ASRock Z390 Extreme4 Review: 9th Gen “Core” Value?

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How We Test

MSI’s MAG Z390 Tomahawk is the only board we’ve tested in the Z290 Extreme4’s price group. We included the cheapest of the higher-priced boards, MSI’s MPG Z390 Gaming Pro Carbon and ASRock’s Z390 Taichi, to fill chart space.

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SoundIntegrated HD audio
NetworkIntegrated gigabit networking
Graphics DriverGeForce 399.24


The same platform that cooled the 10 cores of our Core i9-7900X worked equally well with the eight cores of the Core i9-9900K, as we’ll show in the overclocking evaluation on the next page.

Comparison Products
ASRock Z390 Extreme4
MSI MAG Z390 Tomahawk
MSI MPG Z390 Gaming Pro Carbon

Benchmark Settings

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Synthetic Benchmarks & Settings
PCMark 8Version 2.7.613Home, Creative, Work, Storage, Applications (Adobe & Microsoft)
3DMark 13Version 4.47.597.0Skydiver, Firestrike, Firestrike Extreme Default Presets
SiSoftware SandraVersion 2016.03.22.21CPU Arithmetic, Multimedia, Cryptography, Memory Bandwidth
DiskSPD4K Random Read, 4K Random Write128K Sequential Read, 128K Sequential Write
Cinebench R15Build RC83328DEMOOpenGL Benchmark
CompuBenchVersion 1.5.8Face Detection, Optical Flow, Ocean Surface, Ray Tracing
Application Tests & Settings
LAME MP3Version 3.98.3Mixed 271MB WAV to mp3: Command: -b 160 --nores (160Kb/s)
HandBrake CLIVersion: 0.9.9Sintel Open Movie Project: 4.19GB 4K mkv to x265 mp4
BlenderVersion 2.68aBMW 27 CPU Render Benchmark, BMW 27 GPU Render Benchmark
7-ZipVersion 16.02THG-Workload (7.6GB) to .7z, command line switches "a -t7z -r -m0=LZMA2 -mx=9"
Adobe After Effects CCRelease 2015.3.0, Version 13.8.0.144PCMark-driven routine
Adobe Photoshop CCRelease 2015.5.0, 20160603.r.88 x64PCMark-driven routine (light and heavy)
Adobe InDesign CCRelease 2015.4, Build 11.4.0.90 x64PCMark-driven routine
Adobe IllustratorRelease 2015.3.0, Version 20.0.0 (64-bit)PCMark-driven routine
Game Tests & Settings
Ashes of the SingularityVersion 1.31.21360High Preset - 1920 x 1080, Mid Shadow Quality, 1x MSAACrazy Preset - 1920 x 1080, High Shadow Quality, 2x MSAA
F1 20152015 Season, Abu Dhabi track, RainMedium Preset, no AFUltra High Preset, 16x AF
Metro: Last Light ReduxVersion 3.00 x64High Quality, 1920 x 1080, High Tesselation, 16x AFVery High Quality, 1920 x 1080, Very High Tesselation, 16x AF
The Talos PrincipleVersion 267252Medium Preset, High Quality, High Tesselation, 4x AFUltra Preset, Very High Quality, Very High Tesselation, 16x AF

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Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom is a Senior Staff Editor at Tom's Hardware US. He tests and reviews cases, cooling, memory and motherboards.
24 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Tanyac
    Under the cons column...
    "ASRock will not honor the warranty if purchased in Australia and if problems occur outside the typical retailer 30 day DOA"
    Reply
  • Crashman
    21758316 said:
    Under the cons column...
    "ASRock will not honor the warranty if purchased in Australia and if problems occur outside the typical retailer 30 day DOA"
    I don't know much about Australia problems...
    Reply
  • Phaaze88
    That's quite the oversight... or perhaps it was on purpose(not being able to handle 9900k, I mean)?
    When I see the 'extreme' moniker, I think high end, or something thereof. This doesn't fit the bill.
    Reply
  • g-unit1111
    I'm noticing a pattern between the VRMs on midrange motherboards and the 9900K. This seems to be no exception. Is this developing into an FX-9590 situation where the CPU was too much for the motherboard to handle?
    Reply
  • Crashman
    21758341 said:
    I'm noticing a pattern between the VRMs on midrange motherboards and the 9900K. This seems to be no exception. Is this developing into an FX-9590 situation where the CPU was too much for the motherboard to handle?
    They're basically splitting the market using the logic that people who buy less than the 9900K would probably like to save money on the board as well. Remember that boards with similar voltage regulators did fairly well with the 8700K, so we're basically looking at a split between "able to overclock 9900K" and "good enough for nearly everything else".

