The Asus TUF Gaming Z790-Professional Wi-Fi motherboard is an iterative replace from the corporate’s Z790-Plus Wi-Fi. Like its predecessor, it is a budget-priced Z790 providing that guarantees game-ready options and confirmed sturdiness; Asus’ TUF motherboards are engineered with military-grade elements, upgraded energy, a complete cooling system for extended-use eventualities, AI Overclocking, and Asus Enhanced Reminiscence Profile II (RAM) capabilities. Priced at $279.99, the Z790-Professional is among the extra inexpensive Z790 “Raptor Lake Refresh” choices, regardless of providing an entire listing of options together with 4 M.2 sockets, succesful energy supply, a last-gen premium audio answer, and a number of other rear USB ports together with a 20Gbps Kind-C port.
Board Design, CPU, and Reminiscence
In wanting on the design of the refreshed TUF board, we are able to see that the variations in look between the Z790-Plus and Z790-Professional aren’t vital. The newer motherboard nonetheless comes with giant heatsinks and shrouds overlaying most of what is wanted on the 6-layer PCB. (One M.2 socket has no heatsink.) The VRM heatsinks have sufficient mass and floor space (resulting from deep miter cuts) to be efficient at their jobs.
(Credit score: Joe Shields)The identical miter or notched look replaces the geometric design discovered on the earlier board’s M.2 heatsinks, yielding a uniform look. In the event you crave some RGB bling, the TUF Gaming Z790-Professional has only one small space that shines by the PCB on the best edge. (The Plus, in distinction, had two.) It is a visually easy implementation, as you’d anticipate at this worth, nevertheless it ought to slot in properly with most construct themes. It simply will not be the brightest factor in your chassis.
The TUF Gaming Z790-Professional Wi-Fi natively helps Intel’s twelfth by 14th Era LGA 1700 processors, together with the flagship Core i9-14900K and 14900KS. The 16 60A MOSFETs and TUF chokes devoted to the processor dealt with our high-power CPU with out a hitch throughout testing. The heatsinks stored the facility bits beneath operating properly inside spec, even when overclocking, although they did are likely to get heat in prolonged high-load conditions. Extra airflow is not strictly obligatory, nevertheless it could not harm in the event you push these high-wattage processors.
Reminiscence help is listed as much as DDR5-7800+ (OC), up from DDR5-7200 for the Plus, which tops many of the board’s direct competitors. In the event you want a number of reminiscence, the 4 DRAM slots help as much as 192GB, which is a lot for even essentially the most hardcore residence customers. The RAM is secured by a single-sided locking mechanism (locks on high, the place there’s room to entry them).
(Credit score: Joe Shields)Our DDR5-6000 equipment proved completely secure by setting the interior XMP profile, and our quickest equipment (DDR5-7200) additionally ran properly. If that is not sufficient for you, there are many sub-timings to tweak within the BIOS to get one other iota or two of efficiency. One cool function is the Asus Enhanced Reminiscence Profile (AEMP II) discovered within the AI Overclocking a part of the UEFI, which permits for automated reminiscence overclocking when the DDR5 lacks XMP or EXPO profiles. Since this can be a finances board, customers typically purchase cheaper RAM that is JEDEC-rated solely with out XMP profiles. The AEMP II know-how robotically overclocks the reminiscence for you, letting you set the cash saved towards one thing else in your construct or again within the financial institution.
Structure and Inside Connectors
Beginning our tour at high left, we run into the 2 8-pin EPS energy connectors (one required) to energy the processor. Flanking these are two giant VRM heatsinks to chill the facility bits hiding beneath. The rear I/O cowl sports activities the TUF branding and a few mottos comparable to “BE THE LAST ONE STANDING.” I favor designs to phrases, myself, nevertheless it does not detract from the looks.
Simply above the highest VRM heatsink are the primary two of seven fan headers. Every helps PWM and DC-controlled units and is ready to output as much as 1A/12W. This needs to be a lot for many followers, but when plan to make use of a customized water-cooling loop, make certain something you join does not exceed that quantity or you would harm the motherboard. Management over these units is dealt with by the BIOS or Asus’ Armory Crate software program.
