still get two PCI 5.0 * 16 slots though with the dark hero so it's a slightly better configured board in my opinion it does drop two of these six s ports but that's probably going to be a non-issue for most of you other than that though it includes the same 2.5 GB Lan same USB configuration same Rog Supreme FX 7.1 sound using the realtech alc 4082 codec same back panel IO configuration and the same vrm configuration using 2090 amp power stages for the VOR overall it is a great looking board with a strong feature set set but I think the original model at $530 is a much better buyer right now so probably just get that moving on to check out the new MSI z790 boards we'll start with the tomahawk Max WiFi an upgraded version of the popular Tomahawk board which currently sells for $25 for the ddr5 version the new Max version can be currently found on sale for $240 us though it's more typically found at $300 us which is a massive premium over the original both boards physically look the same with the exception of the yellow highlights that have been added to the new Max version thankfully though MSI hasn't just added a dash of color to the Max and called it a day there are some physical changes here though most of them are quite subtle for example the primary m.2 slot has been upgraded to support PCI 5.0 from the CPU whereas the previous model was limited to 4.0 that said if you do install an SSD in the primary m.2 it will reduce the bandwidth to the primary PCI * 16 slot to times 8 moving on to stuff like USB support and wide networking All of That Remains the Same as does the onboard audio but of course like we've seen with many of these refreshed boards you are getting Wi-Fi 7 with Bluetooth 5.4 other than that though they're the same thing so if you don't require Wi-Fi 7 out of the box then paying a premium for this new Max model it certainly won't be worth it over the original next from MS we have the z790 edge TI Max Wi-Fi so they've squeezed a TI Max in there just to make it a little bit more complicated now the original model can still be had for $300 us while the new TI Max cost $390 which is another big premium for this refreshed model again both models do look very similar though this time it's the newer version that's a little more sedate doing away with the orange highlights of the original also once again the io panels are identical so no changes there rather the changes can once again be seen when looking at the m.2 and Wi-Fi support the primary m.2 has been upgraded from PCI 4.0 to 5.0 but there are still 5 m do2s in total then the Wi-Fi Solution that's of course been upgraded from 6 e to 7 but other than that everything else remains much the same if not exactly the same msi's also updated the ace and it's worth noting the original version can be currently had for $500 US making this updated Max version pretty difficult pill to swallow at $700 us physically I think they look identical with the exception of the max branding on the newer more expensive model as far as I can tell the only update on offer here is Wi-Fi 7 but other than that the max is pretty much the same as the original oh and the only other change of course includes support for 14th gen processes out of the box and MSI is claiming some slight tweaks to memory performance that being the case unless you require Wi-Fi 7 out of the box saving $200 on the original would be the way to go and is certainly my recommendation and it looks to be a similar story with the Godlike Max which currently costs $1,200 us though that is the same asking price as the original the Godlike is obviously an insane Overkill motherboard and there's really no way to improve it right now other than to include Wi-Fi 7 of course so obviously msi's done exactly that with this Maxie Vision everything else though Remains the Same and that means you get onboard Thunderbolt support for transfer speeds up to 40 gbits per second 7 m.2 slots 10 GB Lan with 2.5 GB L as a backup 7.1 Channel audio loads of USB ports on the io panel and a boatload of other features okay so moving on to the new azrock z790 motherboards we find the Phantom gaming z790 Rip Tide Wi-Fi at $250 us which which is a reasonable premium over the $190 z790 PG Rip Tide as you'd expect the Wi-Fi model gets w57 but there are some other noteworthy upgrades on offer here the vrm for example has been substantially overhauled with 16 90 AMP power stages of the vcor and that's a massive improvement over the 1450 amp power stages that were used previously so a really nice upgrade there they've also ditched the realtech alc 897 codec for the higher end ALC 1220 codec there's a few other nice touches as well the cooler for the primary m.2 slot is now tooless and all M do2s do feature a heat SN it is a better looking board for sure and I think the $6 us premium is Justified here so good job ASRock asrock's also released a new flagship z790 Phantom gaming motherboard known as the Nova WiFi for $280 us it offers quite a lot for just $30 more than the the Rip Tide Wi-Fi you're getting a more robust 2090 amp power stage Vore vrm which is overkill for sure but a nice upgrade all the same you're also getting a larger 256 megabyte bios which allows for a better graphical user interface the audio has been upgraded to the realtech alc 482 codec and there's an additional PCI 4.0 enabled m.2 slot though four sat ports have been sacrificed USB support has also been upgraded from a total of steam ports to 19 with twice as many USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports overall the Nova is a greatl looking board and a strong sub $300 us Contender lastly we have the gigabyte board and we'll start with the z790 Ora Elite X Wi-Fi 7 which you guessed it it's a Wi-Fi 7 enabled version of the original orus Elite ax now the ax model costs $240 while the new Wi-Fi 7 version costs $280 so a reasonably small $40 premium there but all you're getting is the upgraded Wi-Fi well that and support for 14th generation CPUs out of the box without having to first update the BIOS which is really just a minor inconvenience but other than that it is the same board then we have the $530 us orus Master X which is a really expensive board given that the standard z790 orus Master can currently be had for $390 us and both boards look very similar and pack many of the same features for example both use the realtech alc 1220 VB audio a Marvel 10 GB land controller three PCI expansion slots 5 m.2 slots with the same Arrangement the exact same USB configuration and the same 20 105 amp power stage vcor so other than the inclusion of Wi-Fi 7 over 6E we're just looking at some very minor cosmetic changes to the board's heat sinks so I doubt