Tiny at $200: ASUS Z390-I Gaming vs. ASRock Z390 Gaming-ITX/ac Review
by Gavin Bonshor on February 12, 2019 10:00 AM ESTTest Bed
As per our testing policy, we take a high-end CPU suitable for the motherboard that was released during the socket’s initial launch, and equip the system with a suitable amount of memory running at the processor maximum supported frequency. This is also typically run at JEDEC subtimings where possible. It is noted that some users are not keen on this policy, stating that sometimes the maximum supported frequency is quite low, or faster memory is available at a similar price, or that the JEDEC speeds can be prohibitive for performance. While these comments make sense, ultimately very few users apply memory profiles (either XMP or other) as they require interaction with the BIOS, and most users will fall back on JEDEC supported speeds - this includes home users as well as industry who might want to shave off a cent or two from the cost or stay within the margins set by the manufacturer. Where possible, we will extend out testing to include faster memory modules either at the same time as the review or a later date.
While we have been able to measure audio performance from previous Z370 motherboards, the task has been made even harder with the roll-out of the Z390 chipset and none of the boards tested so far has played ball. It seems all USB support for Windows 7 is now extinct so until we can find a reliable way of measuring audio performance on Windows 10 or until a workaround can be found, audio testing will have to be done at a later date.
Test Setup | |||
Processor | Intel i7-8700K, 65W, $300, 6 Cores, 12 Threads, 3.7 GHz (4.7 GHz Turbo) |
||
Motherboard | ASUS ROG Strix Z390-I Gaming (BIOS Ver 1003) ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming-ITX/ac (BIOS P1.50) |
||
Cooling | be quiet! Silent Loop 240mm AIO | ||
Power Supply | Thermaltake Toughpower Grand 1200W Gold PSU | ||
Memory | 2x16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4-2400 Ran at DDR4-2666 CL16-18-18-35 2T |
||
Video Card | ASUS GTX 980 STRIX (1178/1279 Boost) | ||
Hard Drive | Crucial MX300 1TB | ||
Case | Open Test Bed | ||
Operating System | Windows 10 RS3 inc. Spectre/Meltdown Patches |
Readers of our motherboard review section will have noted the trend in modern motherboards to implement a form of MultiCore Enhancement / Acceleration / Turbo (read our report here) on their motherboards. This does several things, including better benchmark results at stock settings (not entirely needed if overclocking is an end-user goal) at the expense of heat and temperature. It also gives, in essence, an automatic overclock which may be against what the user wants. Our testing methodology is ‘out-of-the-box’, with the latest public BIOS installed and XMP enabled, and thus subject to the whims of this feature. It is ultimately up to the motherboard manufacturer to take this risk – and manufacturers taking risks in the setup is something they do on every product (think C-state settings, USB priority, DPC Latency / monitoring priority, overriding memory sub-timings at JEDEC). Processor speed change is part of that risk, and ultimately if no overclocking is planned, some motherboards will affect how fast that shiny new processor goes and can be an important factor in the system build.
New Test Suite: Spectre and Meltdown Hardened
For the start of our Z390 reviews, we are using an updated OS, updated drivers, and updated software. This is in line with our CPU testing updates, which includes Spectre and Meltdown patches. As we are in the process of testing more Z390 boards, that data will be added in future reviews however at this point we only have Z370 on the old testing as a reference.
26 Comments
View All Comments
IKonev - Wednesday, February 13, 2019 - link
Re: TB3 comments, it evidently runs up to a max of half of the rate bandwidth (so, 20GB/s) using only 2 PCIe 3.0 lanes as opposed to the regular 4 lanes - here's what Tweaktown had to say:"Thunderbolt 3 is from the Intel JHL6240 Thunderbolt 3 controller; it's a low power 1.2W single port part that connects to the chipset through two PCI-E 3.0 lanes."
And yes, TB3 ports can effectively be used as USB ports, but the transfer speeds will max out at that of the cable & device plugged into the port.
romrunning - Wednesday, February 13, 2019 - link
Thanks for the helpful info! Maybe this review can be updated with that info.Dug - Wednesday, February 13, 2019 - link
I can't wait for motherboard reviews that go into what the motherboard actually does besides gaming benchmarks.I do like the power and boot times included, but really things like thunderbolt, usb, wifi, sound, memory, and storage (both sata and m.2) should all be tested. This is what makes or breaks a motherboard.
timecop1818 - Wednesday, February 13, 2019 - link
Also interesting to know what chipset handles HDMI2 conversion. Intel CPUs only support DisplayPort...hanselltc - Thursday, February 14, 2019 - link
asrock all day. that plastic shroud is soooooooooo ugly, and asrock has hratsinks instead.niemi - Wednesday, February 20, 2019 - link
Gavin, which program do you use to measure DPC latency?Is it idle or load numbers, and for how long do you run the test?
Any chance of a ‘highest measured’ or a curve over time as a supplement to the median? That would help when comparing for spikes.