ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Extreme Review

There's no shortage of high-end and extremely expensive motherboards these days, but hey, there's always room for one more, right? The ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Extreme really commands your attention with ASUS being a premium brand, their ROG series being their flagship gaming division, Maximus being one of their most high-end hardware series, Z790 is the latest and greatest Intel chipset, and of course, throwing the word EXTREME on the end really just sets up your expectations that this motherboard should be something pretty special. ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Extreme This motherboard is no freaking joke, and the only place I can see one for sale is directly from ASUS, and it's a blisteringly expensive £1,188.99, that's frankly ridiculous to even consider. That being said, this isn't your typical gaming board, and all that extra money goes towards class-leading VRM hardware, and relentless amounts of connectivity. The only way you could seriously justify the investment is if you were going to seriously use all the connectivity it offers every day, so high-end video editing, development and content creation in general, may benefit from it. Features Intel LGA 1700 socket: Ready for 13th Gen Intel Core processors & 12th Gen Intel Core, Pentium Gold and Celeron ProcessorsDominant Power Solution: 24 + 1 teamed power stages rated for 105A with dual ProCool II power connectors, high-quality alloy chokes, and premium metallic capacitors to support multi-core processorsOptimized VRM Thermals: Massive heatsinks integrated with the I/O cover, joined by an L-shaped heatpipe, and connected to the power stages with high-conductivity thermal padsNext-Gen M.2 Support: On-board PCIe 5.0 M.2 slot and two PCIe 4.0 M.2 slots all with front and back heatsinks, and two additional PCIe 4.0 M.2 slots on the ROG DIMM.2Abundant Connectivity: Thunderbolt 4 USB Type-C port and front-panel connector, USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Type-C port and front-panel connector with Quick Charge 4+ up to 60W, eight additional USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports, two PCIe 5.0 x16 SafeSlots, HDMI 2.1High-Performance Networking: On-board Intel Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax), Marvell AQtion 10Gb, Intel 2.5 Gb Ethernet, and ASUS LANGuardIntelligent Control: ASUS-exclusive AI Overclocking, AI Cooling II, AI Networking and Two-Way AI Noise Cancelation to simplify setup and improve performance Unmatched Personalization: AniMe Matrix LED display, 2” Color OLED, three addressable Gen 2 headers and one RGB header, all configurable with ASUS-exclusive Aura Sync RGB lightingDIY Friendly Design: ROG Water Cooling Zone, PCIe Slot Q-Release, M.2 Q-Latch, pre-mounted I/O shield, Q-Code, Q-LED, FlexKey button, Start button, BIOS FlashBack button, and Clear CMOS buttonRenowned Software: Bundled 1-year AIDA64 Extreme trial subscription and intuitive UEFI BIOS dashboard with integrated MemTest86 What ASUS Had to Say "Every PCIe lane and I/O port made available for your choice in cutting-edge hardware. Heavyweight heatsinks and cooling options to tame the thermals of any and all configurations. And the overclocking chops to easily take Intel 13th Gen processors well beyond 6GHz." - ASUS A Closer Look When it comes to aesthetics, there's no doubt about it, ASUS really created a beast here. It's an extremely heavy motherboard as it has a borderline alarming amount of armour, thick backplates, and well, just a lot of money on it in general. The build quality is very robust though, and frankly, I would have expected anything less given the astronomical price tag! Of course, it is also E-ATX, so it's quite a bit larger than a normal ATX board, further adding to the overall weight. A large percentage of that weight is coming from the VRM heatsinks, which are located above, to the right and below the CPU mount, with multiple stacked layers, thick thins and cross cuts that further increase the surface area. There's even a massive heatpipe linking all three for more even heat dissipation. The VRM configuration is brutally over-engineered, with a 24 + 1 teamed power stage design, which are each rated for 105A. Plus, they're using the best of the best when it comes to high-quality alloy chokes and capacitors. If you're interested in truly extreme overclocking, LN2, world records and all that jazz, this