MSI MPG Z690 Carbon WiFi Motherboard Review

The MSI MPG Z690 Carbon WiFi motherboard is here at last, and while I brought you a preview last week, today is the full review, with those oh-so-important performance figures! Of course, it's a bigger deal than just a new motherboard, as this is the launch of the new Z690 motherboards, which feature the latest LGA1700 socket for the new 12th Gen Intel Core processors (Alder Lake). These new CPUs and the new Z6690 chipset bring a suite of new options too, such as the latest DDR5 memory, PCIe 5.0, M.2 PCIe 4.0 storage, Thunderbolt 4, Intel WiFi 6 and more! MSI MPG Z690 Carbon WiFi Of course, MSI is well known for their high-end motherboards, and while the Carbon isn't their flagship, it's certainly very high up the range. It's built for enthusiast system builders and high-end gaming builds, so it's packed full of premium features. There's a powerful 18+1+1 Power Phase design, equipped with a bank of huge heatsinks and premium thermal pads to ensure maximum boost performance. There's plenty of M.2 storage too, all running the ultra-fast PCIe 4.0 standard, and all of them equipped with high-end FROZR heatsinks and armour. You get two of the latest PCIe 5.0 x16 slots, as DDR5 memory, giving you some seriously future-proofing. However, there's also the new Intel WiFi 6, 2.5 GbE LAN, USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 and much more! Features Supports 12th Gen Intel® Core™ / Pentium® Celeron® processors for LGA 1700 socketSupports DDR5 Memory, up to 6666+(OC) MHzLightning Fast Game experience: PCIe 5.0 slots, Lightning Gen 4 x4 M.2, USB 3.2 Gen 2x2Enhanced Power Design: Direct 18+1+1 phases power, dual 8-pin CPU power connectors, Core Boost, Memory BoostPremium Thermal Solution: Enlarged heatsink with heat-pipe, MOSFET thermal pads rated for 7W/mk, additional choke thermal pads and M.2 Shield Frozr are built for high performance system and non-stop gaming experienceMYSTIC LIGHT: 16.8 million colors / fancy lighting effects controlled in one click. MYSTIC LIGHT SYNC supports RGB, RAINBOW(ARGB), Corsair LED strips and Ambient devices.2.5G LAN with LAN Manager and Intel Wi-Fi 6E Solution: Upgraded network solution for professional and multimedia use. Delivers a secure, stable and fast network connectionAUDIO BOOST 5: Reward your ears with studio grade sound quality for the most immersive gaming experienceHigh Quality PCB: 8-layer PCB made by 2oz thickened copper and server grade level materialPre-installed I/O Shield: Better EMI protection and more convenience for installation For in-depth specifications, please visit the official MSI MPG Z690 Carbon WiFi product page here. Z690 and 12th Gen Reviews Intel 12th Gen Core i5-12600K, i7-12700K & i9-12900K CPU ReviewASUS ROG MAXIMUS Z690 EXTREME Motherboard ReviewASUS ROG MAXIMUS Z690 HERO Motherboard ReviewASUS TUF Gaming Z690-Plus WiFi D4 Motherboard ReviewASUS ROG Z690-I Gaming WiFi Motherboard ReviewGigabyte Z690 AORUS Pro Motherboard ReviewGigabyte Z690 AORUS XTREME Motherboard ReviewGigabyte Z690 AORUS Master Motherboard ReviewMSI MAG Z690 TOMAHAWK WIFI DDR4 Motherboard ReviewMSI MEG Z690 UNIFY Motherboard Review Of course, for this review, use the navigation menu below to see more! Packaging & Accessories The box is really nicely designed, with a stylish graphic on the front, and a couple of badges; Windows 11, TPM 2.0, Mystic Light. However, it's pretty basic overall. Thankfully, the back of the box is a plethora of information, showing a nice photo of the motherboard its self, a breakdown of all the major features, and a small specification table for some of the more technical stuff. I love that they've got a full shot of the rear I/O too, and overall, it's everything you need to know. In the box, you'll find enough documentation to start a MSI MPG Z690 Carbon WiFilibrary, as well as some really cool stickers you can use to label cables in your build. It also comes bundled with SATA cables, fan/RGB extensions, and even a handy mini screwdriver to help with the installation. A Closer Look The Carbon lives up to its name, with some cool carbon fibre effects on some of the heat shielding and the rear I/O guard. It's also keeping to those colours too, with a blend of black and dark grey throughout. Actually, if it wasn't for the little bits of gold/yellow in the bottom left, it would be completely devoid of colour! It's a good looking board though, and it's packing some mighty hardware too. It uses an 18+1+1 Phases design, with digital PWM IC and a 75A Smart Power Stage, ensuring you can hit those boost clocks long and hard without any issues. Of course, all that power hardware is going to get pretty toasty, so you'll be glad to see those heatsinks have quite a few layers, providing extra surface area to pull the heat away and prevent the system from throttling. Power comes from a pair of 8-pin headers, ensuring more power and voltage stability for high-end CPUs and boost/overclock