While we have this board since mid-October, I had put the test on standby because the BIOS was not fully satisfactory and we were already receiving the first Z790 motherboards at that time. Last weekend, after hearing a lot of good things about the latest BIOS 2.05 and the Eleet software update, I thought it was time to test it again. So with our Raptor Lake i9-13900K and A-die Teamgroup Delta RGB 7200 MT/s CL34 memory we decided to see how these components performed. And to say the least, I was not disappointed, far from it. We are perhaps looking at the best card on the Z690 chipset, and one that competes with the Z790 chipset without difficulty.
As a reminder, we were able to get our hands on a sample of the EVGA Z690 DARK in KingPiN version thanks to Jacob from the EVGA US team. The last EVGA motherboard test was the AM4 version, with the excellent X570 DARK.
Unfortunately, it is not possible to buy this board on the European continent. Members of our Discord bought it via the official EVGA US ebay page at the US price of $829.99 but that makes a total of about 1085 euros with shipping, VAT and taxes in France.
DARK and DARK K|NGP|N series:
Before starting the test of this motherboard, let’s go back in time on the “DARK” series. It is in 2013 that EVGA offers the first model, the X79 DARK which put EVGA back on the right track after disappointing models and especially that lacked follow-up in terms of BIOS. This series will be headed and designed in large part by Vince, aka KingPiN , and TiN. Since 2013, EVGA regularly offers unique models that are part of this series with the latest, this EVGA Z690 DARK.
The cards of the “DARK” series are designed in the same spirit as the “KingPiN” graphics cards, that is to say, to obtain the best performance and to offer tools to test them under liquid nitrogen. The stock of these cards is often very low, although for once a larger number of Z690s seem to have been released. At the time of publishing this article, a first batch of the Z790 DARK KingPiN has been sold.
[nextpage title=”EVGA Z690 DARK K|NGP|N: “]
New DARK and PCIe 5.0 support:
The EVGA Z690 DARK K|ngP|N is built around Intel’s new Z690 chipset, and this motherboard changes its socket from LGA-1200 (Z490/Z590) to LGA-1700 . The reason is simple, the size of the CPU is larger. The LGA-1700 socket has 1700 pins, compared to 1200 for the previous one. You may need to invest in a new cooling system. Some brands, like Noctua, offer an adapter for your current cooler. Think to ask for it because it is often free. Note also that EVGA has another model in its range based on the Z690 chipset, the Classified version offered at $629.99.
The Z690 chipset officially supports PCIe 5.0 offering higher storage performance than the previous generation. However, currently, no chipset is yet compatible with this standard. The other big change is the support for DDR5.
The bundle:
A little tour through the bundle of this EVGA Z690 DARK K|NGP|N to see if it benefits from “special items”. Overall, we find a rather standard bundle with the traditional SATA cables, the Wi-Fi antenna, the motherboard manual, etc. On the other hand, the design of the box is really well done. It remains in the same spirit as the X570 DARK. First of all, you will have access to the USB key containing the drivers.
The bottom floor contains the motherboard and under it, we find the box with the accessories but also the full size plastic PCB of our EVGA XZ690 DARK. It is really an object that we appreciate a lot because it has a lot of information and serves as a manual, especially for the location of the different voltage points.
This is an accessory that EVGA has been offering for several years on this series and it can also be used as a bench table since large spacers are provided in the bundle. The complete list of the bundle can be found directly on the EVGA website.
The various heat sinks:
The first thing that strikes you, if you are not used to this series, is the PCB layout in its upper part. This one has been completely redesigned by EVGA and benefits from 10 layers. The socket as well as the two memory slots have been rotated 90° counter-clockwise. This choice allows to gather all the power connectors in a horizontal position in order to facilitate the storage of the cables. Personally, it’s quite confusing visually at first but really well thought out! We find side by side, the 24-pin ATX power connector and the two 8-pin CPU connectors.
The dimensions of the board are getting larger as we are now on an E-ATX format, i.e. dimensions of 305 mm x 277 mm. The dominant colors on the PCB are black and gray. A design that keeps the spirit of the DARK series.
Let’s start the tour of the owner with this top part. We find two overlapping radiators. They will be in charge of keeping the power supply stages cool. Their position is unusual but also due to the rotation of the socket. The power supply stages have also been rotated by 90°.
Although one might think that this is passive cooling, it is not. Two 30mm fans are hidden and will only activate when needed. This is rarely the case.
Finally, the third is the one that covers the chipset and has a fairly large surface area, but a low height to allow easy placement of graphics cards. It is an integral part of the cooling system since it is connected to the other two radiators through a heat pipe.
Three M.2 SSD slots:
An aluminum plate with the name DARK, which acts as a radiator, perfectly matches the one placed on the chipset. It covers the three M.2 SSD slots.