is a real contender to get that done. For everyone else, you can no doubt run your flagship CPU at 100% all day long without concern. The motherboard features four reinforced DDR5 DIMM slots, ROG DIMM.2 mount, which provides the board with two additional PCIe 4.0 M.2 slots. The lower half of the board is packing plenty of hardware too. I've removed the armour so you can actually see it though! Below the CPU, there's a PCIe 5.0 M.2 mount, and two PCIe 4.0 M.2 slots all with front and back heatsinks. With DIMM.2 that gives us 5 x M.2 mounts. There's a pair of PCIe 5.0 x16 slots, with the top on featuring the quick-release lever for ease of use. While in the bottom left, there's the mighty ROG SupremeFX ALC4082 codec with ESS ES9218 Quad DAC that can operate at up to 32-Bit/384 kHz. Built-in power controls, BIOS readout, and Flexkey, all make this a great motherboard to use on an open bench. The rear I/O is awesome though, with a full setup of gold-plated audio jacks and SPDIF out. There's blisteringly fast WiFi 6E, 2.5GbE LAN and the much more extreme 10 GbE LAN from a Marvell AQtion controller. There are plenty of USB ports too, including USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Type-C, eight additional USB 3.2 Gen 2, and Thunderbolt 4 USB. There's also front and rear support for 60W Type-C charging. How We Test We continue to update our testing methods around once per year. As such, we re-test older hardware to reflect changes over time. These can be driver updates, Windows updates, game patches, and more; all of which have an impact on performance figures. Furthermore, we update our test benches to newer and more relevant hardware. This means that our new reviews aren’t always comparable to those of older reviews, so please compare the testing methodology on older reviews should you be trying to compare them with newer ones. Replicate Our Results When it comes to our benchmarks in our reviews, the benchmarks are pretty self-explanatory and are kept as simple as possible, although there are a few exceptions. Remember that your choice of a graphics card, CPU, the silicon lottery, and other factors can yield different numbers, and there’s always a margin for error when using any software. Links are provided below, as well as the settings we use. We encourage you to not just look at how one product compares to any other, but how it compares to your own. If you’re looking to build a new system, you should benchmark your current PC using the benchmarks available to you. You should then look at the percentage improvement from your current hardware to the hardware tested here to give you a ballpark figure of how much of an upgrade this will provide you with. Motherboard Test Systems Test System (AM5) Motherboard Changes Per Review Review Buy Now Processor AMD Ryzen 9 7900X GPU Zotac RTX 3090 Trinity Review Buy Now RAM Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR5 32GB 5200MHz Review Buy Now CPU Cooler NZXT Kraken Z73 RGB Buy Now Power Supply NZXT C1000 Gold Review Buy Now Storage Seagate FIRECUDA 530 1TB Review Buy Now Chassis NZXT H7 Flow Review Buy Now OS Windows 11 Pro Version 21H2 Drivers Graphics: 516.94 Test System (AM4) Motherboard Changes Per Review Buy Now Processor AMD Ryzen 9 5950X GPU Zotac RTX 3090 Trinity Review Buy Now RAM Kingston Fury Renegade DDR4 32GB 3600MHz Review Buy Now CPU Cooler NZXT Kraken Z73 RGB Buy Now Power Supply NZXT C1000 Gold Review Buy Now Storage Seagate FIRECUDA 530 1TB Review Buy Now Chassis NZXT H7 Flow Review Buy Now OS Windows 11 Pro Version 21H2 Drivers Graphics: 516.94 Test System (Z690) Motherboard Changes Per Review Review Buy Now Processor Intel Core i9 12900K GPU Zotac RTX 3090 Trinity Review Buy Now RAM Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR5 32GB 5200MHz Review Buy Now CPU Cooler NZXT Kraken Z73 RGB Buy Now Power Supply NZXT C1000 Gold Review Buy Now Storage Seagate FIRECUDA 530 1TB Review Buy Now Chassis NZXT H7 Flow Review Buy Now OS Windows 11 Pro Version 21H2 Drivers Graphics: 516.94 Test System (Z590) Motherboard Changes Per Review Review Buy Now Processor Intel Core i9 11900K GPU Zotac RTX 3090 Trinity Review Buy Now RAM Kingston Fury Renegade DDR4 32GB 3600MHz Review Buy Now CPU Cooler NZXT Kraken Z73 RGB Buy Now Power Supply NZXT C1000 Gold Review Buy Now Storage Seagate FIRECUDA 530 1TB Review Buy Now Chassis NZXT H7 Flow Review Buy Now OS Windows 11 Pro Version 21H2 Drivers Graphics: 516.94 Additional Hardware ElmorLabs PMD-USB Power