performance. While Z690 boards can be equipped with DDR4, MSI has gone for the latest DDR5. It'll support up to 6666 MHz+ using the latest XMP 3.0, but you will be able to push way beyond that with overclocking and high-end kits. There's a built-in debug LED in the top, which is always a welcome addition. The lower part of the motherboard features a lot of armour/heatsinks, which protect the PCB, but also provide extra cooling to the M.2 mounts that reside below them. There's an M.2 mount above the top PCI slot which has a double-sided heatsink. There are two more below that with a very large heatsink, and two more at the bottom, with a full-width heatsink there. All five M.2 slots run at the Gen4 standard, so you're certainly set for fast storage! There are six SATA3 ports too, should you have some older SSDs or HDD to hook up. There are two PCIe 5.0 x16 lanes on this motherboard, each using their new SMT armoured design, which is more robust than previous generations, but also provides less interference and electrical noise too. However, with 128GB/s of bandwidth, it's also future-proofing you for upcoming add-on cards. There's also a PCIe 3.0 x4 slot at the bottom, should you need it. The audio hardware is decent too, with the ALC4080 chipset providing playback at (up to) 32-bit/384kHz. There are some high-quality audio capacitors too, and the built-in AMP/DAC is capable of powering up headphones up to 600 Ohm. The rear I/O is well equipped, with four USB ports at the top, but further down, you'll find five USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports, and a super-fast USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Type-C (20Gbps). There's both HDMI and DisplayPort, but unfortunately, I do not know which versions of each. The networking is excellent though, with both 2.5 GbE LAN as well as the latest Intel WiFi 6. How We Test Here at eTeknix, we endeavour to disclose vital information regarding the benchmarking process so that readers can quantify the results and attempt to replicate them using their hardware. When it comes to our benchmarks in our reviews, the benchmarks are pretty self-explanatory although there are a few exceptions. Remember that your choice of motherboard, the silicon lottery, and other factors can yield different numbers, and there’s always a margin for error when using any software. Therefore, your experience may vary, but our aim is to make our results as good a representation of real-world performance as possible. Testing Your Own System We typically focus on commonly available benchmarks so that you too can run the same benchmarks on your own system. We hope this makes it easy for our readers to gauge the performance improvement available to them when they upgrade their own systems. Gaming Tests All games are run at their specified resolutions using the "high" settings or equivalent. We avoid using the Ultra settings as these often offer diminishing returns for performance vs visuals. If a game runs extremely well using high settings, then we can safely suggest the hardware can be used at higher graphics settings. We may sometimes run more advanced settings, such as ray tracing, DLSS, and similar, but again, these will be made clear in the title of each benchmark. Test Bench ProcessorIntel 12th Gen Alder Lake Core i9-12900KMotherboardChanges Per ReviewMemoryCorsair Dominator RGB 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 5200MHzGraphicsGigabyte RTX 3080 Gaming OCStorageSeagate FireCuda 530 2TBPower SupplyCorsair HX750 750WSoftwareWindows 10 Pro 21H1DriversNVIDIA GeForce Build 19043.1320 Synthetic Benchmarks Online Benchmarks Compression & Rendering Experience Lara Croft’s defining moment as she becomes the Tomb Raider. In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Lara must master a deadly jungle, overcome terrifying tombs, and persevere through her darkest hour. As she races to save the world from a Maya apocalypse, Lara will ultimately be forged into the Tomb Raider she is destined to be. Available now on Steam. Shadow of the Tomb Raider Performance Welcome to Yara, a tropical paradise frozen in time. As the dictator of Yara, Antón Castillo is intent on restoring his nation back to its former glory by any means, with his son, Diego, following in his bloody footsteps. Their oppressive rule has ignited a revolution. Available now on Epic Games Store Far Cry 6 Metro Exodus is an epic, story-driven first-person shooter from 4A Games that blends deadly combat and stealth with exploration and survival horror in one of the most immersive game worlds ever created. Flee the shattered ruins of dead Moscow and embark on an epic, continent-spanning journey across post-apocalyptic Russia in the greatest Metro adventure yet. Explore the Russian wilderness in vast, non-linear levels and follow a thrilling story-line inspired by the novels of Dmitry Glukhovsky that spans an entire year through spring, summer and autumn to the depths of