Review: AORUS Z790 Tachyon

This AORUS Z790 Tachyon motherboard was one of the models we were eager to get our hands on and we would like to take this opportunity to thank AORUS for offering us this opportunity. At the end of last year, we told you about the excitement that reigned in our Discord community around this card after some users were disappointed by the performance of the ROG Maximus Z790 APEX in retail version. On our side, we didn’t encounter any problems with the sample we received, on the contrary.

This AORUS Tachyon Z790 version is therefore highly anticipated and many are those who imagine acquiring it in the coming weeks. We were talking about an availability at the end of December but at the time of publishing this article, the card is still not available.

So thanks to AORUS for this sample and let’s discover the performance of this motherboard dedicated to overclocking and cold testing.

[nextpage title=”AORUS Z790 Tachyon:”]

The bundle:

A little tour through the bundle of this AORUS Z790 Tachyon to see if it benefits from “special items”. Overall, we find a pretty standard bundle with the traditional SATA cables, Wi-Fi antenna, stickers, etc. So you won’t find anything extra in the box.

In the end, for a card dedicated to overclocking, this is not what interests us the most. Note however that in my sample received, there is no manual of the motherboard, which is quite surprising but it should certainly be the case with the retails cards, ie sold in the shops.

Even if it is not yet available in France, it has just made an appearance in Finland. Indeed, the card is currently on sale at 759.90 euros at a Finnish retailer. This price seems to us coherent compared to the price of the ROG APEX version from Asus at 820 euros.

Architecture:

The AORUS Z790 Tachyon motherboard is architected around Intel’s latest chipset, the Z790. This motherboard retains the previous generation socket, the LGA-1700, as the processor has grown in size since the Rocket Lakes. With this Z790 version, this is the third Tachyon motherboard to be launched. The first one was built around the Z590 chipset, and it’s a board designed by Hi Cookie, the famous overclocker who manages the manufacturing and debugging of BIOS.

The Z790 chipset supports PCIe 5.0 offering higher storage performance than the previous generation as well as DDR5 support.

The different heatsinks:

The dimensions of the board are 305 mm x 270 mm, which corresponds to the E-ATX format. The dominant colors on the PCB are black and grey. The design of this “Tachyon” version is still quite particular. Aesthetically, it looks quite similar to the Z690 version, but it is mainly the part dedicated to the buttons for overclocking that is organized differently.

Let’s start the tour with the radiators which are three in number!
First of all, the two radiators located on the top of the motherboard and which surround the socket. They cover the power supply stage and are connected by a heat pipe. Note that the left radiator has a part that covers the external connectors. You will be able to see this better when disassembling the board a little later in the article.

The third is the one that covers the chipset and has a large surface but a low height to allow easy placement of graphics cards.

The AORUS logo and a very light RGB backlight are present. We are here on a completely passive system.

Four SSD slots:

Two aluminum plates, whose cutout perfectly matches the one on the chipset, cover the four M.2 SSD slots on the PCB. As you can see, the SSD slots all have a thermal pad to optimize heat dissipation. Without a manual and information on the AORUS website, it is very difficult for us to know how they are wired.

As soon as we have the information, we will of course update this unboxing. By the time this article is published, it should be.

The socket and PCIe:

The space around the socket is very well cleared and it will be quite very easy to isolate with rubber for testing under LN2. On the other hand, the card only has mounting holes for LAG-1700.

This Tachyon should logically support dual channel memory kits up to 7800 MHz+ (OC) and for a maximum amount of 64 GB. As you can see, there are only two memory slots. This is deliberate since the idea is to overclock the memory as much as possible, which is easier with two slots than with four. Remember that this card is 100% intended for overclocking. The two slots are far enough apart to be able to use a cooling kit under LN2.

There are two PCIe 5.0 ports, but unfortunately we do not have any information about them at the moment. To power all this, the card has a 24-pin flat connector and two 8-pin connectors next to the power stages.

AORUS seems to have reworked the retention system that releases your graphics card. This was a concern we had with the previous generation when a heat sink was too close to the first PCIe slot. We’ll be watching closely in our test to see if it works better.

