Intel Now it is very reminiscent of AMD with its fx, when the platform has outlived its own, there is nothing to change it to reasonable TDP, temperatures and bet on frequencies. And with such introductory Core i9-10900 K -These are not the stones that you buy, put, and they somehow work for themselves. No, these are the stones that you buy, install and leave with your head in the settings. They do not give some total advantage, but each intervention in BIOS leads to visible results-new nuclei or memory frequencies, temperatures or stresses. And from this you just catch high, let's say, iron.
Platform
However, the buzz is expensive. And we are not only about stones with price tags for 45,000 rubles, but about the total strapping. This is a cooling at 250-300 watts, and a memory that officially chases up to 5 GHz, and, of course, the motherboards that give all these settings, and most importantly, do not burn during acceleration. We have a lot of motherboard on the tests, and we will begin with Asus ROG Strix Z490- A Gaming. This is not a top with a bunch of unnecessary options, but a non -budget option with disabilities and cut vRM.
What's happening
For those who do not particularly monitor the world of iron, we will give a quick alignment on what is happening on the market. Intel today is confident and with enviable perseverance AMD and its Ryzen. The latter offer very cheap nuclei. Yes, with a certain number of small problems, but at such a delicious price that the entire Core line is extremely difficult.
At the same time, Intel has nothing to answer the competitor in fact. A couple of years ago, the company got into production blood pressure when moving to new technologies and today uses technologies of five years ago – if AMD makes its crystals at 7 nm, then Intel is still sitting by 14 nm, which does not allow to reduce energy consumption and reduce the cost of the stones themselves. A strange lag in architecture is superimposed on this. The Intel Core i9-10900K discussed today, although officially called Comet Lake, are essentially based on Skylake, which appeared on the Core i7-6700K in 2015.
Firstly, the fees are prepared for wifi 6. Some module are included. In some, like ours, only a connector is soldered under it. Secondly, many boards on Z490, especially from the upper segment, will support PCIe 4 https://magicwin-gb-casino.co.uk/.0, which will appear in future processors Rocket Lake. Our A-gaming, however, does not have such training.
Now on the motherboard itself. The most important thing is the new LGA 1200 socket. Outwardly, it does not differ from the old and supports coolera under 1151. RAM in Z490-A is placed 128 GB with a frequency of 4600 MHz. True, we didn’t take this, there are no planks, but 4400 MHz from Thermaltake earned. Further – under video cards there are three PCIe X16 with the formula X16 or X8+X4+X4, and for extension cards – PCIE X1 and X4.
Under WiFi 6, an additional m is soldered.2
There are six SATAs of the third version under the discs and two full -sized M.2. The upper one is covered with a metal radiator with a thermal laying. It is removed simply, plus all the screws remain in the radiator, and they do not have to look for them throughout the body.
Further, backlight. From the built -in – there is a logo on the cooling lid. Additionally, you can connect two LED ribbons and tie them to control through Aura Sync. And it already has different glow modes, as well as synchronization between devices. And not only from ASUS, but also from other manufacturers who were certified under Aura.
A fee is supplied in a regular, albeit pretty box. Standard equipment: two cables for RGB tapes, four SATA, screeds, keychain, thermocouple, stickers, instructions and drives with drivers. The basis is the chipset Intel Z490. It differs only from Z390.
Binding
From external control on the board there is only a BIOS update button on the rear panel and four LEDs indicating errors when downloading. This is not enough for a motherboard with such a price tag, but ASUS came up with an interesting chip called Flex Key. This is a connector on the block of case buttons and bulbs, which allows you to reassign the reboot key. Now she can still switch the backlight modes, as well as reboot the computer immediately with a call in BIOS.
Well, the last one is the back panel. There are three main pieces. The first is two USB 3.2 gen. 2 speeds up to 20 Gbit/s. The second is the Intel network at 2.5 Gbit/s. And the third is the sound at the base SUPREME FX S1220A. Naturally, Japanese capacitors are declared for him Nichicon , Software strapping Sonic Studio 3 And, most interesting, support DTS: X. This is an object-oriented codec, and he “draws” the sound around it is not along the paths, but by objects and their location in space.
164 films have been released in this standard, but in Russian they usually do not work: our paths stubbornly encode in AC-3 and lose all modern technologies. However, DTS: X is supported by many games, and not the last level. In the list and Metro Exodus , And GEARS 5 , And Borderlands 3 , And The Division 2 , And even Forza Horizon 4.