    Reply
  • emeralds1000000
    21758516 said:
    21758341 said:
    I'm noticing a pattern between the VRMs on midrange motherboards and the 9900K. This seems to be no exception. Is this developing into an FX-9590 situation where the CPU was too much for the motherboard to handle?
    They're basically splitting the market using the logic that people who buy less than the 9900K would probably like to save money on the board as well. Remember that boards with similar voltage regulators did fairly well with the 8700K, so we're basically looking at a split between "able to overclock 9900K" and "good enough for nearly everything else".

    So where is your Best Motherboards for 9900K roundup review ? Best Value ones and best top ones only for i9 9900K?
    Reply
  • Crashman
    21758647 said:
    So where is your Best Motherboards for 9900K roundup review ? Best Value ones and best top ones only for i9 9900K?
    I think the best I can do is get the Z390 awards into the Best Motherboards coverage ;)
    So far we have the Gigabyte Z390 Designare and ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming ITX/ac, but those are both in the over-$200 class.
    Reply
  • emeralds1000000
    21758671 said:
    21758647 said:
    So where is your Best Motherboards for 9900K roundup review ? Best Value ones and best top ones only for i9 9900K?
    I think the best I can do is get the Z390 awards into the Best Motherboards coverage ;)
    So far we have the Gigabyte Z390 Designare and ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming ITX/ac, but those are both in the over-$200 class.

    Z390 Motherboards

    Asus has 21
    MSI 11
    Gigabyte 13
    Asrock 11

    I noticed that roundups in the last two years became very scarce and not like the old glory times of Tomshardware and other sites ..

    What is the reason ? They dont send you free motherboards for testing anymore ? or is it not profitable as before to review alot of products ?

    you can easily ask for Hardware donation for testing from Hardware Sellers in return of Ads for their sites , like newegg or Amazon or what ever.
    Reply
  • Crashman
    21758869 said:
    21758671 said:
    21758647 said:
    So where is your Best Motherboards for 9900K roundup review ? Best Value ones and best top ones only for i9 9900K?
    I think the best I can do is get the Z390 awards into the Best Motherboards coverage ;)
    So far we have the Gigabyte Z390 Designare and ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming ITX/ac, but those are both in the over-$200 class.

    Z390 Motherboards

    Asus has 21
    MSI 11
    Gigabyte 13
    Asrock 11

    I noticed that roundups in the last two years became very scarce and not like the old glory times of Tomshardware and other sites ..

    What is the reason ? They dont send you free motherboards for testing anymore ? or is it not profitable as before to review alot of products ?

    you can easily ask for Hardware donation for testing from Hardware Sellers in return of Ads for their sites , like newegg or Amazon or what ever.
    First of all, we have not awarded 21 Asus boards. And our "best motherboards" is an awards showcase. So it needs to be updated with the two Z390 boards that did get awards.

    Poor traffic is the reason we don't do many roundups. Most of our traffic comes from search engines now. More people are searching for reviews by motherboard name than for roundups. And the easiest way to get a search engine to promote a Gigabyte Z390 Designare review, for example, is to write an article called the Gigabyte Z390 Designare review.

    So without further adieu, here are motherboard reviews:
    https://www.tomshardware.com/t/motherboards/review/
    Reply
  • emeralds1000000
    21758876 said:
    21758869 said:
    21758671 said:
    21758647 said:
    So where is your Best Motherboards for 9900K roundup review ? Best Value ones and best top ones only for i9 9900K?
    I think the best I can do is get the Z390 awards into the Best Motherboards coverage ;)
    So far we have the Gigabyte Z390 Designare and ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming ITX/ac, but those are both in the over-$200 class.

    Z390 Motherboards

    Asus has 21
    MSI 11
    Gigabyte 13
    Asrock 11

    I noticed that roundups in the last two years became very scarce and not like the old glory times of Tomshardware and other sites ..

    What is the reason ? They dont send you free motherboards for testing anymore ? or is it not profitable as before to review alot of products ?

    you can easily ask for Hardware donation for testing from Hardware Sellers in return of Ads for their sites , like newegg or Amazon or what ever.
    First of all, we have not awarded 21 Asus boards. And our "best motherboards" is an awards showcase. So it needs to be updated with the two Z390 boards that did get awards.

    Poor traffic is the reason we don't do many roundups. Most of our traffic comes from search engines now. More people are searching for reviews by motherboard name than for roundups. And the easiest way to get a search engine to promote a Gigabyte Z390 Designare review, for example, is to write an article called the Gigabyte Z390 Designare review.

    So without further adieu, here are motherboard reviews:
    https://www.tomshardware.com/t/motherboards/review/

    I meant to say , why dont you review every motherboard released by known Vendors ?
    Reply