nuclear winter. Available now on Epic Game Store. Metro Exodus Performance World of Tanks enCore RT is the demo of the updated Core graphics engine. It will let you know how well your PC will perform in World of Tanks with the updated Core engine. Available now here. World of Tanks Performance Memory & Storage Power Consumption Z690 Motherboards and Intel 12th Gen Alder Lake Pricing Here's a round-up of all the motherboards and processors I've reviewed today. This includes up to date pricing that was correct prior to launch. However, I expect prices and stock to be a little more volatile after the launch, so please keep in mind that they are subject to change. Most of the prices and links are from Amazon UK, however, I have included some prices and links to Scan.co.uk for items that were not available on Amazon at the time of writing. Intel 12th Gen Core i5-12600K, i7-12700K & i9-12900K CPU (review) - £290 @ Scan / £419 @ Scan / £599 @ ScanASUS ROG MAXIMUS Z690 EXTREME Motherboard (review) - £935 @ Scan / £1669 Glacial EditionASUS ROG MAXIMUS Z690 HERO Motherboard (review) - £520 @ ScanASUS TUF Gaming Z690-Plus WiFi D4 Motherboard (review) - £280 @ ScanASUS ROG Z690-I Gaming WiFi Motherboard (review) - £375 @ ScanGigabyte Z690 AORUS XTREME Motherboard (review) - £767Gigabyte Z690 AORUS Master Motherboard (review) - £416Gigabyte Z690 AORUS Pro Motherboard (review) - £290MSI MPG Z690 Carbon WiFi Motherboard (review) - £410 @ ScanMSI MAG Z690 TOMAHAWK WIFI DDR4 Motherboard (review) - £301MSI MEG Z690 UNIFY Motherboard (review) - £510 @ Scan Overview While I really like (and may even buy) the MSI MAG Z690 TOMAHAWK WIFI DDR4, for an extra £100 investment, you could have yourself the beastly MSI MPG Z690 Carbon WiFi Motherboard. It's got quite a few upgrades for your extra investment too, such as DDR5, dual PCIe Gen 5 slots, a more powerful VRM configuration, and most certainly a lot more connectivity. It's also going up against the rather fantastic AORUS Master at this price range, which is a good thing and a bad thing. AORUS has a slightly better VRM, but I doubt it'll make a noticeable difference in the real world. They also have 10 GbE LAN, but I doubt many will be able to max that out anyway, and the 2.5 GbE + WiFi 6E of the Carbon is certainly still freaking awesome. However, MSI pulls a lead with one feature, this board has two PCIe 5.0 slots! Build Quality & Design It's a great looking motherboard, with a really cool theme throughout. The Carbon design means a little touch of carbon fibre detailing on the rear I/O guard, and some of the heatsinks too. It's a black motherboard, with mostly black and dark grey hardware and heatsinks throughout. However, it stays dark too, as there's no RGB on the motherboard (although it does have ARGB headers should you need them). The VRM configuration is robust, a 18+1+1 Phases design, with digital PWM IC and a 75A Smart Power Stage is plenty, even for the flagship 12th Gen CPUs. However, it's the chunky VRM cooler, thick heat pipes, and the premium MOSFET thermal pads, rated for 7W/mk, that keep the Carbon running great. They've equipped all the M.2 slots with huge heatsinks, the PCIe 5.0 slots have the new SMT armour design, and overall, it's just a very robust and competitive setup. Performance Well, as we might have expected, pretty much all of the Z690 motherboards performed around about the same, so if all you care about is straight-up gaming performance, then just pick the one you like. What really affects the price, however, is VMR configuration and connectivity. If you're building a system that will render high-resolution video 24/7 and push max boost clocks on flagship CPUs, then sure, it's a good idea to invest in a more premium board with the heatsinks that can cope with sustained loads. Furthermore, some of the Z690 boards have DDR4 DIMMS, making them more affordable, while DDR5 will add a price premium but bring performance benefits too. However, all the boards get PCIe 5.0 lanes, and Gen 4 storage too, which is where some of the most significant gains are to be found from one board to the other. Added Value One of the Carbon's main advantages is the inclusion of two PCIe 5.0 slots, which seems to be a rare feature for Z690. When PCIe 5.0 hardware hits the market in next-gen storage and graphics cards, you'll certainly be set to take advantage of it! The audio is excellent too, with the new ALC4080 chipset offering great quality high-res audio, and there's a good range of connectivity options beyond that. Should I Buy One? The Carbon may not be the most outrageous Z690 board from MSI, but it provides a good mid-priced option for those wanting to get the most out of 12th Gen CPUs and the Z690 chipset. You get lots of super-fast PCIe 4.0 M.2 storage, fast WiFi 6E and 2.5 GbE LAN, and of course, those two future-proofing x16 PCIe 5.0 slots! It's stylish, got great cooling built-in, and it's competitively priced against similarly equipped rivals.