Z790 APEX Availability Overclocking and Playtime Thread : )

[iBruceypoo]

Newegg listing November 2nd and 3rd:



Newegg listing November 4th, today:



Did Newegg sell out their known incoming quantity of boards as Pre-Orders in 48hours? OR did they simply change the purchasing status?

Who knows right?

Did anyone grab a pre-order?

[iBruceypoo]

JohnAb wrote:
8800 MHz is awesome. What makes the Apex different to other 790 boards? I know you've got to 8000. I'm seeing Extreme owners here with several issues. The Apex just seems to work for some reason, maybe because it has only 2 DIMM slots and the architecture is different somehow? Perhaps BIOS optimisation will solve all issues.

Saw your water block, that's impressive and very shiny. Should look amazing, even if you can't see that fantastic 13900KS hidden below (when it arrives) lol.

I think my upgrade path has been 80286, 80386, Pentium 4, i9-4770K, i9-9900K and currently i9-12900K. In fact, I still have a 386 now, but it hasn't been turned on for 15 years. How time flies. I still just about remember DOS and Windows 3.1/3.2.

Oh by the way, I started a thread asking for overclocking advice on my 5200 memory, but nobody has answered yet. Do you any idea how far I could push it, if at all? Only for the fun of course, my machine is fast enough for everything I do anyway.

John, I've heard with DDR5 two dimm slots is not as important, and also with DDR5 two dimm slots is more important. I do believe the latter argument is more true since most Z790 Hero and Extreme users using Hynix A-die (7200 and above) are only populating 2 of 4 slots.

When I ran my 4dimm boards M5E and M8E, I never populated all 4dimm slots, so when the Apex launched it seemed like the ideal board for my needs. I first picked up the Apex X (M10A) back in 2016 with an 8700K and loved it - never went back to a 4dimm board.

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I don't know Alder Lake mem overclocking very well, is there VDD and VDDQ? If so, then I can probably help you out, lol. :cool:

I just installed bios 0078 (like the guy who hit 8800 CL 36) and I got nowhere, cannot even "sloppy boot" into 8200 and attempted 8000 CL34, booted fine yet with 23 errors in TM5. :rolleyes:

It's my CPU. I should feel lucky getting 8000 CL36 TM5 stable with an i5. Can't go any farther until I replace my CPU.

[JohnAb]

Yes, interesting. I've been looking for a pattern in the people who have BIOS/Memory/Stability issues, but I can't make sense of it. I get the feeling that 4 sticks and/or high speed RAM is often where the problems start. I can understand the higher speed stuff having poorer stability, but if the board comes with 4 slots they should all work anyway, right? (as long as the sticks are all matched of course). The BIOS itself has a big influence as well of course, as proven in the Extreme/7200 stability thread in the last day or two and the sporadic problems (or improvements) reported by some users when a new BIOS is released.

Anyway, yes I do have VDD and VDDQ, plus a million other options. I think that all of the memory settings will be very similar with 12th gen. Actually I was watching a YouTube video earlier where the guy was overclocking 4800 Corsair CL38 RAM to about 5400 on an ASUS 690 board, just by changing the clock multiplier and the VDD/VDDQ voltages to about 1.3V. Think his starting voltage might have been 1.2V. I'm currently on 1.25V. I'll watch it again, but don't think he touched the timings. So that was about a 12.5% speed increase for free. My RAM is CL40, but based on his experience, maybe I can get my 5200 up to around 5800. Is there any danger in trying it in steps, just increasing the voltage if instability arises in 0.05V increments?. I guess if the machine won't boot at any point, I can just reset the CMOS. Would you agree that at the simple level, that's a sensible way to have a go?

On the other hand, I love this machine so much that I wonder if it's even worth doing. I'd be upset if I broke the RAM or introduced any sort of permanent instability by pushing up the voltages and the RAM gets kind of 'addicted' to the higher voltage forever because some sort of subtle damage/degradation is caused? Don't think I would probably see a performance benefit anyway, so is it even worth the trouble do you think?

[iBruceypoo]

JohnAb wrote:
Yes, interesting. I've been looking for a pattern in the people who have BIOS/Memory/Stability issues, but I can't make sense of it. I get the feeling that 4 sticks and/or high speed RAM is often where the problems start. I can understand the higher speed stuff having poorer stability, but if the board comes with 4 slots they should all work anyway, right? (as long as the sticks are all matched of course). The BIOS itself has a big influence as well of course, as proven in the Extreme/7200 stability thread in the last day or two and the sporadic problems (or improvements) reported by some users when a new BIOS is released.