Measurement Device With USB (link) Software We use a variety of software from different developers to assist in our testing and to give us the most consistent results possible. Some applications are specifically used for testing, while others are simply used for monitoring and to aid us in making sure that our results are as accurate as possible. Software Used 3DMark FireStrike & TimeSpy (download)AIDA64 (download)CapFrameX 1.6.9 (download)Cinebench R23 (download)CPU-Z (download)HWMonitor (download)PCMark 10 Express (download)Super PI 2.1 WP (download) Gaming To gauge performance levels which are easily reproduced time after time, by both ourselves and our readers, we now stick strictly to games default profiles. Given how powerful most modern cards are getting, we've began using more demanding profiles for most games, but will otherwise state on a per game basis if we use other profiles beyond High, Ultra, Maximum or their respective equivalent at all resolutions. V-Sync is always disabled in our testing, and all FPS caps that can be removed are. We also enable XMP and Resizable bar technology across all platforms to keep things as fair as possible. Games While we test a lot of games, it's not possible to display all of the data on the website or in our videos. Instead, we include access to all of our testing data for our Patreon members (link), where members get a ton of other benefits as well. What we do however, is display charts for averages across all game titles to give a better picture of performance across all titles tested. Cyberpunk 2077Horizon Zero DawnMarvel's Spider-Man RemasteredMicrosoft Flight Simulator 2020 Resolutions 1080p (Full HD) Some tests will also include features such as NVIDIA DLSS and Ray Tracing. However, these will be clearly labelled and may only appear in reviews for graphics cards that support those features. Power Consumption Not being content on simply reading total system power draw at both idle, we now have the ability thanks to the ElmorLabs PMD-USB device that allows us to measure power draw directly through the EPS power connectors. We test at idle, during gaming load, of which we measure drawing a run of Cyberpunk 2077 and during Cinebench R23 at load too. We also use a GW-Instek GPM-8212 power meter to measure the complete system power at the wall to get an idea of how each motherboard compares to one another. VRM Temperatures We take temperature readings after 10 minutes of desktop idle with no background programs running, then take the recorded maximum delivered during the same runs as when we measure power consumption, being during our Cyberpunk 2033 run, and during Cinebench R23 at load too. 3DMark Timespy Extreme Time Spy Extreme is a new 4K DirectX 12 benchmark test, available in 3DMark Advanced and Professional Editions. You don’t need a 4K monitor to run it, but you will need a GPU with at least 4 GB of dedicated memory. With its 4K Ultra HD rendering resolution, Time Spy Extreme is an ideal benchmark test for the latest high-end graphics cards. The CPU test has been redesigned to let processors with 8 or more cores perform to their full potential 3DMark is available on Steam here. Despite the extreme price, I'm not actually expecting this to be the fastest board, it's too bloated with connectivity to be a streamlined number cruncher, and that's reflected in this first benchmark. Not that it's slow, it's about as fast as any other Z790 board really. PCMark 10 Express PCMark 10 features a comprehensive set of tests that cover the wide variety of tasks performed in the modern workplace. With a range of performance tests, custom run options, Battery Life Profile, and new Storage benchmarks, PCMark 10 is the complete PC benchmark for the modern office. Available now on Steam. Again in PCMark 10 Express, a competitive score, but nothing particularly crazy really. Super PI 2.1 WP Super PI is a single-threaded benchmark that calculates pi to a specific number of digits. It uses the Gauss-Legendre algorithm and is a Windows port of a program used by Yasumasa Kanada in 1995 to compute pi to 232 digits Available now on Super PI. In Super Pi, the time was perfectly reasonable, again, it's really on par with what we expected from our test CPU. Cinebench R23 Cinebench is a real-world cross-platform test suite that evaluates your computer’s hardware capabilities. Improvements to Cinebench Release 23 reflect the overall advancements to CPU and rendering technology in recent years, providing a