FRONTPAGE Intel Z790 Series Motherboard Announcement Roundup

[Overclockers.com]

Intel's latest Z790 series motherboards were announced yesterday. This article will highlight some of the major manufacturers' recent news releases. Included are snippets of press releases from ASRock, ASUS, Gigabyte, and MSI. Links are also added if you would like additional information about individual products or the entire series.

Click here to read more!

 

[Voodoo Rufus]

So it looks like the Asus Hero only gets Gen 5 M.2 if you use their add in PCIE card, which would rob you of half your GPU lanes. Hrmm....maybe the Strix is where it's at on that lineup.

Hopefully Asrock's PG ITX won't suck this time (Z690 had inadequate VRM cooling and poor analog audio implementation from at least one review I read).

A little bummed Gigabyte dropped the full gold plated surround sound audio on the Aorus Master. Rather small niche now but something I look for.

MSI's Z790 Edge ITX looks interesting, and their Carbon is maybe where I would go for ATX.

 

[Woomack]

I think there will be MSI Unify series with probably better ITX mobo. I see that MSI is not really trying with the design of ITX mobos. The Edge uses nearly the same heatsinks as Z590I Unify and Z690I Unify.
I expect something good from ASUS as there are still no top series like APEX or Impact. I dislike ASUS for some reason (mainly RMA support), but I always end with one of their mobos as BIOS support and RAM overclocking is generally the best. In the last years, MSI is great too, but Z690 Unify/X was somehow disappointing. Maybe I just expect too much.
Gigabyte had great audio in Z690 Master. I literally could hear the difference compared to some other mobos or previous generations and I don't even have any special speakers.

 

[thobel]

Any major improvements over Z690 boards?

 

[EarthDog]

Pcie 5.0 on slot and m.2 (many boards). Loads of usb... better power handling (for little reason, these are tapped out).

 

[Voodoo Rufus]

The following block diagrams should help.

If I'm reading this correctly, the only way we're going to get Gen.5 M.2 is to cut down the GPU to 8x lanes.

Getting a ton more lanes through the chipset itself though.

 

[thobel]

https://wccftech.com/intel-core-i9-13900k-cpu-extreme-performance-mode-350w-power-z790-motherboards/ This part is interesting

 

[Woomack]

The following block diagrams should help.

If I'm reading this correctly, the only way we're going to get Gen.5 M.2 is to cut down the GPU to 8x lanes.

Getting a ton more lanes through the chipset itself though.

PCIe 5.0 are from the CPU and both 12th and 13th gen support PCIe 5.0. It only depends on the motherboard if there are any M.2 PCIe 5.0 sockets while the main PCIe 5.0 slot is on higher Z690 mobos too. Both AMD and Intel support almost the same, what is weird considering that both also went up with significantly higher frequencies in the new gen. Not even all Z790 motherboards have M.2 PCIe 5.0 socket. I guess it looks better on the AMD side and their E chipsets, as there is support for 20-24 PCIe 5.0 lanes (depends on the motherboard).

You are right with cutting down the GPU to x8 when M.2 PCIe 5.0 is in use. It's already described on some motherboards that support M.2 PCIe 5.0 SSD.

So in real, we get M.2 PCIe 5.0 sockets (optional) and some more PCIe lanes. Most users don't need more PCIe lanes and never use them. PCIe 5.0 graphics cards or other cards are not available yet. M.2 PCIe 5.0 SSD will appear in 1-2 months or maybe later, but the performance gain will be almost only in synthetic benchmarks (the first gen of PCIe 5.0 SSD is expected to have higher sequential bandwidth and that's all).
If someone has a Z690 motherboard then there is no real reason to switch it to Z790, especially considering prices. You may want Z790 for better and much higher RAM support (that gives barely anything) and possible support with future devices. You may switch to the next-gen CPU and motherboard faster than upgrade all other devices.

 

[EarthDog]

https://wccftech.com/intel-core-i9-13900k-cpu-extreme-performance-mode-350w-power-z790-motherboards/ This part is interesting

Not sure how that's going to work... at 250W, a 3x120mm AIO can barely run a stress test and keep temps under 100C.

For me, literally anything above 1.35V is a no go temps-wise on ambient.