[nextpage title=”The PCB and connectors: “]

Tools for clocking:

Let’s start with the elements inserted on the PCB which can be interesting tools for overclockers. There are a lot of them on this model, which has become a habit with AORUS on this Z790 Tachyon version. This confirms its position as a board dedicated to overclocking.

• The Clear CMOS button: allows you to erase the BIOS settings in order to return to the default ones.
• The reset button: allows you to reboot the motherboard in case of failure.
• The retry button: during cold tests, sometimes the OS freezes and a reset does not allow to restart the motherboard: only solution 6, 7 seconds by keeping the START button pressed. With the ReTry button, it restarts immediately.

• The Q-Led: allows to display a code which corresponds to the component responsible for the error during the boot. It has a larger size than on the previous versions.
• Voltage points : allows to measure voltages with a multimeter directly on the PCB.

• The power button: allows the powering of the motherboard.
• The LIMP mode (the turtle): similar to the ” safe Boot ” at Asus, this button allows to restart the card even if the parameters chosen in the BIOS do not allow the Boot. This avoids having to do a CMOS Clear to reboot and thus lose your encoded settings. The board will then reboot with default settings.
• The CPU Ratio Switch button: allows you to directly increase or decrease the multiplier of your processor.
• The SB switch: allows you to disable or enable the Dual BIOS function.
• The BIOS switch: allows you to switch between the two bios. You can thus choose to have an ” overclocking ” bios and a more stable bios for a H24 configuration
• The TGR switch: a button a bit like the ” slow mode “, it will allow you to decrease the processor frequency and thus lower the CPU temperature before launching a benchmark and thus increase the chances that it will pass. You activate it, the temperature decreases, you put it back in its original position just before launching your benchmark.
• The OC_IGNITION switch: it allows overclockers and hobbyists to pre-test water cooling systems when building their computers without having to boot the system.

As you can see, the tools are numerous! Can’t wait to test each of them in a little cold session.

The PCB:

Let’s move on to the PCB, this one is built in 10 layers as indicated by an inscription on the corner of the PCB. This Z670 Tachyon is based on a 15 + 1 + 2 phase power supply.

The first controller used is a Renesas RAA2291131 which directly drives the 15 phases dedicated to the CPU. The 15 CPU mosfets are all Renesas RAA220105 of 105A. The GT part is managed by 1 Renesas RAA220105 of 105A. The IMC and PCIe part is managed by 2 MPS MP87992 of 70A. We are on a power supply stage similar to that of the Z690 Tachyon.

Connectors:

The rear panel has the following elements. First of all the LIMP mode (the turtle) also present on the PCB as well as the button allowing to flash the bios from a USB key. One of the particularities of the card is to have two PS/2 slots to connect a keyboard and a mouse. But why still use this type of connector in 2021? Simply because some benchmarks are more powerful under XP (Super Pi) and the use of non-USB peripherals greatly facilitates the installation of the OS.

Regarding the USB ports, we are waiting to receive the specifications from AORUS so we can tell you more about them. Then we find the antenna supports for the dual band Wi-Fi and the audio part. Finally, there is also an HDMI port which is very useful for testing the graphics chipset integrated into certain processors. We have now completed the tour of this AORUS Z790 Tachyon, it’s time for us to test it and see you soon to discover the complete test here.

[nextpage title=”The BIOS:”]

As far as the BIOS is concerned, by default, you’ll land on a page with the basic information of your BIOS. In order to access all the parameters, you will have to press the F2 key. Beginners will already be able to manage the XMP profile and the fan management on this light page. Now you know us well enough to know that it is directly to the full BIOS.

The first available tab is “Favorites” which allows you to have direct access to the settings you change most often, it’s always very useful. The ” Tweaker ” part, as its name indicates, will be full of options allowing you to set up your processor, your memory kit but also to manage the different voltages. A small “Favorites (F11)” allows you to access the BIOS settings that have been saved as favorites.