These three SSD slots are therefore positioned between the two PCI-e ports. They are compatible with the Gen 4.0 standard. As for the PCIe ports, there are two PCIe 5.0 16x which will work in x8/x8 if you opt for SLI or CrossfireX.
The socket and memory slots :
The space around the socket is very clear and will be easy enough to isolate with rubber for testing under LN2. Our EVGA Z690 DARK K|NGP|N has only two DDR5 memory slots for a maximum of two memory sticks.
Why by four? This is a card clearly intended for overclockers and RAM is one of the components that you want to overclock as much as possible in order to boost your scores in benchmarks. Having only two slots means that the distance to the socket is smaller, which makes it easier to stabilize the RAM but also limits disturbances. It officially supports memory kits up to 6600 MHz+ (OC) for a maximum amount of 64 GB. The fact that the two memory slots have been moved to the upper part of the case also allows for better air circulation between the front of the case and the fan on the CPU, as the memory kit is no longer a barrier.
RGB or not RGB :
While EVGA had gone for some backlit areas with the X570 DARK, this is not the case with the Z690 at all. Personally, on this type of cards, it is quite justified!
On the other hand, we couldn’t do without showing you the back of the motherboard and the superb cut-out of the back plate which reveals the back of the socket but also the name of the series printed directly on the PCB. It’s a shame to know that this area will no longer be visible once the motherboard is inserted into your case.
[nextpage title=”The PCB and connectors: “]
The tools for clocker:
Why this EVGA Z690 DARK K|NGP|N is certainly one of the best cards for overclocking? First of all because it has many tools inserted directly on its PCB that will make your life much easier.
- The power button: allows to power on the motherboard.
- The reset button: allows to restart the motherboard in case of failure.
- CLR CMOS : allows to erase the BIOS parameters in case of a boot failure.
- 2 Debug LED: allows to identify the component responsible for the error during the boot, but also to display the temperature of the CPU and the voltages.
- Status LED : which according to their color allows you to identify a problem or to know at what level the voltage of the component is.
- ProbeIT: via the cables included in the bundle, you can easily read the different voltages with a multimeter
- BIOS switch : to switch from one bios to another, there are three of them !
- PCI-e 16x Switch: allows you to activate or deactivate the PCI Express 16x ports. This allows for example to test several configurations without having to remove the graphics card each time.
- Slow mode: allows you to boot with a 16x coefficient and once in the OS to put back the one chosen in the bios. In cold mode, if you want to reach 6GHz in 60x100MHz, by activating the Slow Mode, you boot in 16×100 and in the OS, you go back to 60×100. It’s mostly for max screens.
- Safe Boot: allows you to restart the card even if the settings chosen in the bios do not allow booting. This avoids having to do a CMOS Clear and therefore losing your settings.
- USB BIOS Update port: as its name suggests, it can be used to flash your BIOS.
If you have the opportunity to acquire a multimeter, it is an essential tool to accurately measure the voltage of your processor. Personally, I can’t do without it anymore and it also allows me to see the impact of the ” LoadLine calibration ” which I’ll tell you about during our overclocking tests. With this Z690 DARK and the ProbeIt tool, it’s child’s play to measure the different voltages.
The PCB:
The power supply stage has been further enhanced and is based on an 18 + 2 + 1 phase power supply (CPU + VCCIN + MEM). The part in charge of the CPU consists of 18 phases. And what better way to illustrate this than by using a picture of the plastic PCB of our motherboard in the bundle!
The digital controller is a Renesas RAA229131. The mosfets are Intersil ISL99390 of 90A, what to have largely margin for the overclocking of the 12900KS.
An ultra complete connectic:
As far as the connectors of our EVGA X570 DARK are concerned, it is of course quite complete and largely sufficient for overclocking. One of the particularities of the card is to have a PS/2 slot in order to connect a keyboard or 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.
There are also two 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet controllers. As for the USB, we have 2 USB 3.2, four USB 3.2 Gen2 as well as a type-C. Then we find the antenna supports for the dual band Wi-Fi as well as the audio outputs.
Finally, note that our motherboard is a 1.2.0 revision but that there are 1.1.0 versions. We asked Vince aka KingPiN to find out the difference between these two versions and here is his answer: ” We added some extra implementation for PWM. Proprietary stuff. The boards are indentical though. This extra hw is more future looking and you may see it on next gen KP DARK “.
[nextpage title=”The BIOS:”]
As far as the BIOS is concerned, if you are not a regular user of the brand, you may be a bit lost and this is normal. We will try to briefly go around, as it is so complete, in order to highlight the different features. Personally, I really like the structure chosen by EVGA, especially the memory section.
