B760 vs. Z790: Which type of Intel motherboard should you buy?

An important step when assembling or upgrading your PC is choosing the right motherboard. With the latest generations of Intel chipsets, you’ll need to decide whether a B760 or Z790 motherboard is the better choice for you.

You also need to consider whether the new DDR5 memory is worth its higher price.

Both chipsets promise top-notch performance. But to make the right decision, you should analyze your specific requirements carefully. In this article, we take a closer look at the features, advantages, and disadvantages of both models to help you with your next purchase decision.

B760 and Z790 motherboards offer a variety of functions that are relevant for different areas of application. The B760 chipset is typically well suited for builds with a limited budget as it offers solid performance at a cost-effective price.

It supports 12th-, 13th-, and 14th-generation Intel Core processors and offers a balanced feature set to meet the needs of casual gamers and everyday PC users. On the other hand, the Z790 motherboard is a high-end option with additional features such as overclocking capabilities, more PCIe lanes, and extended memory support. So the choice between the two depends heavily on your individual requirements and budget. By the end of this article, you’ll understand why a B760 motherboard will still be enough for 95 percent of users.

Chipsets

B760

The difference from the previous generation is that more PCIe 4.0 lanes are available and at the same time PCIe 3.0 lanes have been shortened. The B760 chipset now only has four PCIe 3.0 lanes, but 10 PCIe 4.0 lanes. This is only relevant if, for example, you want to use many fast NVMe SSDs, several graphics cards at the same time, or network cards and sound cards. So it depends on the quantity.

However, if you can find a B660 motherboard at a significantly lower price compared to the B760, this is still a good option. The maximum power consumption of the B760 is estimated to be 270 watts, about 30 watts higher than its predecessor, and the graphics card is connected with PCIe 5.0 instead of PCIe 4.0.

Currently, PCIe 5.0 is not supported by any graphics card, and there are only a few PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSDs, which are offered at a very high price, but can also achieve twice the speed of a PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD. This will certainly change in the future, but at the moment PCIe 5.0 is not a decisive factor in the purchase decision.

View the ASUS ROG STRIX B760-F on Amazon

Z790

In comparison, the difference between the Z790 and Z690 is somewhat greater. The PCIe 3.0 lanes have been halved to eight and instead there are 20 PCIe 4.0 lanes. In addition, there are now five USB ports with a speed of 20Gbit/s instead of four ports, and the maximum clock frequency of the main memory is 5,600MHz instead of 4,800MHz, but even a main memory with 6,000MHz usually runs smoothly on a Z690 mainboard.

What makes Z790 special is the option to overclock an Intel “K” CPU, such as the 13600K(F), 13700K(F), and 13900K(F). According to the Techpowerup reviews, however, overclocking the 13th generation (probably also the 14th generation) brings hardly any advantages. The 13600K with 5.6/4.4GHz even loses 2 percent gaming performance with a 57 percent increase in consumption, and application performance increases by just 3 percent.

The 13700K with 5.5/4.3GHz gains 1 percent in gaming performance and 2 percent in application performance, with a 7 to 4 percent increase in consumption, and the 13900K with 5.6/4.4GHz shows no increase in gaming performance and only a 3 percent improvement in application performance, with a 32 to 46 percent increase in consumption.

This makes the idea of buying a motherboard with a Z chipset to overclock a CPU almost obsolete. The Intel processors of the 13th and 14th generation already have such a high clock rate that no useful additional performance can be achieved. A performance increase of 2 to 7 percent is not noticeable in everyday use and is not recommended, especially in connection with the enormous power consumption.

View the ASUS Prime Z790-A at Amazon

DDR4 vs. DDR5

No general answer can be given to the question of whether DDR4 or DDR5 makes more sense. The most important factors are the platform costs, the speed of the kits, and especially the advantages for the applications used.

A DDR5 upgrade makes no sense for gamers, as the platform costs cannot compensate for the additional performance. If, for example, a DDR4 2x 16GB 3,200MHz CL16 kit is compared with a DDR5 2x 16GB 6,000MHz CL36 kit, a maximum additional performance in games (1080p) of 6 to 7 percent can be achieved. However, not only the RAM, but also the mainboard and the processor must be replaced.

The situation is somewhat different for a new purchase, as DDR5 is still very new and no successor is in the starting blocks for the next few years. Especially in connection with the AM5 platform, a purchase currently makes sense, as AMD has already confirmed that it will support this platform for a long time, so that even the processors should be compatible with today’s motherboards in three years. Intel will most likely change the platform with the 15th processor generation.

For applications, the difference is generally slightly higher. Thus, in the above scenario, DDR5 memory can offer up to 11 percent more performance on average. However, you should always look for test reports for your specific application areas. For example, the additional performance in a program such as Handbrake is approx. 7 percent and with 7zip even 72 percent.

In terms of price, the DDR5 kits cannot keep up with their DDR4 predecessors, at least if you only look at the price per gigabyte. However, if the extra performance in the programs is a given, DDR5 appears in a very good light.

In the future, DDR5 will replace its predecessor as the standard. Many applications and games are being increasingly optimized for this memory, so a DDR5 platform is the most future-proof. Our recommendation is therefore to only use DDR4 if you want to put together a new gaming PC for under $1,000.

Possible questions you should ask yourself before making a purchase decision:

Which processor do I want to use? Is a BIOS update necessary?Does the mainboard support BIOS flashback?Is the mainboard designed for the required power consumption?How many lanes of which PCIe generation do I need?With how many lanes is my graphics card connected?How many NVMe SSDs with which speed do I want to use? How many connections of what type do I need?Is USB-C important to me?How many devices do I want to connect?Do I need Wi-Fi and Bluetooth?Do I want DDR5 or DDR4 RAM?Which application benefits from which RAM speed?How many RAM slots do I need?Do I need an ATX or just an mATX mainboard?Will I be using a capture card or sound card that requires a PCIe slot, for example?Will the mainboard fit into my case?Do I want to use additional features?Do I need (A)RGB connections?How many fans need to be connected?

This article was translated from German to English and originally appeared on pcwelt.de.

Author: Kelvin Köpke, Studentische Aushilfe

Multimedia Production Student & Systemintegrator für Computersysteme bei “Kelvins Custom PCs”

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