that's worth paying a 36% premium for okay so first let's talk about the test conditions for testing I've built a dedicated system inside the Corsair IQ 7000x case and powering it we have the hx1000 power supply and for cooling the corer IQ h170 I Elite capix the IQ 7000x has been configured with a single rear 140 mm exhaust fan and three 140 mm intake fans so we're using the stock configuration for this case then installed in the top of the case is the h170 I 420 mm radiator with 3 140 mm exhaust fans this is a pretty high in configuration air flow is good and in a 21° room I'd say this is an optimal setup for recording temperatures I'm using a digital thermometer with kype thermocouples and I'll be reporting the peak rear PCB temperature finally I'm not reporting delt T over ambient instead I maintain a room temperature of 21 degrees and to ensure a constant ambient temperature a thermocouple is positioned next to the test system as for the stress test I'll be using cinebench R32 which has been looped for an hour at which point I'm reporting the maximum PCB temperature again recorded using kype Thermo couples okay so here's how each board performs out of the box using the default power profiles with XMP loaded right away you'll notice a glaring issue with the models marked as limited with the orange bars these models namely Asus and gigabyte boards though there is an azrock model in there as well all limit the power of the core I 9400k for extended workloads most of these boards have no limit for what Intel calls pl1 a temporary power state after a certain time period around about a minute typically the pl2 state kicks in which is a reduced power State the Asus and ASRock boards revert to a 253 W power limit while the gigabyte boards are limited lied to 280 wats MSI on the other hand they have no power limit for pl1 or pl2 and azrock decided to do the same with their Nova board but not the Rip Tide so as usual the Intel platform is a bit of a mess when it comes to power configurations and this is something that we've been advocating Intel fix for years now the primary issue with this being all core performance especially for extended workloads which can vary quite substantially depending on the board used assuming you don't go and manually adjust the power parameters for example in our hourong cinebench test the Asus and azrock Boards saw an average clock frequency of 3.75 GHz on the peores whereas the MSI boards sustained a clock frequency that was almost 50% higher at 5.52 GHz which is an insane difference therefore the vrm temperatures you see here very much make for an apples to oranges comparison so let's remove the P2 power limit and retest okay so now the 14900 K is clocking between 5.4 and 5.6 GHz depending on the board so still some variance there but now we're only talking about a 4% variance and not over 40% and what we're ideally looking for here is temperatures to be below 100° and to ensure reasonable operating temperatures under all conditions sub 80° temperatures here are ideal for our testing we maintain an ambient room temper tempature of just 21° and we test inside a well ventilated ATX case but with the doors closed of course the good news is no boards failed our test and all were acceptable though some certainly did perform better than others the gigabyte models for example were the best followed by the Asus dark hero and MSI Godlike the MSI Ace ran surprisingly warm at 80° while the tomahawk Max and Edge TI Max were surprisingly warm at 82° and 86° resp respectively though they did also achieve some of the highest average clock speeds now with all boards locked at 1.3 Volts for the vcor and 5.3 GHz for the peores and we did this while externally monitoring power usage these are the most Apples to Apples results we have the MSI Ace is performing much more like the Godlike now while the Asus tough gaming has fallen down the order the gigabyte boards are still the coolest though the ack models are now ranking much better overall though except able results across the board with no vrm issues with any of these z790 models so there you have it if you're in the market for new z790 motherboard any of these models will work well just by according to your budget and then pick the model that offers the best features the features that suit your needs for that particular budget that said it is well worth checking out the original versions of the boards that have an original version but it's worth checking out the original version because in many instances they are much cheap W offering many of the same features and in all instances the vrm is the same so vrm thermals are going to be the same it's possible these pricing discrepancies will go away over time but as it stands right now many of these refreshed Wi-Fi 7 enabled boards they just don't make sense in terms of value unfortunately I didn't get time to do a big z790 Roundup when all of these boards first came out not these refresh boards but I mean the original z790 motherboards and instead at the time did prioritize covering the new x670 and b650 motherboards from AMD as more of you were interested in the am5 platform and with future support on the table it just made more sense to invest our time testing as that content will be useful for years to come anyway there probably isn't too much Point making any recommendations here as it really comes down to pricing in your region and I expect that z790 pricing is going to move around quite a lot in the coming months possibly invalidating any recommendations that I make now the good news is there's really no bad boards here that you should avoid so simply compare the features of the models in your Target price range and just go from there and that is going to do it for this video If you enjoyed it you know what to do all the YouTube stuff and if you'd like to become a hard run box Community member we have float plan or patreon links are at the top of the video description for those or just under the advertiser links uh and yeah signing up to either of those gives you more Harbor and box goodness access to our exclusive Discord server for members only monthly Q&A where Tim and I get together and talk about what's going on uh we answer your questions live do all that sort of stuff there's behind the scenes content Q&A stuff a lot of cool things there so check it out if you're interested but if not that is perfectly fine and I would like to thank you for watching this video I'm your host Steve see you next [Music] time [Music]

Channel: Hardware Unboxed

Views: 71,480

Keywords: hardware unboxed

Id: XL08mmE0RB4

Length: 21min 6sec (1266 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 24 2023