Above the DRAM slots is the Q-LED function that helps troubleshoot POST points. If there is a power-on drawback within the boot, RAM, CPU, or video space in the course of the POST course of, the corresponding LED stays lit, providing you with a common thought of the place the difficulty is. Asus’ refresh boards even have a DIMM Detect function which retains the DRAM LED illuminated if the reminiscence isn’t seated accurately within the slot. It is a good value-add not present in different boards at this worth level.
(Credit score: Joe Shields)Transferring down the best edge, we see a small portion of the PCB that is translucent and illuminated by RGBs on the again facet of the board. The lighting will not take over your chassis by itself however does give a pleasant glow from behind. Under which might be the primary RGB headers, on this case one 4-pin RGB and one 3-pin ARGB header. Two extra 3-pin ARGB headers are situated alongside the underside edge. Under is the 24-pin ATX connector to energy the board, a front-panel USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps) Kind-C port, and at last a 19-pin front-panel USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5Gbps) header.
Audio, Enlargement, Storage, and Rear I/O
On the backside left of the board is an audio part comprising three devoted audio caps and, hidden beneath a Faraday cage (a part of the TUF sequence’ ESD safety), a previous-generation Realtek ALC1220A codec. This 7.1-channel codec is among the finest from the final technology, and most customers discover it greater than appropriate for his or her wants.
The PCI Specific slot and M.2 socket configurations carry over from the Z90-Plus, with 4 M.2 sockets combined in round 5 PCIe slots. Three of the 4 M.2 sockets are accessible with out eradicating your graphics card, even when it is three slots large.
The primary (strengthened) slot is the first graphics slot and helps PCIe 5.0 x16 speeds; it additionally has a Q-Launch to simply unlock your video card. The underside full-length socket connects by the chipset and runs as much as PCIe 4.0 x4. Additionally related by way of the chipset are the PCIe 4.0 x4 slot and the 2 smaller PCIe 3.0 x1 slots. Clearly, there’s room for loads of growth playing cards.
(Credit score: Joe Shields)The highest M.2 socket, sporting the biggest heatsink and supposed on your quickest and/or hottest-running module, is a CPU-attached PCIe 4.0 x4 (64Gbps) socket that holds as much as 110mm units. The underside three sockets join by the chipset and run as much as PCIe 4.0 x4 (64Gbps). All 4 M.2 sockets use Asus’ Q-Latch to safe modules with out utilizing screws, which is a godsend, as these screws are tiny. Alas, cutting-edge storage buffs will not discover a PCI Specific 5.0 x4 socket right here as they may on rival motherboards from ASRock and MSI.
Alongside the underside fringe of the board are a mixture of headers, together with these for extra USB 2.0 ports, extra fan headers, front-panel audio, the standard front-panel lights-and-buttons header, a COM port, ARGB, and a Thunderbolt AIC header. You may additionally discover right here a clear-CMOS jumper and two SATA ports.
(Credit score: Joe Shields)The rear I/O consists of a preinstalled I/O plate with white labels on a black background and a TUF Gaming brand. It is constituted of corrosion-resistant chrome steel bonded with chromium oxide, and Asus claims it’s going to final 3 times longer than conventional panels—per the spec, it handed a salt fog take a look at of 72 hours whereas others solely final 24.
With that out of the way in which, beginning at left we see the HDMI and DisplayPort video outputs to make use of with some CPUs’ built-in graphics. Subsequent are the USB ports, together with two Kind-C (one 10Gbps, the opposite 20Gbps) and 6 Kind-A (two 10Gbps and 4 5Gbps). Some customers may want for greater than six USB-A ports on the rear. Persevering with proper, we spy the Q-Antenna Wi-Fi 6E connections (simpler to attach with built-in instruments to verify the Wi-Fi sign by Armoury Crate); the two.5Gbps community port; and the audio stack, consisting of 5 analog ports and S/PDIF.
A Temporary Have a look at the UEFI BIOS and Utilities
The TUF Gaming Z790-Professional Wi-Fi BIOS sports activities the identical easy-to-read black and grey background, with white and yellow writing, that we have seen for a few generations. You begin in EZ Mode, which shares high-level system information together with CPU temperature and core voltage, DRAM standing, fan profiles, and entry to the Q-Fan performance. Nevertheless, because the Z790 chipset overclocks, you’ll get extra out of the system in the event you overclock manually.