As a reminder, you can access the bios by pressing the ” suppr ” key when you start your PC or when you clear CMOS. Sorry, but I can’t take screenshots with the F12 key. It never chooses my USB key to save them. As you can see, we end up with a screen that will offer you four choices:
- Enter Setup (advanced configuration) which allows you to access all the parameters. It is of course in this part that you will spend the most time.
- Default Mode to restore your configuration with the default settings.
- Gamer Mode, which in our case, offers us to overclock our processor to 4.5 GHz.
- EVGA OC ROBOT (auto overclock) which will try to push your processor to the maximum by playing on the voltage and checking the temperature.
We will come back to these different modes in the overclocking section. The BIOS we will use for the test is the 2.05.
The different tabs :
In the upper left corner you will find the tab “EXTRAS”. Here you can check the stability of your overclocking and activate the OC ROBOT. You also have the possibility to use the eight overclocking profiles for the memory. Note that EVGA is the only brand to offer 8000 MT/s profiles for Hynix A-die chips.
Finally, you can update your BIOS by choosing on your USB key the BIOS to flash. A vertical USB port is located directly on the PCB of your Z690 DARK.
The “OC” tab will focus on the different options concerning the processor as well as the voltages. It is also in this section that you can manage the ” Load Line Calibration ” which at EVGA is called ” VCore Vdroop “. It is expressed here in percentage. It is also in this tab that you will find a large part of the settings for the voltages.
Let’s move on to ” Memory “. Here you will be able to activate your XMP profile. As we keep reminding you, it is essential to activate the XMP (Intel) or DOCP (AMD) profile of your memory kit. Of course you have the opportunity to modify the timings and subtimings manually. Don’t hesitate to ask for advice on our forum and discord if you encounter any problems when setting up your BIOS.
Another important element is the regular update of your BIOS in order to avoid incompatibility problems with your memory kit for example. This is the latest BIOS to date that has solved all the problems with the Hynix A-Die.
Finally, saving profiles is highly recommended when testing. It saves time. You can also save them on a USB key and/or share them with another user with the same motherboard.
Now that we’ve had a look at the BIOS, it’s time to get our hands on it and overclock our Intel i9-13900K and our A-Die Teamgroup Delta RGB 7200 MT/s CL34 memory kit.
[nextpage title=”The test configuration: “]
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. MSI has been very reactive on the update of its BIOS during the launch.
We will also offer you in the coming weeks several overclocking guides for your processor but also for your memory kit.
- Motherboard : EVGA Z690 DARK KingPiN
- Processor: Intel i9-13900K
- Memory : 32 GB Teamgroup Delta RGB 7200 MT/s CL34
- Graphics Card: MSI GT 710
- Cooling system : EK loop + EK-Quantum Velocity²waterblock
- SSD : Western Digital SN850 NVMe SSD M.2
- Power supply : be quiet! Dark Power PRO 12 1500w
- Operating system : Windows 10 64 bit
A quick tour through CPU-Z to make sure everything is in order before we start our tests. We notice that with this version 2.0, our i9-12900KS is perfectly recognized as well as the DDR5 memory. We can see that CPU-Z recognizes the 8+8 (8 P-core + 8 E-core).
[nextpage title=”Respected frequencies: “]
As with every new processor test, our first idea is to check if the advertised frequencies are actually reached. To do so, 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. We do not make any other changes in the BIOS.
Test with i9-13900K:
Here we go with the strongest processor, the i9-13900K. As you can see, we opened several windows to check the frequency and the temperature. The options in our BIOS have been left in AUTO but we will talk about it again in the power consumption section because it has a significant impact on them.
In single core, we can see that the #4 core reaches a frequency of 5500 MHz when it should be at 5.8 GHz. We had already noticed this problem during the test with the 12900K and it does not seem to be resolved yet. We asked EVGA again to find out what the problem was and if there was a particular option to activate. In the BIOS, cores 4 and 5 are set to 5.8 GHz.
When the 24 cores of our i9-13900K are used, the frequency is fixed at 5.5 GHz on the P-Core and at 4.3 GHz on the E-Core. As for the temperature of the hottest P-Core, it is 73°C and on the E-Core 59°C. Let’s not forget that we are equipped with a 480 mm custom cooling loop and that it is currently very cool in the lab.
[nextpage title=”CPU overclocking: “]
As I said in the introduction, I had left this card aside while waiting for a better BIOS, which is now the case in order to take full advantage of a Raptor Lake processor and the A-Die memory.
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 for 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.
Overclocking under watercooling in different steps:
As usual, I will 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 the other options are in AUTO. I already had the opportunity to test my i9-13900K and it is far from being a war lightning unfortunately.
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 checking the stability again. 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 maximum benchmarkable frequency.
