Asus Z490 stuff

[martine-dee]

Btw, I still am watching how the specs come up. Now I watch Asus' 3090, like does it give more since it can draw more power than Aorus 3090.

The Founders' 3090 isn't really interesting, as I don't have enough vertical slots for it. I experimented with hanging my GTX 1080 Ti in the case, and it worked. It was a very frustrating handwork though, I would like to just plug the card into the case, and only do hanging on the other side. That will be necessary with any 3090.

Perhaps more details can go to another thread. I am def not looking for 8k gaming; happy with 1080 gaming at 360 Hz, and I want to crank up the shine at ~360 fps.

[bscool]

Just feedback for those considering Asus z490. I just have experience with the Apex and Hero Z490. I also have the z390 versions of both boards and was satisfied with those.

Anyway I also got a MSI Unify to try since the Z490 Hero was a disappointment to get memory working stable at anything over 4000-4133. The Unify is much better for training and getting memory either 4x8 or 2x16gb clocks higher than even on the Apex when using 2x16.

I preferred the aesthetics of the Hero but went with the Unify since it also sets much lower CPU voltages than Asus does if leaving things on default.

I used varies stick of memory from 3600/16, 4000/c15, 4500/c18 to 4800/c18 GSkill and Team b die kits for tesing and also 2 10850k and 1 10700k for testing so i know it is not down to one item like a CPU or memory being the issue.

Not that the Hero only running 4000 on 4x8 or 4133 on 2x16 is that big of an issue just compared to the Unify being able to clock 4400-4600 with the same CPU and memory it shows a large difference and hopefully Asus can fix it but I am doubtful if this far after release they still haven't.

The z490 Apex also is a disappointment compared to to the Unify when comparing 2x16 memory training and OCing. The Unify looks like it will do what the Apex does and much easier and faster for someone new to memory OCing.

[Betroz]

The z490 Apex also is a disappointment compared to to the Unify when comparing 2x16 memory training and OCing. The Unify looks like it will do what the Apex does and much easier and faster for someone new to memory OCing.

I too have problems with 2x16 memory training and OCing on the XII Apex. I swapped back to my 2x8 kit until Asus has released a better BIOS (currently using 0088).

Edit : The 0707 BIOS for Apex is no better btw.
@Shamino : The RAM kit I was using is this : G.Skill F4-4000C17D-32GTRGB
The Apex board has serious issues with memory training using that 2x16 kit.

[umdogan]

Many of Z490-I owners are having memory related issues too. Some like me are having random hard freezing problems even with the kits listed on the QVL. None of the bioses including 0707 helped. Some VCCIO and SA voltage adjustments helped a little but nothing conclusive. You can find some of the related threads below:

https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthrea...rix-has-issues!
https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthrea...d=1#post807961
https://www.reddit.com/r/intel/comme...ailed_xtu_cpu/

[martine-dee]

I will add to the memory issues. I work with

- Asus ROG Maximus XII Extreme
- Intel Core i9-10900K, QVL listed
- F4-4000C15Q-32GTZR, QVL listed

On any XMP setting, games crash randomly, and Memtest shows loads of errors on the test 6 (and only on the test 6). I've succeeded so far running it stable at 3700 MHz CL14, with these settings
https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthrea...e28#post814106

[Apothysis]

What kind of issues are you folks having exactly? I have the M12A on 0088 and I have no issues training my F4-3200C14D-32GTZN all the way up to 4600 MHz. Currently dailying 4500 16-17-17.

[umdogan]

What kind of issues are you folks having exactly? I have the M12A on 0088 and I have no issues training my F4-3200C14D-32GTZN all the way up to 4600 MHz. Currently dailying 4500 16-17-17.

PC random hard freezes using XMP I/II. It doesn't have any correlation with load so it's hard to test too.

[martine-dee]

What kind of issues are you folks having exactly? I have the M12A on 0088 and I have no issues training my F4-3200C14D-32GTZN all the way up to 4600 MHz. Currently dailying 4500 16-17-17.

Maybe you didn't hit a threshold, if there is one.

The 4500 MHz CL17 is still a bit slower than 4000 MHz CL15, and just a tiny bit faster than my current 3700 MHz CL14.

On this page, latency of those is evaluated as:

Setting 1: 4500 MHz CL17: 7.55555555 ns
Setting 2: 4000 MHz CL15: 7.5 ns
Setting 3: 3700 MHz CL14: 7.56756756 ns

Perhaps only good for relative comparison. I have troubles at the setting 2, while 3 is unbreakable. A coincidence is maybe that my CPU's stock speed is 3700 MHz.

[Apothysis]

Maybe you didn't hit a threshold, if there is one.

The 4500 MHz CL17 is still a bit slower than 4000 MHz CL15, and just a tiny bit faster than my current 3700 MHz CL14.

On this page, latency of those is evaluated as:

Setting 1: 4500 MHz CL17: 7.55555555 ns
Setting 2: 4000 MHz CL15: 7.5 ns
Setting 3: 3700 MHz CL14: 7.56756756 ns

Perhaps only good for relative comparison. I have troubles at the setting 2, while 3 is unbreakable. A coincidence is maybe that my CPU's stock speed is 3700 MHz.

Well I'm on 4500 CL16 which is quite a difference.

If your profile is correct, you're running 4x8GB sticks? So 4 dimms on a daisy chain board, might explain why you're struggling a bit. Ideally you'd be on a t-topology board with four dimms but vendors moved everything to daisy chain with Z490 for some reason. If you left VCCIO on auto while enabling XMP that could also be a source of errors, Asus likes going overboard with auto voltages and going to high on VCCIO can definitely have a negative impact. Have you tried the different Maximus Tweak Modes?

[Ezveedub]

Just feedback for those considering Asus z490. I just have experience with the Apex and Hero Z490. I also have the z390 versions of both boards and was satisfied with those.

Anyway I also got a MSI Unify to try since the Z490 Hero was a disappointment to get memory working stable at anything over 4000-4133. The Unify is much better for training and getting memory either 4x8 or 2x16gb clocks higher than even on the Apex when using 2x16.

I preferred the aesthetics of the Hero but went with the Unify since it also sets much lower CPU voltages than Asus does if leaving things on default.

I used varies stick of memory from 3600/16, 4000/c15, 4500/c18 to 4800/c18 GSkill and Team b die kits for tesing and also 2 10850k and 1 10700k for testing so i know it is not down to one item like a CPU or memory being the issue.

Not that the Hero only running 4000 on 4x8 or 4133 on 2x16 is that big of an issue just compared to the Unify being able to clock 4400-4600 with the same CPU and memory it shows a large difference and hopefully Asus can fix it but I am doubtful if this far after release they still haven't.

The z490 Apex also is a disappointment compared to to the Unify when comparing 2x16 memory training and OCing. The Unify looks like it will do what the Apex does and much easier and faster for someone new to memory OCing.

MSI Unify has memory tabbed traces on the PCB. Buildzoid went over this in one of his videos and showed how it supposedly works well on daisy-chain. He did show he was running Patriot Viper 4400 CL19 4x8Gb, which I tried on the Hero and it would only train to 4233 for me in 4 sticks on XMP and would BSOD occasionally. Since shifted back to 4000 4x8gb, but i'm trying the G. Skill 4000 CL 17 2x16Gb in the next day or so.

I actually had the Unify in hand, but never used it since I found a deal on the Hero and went with it instead.