more accurate measurement of Cinema 4D’s ability to take advantage of multiple CPU cores and modern processor features available to the average user. Best of all: It’s free. Available now on Maxon. And again in Cinebench, well within expected targets, but nothing to write home about either. AIDA64 AIDA64 is a system information, diagnostics, and auditing application developed by FinalWire Ltd that runs on Windows, Android, iOS, Windows Phone, Tizen, Chrome OS and Sailfish OS operating systems. It displays detailed information on the components of a computer. Available now on AIDA64. Memory performance was again on par with the competition, if fractionally slower, but nothing I'd notice in the real world. Latency was high, which is a concern, but something I suspect will improve with BIOS updates, as these things often do. Cyberpunk 2077 Cyberpunk 2077 is an open-world, action-adventure RPG set in the megalopolis of Night City, where you play as a cyberpunk mercenary wrapped up in a do-or-die fight for survival. Improved and featuring all-new free additional content, customize your character and playstyle as you take on jobs, build a reputation, and unlock upgrades. The relationships you forge and the choices you make will shape the story and the world around you. Legends are made here. What will yours be? Available now on Steam. When it comes to gaming, the EXTREME does just as well as I expected, ahead in some, behind in others, just like all the Z790 boards really; 129 FPS in Cyberpunk is good though. Horizon Zero Dawn Experience Aloy’s entire legendary quest to unravel the mysteries of a world ruled by deadly Machines. An outcast from her tribe, the young hunter fights to uncover her past, discover her destiny… and stop a catastrophic threat to the future. Unleash devastating, tactical attacks against unique Machines and rival tribes as you explore an open world teeming with wildlife and danger. Horizon Zero Dawn is a multi-award-winning action role-playing game – and this Complete Edition for PC includes the huge expansion The Frozen Wilds, featuring new lands, skills, weapons and Machines. Available now on Steam. Dropping down a bit in Horizon, but again, about on par with other ASUS boards we've tested. Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered Developed by Insomniac Games in collaboration with Marvel, and optimized for PC by Nixxes Software, Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered on PC introduces an experienced Peter Parker who’s fighting big crime and iconic villains in Marvel’s New York. At the same time, he’s struggling to balance his chaotic personal life and career while the fate of Marvel’s New York rests upon his shoulders. Available now on Steam. And sounding like a broken record, it is again a largely average performance here too. Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 The Microsoft Flight Simulator Game of the Year (GOTY) Edition celebrates all the positive feedback, reviews and awards garnered, but it is also a “Thank You” to our fans – new and old – that have made Microsoft Flight Simulator such a phenomenon. Best of all, the Microsoft Flight Simulator Game of the Year Edition will be available as a free update for existing players on PC. Available now on Steam. Flight Simulator throwing out a literally middle-of-the-road score too. Again, nothing to complain about, nothing to rave about, it just works well and that's that. Boot Time So as I mentioned, benchmarks are for the most part pretty useless, especially when all boards on the same platform, using the same CPU, GPU and memory, perform within a range of each other with the only benchmark that we did that actually shows something being the boot time as this really is board specific, especially with the way they work with DDR5 through the memory training they have to do. These feature-bloated boards have a lot of additional hardware and controllers to initiate, so it's no surprise that it's a slow loader, but 44.4 seconds is a long enough time that I'd be tempted to never turn it off. The other key areas that are worth focussing on though comes down to VRM temperatures, which can differ wildly depending on the amount, the capacity of the current that can pass through them, and of course how the various heatsinks handle that power, which in turn, creates heat. VRM Temperatures So where the bloody hell is your sizeable investment going? Right here, just look at that, we've been ragging this motherboard in