Anyway, yes I do have VDD and VDDQ, plus a million other options. I think that all of the memory settings will be very similar with 12th gen. Actually I was watching a YouTube video earlier where the guy was overclocking 4800 Corsair CL38 RAM to about 5400 on an ASUS 690 board, just by changing the clock multiplier and the VDD/VDDQ voltages to about 1.3V. Think his starting voltage might have been 1.2V. I'm currently on 1.25V. I'll watch it again, but don't think he touched the timings. So that was about a 12.5% speed increase for free. My RAM is CL40, but based on his experience, maybe I can get my 5200 up to around 5800. Is there any danger in trying it in steps, just increasing the voltage if instability arises in 0.05V increments?. I guess if the machine won't boot at any point, I can just reset the CMOS. Would you agree that at the simple level, that's a sensible way to have a go?

On the other hand, I love this machine so much that I wonder if it's even worth doing. I'd be upset if I broke the RAM or introduced any sort of permanent instability by pushing up the voltages and the RAM gets kind of 'addicted' to the higher voltage forever because some sort of subtle damage/degradation is caused? Don't think I would probably see a performance benefit anyway, so is it even worth the trouble do you think?

First time I noticed that RAM speed and CL made a real difference in responsiveness was my 3200 CL14 DDR4 B-die kit and the Apex 10. I caught the bug then and moved through 4000 and 4600 with that board and a high-binned 8086K. With Rocket Lake I experienced Samsung B-die the 4800 kit at 5066 CL16 and mind blown once again. Then grabbed the Gskill Hynix DJR 5333 DDR4 kit thinking I may not even reach XMP with my 11600K i5 and 90% chance I'd be sending it back to Newegg. Installed the mem kit and achieved 5333 CL20, 5600 CL21, and 5866 CL22 by only adjusting primary timings and DRAM voltage. Wow, my Z590 rig boots in about 6seconds with FAST BOOT enabled and responsiveness is lightning fast, how could this get any better?

Raptor Lake 8000 CL36 IS even better - much more responsive. So what you are saying - "my rig is already fast enough for what I do". Trust me, when you feel that new speed, you will never want to return to what you thought was - good enough. 🙂

[JohnAb]

Thanks, I'm tempted again now. For reasons I'm not clear about, it takes 32s for me to get to QCode A0 and then another 15s for the Windows login screen to appear. It would be nice to speed that up 🙂 How fast does your Apex boot up?

[iBruceypoo]

JohnAb wrote:
Thanks, I'm tempted again now. For reasons I'm not clear about, it takes 32s for me to get to QCode A0 and then another 15s for the Windows login screen to appear. It would be nice to speed that up 🙂 How fast does your Apex boot up?

That's Apex for you. My Z590 build is 6seconds to A0 Windows 10, yet that's a mature platform. Z790 (so far) is about 11-15sec to A0, yet much more responsive once in Windows 11.

Using only one SSD, two mem modules, D5 water pump, Aquaero 6 LT, only (2) 140mm fans and small SFF 70watt GPU workstation card.

I'm not in a chassis, it's open air bench, so only 2fans in the entire build for the 280mm radiator. 🙂

no sign-in options with either rig all bypassed, simply boot to Windows.

My Apex 10 booted very fast also, relatively speaking for 2016.

[JohnAb]

On Reddit, loads of complaints about the Z690 Hero having long boot times, so not just me. Nobody seems to have a fix. I've just got used to it, but it's strange. Reckon I'll just have to accept it as normal 😞

[iBruceypoo]

JohnAb wrote:
On Reddit, loads of complaints about the Z690 Hero having long boot times, so not just me. Nobody seems to have a fix. I've just got used to it, but it's strange. Reckon I'll just have to accept it as normal 😞

And yet, the Z790 Hero board is the #1 selling Intel motherboard right now. At $619 (not cheap at all), that says a lot about consumers willing to pay more to get more, says a lot about the confidence they have in the ROG and Asus brand.

I've heard stories of AMD's newest platform taking over 1minute to boot. Holy moly, that would get me a bit frustrated.

Maybe it's only a rumor. idk.

I enjoy booting like a laptop. :cool:

And Z790 boots should get faster over time for everyone as the platform matures.

Also Good John, if you're not in an office environment other people near your PC, disable the Windows PIN and password any and all sign-in options. Push the button and let the home screen appear. 😛

[JohnAb]

That's good thanks. I need to find out if there is a reason that mine is so slow. I'll double check all of the BIOS and Windows options.... There must be something that's holding it back.

[iBruceypoo]

JohnAb wrote:
That's good thanks. I need to find out if there is a reason that mine is so slow. I'll double check all of the BIOS and Windows options.... There must be something that's holding it back.

When I added the 5866Mhz CL22 Hynix DDR4 that sped up my Rocket Lake Z590 Apex boot time substantially. Fast mem kits - speed parts, very fun with the Apex boards.

[JohnAb]

Not a bad idea when I think about it. My data drives are encrypted, so no security risk if it gets stolen. Not likely with two enormous dogs here, but good to be careful.