The Intel Z590 Motherboard Overview: 50+ Motherboards Detailed
by Gavin Bonshor on January 19, 2021 10:15 AM ESTASUS TUF Gaming Z590-Plus & Z590-Plus WIFI
The Ultimate Force, or known as TUF, used to be a premium focal point of ASUS's motherboard range built on durability and when it used to have a better-than-standard warranty and full body armor. However over the last couple of years the brand has shifted somewhat as the ASUS TUF series now represents its entry-level gaming options. ASUS is advertising a 14+2 phase power delivery, with one 8-pin and 4-pin 12 ATX CPU power input pairing, three M.2 slots, and Intel 2.5 GbE and Wi-Fi 6 networking. The only difference between the two Z590-Plus and Z590-Plus WIFI is the latter is using a wireless CNVi module. Everything else is identical.
The ASUS TUF Gaming Z590-Plus WIFI includes two full-length PCIe slots, one PCIe 4.0 x16, another at PCIe 3.0 x4, with two PCIe 3.0 x1 slots. It includes three M.2 slots, one with PCIe 4.0 x4, and two PCIe 3.0/SATA, and includes six SATA ports with support for RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 arrays. ASUS includes support DDR4-4800 memory, with four available slots that can accommodate up to 128 GB.
Looking at the rear panel, ASUS includes one USB 3.2 G2 Type-C, two USB 3.2 G2 Type-A, two USB 3.2 G1 Type-A, and two USB 2.0 ports. It's using Intel's I225-V 2.5 GbE controller and includes an Intel AX200 Wi-Fi 6 CNVi, supporting BT 5.0 devices. For users looking to use Intel's integrated graphics, there's a DisplayPort and HDMI video output, with a PS/2 combo port, and five 3.5 mm and S/PDIF optical output powered by a Realtek S1200A HD audio codec.
When ASUS rebranded The Ultimate Force (TUF) series from a robust series focused on reliability and toughness to its entry-level gaming series, the price being touted for the ASUS TUF Gaming Z590-Plus WIFI is $306, which is certainly not entry-level pricing. This is due to various premium controllers, albeit well used, including an Intel 2.5 GbE and Wi-Fi 6 pairing. There is a non WIFI version with a slightly lower price tag of $290.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
88 Comments
View All Comments
Duncan Macdonald - Tuesday, January 19, 2021 - link
Why so many motherboards for a product (Rocket Lake) that is outclassed before it is even available by the Zen 3 processors from AMD.Oxford Guy - Tuesday, January 19, 2021 - link
Mindshare. Intel still means better FPS to some gamers. I also hear AMD’s CPUs are hard to get, except for the 5800x which some believe is overpriced. My local MicroCenter was out of all but that one. I just checked and it has exactly 1 in stock. That’s it for the entire line.Deicidium369 - Wednesday, January 20, 2021 - link
LOL - except it isn't - Zen 3 is nothing but more and more cache to cheese the synthetic benchmarks and impress the rubes. When you actually get a 5900X and a 5950X as I have you start to realize, that like the 6900XT - all AMD smoke and mirrors and little substance.Rocket Lake will wreck Zen 3 - and all the fanboyism won't change that - and one big plus for Rocket Lake is that it will be available in volume while TSMC scraps to get supplies - and Apple has priority - then AMD for the consoles - and whatever small crumbs that are left go to the AMD PC products. New microarch vs cache masquerading as a CPU - easy Intel win.
eva02langley - Wednesday, January 20, 2021 - link
LMAO ROXXORMYBOXXORJust look at how stupid it sounds... you sound like this.
1. ES of Rocket Lake are showing REGRESSION in performances even in games.
2. It passes from 10 cores to 8 cores.
3. The prices are still the same... way overpriced compared to AMD...
4. AMD is looking like it will retain the performances crown in ST and MT performances.
Spunjji - Wednesday, January 20, 2021 - link
"Rocket Lake will wreck Zen 3"Mate, Intel's own leaked benches are already disproving that. You're bending language so hard here that apparently a maximum 5% performance advantage in cherry-picked games at 1080p = "wrecked", and that's at nearly 1/2 the performance per watt.
It's amusing to see how literally all of the Intel shills across multiple sites have switched to banging on about stock levels. Do you have a secret site where you coordinate this, or do you just copy each other naturally? 🤣
Makaveli - Wednesday, January 20, 2021 - link
lol man this thread is pulling out all the weirdo's tonight.We got that guy stuck in 2008 and intel fan boys...
Oxford Guy - Friday, January 22, 2021 - link
Thanks for spamming the topic with your insipid arrogance.gsuburban - Wednesday, April 14, 2021 - link
Lots of folks are looking for the 4th gen NVMe speeds. Also, they are getting more USB 3 and USB C ports that many of the newer cases come with located up front. Also, for those that don't need a video card, the 11th gen CPU's, the upper level ones, support HDMI 2.0 vs. HDMI 1.4 and have a different graphics chip, the UHD750. Other than these, there are not many other benefits however, cost wise at this time, its the same cost to spend on last years hardware so it seems more reasonable to buy this years hardware for the same price. It wouldn't be much value to take a 3 year old system and upgrade to this years hardware as the gains are not worth the cost.Oxford Guy - Tuesday, January 19, 2021 - link
Does running a display via Thunderbolt add latency?croc - Tuesday, January 19, 2021 - link
The issue I see here is that Intel's first foray into PCIe 4.0 seems designed to meet, not exceed AMD's efforts. If you are behind the competition, then just meeting their specs is not the way to get ahead. Then there is Rocket Lake's max core count. Max of eight, due to the backporting of the 10nm Sunny Cove cores onto the 14nm litho. OK, AMD's 16 cores may be a bit overkill (for gaming) given the lack of PCIe lanes on their AM4 socket, but Intel is replacing a CPU that topped out at 10 cores with a CPU only allowing eight...Can't wait for the return of Gelsinger's return. I predict a large ship turning around at speed. Watch out for bow waves....