Tests
On tests, we put the top-end Intel Core i9-10900K. Cooling was screwed by three -section Thermaltake Floe Riing RGB 360 TT Premium Edition , And from them we had a memory – two planks for 3600 and 4400 MHz. She earned, by the way, without question. It was required to play with the slots: in the first two frequencies were not exhibited.
Now for the most important – VRM zone. It was collected on 14 lines of 50 A – twelve go to the processor and two – as a keepsake. Against the background of expensive brothers with 90, but it doesn’t sound cool on the line. But the theory suggests that with a peak 310 W, the processor will need less than 250 A, and twelve lines of 50, and enough with the head.
Much more important how they cool. There are two rather large radiators for this, and in the standard they have to not be easy. True, our standard is high. We measure the VRM temperature under acceleration, in this case 4.9 GHz at 1.27 V, and under Prime95. To this is added work at an open stand and under water. That is, no external blowing. As a result, the radiators turned out to be impressive 85-86 ° C. This is a lot, but in parallel we tested Gigabyte for 35,000, and there are exactly the same indicators.
However, in 3DSMAX, which is already similar to real use, the radiators turned out only 54 ° C, and after we put the turntable, even under Prime it came out 44 ° C, which is generally perfect. By the way, ASUS itself almost directly says that the fan on VRM should be put. And it is for this that the bar lies under it, and next to VRM, contacts are soldered for connection. The only thing is not clear why the turntable was not immediately put in the box. The detail is penny.
Acceleration
Before proceeding to acceleration, let's say that our 5 GHz processor took only at 1.33 V, that at a long distance for Intel is unsafe. But another processor in our hands took the “five” at 1.23 V, so that the numbers declared Intel are achievable, but depend on the copy.
The tenth series
The tenth series Intel Core was presented in the material at the end of May 2020 in the material. In fact, these are direct heirs of the ninth series, but with an increased number of nuclei. If in 2019 the topovaya i9-9900k carried eight nuclei on board, then the new flagship i9-10900K is ten. At the same time, its main price competitor – Ryzen 9 3900x – offers 12 nuclei. And the next in seniority Ryzen 9 3950x – 16 nuclei.
In addition to the flagship, the tenth line of Intel includes 23 more processors. They are divided into four main lines. All Core i9 received ten nuclei, Core i7 – eight, Core i5 – six, and Core i3 – four. At the same time, unlike the last series, absolutely all stones support Hyper Threading and process two streams on the core.
As for the convenience of acceleration specifically on ASUS, the board is inferior in the menu and capabilities of the BIOS. There are absolutely all tools for setting up the stone, and the only thing we will have is to is some discrepancy between the voltage in BIOS and what is shown in monitoring programs, as well as a very big difference between Line Line Calibration modes.
For example, at the fifth level, the voltage at the peaks almost does not rise, but already next, the sixth, it rests in the region of 1.27 V instead of 1.24. It is not very critical, the temperatures still turned out below 90 ° C, but for complete satisfaction you need some intermediate LLC mode.
Enough for Z490 and automatic acceleration systems. The most aggressive of them is AI Overclocking. She immediately displays all the nuclei to 5 GHz, but at the same time puts huge stresses and brings the processor to 100 ° C. Also with AI Overclocking is the mode 5-Way Optimization. He also disperses the memory, but the Prime95 did not go under it – the voltage on the stone reached 1.33 V, and the system fell.
Much more interesting are the modes P1 And P2. There is a small remark. Nominally i9-10900k consumes 125 watts. But this is achieved by the fact that the processor is very cut in frequencies. Therefore, on almost all motherboards with Z490 there is a shutdown mode of locks. ASUS is called ASUS Multi Core Enhanceement And it works very efficiently. In fact, it takes 4.9 GHz at 1.25 V and does not warm the stone above 82 ° C. And these are reasonable limits for our 10900k.
Soft
In the end, we note that a lot of software comes with the board. This is the already mentioned Sonic Studio to control the sound and the output of the radar in games. There is also GameFirst VI To configure network parameters. And the most important utility, for which we have recently been extremely grateful to Asus, is Armoury Crate.
It collected many common settings like a collection of games, all sorts of discounts and backlight control. But the coolest is the point of updating the drivers. And he, unlike similar programs for competitors, really works and does not buggle. Moreover, CRate is rolled immediately after installing Windows, and you will get a technically installed system in just five minutes.
In the end
That's all. The overall impression on the new Intel platform is ambiguous. In itself, interesting, productive, but she lacks really cool processors that would break competitors. And without them, we just have the next Z270 with new functions and a couple of extra and very expensive nuclei.
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