 

[thobel]

So it’s a feature simple aio coolers would never need?

 

[EarthDog]

So it’s a feature simple aio coolers would never need?

????

It's a feature (on motherboards) AIO coolers can't handle as the power output of 350W can't keep the chip under 100C when stress testing.

 

[Blaylock]

The following block diagrams should help.

If I'm reading this correctly, the only way we're going to get Gen.5 M.2 is to cut down the GPU to 8x lanes.

Getting a ton more lanes through the chipset itself though.

Yes but remember PCIe 5.0 x8 is equal to PCIe 4.0 x16 (63 GB/s). GPU's are not maxing this out yet and will be completely fine for several generations.

 

[EarthDog]

Exactly... by the time that bandwidth puts a glass ceiling on cards, you'll want another system by then. Non-issue.

 

[Woomack]

Even RTX4090 doesn't need anything faster than PCIe 3.0 x16

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 PCI-Express Scaling

The new NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is a graphics card powerhouse, but what happens when you run it on a PCI-Express 4.0 x8 bus? In our mini-review we've also tested various PCI-Express 3.0, 2.0 and 1.1 configs to get a feel for how FPS scales with bandwidth.

www.techpowerup.com

 

[Voodoo Rufus]

So it’s a feature simple aio coolers would never need?

Basically, as you're never going to get that amount of heat out of the CPU without melting it or using LN2 or something fancy.

Yes but remember PCIe 5.0 x8 is equal to PCIe 4.0 x16 (63 GB/s). GPU's are not maxing this out yet and will be completely fine for several generations.

True, but it's more the principle of the matter, even though any Gen5 GPU will be obsolete before it runs into a slot bandwidth limitation.

 

[EarthDog]

So funny this 350W thing was mentioned...

The board I'm testing now apparently has that enabled by default. On this board, Tjmax is raised from 100 to 115 (the shutdown point) and power use during a stress test was almost 500W at the wall and ~350W with the CPU. Shockingly, it didn't reach 115C (110-113).... but I don't see a performance bump in the tests so far.

True, but it's more the principle of the matter,

What principle is that? I mean you're getting 100% of the performance. When it's obsolete, users are going to be disappointed they can't run the full bandwidth?

 

[Voodoo Rufus]

Because it's Gen 4/5 without being "real" Gen 4/5 throughout the board.

It's just the nature of the mainstream desktop boards, going back to the SLI days where you had 8x8 or even weirder arrangements. Not enough total lanes. Not a complaint, just more of acknowledging the limitations of the current CPU/chipset combos. At least we have dedicated lanes for M.2 coming from the CPUs now.

Ideally, I would like a 16x PCIE5 for the GPU, and 2x PCIE5x4 M.2 from the CPU for storage. The rest can get routed through the chipset. AMD can do that right now. Intel is a little behind is all.

Limitations on Z68 board - needed extra chips for USB3 capability.
Limitations of Z97 - no PCIE3x4 M.2 without cutting down the GPU lanes.

 

[EarthDog]

I totally get that, but it comes down to needs to me. I don't need any of that. Most users don't need any of that until AT LEAST the next upgrade. So while AMD has more, what's the point now? What's the point in 2025 when they move to a new platform? This reminds me of when they started the core wars.... MOAR cores are nice, but it's just a pissing contest unless you can actually use them, ya know?

I guess my principles are based on current/short(er) term future needs rather than nameplate values/specs. If you're heavy into storage and need multiple 'blazing' fast M.2 sockets and can utilize (not use) the bandwidth, I can see it that way (or that stuff matters). Otherwise, yes, there are limitations on this platform, but very few users will feel it over the next several years (IMO) so it's a non-issue to me.

 

[Voodoo Rufus]

You're totally correct from a practical standpoint. There is no point. There are no Gen5 drives or cards on the market right now, so 'future proofing' is of limited to zero utility at this moment. And when they do hit, they'll still take a couple generation iterations to actually reach the capabilities of the interfaces.

Better off saving the bucks and going for a maxed-out Gen4-based system.

 

[Woomack]

Worse is that PCIe 4.0 motherboards are almost only budget series (based on new chipsets), and I'm not sure if you will be happy having one of them. I know I wouldn't, even though for a 24/7 gaming rig it would be more than enough.