Review : ROG Strix Z790-A Gaming Wifi D4

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The PCB and connectors:

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 parameters in order to return to the default ones.
  • The Q LED: 4 LEDs (CPU – DRAM – VGA – BOOT) which allow to diagnose errors during the boot of the board. If one of them stays on, it means that the corresponding component has a problem.

We really would have liked to have a physical power button. Out-of-box testing always forces us to fiddle with a power button.

The PCB of this ROG Strix Z790-A Gaming Wifi D4:

Our ROG Strix Z790-A Gaming Wifi D4 is equipped with the Renesas RAA 229131 controller that we have already found on other Asus Z690 boards including the APEX. It is based on a 16 + 1 phase power supply. The part in charge of the CPU is composed of 16 phases and on this model, no doubler, but beware the phases are placed in parallel, so they are really 8. 16 mosfets of the vcore are Onsemi FDMF5062 of 70A.

The architected version had 80A mosfets. Did Asus decide to save money on this model by opting for 70A? Our test will tell us if this has an impact on overclocking or not.

Connections:

Let’s finish the presentation of this ROG Strix Z790-A Gaming Wifi D4 with the connectors present at the back. First of all the Clear CMOS, the BIOS Flashback button as well as the antenna mounts for the dual band Wi-Fi. The card has an HDMI port and a DisplayPort. There are also two USB 2.0, five USB 3.2 Gen 1, one USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A and two USB Gen 2 and Gen 2×2 Type-C. Then come the various audio outputs and the Ethernet port (RJ45) 2.5 Gb.

As a reminder, the price of this Z790-A D4 is currently 408 euros but you should know that the Z690-A D4 version is still available for 348 euros. Members of our Discord reminded me that this is one of the two best cards for DDR4 memory overclocking.