Following our test of the ROG Strix Z790-A Gaming Wifi D4 motherboard posted on Wednesday, we propose you today the ROG Strix B760-A Gaming Wifi D4. These are two boards that have many points in common such as DDR4 support but differ in their chipset .
This B760 chipset is used on motherboards that will be financially more affordable than those designed around the Z790. We will be able to judge the performance obtained with DDR4 memory as well as the differences between these two chipsets.
As a reminder, the Z790-A D4 version is currently priced at $379 and the B760-A D4 version at $239, a price difference not to be overlooked for those looking to design the most affordable configuration.
Thanks to Asus for making these two samples available.
[nextpage title=”ROG Strix B-760-A D4:”]
The bundle:
A little tour through the bundle of this ROG Strix B760-A Gaming Wifi D4 to see if it benefits from “special items”. Overall, we find a fairly standard bundle with the traditional SATA cables, the Wi-Fi antenna, stickers, the motherboard manual, the various screws, etc.
The only goodies that stand out from the crowd is a black and white ROG key ring. It’s a logical bundle and quite comparable to what we’ll find in the competition and in the same price range.
Architecture:
As we said in the introduction, this ROG Strix B760-A Gaming Wifi D4 motherboard is built around Intel’s new B760 chipset, which is a mid-range chipset and retains Intel’s latest socket, the LGA-1700. The LGA-1700 socket has 1700 pins and is compatible with Alder Lake (12xxx) and Raptor Lake (13xxx) processors.
The B760 chipset officially supports PCIe 5.0 but is content with PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSD slots. Note, however, that there are DDR4-compatible B760 motherboards and DDR5 versions, just like the Z790 chipset. Beware, Intel has announced that these will be the last chipsets to support DDR4.
The different heat sinks:
The dimensions of the board are 305 mm x 244 mm, which corresponds to the ATX format. The color of the PCB is black but the radiators are white and gray on this DDR4 version. We are on a more refined design but which keeps common points with that of the ROG Strix Z790-A Gaming Wifi D4 version.
The design is easily identifiable as a product of Asus using the codes of the brand. It also has a slight resemblance to the previous generation Strix, even though it is a series that has created its own identity over the years.
Let’s start the tour with the radiators, of which there are three!
First of all, the two radiators located on the top of the motherboard and which cover the power supply stage. These two radiators are independent and are not connected together by a heat pipe. The plastic cover, with a very very light RGB backlight. We are here on a completely passive system.
The third one covers the chipset and has a fairly large surface but low height to allow easy placement of graphics cards. The ROG logo and the name of the Strix series can be found there.
Three SSD 4.0 x4 slots:
Two aluminum plates cover the three M.2 SSD slots on the PCB. This gives you a very large storage area. The first slot is 22110 and wired in PCIe 4.0 x4 and the next two are 2280 and also in PCIe 4.0 x4.
Each of these plates has a thermal pad to optimize the dissipation of the heat emitted by the SSD. Don’t forget to remove the protective plastic film before installing your SSD. Asus offers on this mid-range model the same quick release system for SSDs as on the Z690. No need to come and fix a screw, just rotate the latch to lock the SSD.
The socket and PCIe:
The space around the socket is quite clear and good news since we find the mounting holes of the LGA-1700 socket but also those of the LGA-1200.
The ROG B760 Strix-A D4 Gaming Wifi can accommodate a maximum of four DDR4 memory modules and supports dual channel memory kits up to 5333 MHz (OC) for a maximum quantity of 128 GB.
On our two motherboards we find a PCIe 5.0 x16 slot, a PCIe 3.0 x16 and two PCIe 3.0 x1. To power all this little world, the card has a 24 pins connector and an 8 pins + 4 pins located next to the power supply stages.
We now systematically find the Q-Release button. When a card is inserted in the first PCIe slot, pressing this button opens the retention system and 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.
RGB or not RGB?