Here is what we obtained for the i9-13900K. As you can see, we were very quickly limited by our processor which accepts a coefficient of 56 or 57 on the P-cores, 46 on the E-cores and a Ring of 51.
Our best score is 42746 in Cinebench R23 and with interesting temperatures. Unfortunately our sample is not a gold processor and behaved well under LN2. I’m waiting for the 13900KS to arrive in order to try to get my hands on a goldprocessor.
[nextpage title=”Memory overclocking:”]
This is where I have high hopes for this new BIOS in order to take full advantage of the A-Die memory overclocking with my excellent Teamgroup Delta RGB 7200 MT/s CL34 memory kit. The idea is to choose the kit that we think has the best overclocking potential. And you will see, we were not wrong.
Choosing your DDR5 kit based on memory chips:
As it was already the case for DDR4, if you want to clock your memory, some brands will have a better potential. Currently, the kits announced by the different brands benefit either from Micron chips or Hynix chips or Samsung chips. Currently, the Hynix A-Die chips are the best at this game.
The “key” voltages of the 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. These are the VSA, the CPU VDDQ, the CPU VDD2 and on the memory side, the VDD and VDDQ. Here is where these voltages are located in the BIOS.
Let’s go for the overclocking of this DDR5 :
We must admit that we were impatient to start, we went directly to a profile of 8000 MT/s that we knew was stable where we encoded all the timings and all the voltages. We save the profile, reboot the motherboard and here we are already in the OS. It took us 10 minutes in total. A small AIDA64 benchmark and a Geekbench 3 that goes very easily to 1.55 volts (VDD/VDDQ).
Let’s try with the same settings and tensions the 8200 MT/s. And again, no problem, it boots without problem and both benchmarks are perfectly stable.
Well, for 8400 MT/s it still doesn’t pass and this is quite logical. Even if we increase the voltages, it will be necessary to relax the timings . So we kept the profile at 8200 MT/s, increased the voltages to 1.60 volt and lowered the tRAS to 32. Once in the OS, we increased the frequency of the BCLK which will increase the memory frequency. We are now at 8444 MT/s.
So this DDR5 overclocking? We were not disappointed to say the least. EVGA has finally done the job on this BIOS 2.05 by erasing the problems encountered with the previous BIOS. We were able to reach a frequency of 8444 MHz in aircooling with timings of 34-45-45-30. Until a few weeks ago, we would never have imagined that we could reach these frequencies in aircooling.
The other good news is that the voltages were “only” 1.6 volts. It is a frequency used for bencher and not for a H24 use. But you should know that several brands will soon offer kits with an XMP at 8000 MT/s. We could probably make a stable profile at 8000 MT/s by relaxing the timings but that was not the objective here. On the Geekbench 3.4.4 benchmark we were able to reach a memory score of 16272 points, a score that was unimaginable for us only a few weeks ago. We are not done with our tests yet and we hope to reach 8600 MT/s.
[nextpage title=”The last word: “]
In my review of the ROG Maximus Z790 APEX, I told you that it would most likely be my last favorite of the year 2022 and well, I was wrong. With the work done by the EVGA team in the last few weeks, this BIOS 2.05 is finally the BIOS that makes this EVGA Z690 DARK KingPiN the best motherboard for overclocking on the Z690 chipset. Yes, but what about the Z690 APEX? If you read the test, you know that there are two revisions and if you don’t get the 2022 revision, the memory overclocking performance won’t follow. In short, if you have the opportunity to find this card or to buy it second hand, go for it! By the way, I think there is one on our Discord for sale.
We will try to get our hands on a copy of the EVGA Z790 DARK KingPiN but except through import, we don’t see how it would be possible. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that the motherboard branch will continue to exist in the coming months and that it won’t go the same way as the GPU branch.
EVGA Z690 DARK KingPiN
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 three BIOSes
- A 2.05 BIOS that finally performs!
- 8000 MT/s profiles within the bios to clock the memory
- The “tools” inserted on the PCB to facilitate extreme overclocking
- The presence of two PS/2 slots for clocking under XP
- The bundle is as interesting as ever
We would have liked:
- The faster arrival of this BIOS
- Being able to buy these motherboards directly in Europe
While the dedicated GPU branch just shut down, let’s hope that won’t be the case for motherboards but we have some doubts as we conclude this article. The team has done a great job on the BIOS of this Z690 but also on the Z790 version that has just been released. Let’s face it, this EVGA Z690 DARK KingPiN is the best motherboard dedicated to overclocking on the Z690 chipset, and in the end it is a better choice than some Z790s. If you still have the opportunity to find it, go for it! I think this is officially our last favorite for 2022. Thanks to the EVGA team and Jacob for giving us the opportunity to test this Z690 DARK KingPiN!