power-demanding benchmarks for an hour and it's cool enough that your kids could touch the VRM heatsinks safely enough. You could savage this motherboard 24/7 with the CPU pinned to 100% load and boosting, and it'll still thank you and ask for more. Power Consumption Power consumption is measured at idle, during a Cinebench R23 run and during a gaming benchmark run of Cyberpunk 2077, which is a very CPU-intensive game. By getting 3 performance metrics, it allows us to see a better picture of the average user and what they are typically going to see in terms of power draw for just the processor itself. The power consumption is pretty average at load, which is in line with the somewhat average performance. That is to say, the average performance of a lot of extremely fast motherboards and not average as in between slow and fast. At idle, however, it is a bit thirsty, drinking 122.4 watts, yikes! Operating Costs With the cost of living increases across the world, especially when it comes to the cost of electricity, it's worth looking at the cost of running a processor and how it compares to similar products on the market. By taking the average cost per kWh, we can calculate a rough running cost at idle, during a simulated workload test (Cinebench R23), to give us worst-case scenario costs, as well as gaming costs during a run of Cinebench R23. US Dollars (USD) British Pound (GBP) The idle clocks do seem to be running hot on this motherboard, but all those additional I/O controllers and chipsets may explain that. Largely though, this motherboard is designed to be running hard rendering video or compiling a scene, and when its under load, the operating costs are actually pretty average. How Much Does It Cost? The ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Extreme is extremely expensive, and if you want one, it's a wallet bursting £1,188.99 directly from ASUS. That's crazy money, far beyond the reach of almost all gamers and consumers. But then again, if you're needing the latest technology like Thunderbolt USB 4, USB 32. Gen 2x2 Type-C, two PCIe 5.0 x16 slots, and 10 GbE LAN, then this is where you'll find it all. But as I said, unless you seriously plan on actually using all of those, they're just huge investments your flushing down the toilet. Overview You could use this for gaming, but why bother when an ASUS ROG STRIX Gaming is a fraction of the price and gives you a higher frame rate? This motherboard is built for usage levels that we didn't even test it to. Dual PCIe 5.0 slots mean you can add dual workstation GPUs for some seriously punchy rendering performance. Or you could add PCIe 5.0 RAID cards with a plethora of the latest NVMe drives for gigabits per second storage options. That's what the EXTREME is for. What's interesting is that its performance was largely average. It's not built for speed as you might expect, at least, not at stock settings. It's built for around-the-clock reliability and stability, and it certainly delivers in that regard. The cooling performance on the M.2 bays, the VRM, and any other hardware for that matter is seriously impressive. Thermal throttling just isn't going to be an issue here, even after hours, if not days, or intensive loads. I can see this being a good motherboard for places that do intensive CGI rendering and movie production as it has some incredible I/O that will benefit the moving and loading of huge assets from multiple internal and external sources. We typically use multiple Type-C NVMe drives on our recording equipment, and that all needs to be synced at the end of a shoot. Plus, with 10 GbE and 2.5 GbE LAN, you can have an internal and external network option to connect to 10 GbE network storage too, which is awesome, if you have it. Even the on-board audio is insanely good. Should I Buy One? No, most likely not, and frankly, I feel I wasted my time testing it to some degree. It's not really about being the fastest, but about being a Swiss army knife of a motherboard. If you need all the best features and connectivity currently available, they're pretty much all here. But unless you're really going to use both PCIe 5.0 slots, all the networking options, and all the super-fast USB stuff, it's a wasted investment. But while it's not the fastest, the relentlessly over-engineered build quality and cooling means it's likely to be one of the most reliable motherboards ever when put under intense loads, and that's going to pay off big time for any serious production work.