In the ” Tweaker ” tab you can find the different parameters of your memory kits but also those for your processor. Most of the parameters to adjust the voltages are also found in this section. As a bonus, Aorus offers here custom XMP but nothing very interesting since the highest profile for Hynix chips is 6400 MT/s knowing that our kit already has an XMP of 7200 MT/s. On the other hand, some optimization options are present but we will talk about them again when we will overclock the DDR5.

We’ll tell you about the settings dedicated to processor and memory overclocking in the dedicated pages later in the article.

Finally, saving profiles is highly recommended when performing tests. It saves time. Don’t hesitate to ask for advice on our forum and discord if you encounter any problems when setting up your BIOS.

The official F2d BIOS:

The BIOS that we used during our tests is the version that is logically intended for cold testing but be aware that the official BIOS is available directly on the AORUS website, it is the F2d version. Not really a big difference in the layout of the categories.

[nextpage title=”The test configuration:”]

So here are the different components that equip our test platform. For the publication of these tests, I used the latest BIOS received although new versions will certainly be available in the days to come. Asus being very reactive on the update of its BIOS.

We will also propose you in the coming weeks several overclocking guides for your processor but also for your memory kit with this APEX model.

• Motherboard : AORUS Z790 Tachyon (BIOS x6k and F2d)
• Processor: Intel i9-13900K
• Memory : 32 GB Teamgroup Delta RGB 7200 MT/s CL34
• Graphics Card: MSI GT 710
• Cooling system : Optimus Foundation + 480 mm EK radiator
• SSD : Western Digital SN850 NVMe SSD M.2
• Power supply : be quiet! Dark Power PRO 12 1500w
• Operating system: Windows 11 64 bits
• Display: ROG PG27UQ

A small tour by CPU-Z to make sure that everything is perfectly in order before starting our tests. We notice that with this version 2.03.0, our i9-13900K is perfectly recognized as well as the DDR5 memory.

Now that our configuration is ready, let’s see if the BIOS is correct for the frequencies of our i9-13900K.

[nextpage title=”The actual frequencies:”]

As with every new processor test, our first idea is to check if the announced frequencies are actually reached. To do this, we will use the Cinebench R23 benchmark. Two cases will be used: a single core bench and a second one in multi core. The idea is to be able to judge the frequency reached and thus, to compare with what was announced by Intel in its slides.

Remember that the Boost frequency in bench is different depending on the processor. Be careful, as Intel points out, when we talk about Max Turbo frequency, it is the maximum frequency that can be reached by one of the processor’s cores executing a single-core workload(mono-thread). This frequency varies according to several factors: the load, the cooling system and therefore the temperature of your processor. This is a notion to keep in mind. Here are the frequencies we should reach on a single core during our run under Cinebench R23.

First step, we leave everything in AUTO in the BIOS except the XMP profile that we load in order to have a frequency of 6000 MT/s in 30-38-38-96 for our memory kit. We don’t make any other changes in the BIOS.

Test with the i9-13900K:

Here we go with the beefiest of the processors, the i9-13900K. As you can see, we opened several windows to check the frequency and the temperature. The options in our BIOS were left in AUTO by default and only the XMP profile of our memory kit was loaded.

In single core, we can see that cores #4 and #5 reach a frequency of 5800 MHz which corresponds to what is announced by Intel. We can notice that the temperature of the two cores that are alternating at 5.8 GHz have a temperature of 61 °C.

When the 24 cores of our i9-13900K are solicited, the frequency is fixed on the P-Core at 5.5 GHz and at 4.3 GHz on the E-Core. As for the temperature of the hottest P-Core, it is 77°C and on the E-Core 63°C. Let’s not forget that we are equipped with a custom cooling loop of 480 mm. So if you choose this processor, it will be at least a very powerful AIO of 280/360 mm.

[nextpage title=”CPU overclocking:”]

Protocol:

Before starting, it is necessary to have one or more reference scores with our i9-13900K at stock frequencies , that is to say, without having made any modification except having activated the XMP profile. It is also very important to have at hand a sheet that will allow you to note all the tests you will perform as well as the results or failures. Personally, I have hundreds of sheets of my tests on which I sometimes go back to know how the processor behaved on such motherboard or in such test conditions. My own little bible.

