Review: Asus ROG Strix Z390-I Gaming

by Tarinder Sandhu on 12 November 2018, 15:01

Tags: ASUSTeK (TPE:2357)

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qady5t

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Testing Methodology

Comparison Intel Motherboard Configurations

Model
Firmware Version
0802
E7B10IMS
F5
0805
1101
Chipset
X299
Z390
Z370
CPU
Intel Core i9-7980XE
Intel Core i9-9900K
Intel Core i7-8700K
CPU Cores / Threads
18 / 36
8 / 16
6 / 12
CPU Base Clock / Turbo
2.6GHz / 4.2GHz
3.6GHz / 5.0GHz
3.7GHz / 4.7GHz
CPU TDP
165W
95W
95W
Memory
Corsair Vengeance 32GB DDR4
Memory Speed
DDR4-2666
Memory Timings
16-17-17-36-2T
Graphics
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Founders Edition
Primary Storage Device
SK hynix Canvas SC300 (512GB)
Secondary Storage Device
WD Black NVMe M.2 (1TB)
Power Supply
be quiet! Dark Power Pro 10 (1,000W)
Operating System
Windows 10 (64-bit)

Comparison AMD Motherboard Configurations

Model
Firmware Version
7B92v11
T2b
Chipset
X399
X470
CPU
AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX
AMD Ryzen 7 2700X
CPU Cores / Threads
16 / 32
8 / 16
CPU Base Clock / Turbo
3.0GHz / 4.2GHz
3.7GHz / 4.3GHz
CPU TDP
250W
105W
Memory
Corsair Vengeance 32GB DDR4
Memory Speed
DDR4-2933
Memory Timings
16-17-17-36-2T
Graphics
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Founders Edition
Primary Storage Device
SK hynix Canvas SC300 (512GB)
Secondary Storage Device
WD Black NVMe M.2 (1TB)
Power Supply
be quiet! Dark Power Pro 10 (1,000W)
Operating System
Windows 10 (64-bit)

Benchmark Suite

CPU Benchmarks
HEXUS PiFast Our number-crunching benchmark stresses a single core by calculating Pi to 10m places
Cinebench R15 Using Cinebench's multi-CPU render, this cross-platform benchmark stresses all cores
Handbrake 1.0 Free-to-use video encoder that stresses all CPU cores
Storage Benchmarks
CrystalDiskMark Popular free-to-use storage benchmark, used to gauge read and write performance via M.2 (1TB WD Black NVMe), SATA (512GB SK hynix Canvas SC300) and USB 3.1 (512GB SK hynix Canvas SC300)
Memory Benchmarks
AIDA64 Benchmark that analyses memory bandwidth and latency
Gaming Benchmarks
3DMark Time Spy DX12 graphics benchmark run using the Time Spy test
F1 2017 1,920x1,080, ultra settings
Middle-earth: Shadow of War 1,920x1,080, ultra settings
Miscellaneous Benchmarks
Power Consumption Noted at idle, while running the HandBrake video-transcoding test and when playing Middle-earth: Shadow of War

Notes

There is usually little reason to comment in this section, but with the tested 0805 BIOS, the Asus board does not behave as expected.

The MSI and Gigabyte boards, used as comparisons, run at an all-core 4.7GHz and turbo to 5GHz correctly. The Asus, on the other hand, begins running at that 4.7GHz all-core but drops to 4.1GHz after a few minutes. There is no good reason for this because under-load temperature doesn't exceed 55C.

One can get around this by activating XMP memory settings and also running Multicore Enhancement in the BIOS. Doing so, though, increases the all-core speed to 4.8GHz, thus placing the board higher than either of the aforementioned two.

The only way around this is to input the per-core speeds manually, as shown on the previous page's first BIOS screenshot. We shouldn't have to do this; auto ought to work per Intel's specifications, so bear this in mind when setting up your own processor. The following results represent an apples-to-apples comparison, with an all-core 4.7GHz and turbo at 5GHz.