As it is the case for a large part of the ROG range, it has the AURA system. But on this model, the RGB backlighting is reduced to a strict minimum with only the backlighting on one of the heat sinks that cover the power supply stages. Please note that the card also has three ARGB connectors and one RGB connector on the PCB.
[nextpage title=”The PCB and connectors: “]
The tools for clocking:
Let’s start with the elements inserted on the PCB and which can be interesting tools for overclockers. There are very few of them since this board is intended for the mid-range.
- The CMOS CLR: allows you to erase the BIOS settings in order to go back to the default ones but it is only present on the Strix-F Gaming Wifi.
- The Q LED: 4 LEDs (CPU – DRAM – VGA – BOOT) that allow to diagnose errors during the boot of the card. If one of them stays on, it means that the corresponding component has a problem.
We would have really liked to have a physical power button. Out-of-box testing always requires us to fiddle with a power button.
PCB:
The power stage on this B760 Strix-A D4 version has 12 + 1 phases. The part in charge of the CPU is composed of 12 phases and on this model, no doubler, but be careful the phases are placed in parallel: they are really 6. The mosfets are 50A models. Remember that the Z790 model had 16 + 1 phases.
Connections:
The rear panel has the following elements which are identical on both our motherboards. First of all the Clear CMOS, the BIOS Flashback button as well as the antenna mounts for the dual band Wi-Fi. The board has an HDMI port and a DisplayPort.
There are also six USB 3.2 Gen 1, one USB 3.2 Gen 2 and one USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 Type-C. Then come the various audio outputs and the LAN port (RJ45) 2.5Gb. Finally, the audio part is provided by a Realtek ALC1220 chip.
[nextpage title=”The BIOS: “]
As far as the BIOS is concerned, at first glance, we can see that we are at Asus. Those who are used to the brand will find it without any difficulty. As a reminder, the tab that will interest us the most is ” AI Tweaker “. But beware, this B760 chipset does not support overclocking, so it will be impossible to overclock your processor, even on a “K(F)” model. This is the point that makes all the difference between the Z790 chipset and the B760.
Before you start, we remind you that it is essential to regularly update your BIOS. Moreover, the Asus team regularly proposes patches that it would be a shame not to take advantage of. You can also save your BIOS on a USB key. This way you can reload them after updating your BIOS if you decide to keep certain profiles, especially those dedicated to CPU or memory overclocking. By default, you land on the BIOS overview page each time, in order to have access to all the parameters, press the F7 key.
The BIOS captures were taken with the XMP profile of our GSKill Trident Z Royal Elite 4000 MHz CL14 kit enabled. The other new option is ” Memory controller: DRAM Frequency Ratio ” which arrived with Rocket Lake. You will have the choice between Gear 1, Gear 2 and Gear 4.
The ” Loadline calibration ” is in auto mode for comparative tests but we will come back to its function when overclocking the i5-13600KF. The other sections are present since the previous generations and allow you to flash your motherboard, to control the fan speed and to create test profiles.
The different voltages:
We will see in the ” overclocking ” section, the essential voltages for the CPU as well as for boosting the DDR5 memory. You should know that it is possible to deactivate the E-core but that the performance of your processor then takes a serious blow. We’ll tell you about it in the rest of the article.
Finally, saving profiles is highly recommended when performing tests. It saves time. You can also save them on a USB key.
Unfortunately on this card and therefore in this BIOS, we do not find any CPU or memory profiles. This is a shame for a DDR4 ROG series card. The prediction system available on the Z790 version is also missing. Don’t hesitate to ask for advice on our forum and discord if you encounter any problems when setting up your BIOS.
[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. 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: ROG Strix B760-A Gaming Wifi D4 (BIOS 1005)
- Processor: Intel i5-13600KF
- Memory : 16 GB GSKill Trident Z Royal Elite 4000 MHz CL14
- Graphics Card: Galax GT 710 Fish
- 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 10 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 our i5-13600KF is perfectly recognized as well as the DDR4 memory. Now that our configuration is ready, let’s see if the BIOS is correct for the frequencies of our i5-13600KF.