(Credit score: Asus)The superior portion of the BIOS presents a typical configuration with main headings throughout the highest, together with My Favorites (customizable by the person), Foremost, AI Tweaker, Superior, Monitor, Boot, Software, and Exit. All of the detailed performance is on this far more complete mode.
(Credit score: Asus)The AI Tweaker part accommodates all of the choices to tweak and overclock your system. Right here, you may regulate voltages, RAM speeds and timings, and overclocking choices for the CPU. Whereas the facility supply is not the strongest we have seen, odds are your CPU temperatures and cooling will likely be a limiting issue earlier than this motherboard will.
(Credit score: Asus)Contained in the Superior part are a number of subheadings the place you may tweak the CPU, chipset, USB, audio, and community performance.
(Credit score: Asus)The monitoring part shows detailed information about temperatures, fan speeds, and voltages and allows you to entry the Q-Fan configuration to regulate fan profiles. There are canned profiles and the power to create and save customized fan curves, which is all we are able to ask from a BIOS.
The Asus BIOS is logically laid out and easy to navigate, and the Z790 model has a full array of tweaks, together with these to overclock your reminiscence and processor. The corporate’s BIOS is usually my favourite among the many main board makers, as every little thing is simple to learn and choices are simple to search out. It gives all the mandatory selections, and our model (1424) proved secure throughout our time with the board.
On the software program facet, Asus’ well-known Armoury Crate homes a number of capabilities, together with system tweaking and monitoring and management over RGB lighting and followers. The applying matches the ROG theme and is simple to work with. The primary screenshot beneath exhibits the touchdown web page, all of the {hardware} it will possibly management on our take a look at system, and capabilities comparable to fan management and RGB.
(Credit score: Asus)The Fan Skilled 4 module controls all of your followers and water pumps related to the 4-pin headers. You possibly can regulate by 4 canned settings or tweak every header along with your customized curve(s).
(Credit score: Asus)The Aura Sync part controls all of the RGB lighting. It consists of a number of preset modes (static, respiration, shade cycle, rainbow, comet, glowing yo-yo, starry night time, flash and sprint, and strobing) you can additionally fine-tune individually.
(Credit score: Asus)Asus’ software program presents full Home windows-based options to regulate absolutely anything you may within the BIOS. If you wish to overlock, use the AI Suite 3 software program relatively than the BIOS for essentially the most fine-grained management of the processor.
Verdict: Nonetheless TUF Sufficient for 14th Gen
The refreshed Asus TUF Gaming Z790-Professional Wi-Fi motherboard takes all issues TUF and makes them out-of-the-box prepared for Intel’s 14th Era processors. It has the identical military-grade elements, together with succesful energy supply and ESD protections, because the Z790-Plus. Moreover, you get a full-featured board together with 4 M.2 sockets and 4 SATA ports, a top quality audio answer, and a pair of.5GbE and Wi-Fi 6E networking (not Wi-Fi 7). Efficiency-wise, the board confirmed off its capabilities in each productiveness work and gaming, so we’ve no worries on that entrance or on others.
(Credit score: Joe Shields)Asus’ rivals naturally supply various boards, most across the identical worth level. The Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Elite X AX ($289.99) is at present the costliest of the lot however presents Wi-Fi 7 and 6 SATA ports. MSI’s MAG Z790 Tomahawk Max Wi-Fi ($279.99) presents PCIe 5.0 M.2 storage, eight SATA ports, and Wi-Fi 7. Maybe the very best bang on your buck comes from ASRock’s Z790 PG Riptide, which for $249.99 presents PCIe 5.0-capable M.2 sockets, eight SATA ports, and Wi-Fi 7.
Apart from the $30-cheaper ASRock, the rivals’ costs are related, so your alternative comes all the way down to look, storage necessities, Wi-Fi 7 (want or need?), and arguably the worth you get from extras comparable to Asus’ AEMP II function to stretch your {dollars} additional. The TUF Z790-Professional is definitely a well-rounded providing that needs to be in your quick listing for a sub-$300 motherboard with drop-in 14th Gen help.