For H24 overclocking, it will of course be necessary to take more time to fine-tune the voltage in order to provide it with the minimum necessary, but also to adjust each core independently if you want to take advantage of the maximum performance.

Loadline Calibration in the BIOS:

Go to the Tweaker tab – Advanced Voltage Settings – CPU Vcore Loadline Calibration. It is in this part that you can choose the mode that suits you best.

Personally, my principle is to have as little vdroop as possible.
Basically, I want the voltage chosen to be as close as possible to the load voltage. In the tables below, you can see the chosen voltage, the effective voltage in idle and finally in load . The readings are made with a multimeter at the PCB of the motherboard. It is very important to know the real voltage brought to the different components but especially to your processor. In general, I choose the Turbo mode.

Profiles within the Gaming BIOS, Max Performance and Instant 6GHz :

Within our BIOS, there are 3 additional profiles compared to the default one. Remember that by default, the frequency of our i9-13900Ks on a single-threaded task is 5.8 GHz and 5.5 GHz for the P-Core and 4.3 GHz for the E-Core on multithread.
So let’s see what the Gaming, Max Performance and Instant 6GHz profiles change.

The Gaming profile will disable the E-Core, leaving only the P-Core active. The second profile, Max Performance, will push the P-Core frequency from 5.5 to 5.6 GHz and the E-Core from 4.3 to 4.5 GHz. This will result in a performance gain in multithreaded tasks. Finally, as you might expect, the Instant 6GHz profile will push the two best P-Cores to 6 GHz. These three profiles passed several runs in a row in Cinebench R23 without flinching! The results of these tests will be shown in a table below.

Overclocking under watercooling in different stages :

I don’t really need to overclock my i9-13900K anymore, because I know it by heart and unfortunately it’s not a nugget. However, if it’s a new processor, I advise you to follow this little ritual. Start the tests by choosing, via the BIOS, a starting frequency applied on the 8 P-Cores of the i9-13900K. I chose a starting frequency of 5500 MHz with a multiplier of 55, a BCLK of 100, a voltage of 1.20 volt and a Level 7. All other options are in AUTO

The idea is then, in the OS, to test the stability on several runs of Cinebench R23 multithread . If it’s stable, I increase the frequency by 100 MHz while rechecking the stability. If the benchmark crashes, I increase the voltage by 0.05 volt increments in order to regain a stability allowing to run the benchmark. The objective is to get a “quick” idea of the max benchmarkable frequency. As soon as the max frequency of the P-Core is detected, you can push the E-Core.

The problem is that what my i9-13900K is capable of, i.e. P-Core x56, E-Core x45 and uncore x50, almost corresponds to the Max Performance profile we mentioned above. So let’s see if we can do a little better on this AORUS Z790 Tachyon.

Our best score is 42762 in Cinebench R23 but with temperatures ranging from 77 to 93 °C. Unfortunately, our sample is not a gold processor but it performed well under LN2. Here is the summary table which includes our different tests with the BIOS profiles.

I’m waiting for the arrival of an i9-13900KS this week which should have a good potential in overclocking associated with a good IMC, fingers crossed.

[nextpage title=”DDR5 overclocking: “]

For memory overclocking, we have of course kept our Teamgroup Delta RGB 7200 MT/s CL34 kit and its Hynix A-die chips. The idea is to choose the kit that we think has the best overclocking potential. And as you can see, we were not mistaken.

The choice of your DDR5 kit according to the memory chips :

As it was already the case for DDR4, if you want to clock your memory, some brands will benefit from a better potential. Currently, the kits announced by the various brands benefit either from Micron chips or Hynix chips or Samsung chips.

The “key” voltages of DDR5:

For memory overclocking, there are 5 key voltages. These are the voltages that will have an impact on the overclocking and therefore on the frequency rise or the tightening of the timings. Depending on the brand of your motherboard and the BIOS, these may have a different name. Let’s see where they are located in the Tachyon BIOS.

These are Internal VCCSA, VDDQ CPU (IVR), VDD2 CPU (Memory Controller) and the memory voltages VDD and VDDQ. It is in the balance of these voltages that the success of the memory overclocking will largely depend.