[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 4000 MT/s in 14-15-15-35 for our memory kit. We do not make any other changes in the BIOS.
Test with the i5-13600KF:
We continue with the i5-13600K and its 6 P-Core/8E-Core. In single core, we can see that the core #0 reaches a frequency of 5100 MHz but strangely the other cores also remain at this frequency. It seems that it is the AUTO settings of our BIOS that remove the limits of Intel since the temperature is correct. The temperature of the requested core is 49°C.
When all the cores are used, the frequency is always 5.1 GHz for the P-Core and 3.9 GHz for the E-Core. Finally, we will not complain since the temperatures are excellent with the hottest P-Core at 73°C and the E-Core at 60°C.
Now that we know our processor is fully operational, let’s see how the performance compares to the Z790 chipset.
[nextpage title=”B760 VS Z790 performance:”]
Well, as you will have understood, no overclocking is possible with the B760 chipset, even if you have a processor with unlocked coefficients like our i5-13600KF. Even if you have the possibility to access the coefficients in the BIOS, the maximum value for P-Core is blocked at 51 and 39 for E-Core. So this is where the most important difference between these two chipsetswill be.
In the absence of overclocking, we’re going to look at the performance between our ROG Strix Z790-A Gaming Wifi D4 motherboard tested on Wednesday and this ROG Strix B760-A Gaming Wifi D4. We have taken the three benchmarks we ran to see if there are any differences.
As we expected, there is no difference in performance between the B760 and the Z790 chipset. Our results are very close or even identical in these three benchmarks.
Memory overclocking:
While CPU overclocking is not supported by the B760 chipset, DDR4 memory overclocking is quite feasible. Our large OC profiles did not pass or were not stable in benchmark. Here we simply increased the frequency from 4000 to 4800 MT/s in 17-18-18-34 at 1.525 volts in order to gain performance.
The lack of time did not allow us to invest more in the overclocking of the memory, but no doubt that we could certainly obtain much better scores especially when we know the potential of the Z690 D4 version!
[nextpage title=”The last word: “]
Here we are at the end of this test of this ROG Strix B760-A Gaming Wifi D4 motherboard and thus give you our impressions. So, who is this model for? First of all, whether it’s the DDR4 or DDR5 version, like the B760 Gaming Wifi Strix-F, it is intended for users who are not interested in overclocking since this is not available on the Z760 chipset. This card will also be an excellent choice for “small” Raptor Lake CPUs such as the i5-13400F or i5-13500, however, it seems to us that it is too small in terms of its power supply stage for an i9-13900K(F).
With this ROG Strix B760-A Gaming Wifi D4, Asus offers us a very good card with performances close to or even identical to those of the Z790 chipset. It has Wi-Fi as well as very complete connectivity, all this for $239 against $379 for the equivalent Z790.
Now, if you are designing your first configuration and unless you have an ultra tight budget, then the choice of DDR4 can still be justified. But, for several weeks, the price of DDR5 has only been decreasing and knowing that Intel will no longer support DDR4 on its next chipsets, it may be worth considering switching to DDR5 even if the LGA-1700 socket will also change in the coming months, which does not make things any easier.
ROG Strix B760-A Gaming Wifi D4
We liked:
- A sufficient power stage for our i5-13600KF
- The possibility to still use your DDR4 memory kit
- A very complete BIOS
- The presence of LGA-115x mounting holes
- The Q-Release button to free your graphics card
- A very complete connectic for this price
- A price much more affordable than its DDR5 equivalent
We would have liked :
- To find integrated DDR4 memory profiles
- The possibility of overclocking via the BCLK
Asus nailed it once again with this Strix D4 model built around the more affordable B760 chipset than the Z790. As we have seen, the performance is very close to that of our ROG Strix Z790-A Gaming Wifi D4, provided that you agree to do without the processor overclocking. It will be up to you to choose if you want to continue with a DDR4 platform or to move to DDR5 in order to be able to reuse your memory sticks for a future upgrade. Thanks to Asus for making these two motherboards available.