Asrock Z790 TAICHI, Intel Z790, 1700, EATX, 4 DDR5, HDMI, 2 Thunderbolt, Wi-Fi 6E, 2.5G & GB LAN, PCIe5, RGB, 5x M.2

Product Information

We’ll start with the three PCIe slots in the middle of the board. The top slots (primarilyy for graphics) are reinforced and both source their lanes from the CPU. The top slot runs at PCIe 5.0 x16 when only the top slot is populated or x8/x8 speeds with PCIE_2 occupied. The bottom slot runs at PCIe 4.0 x4, with lanes coming from the chipset. When the bottom slot, PCIE3, is occupied, SATA ports 0-4 will be disabled, so you must carefully populate the board with your hardware. For those considering a multi-GPU setup (who are you?), this configuration supports AMD Crossfire, but NVIDIA SLI is not listed.

If the 12V 6 pin Power Connector is not plugged, this header supports USB PD 3.0 up to 9V@3A (27W) fast charging. Starting with the launch of Zen 4, we’ve updated one of our games, F1 21 to F1 22, while keeping Far Cry 6. We run the games at 1920x1080 resolution using the Ultra preset (details listed above). As the resolution goes up, the CPU tends to have less impact. The goal with these settings is to determine if there are differences in performance at the most commonly used (and CPU/system bound) resolution with settings most people use or strive for (Ultra). We expect the difference between boards in these tests to be minor, with most falling within the margin of error differences. We’ve also added a minimum FPS value, which can affect your gameplay and immersion experience.I really hope other motherboard manufacturers sit up and take notice. Sometimes less really is more. The Z790 Taichi Lite is built around a now mature platform. Engineers have had time to optimize PCB layouts, while the underlying BIOS microcode has a couple of years of bug fixes and tweaks behind it. This means Z790 boards should perform within a margin of error of one another. Moving on to the connectivity options, the Z790 Taichi Lite has a feature set that exceeds anything else in its price range. Beginning with the rear I/O, the highlight is the dual USB 4/Thunderbolt 4 ports. They support 27W PD and display connectivity. They are joined by two USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports, six USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports and a pair of USB 2.0 ports.

You get dual PCIe 5.0 x16 slots and support for up to 192GB of DDR5 at 7200MHz. The Wi-Fi card looks a bit unsightly, but that will be hidden underneath a graphics card, so it's not a concern. Regarding PCIe support, two full-length PCIe 5.0 slots can operate at x16/x0 and x8/x8, with a full-length PCIe 4.0 x4 slot at the bottom. Storage support consists of one PCIe 5.0 x4 M.2 slot for the latest and greatest high-performance SSDs, while there are also a further four PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 SSDs. At the bottom right-hand side of the board are eight SATA ports with support for RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 arrays. If you value function over form, the Z790 Taichi Lite is one of the best options out there. It's a flagship tier board without any unnecessary bloat that in many cases, becomes entirely useless once the case side panel is shut. Put simply, there is nothing else out there that offers what Z790 Taichi Lite does.Intel® UHD Graphics Built-in Visuals and the VGA outputs can be supported only with processors which are GPU integrated. The Powerful algorithms to ensure the best noise-free conversation, giving a constant vocal level no matter the distance from your mic. The Nahimic audio engine dynamically clear the sound and remove interference noise and lower the voice variation. Result is a better comprehension and less fatigue. Whether you are using headphones, a headset, external or internal speakers, via USB, Wi-Fi, analog output or even HDMI, Nahimic Audio offers you the most engaging listening experience, vibrant and rich with details.

VRM temperatures on the Taichi Carrara were within specification during our stress test. That said, even when actively cooled, the VRMs are the warmest we’ve tested out of our four motherboards so far. If you were paying attention above, you’d realize the 350W the CPU peaked at during stress testing and sustained loads put much more stress on the robust power delivery than the other boards. This shows us that even when maxed out, the VRMs can easily handle whatever you throw at them while using ambient cooling methods. Bottom LineThe Z790 chipset allows a total 20 usable PCIE 4.0 lanes, with upto a maximum memory capacity of 128GB. It’s also capable of up to 10 x USB 3.2 Gen1 5Gbps, 10 x USB 3.2 Gen2 10Gbps and up to 5 x USB 3.2 Gen2x2 20Gbps. Strangley no mention of PCIE 5.0 Gen5 support for NVME SSDs. We default to our Cyberpunk 2077 benchmark for gaming, testing 1080p, 1440p, and 4K. Taichi scored 204 FPS at 1080p, 159 FPS at 1440p, and 92 FPS at 4K. Final Thoughts Thunderbolt™ graphics output may not be compatible with certain Type-C monitors. Please use graphics card outputs instead.

For almost 2 years, Intel have fallen behind AMD in terms of multi-core performance. But will the launch of their 13th Gen processors, plus the Z790 chipset turn things around? Anyway, now that both AMD and Intel have launched their next-gen platforms for 2022 … the real battle now begins for desktop dominance! Let’s go! Intel Z790 Chipset Idle power consumption on our Z790 Taichi/i9-13900K combo is reasonable at 67 watts on the desktop. Load power peaked at a staggering 498W at the wall. Compared to the other three boards, which peaked between ~375-392W the Taichi used considerably more power - to the tune of 25%-plus more. That said, the Taichi tested quite well. The board performed in line with expectations and right with other similar offerings. R23 showed this board as one of our top 5 in single thread, and the same can be said about Crossmark. Memory latency was quite good on this board, with our 7200MHz kit coming in at 65ns. You'll note the presence of a 6-pin power connector adjacent to the front USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 port. Connecting power to it gives the front port 60W fast charging support. Without it, the port is limited to 27W.The VRM is a real highlight. It's a 24-phase design with 105A stages cooled by big chunky heatsinks. The Z790 Taichi Lite will happily power a liquid nitrogen cooled Core i9 13900K without breaking a sweat, and it'll handle any upcoming refreshed K model under the same conditions.