ROG Z790-Gaming WiFi II vs TUF Gaming Z790 Pro WiFi

[jackoj]

What gains can I get from using the ROG Z790-E Gaming WiFi II vs the TUF Gaming Z790 Pro WiFi?

 I’ll be using a i7 - 14700K CPU, 32GB Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR5 and a 4090 OC GPU. 

[Silent_Scone]

Hi @jackoj 

The boards are quite evenly matched. Go for whichever option fits your IO needs better or aesthetics.

[jackoj]

Thanks for responding. The ROG does look better but the TUF isn’t bad either. My main concern is that I just want my motherboard to have the ability to allow my components to run to their full potential. I just want to be able to game in 4K and I’m a COD guy so that’s basically all I’ll be playing. Maybe NFS and GTA occasionally. 

[achugh]

Hi @jackoj , you can checkout ASUS North America YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@ASUSUSA/videos . My understanding from these official marketing videos is that ROG series is a step up from TUF series in terms of the build and features.

I maybe wrong but I believe somewhere in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-x4LmF0avY long video it was mentioned what various series offer and how and why they go up in price point.

On this ASUS North America channel you can watch these First Look series for the board you are interested in plus the Z790 Refresh video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9pM9_sMc7Q. 

FYI, I have not watched them. I am simply sharing here to help you with your research. You have also not mentioned what is important to you so hopefully these videos will help.

If you share what is attracting you to these specific boards and exactly are you trying to do then we can all share here out thoughts if you are interested to hear them.

Good luck with your selection and new build!

[jackoj]

My aim is to game in 4K. That’s really all 😅. I won’t do content creation or anything like that. 

[achugh · Accepted solution]

Hi @jackoj when making your decisions, you can keep in mind some of the following items or use them to make your decision.

• ROG Model has technology wise better things in it compared to TUF model which you will also see in its price difference.
  • If you choose to move forward with ROG, you will stick to this forum. For TUF boards there is a separate forum and you will get better help there.
• ROG gives you and EXTAR 1 PCIe GEN5 M.2 Drive where in TUF model you only get 1 PCI x16 GEN5 slot for your GFX card. This extra GEN 5 M.2 could give you a slight speed boost in disk read activity for gaming.
• Both boards are having 4 DIMM slots but Intel CPUs are DUAL channels so if you put a memory kit having more than 2 sticks you will lose performance or you may not even get your memory to run at a rate speed. I recommend that you read https://rog-forum.asus.com/t5/technologies-explained/memory-kits-overclocking-and-what-you-may-not-k... link also listen to the YouTube video in the comment from me.
  • The summary of this link is that do not mix memory kits i.e. do not get 2 memory kits having two sticks in each kit. If you really need more memory either get a higher capacity kit with two sticks or get a kit with 4 sticks in it.
  • You also should pick a kit from the selected motherboards QVL list.
  • For fastest speed, only get a kit with 2 sticks in it with small capacity like a 32GB kit having 2x 16GB sticks in it.
• For gaming your GFX card will play a key role and these days these cards are thick so you will more than likely lose the PCIx16 slot right next to the PCI x16 GEN5 slot on your TUF board.
  • You really need to think the board design. Just because there are slots on the board, can you use them? The slots you can use, are they sufficient for what you want to put into them.
• Both boards have Thunderbolt headers but no native thunderbolt chips on the board. Do you want to future proof your boards? How important is thunderbolt support for you?
• With everything having USB connectors these days including Keyboard, Mouse and optical drives etc. do you have enough USB connectors on the REAR IO? ROG board has way more connectors compared to TUF board.
• TUF board has proven Audio chip where as ROG board has newer audio chip. New chip means typically longer driver support but it also means that the drivers are not as robust and stable so you have higher probability of running into issues.
  • You can see my personal journey of this newer audio chip issue at https://rog-forum.asus.com/t5/gaming-motherboards/can-asus-support-fix-realtek-audio-drivers-with-bo...
  • This does not mean you will face similar issues so you have to make your own decision here.
  • https://rog-forum.asus.com/t5/downloads-for-motherboards/drivers-realtek-usb-audio-amd-5xx-6xx-trx40... typically lists unofficial audio drivers to help people out which has become quite big now.

In short, you really need to think about the whole build when making decision for any part that goes into it and board selection is no different than selecting anything else.

As another example, both these boards have a front panel USB 20GB header but does your case have a USB-C Front Panel connector that supports 20GB header? Very few cases have this front panel header as most of them will get you only 10GB USB-C connector. Is that going to be an issue for you? Like losing features you paid for but you cannot use them.

I recently did a build 3 months ago and it took be 6 months to come up with my part list as not all parts were available so I had to wait for few them. For 1 part I had to pay over the MSRP (or premium price) because I wanted to finish and test the build in case I need to return something within the 30 days window.

Your mileage may vary. Good luck!

[jackoj]

This is amazing! I do want to make my build future proof and therefore I have settled with the ROG Strixx Z790-E Gaming WiFi II motherboard and have purchased it. 
What I’m not so happy about it that I looked at Intel recommended memory speed for my i7 14700k which is DDR5 5600MT/s and purchased a corsair dominator platinum RGB 32GB (16GBx2) CL36 kit but I’ve since then read forums of other users having use up to 7200MT/s sticks with good stability. 

I’m now wondering if I should try to sell my 5600MT/s CL36 kit to get a 6600MT/s CL 32 kit. 

What’s your thoughts?

PS I watched the videos you sent and that’s When I made up my mind to get the ROG board. Thanks for that. 

[Silent_Scone]

Inspect the memory QVL for your board of choice. Please note that beyond any frequency listed below for the relevant configuration is considered an overclock, hence why Intel whitepapers and specifications state 5600MT as the maximum supported frequency.

[achugh]

Hi @Silent_Scone just for my learnings, aren't these Intel Official Specifications meant for JEDEC speeds? Most memory kits purchased by consumers are XMP rated only with much slower JEDEC values. Does that factor anything in terms of these specifications?

Personally, I have seen, all of the memory kits are really rated for XMP or OC. The board comes with (OC) written in the TECH SPEC portion on the ASUS website to let everyone know that it can support up to a very OC value if anyone wins a silicon lottery and uses the kit from QVL.

So for @jackoj if he is within the return window, he can try to exchange the kit with a higher value and give it a try. Would this be a fair statement to make here? I may find the video from TechNotice where he did a test that going from standard 5600 MT/s to 6400 MT/s gave him a boost in a range from 5-10% depending on the activity and benchmark tests that he did. So there is some benefit to go up in speed depending on the activity. For playing games it is going to vary from game to game. If the game uses lot of memory then you will see a larger difference or benefit of going to higher speed. For peace of mind and your personal happiness (specially if you can afford it); go for the higher speed kits.

Lastly, as the article from the Silent_Scone himself that I mentioned above states, mixing kits is not recommended so it is best to get what makes you happy now. Your exchange cost maybe really small at this time compared to a 1-2 years from now at which point you will be better off just getting a completely new kit to increase your speed and you may not get much value from this current kit. All of this is speculation based on past memory prices so please use your own judgement when making your decision.

[Silent_Scone]

The answer is in reply to Jackoj taking note of the maximum specification listed by Intel and not concerning overclocking and XMP memory kits. I'm not sure what you are referring to by "slower values", perhaps you mean the increased latency often accompanied by higher frequency kits. Best not to derail other users' threads in this case.