Intel Z590 Motherboard Roundup: Entry-Level VRM Test

[Steve]

Today we're taking a look at the VRM thermal performance of 8 entry-level Intel Z590 motherboards, which does not mean these are affordable for everyone, but they are considered budget-conscious Z590 motherboards with prices starting at $170.

Read the full article here.

https://www.techspot.com/review/2239-affordable-intel-z590-motherboards/

 

[Adi6293]

Jesus, that I/O on these motherboards is disgusting, I was getting more USB ports on £80 AM3+ boards 10 years ago!! Wtf is going on?

 

[Avro Arrow]

I get the feeling that none of these boards will sell very well. Intel's highest-end chips that these boards are designed for aren't simple gaming CPUs, they're productivity CPUs. Intel's productivity CPUs are incapable of competing with even the last-gen Ryzen 9 3000-series so there are no strong reasons to buy any Intel flagship CPUs. Thus, there are no strong reasons to buy Z590 motherboards.

 

[LeroN]

Much appreciate for your job, guys. I would put 10 stars if I could. I watched the review on YT and it was just terrific. Many people are waiting tests of B560/H570 + i5-11400 (with no PLs).

Jesus, that I/O on these motherboards is disgusting, I was getting more USB ports on £80 AM3+ boards 10 years ago!! Wtf is going on?

They lack not only usb ports. Lets say that Intel WiFi modules can vary for WiFi models. For example, AsRock goes with AX200(legacy one) while Asus with AX201 and MSI with AX210(the latest one). All Gigabyte mobos of the review have cheap Realtek NIC on board as well as the Asus Prime. And polishing it by some obsolete cheap audio codec like ALC897 that they pulled from a garbage bin. This is what Intel consumers deserved. If you don't want to get a heart attack do not try to compare budget Z590 with B550 because B550 like ASUS ROG Strix B550-A for the same or less price can have the Intel I225-V 2.5Gb Ethernet NIC (???), ALC 12xx HQ audio codec(!), more USB ports and the optical out port. For example, "new" B560 can have up to 6 USB2 ports. Shame on Intel and its partners.

 

[neeyik]

Jesus, that I/O on these motherboards is disgusting, I was getting more USB ports on £80 AM3+ boards 10 years ago!! Wtf is going on?

It's partly down to the Z590 chipset itself - Intel use what they call Flexible High Speed I/O lanes: communication systems that can be configured into a variety of signalling formats, rather than fixed ones. The Z590 has 38 such lanes that can be set as follows:

Up to 24 PCIe lanes
Up to 8 SATA devices
Up to 10 USB 3.2 5Gbps or 10Gbps ports
Up to 3 USB 3.2 20Gbps ports
Up to 4 1Gb ethernet ports
Up to 8 DMI lanes (the bridge between the CPU and the chipset)

It's immediately obvious that this adds up to more than 38, so depending on how everything is set up, there are automatic limits to what lanes can be used. For example, installing an 11th Gen Intel Core CPU uses 8 DMI lanes, which then limits the 20Gbps USB ports to 3. Each lane is limited to only one or two types of signalling formats, too.

So if you need more USB ports than that, the motherboard will need an extra chip. Take the Gigabyte Gaming X, as an example. You get a total of 16 ports - all 14 are used from the chipset, 10 for USB 3.2 (in various guises) and 4 for USB 2.0. The remaining two USB 2.0 are from a separate twin port hub.

 

[Adi6293]

Much appreciate for your job, guys. I would put 10 stars if I could. I watched the review on YT and it was just terrific. Many people are waiting tests of B560/H570 + i5-11400 (with no PLs).


They lack not only usb ports. Lets say that Intel WiFi modules can vary for WiFi models. For example, AsRock goes with AX200(legacy one) while Asus with AX201 and MSI with AX210(the latest one). All Gigabyte mobos of the review have cheap Realtek NIC on board as well as the Asus Prime. And polishing it by some obsolete cheap audio codec like ALC897 that they pulled from a garbage bin. This is what Intel consumers deserved. If you don't want to get a heart attack do not try to compare budget Z590 with B550 because B550 like ASUS ROG Strix B550-A for the same or less price can have the Intel I225-V 2.5Gb Ethernet NIC (???), ALC 12xx HQ audio codec(!), more USB ports and the optical out port. For example, "new" B560 can have up to 6 USB2 ports. Shame for Intel and its partners.

