Sure, you're never going to get the same level of luxury feature list as you'll find with either the Maximus XII or MSI's own Godlike boards, but when it comes to the nuts and bolts of pure performance, it's right up there. The rarified air of the ultra-enthusiast ROG board up top might make one giddy, but the Z490 Gaming Carbon will bring us back down to earth without a bump. The sparse back panel and missing OLED displays will tell you we're back into normal motherboard territory with this MSI offering. It's an aspirational Z490 motherboard and arguably the best gaming motherboard for Comet Lake overclocking, but I'll concede it's not a particularly realistic purchase for most of us.
Obviously, it's only for the very highest of high-end PC builds however, the $750 price tag means you could actually build a respectable full gaming PC for the price of this single motherboard. The MSI Z490 Godlike is actually the fastest Z490 outright at stock speeds, but I'd rather have the ROG board in my camp if I'm going down the OC route. The Maximus XII will allow you to get the highest clock speed out of your 10900K and won't turn it into a pile of molten slag while you're at it. It is, as the name suggests, extreme, packing in a variety of luxurious and convenient extras (a frickin' screwdriver with interchangeable heads for one), and it's also one of the highest performing Z490 boards we've tested.īut it only really makes sense if you're buying a K-series Core i9 and genuinely intend to overclock the nuts off it. And pay through the nose if Asus' Z490 Maximus XII Extreme is anything to go by. If you want the best, most fully-featured Intel Comet Lake motherboard, then I'm afraid you're going to have to pay for it. Read the full Gigabyte Z590 Aorus Tachyon review. An enthusiast who loves to tweak, spending time reducing latency and tweaking sub-timings, or a gamer dedicated to finding a few extra FPS will enjoy peace of mind knowing you’ve got a board that’s specifically designed to take whatever punishment you throw at it. What it will do is help you to extract the maximum efficiency out of your system, no matter what cooling you’re using. The Gigabyte Z590 Aorus Tachyon won’t magically add frequency to your CPU and memory. This is another choice to aid overclockers who use LN2 cool a GPU by allowing extra room for pots and insulation. The primary PCIe slot is not the topmost one either, it’s the one below it.
This helps reduce latency and allows for a little more performance headroom compared to a four-slot design. The idea behind having only two memory slots instead of four is to minimize trace complexity and bring the slots closer to the CPU. It’s clear that this isn’t a regular board with a fancy sticker slapped on. Then there’s a comprehensive BIOS with extensive tweaking options. The dual memory slot design, all those buttons and switches, a monstrous VRM, and a unique layout are all aimed at making life easier for overclockers. This time around all the major manufacturers have Z590 boards specifically designed for serious overclocking.
Overclocking focused motherboards have made a proper comeback. Only really for overclockers -Inevitably expensive