The BIOS allows “automatic” optimization:

Here is an option that will delight beginners in memory overclocking. While browsing the different BIOS options, we came across three options in the Tweaker tab that seem to have the objective of optimizing the timings and subtimings of your memory kit. So we wanted to test them to check the impact on performance.

These options are called: DDR5 Auto Booster, High Bandwidth and Low Latency. In order to activate them, you have to switch from AUTO to enabled. Let’s see the performance gains as well as the timings and subtimings that have been changed.

The gain in terms of performance and throughput is excellent and it would be a shame to miss out on it. You should know that similar options are also available in some AORUS Z790 and X670E motherboards BIOS.

Manual overclocking of our DDR5 Teamgroup A-die kit:

While things were very easy up to 8000 MT/s, it got more complicated after that. I was able to get to 8200 MT/s quickly enough to get Aida64 through, but it was impossible to finish a Geekbench 3 benchmark. I tried several solutions with more or less success but without really being able to reach the frequencies obtained with the APEX Z790 and the EVGA Z690. I must admit that I am more used to Asus and EVGA BIOS than to the AORUS. Maybe I’m missing an option that would allow me to reach 8400 MHz.

Here are already the results obtained at 8000 MT/s in 32-45-28 and at 8200 MT/s in 34-48-32. The performances are almost identical since even if I went up in frequency, I had to relax the timings.

The potential for memory overclocking does seem to be there, but it requires a lot more research, refining of voltages than on the other two XOC motherboards we’ve tested lately with this Teamgroup A-die kit. The secret really seems, even more so with AORUS, to lie in the voltages.

Above is a table showing the evolution of the scores under AIDA 64 and Geekbench with the different profiles we tested. Remember that the E-Core is disabled to allow a better frequency rise. The measured gains are only representative of the memory overclocking, the processor frequency is always the same. We will put this card in cold mode with our next 13900KS in order to judge its potential.

A little update :

A few hours before the article was published, I was able to tighten the timings to 8200 MT/s to further improve the performance of the memory kit when overclocking.

The next target is 8400 MT/s but for that, we will certainly have to spend a few more hours to find the perfectly balanced voltage profile.

[nextpage title=”The last word:”]

Without making puns on this last page, I am still a bit disappointed because this AORUS Z790 Tachyon has everything to please. Now, as I mentioned when overclocking the DDR5, maybe it’s me and my less accomplished knowledge of the AORUS BIOS that limits my results a bit since some overclockers have already managed to reach 8400 MT/s. Apart from that, the card gave us full satisfaction and we feel the work done by Hi Cookie on the design but also on the work done within the BIOS. We can clearly see the very positive evolution since the first version of the Tachyon based on the Z590 chipset.

As the card is not yet available for the general public, which is getting impatient, we should see more results coming out later and therefore more exchanges on the different parameters used by the different users. We also like the fact that the card has very quickly created its own trademark with a design that does not look like any other card. As soon as we receive a decent Intel Core i9-13900KS, the card will get a little LN2 bath.

Good news as well since AMD AM5 owners will not be left out since AORUS will also offer a B650E Tachyon version as we mentioned in this brief. No date or information on availability or price are known yet.

AORUS Z790 Tachyon

We liked:

• A high-performance power stage
• The possibility to use high capacity and high frequency memory
• LN2 mode for testing under liquid nitrogen
• The presence of two BIOS
• Automatic DDR5overclocking for beginners
• 3 additional profiles for CPU overclocking in the BIOS
• Tools” inserted on the PCB to facilitate extreme overclocking
• The presence of two PS/2 slots for clocking under XP
• The availability of an XOC BIOS
• A design specific to this “Tachyon” series

We would have liked :

• Faster availability than the competition, as the card is still not available today
• An easier handling of the DDR5 overclocking

With this Z790 Tachyon, AORUS and their engineering team continue to do a great job on their XOC model. We’re glad to see that several brands continue to offer models for overclockers. It is still intended for an informed public who is aware that it will require more time than the competition to be tamed in terms of memory overclocking. For the rest, nothing to report, it does the job! Thanks to AORUS for sending us a copy of this Z790 Tachyon.