I think Intel really needs to unlock the B660 chipset and just stop allowing this cheap and embarrassing Z boards, maybe have them start from $200 and have them properly equipped. It really wouldn't hurt them, it works for AMD I see why it can't work for them

 

[BadThad]

GREAT article! I spent many hours researching Z590 and ended up paying up for an Asus Prime Z590-A (not mentioned in this article ~$280), mainly for the power phases/delivery since I was going with the 10850 and planned to oc all core to 5.0GHz. The higher end Asus boards had a bunch of crap I didn't want and the Z590-P was just too weak to even be considered.

 

[Adi6293]

GREAT article! I spent many hours researching Z590 and ended up paying up for an Asus Prime Z590-A (not mentioned in this article ~$280), mainly for the power phases/delivery since I was going with the 10850 and planned to oc all core to 5.0GHz. The higher end Asus boards had a bunch of crap I didn't want and the Z590-P was just too weak to even be considered.

Why did you not buy a Z490 board instead? I'm running a ROG STRIX Z490-E Gaming with a 10850K, 5.0Ghz was a peace of cake

 

[pildorman321]

People still buy intel ? also PCI Express 3.0? is a joke

 

[Adi6293]

People still buy intel ? also PCI Express 3.0? is a joke

Rocket Lake does support PCI-E 4.0 and trust me 3.0 is plenty for 98% of PC users : -)

 

[BadThad]

Why did you not buy a Z490 board instead? I'm running a ROG STRIX Z490-E Gaming with a 10850K, 5.0Ghz was a peace of cake

Why buy a mobo with an old chipset?

 

[Adi6293]

Why buy a mobo with an old chipset?

Because Z590 gives you nothing extra if you using it with a 10th gen CPU and Z590 boards are more expensive than Z490 boards

 

[BadThad]

Because Z590 gives you nothing extra if you using it with a 10th gen CPU and Z590 boards are more expensive than Z490 boards

When looking at the chipset, in particular, the Z490 features 4 DMI connectivity lines to the CPU which is great. However, the Z590 does stand out for this specification and features 8 lanes.

Another difference between both chipsets is in terms of connectivity. The Z590 features 10 USB 3.2 Gen 2×1 ports, in comparison to the Z490, which only has 6 of these ports. In addition to this, the Z590 has 3 USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 ports, while the Z490 features none. Both chipsets feature an integrated LAN which is MAC.

The chipset link for the Z590 is DMIx8 and for the Z490 is DMIx4. For comparing the two, it is clear that the Z590 is the newer and more future-proof of the two. Overall, this chipset is likely to run faster overall.

 

[Adi6293]

When looking at the chipset, in particular, the Z490 features 4 DMI connectivity lines to the CPU which is great. However, the Z590 does stand out for this specification and features 8 lanes.

Another difference between both chipsets is in terms of connectivity. The Z590 features 10 USB 3.2 Gen 2×1 ports, in comparison to the Z490, which only has 6 of these ports. In addition to this, the Z590 has 3 USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 ports, while the Z490 features none. Both chipsets feature an integrated LAN which is MAC.

The chipset link for the Z590 is DMIx8 and for the Z490 is DMIx4. For comparing the two, it is clear that the Z590 is the newer and more future-proof of the two. Overall, this chipset is likely to run faster overall.

And can you use all these features with the "outdated" i9 10850K? Plus I'm pretty sure all these numbers are upto so not guaranteed which means in the more expensive but lower tier Z590 board you probably still get less overall features than in the similarly priced but of higher tier Z490 board. This is obviously just a guess on my part but in the case of my motherboard Z490 Strix E Gaming cost £289 but the Z590 Strix E gaming is £340 so naturally all Z590 boards under £300 are of lower tier than before? I was thinking about buying Z590 but didn't see the point of waiting 4 weeks on them and the prices were a bit of a joke

 

[LeroN]

PCIe 4 brings up to ~10% in gaming performance over PCIe 3 for the 11th CPU gen. The DirectAccess has a great potential especially for PCIe 4/5 systems. Microsoft had a lot of time to implement DA on PCIe 3 but started doing it right now on the eve of the PCIe 5 release.
It's not a good idea to buy a system that doesn't support PCIe 4 today. Yes, it's some kind of lottery but you pay not too much to stay ground in your gaming performance or win later.
Also not all people know but the 11th CPU series is equal or looses to the 10th series on the 4xx motherboards. Somebody believes that they fix it after a while but we don't know a reason of that so better to mind it before buying any of 4xx motherboard.