A smaller form factor, but still well-prepared for even the most powerful processors. The ROG Strix B860-G Gaming WiFi motherboard has a sufficiently robust power delivery system even for the Core Ultra 9 285K, and its advantage lies in its lower height. This makes the motherboard suitable for use in smaller and more space-efficient cases, of which there are relatively few on the market, just like decent μATX motherboards. Read more “Asus ROG Strix B860-G Gaming WiFi: Micro ATX? Also an option”
While the more powerful GeForce RTX 50 models face no direct competition, AMD has positioned two strong contenders against the RTX 5070—the Radeon RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT. Both offer slightly better value and more memory. Your choice depends on whether you need a graphics card purely for gaming or also for professional applications, and how reliant you are on Nvidia’s broader, more polished ecosystem with proprietary technologies. Read more “Asus TUF GeForce RTX 5070 12GB OC Ed.: Perfectionism”
A relatively pricier B850 motherboard. But one that outperforms both equally priced and X870(E) motherboards in several ways. It does so with features that are not directly related to the chipset used, but those are often what matters. The ROG Strix B850-F Gaming WiFi motherboard may thus end up being exactly what you’re looking for in a powerful and timeless setup. This can include, for example, two M.2 slots with PCIe 5.0 support. Read more “Not just the basics: Asus ROG Strix B850-F Gaming WiFi”
Last week, we took a look at the Asus ROG Astral GeForce RTX 5080 OC Edition. It has a powerful cooler, but by default, the fan control pushes speeds high, and card is anything but quiet. So, I also measured how the card’s behavior changes when lowering fan speeds, how different power limit settings affect performance, and what the OC scanner does to the clock speed/voltage curve and how that impacts performance. Read more “Tweaking Asus ROG Astral RTX 5080: Cut the Noise and Power Draw”
Since GeForce RTX 4000, Nvidia graphics cards (fortunately just the highest models) have been facing issues with overheating and melting 12+4-pin power connectors. Newer models use the 12V-2×6 connector, which is designed to avoid improper attaching, and we recently discussed additional measures from Zotac. It seems that some of the freshly released graphics cards use another protective measure, addressing the root thermal issue. Read more “Some GeForce RTX 5090 fight melty connectors with thermal pads”
With the new generation of GeForce GPUs, Asus is introducing the new ROG Astral series. Positioned at the top of Asus’s lineup, it inherits high-end features from previous ROG Strix models, including a dual BIOS, system fan control, a robust design, factory overclocking, and a large, top-notch cooler. It doesn’t just come with three but a total of four fans. However, this premium package comes at a significant price. Read more “Asus ROG Astral GeForce RTX 5080 OC Ed.: Brutalism in PC”
New B850 motherboards have been released for AMD Ryzen 9000 (and possibly 7000) processors, promising lower prices (compared to X870/E motherboards). Not much was known about the specific models until the last minute. But now we’ll take a look at two, one from Asus and the other from Gigabyte, which we’ll also take a look at in detailed tests later on. So for now, just a little preview. Read more “First look at B850 boards. ROG Strix and Aorus Elite WiFi7”
We are expanding our motherboard tests with the Asus ROG Strix Z890-F Gaming WiFi. This one is priced between the Gigabyte (Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7) and MSI (MPG Z890 Carbon WiFi) models, which we’ve already analyzed in depth. This is also a board designed for Intel Core 200S CPUs (Arrow Lake). More towards the more powerful CPU classes, as the tested ROG Strix Z890-F Gaming WiFi has a robust VRM, among other things. Read more “ROG Strix Z890-F Gaming WiFi. Asus’s take on LGA 1851”
New X870E motherboards for AMD processors and Z890 boards for the new Intel Core Ultra 200S processors are now coming to the market. There will be one new feature on Asus boards that is supposed to improve the performance of RAM. It’s a new DIMM slot design that may not look any different on the outside, but has improvements that should allow DDR5 to overclock to higher clock speeds with better signal quality for more stable operation. Read more “Asus NitroPath: Improved DIMM slots boost RAM speed by 400 MHz”
Motherboards with AMD X870 chipsets are already in stores. Unlike the older models designed for the AM5 platform, also compatible with Ryzen 9000 processors, X870 motherboards must support the USB4 interface, and there are more minor changes. We start our analysis of motherboards with the new AMD chipsets with the Asus model – the TUF Gaming X870 Plus WiFi. The mid-range also has a strong VRM. Read more “Asus TUF Gaming X870 Plus WiFi: USB4 for reasonable money”
It looks like the most important thing to happen in the PC industry this year are the widespread issues of Intel Raptor Lake processors with instability and game crashes caused by gradual physical damage to the chips due to high voltages that leads to irreversible degradation. The microcode patches, which will hopefully stop the CPUs from dying – the CPUs for which it is not too late already that is – have finally started to appear. Read more “The fix for dying Intel CPUs is out for first motherboards”
The accessories of Asus’ top-of-the-line SSD enclosure are beyond those of any other smartphone. Various cables, a rubber protector, a strap loop and within the built-in features, for example, an RGB LED. Excessive and annoying? Perhaps, but likely to appeal to the target audience of ROG products. The Strix Arion, among other things, leads the speed tests, and it does so at an exceptionally low power consumption. Read more “Asus ROG Strix Arion. One of the best equipped SSD enclosures”
With its external SSD (M.2) enclosures, Asus relies on extra robustness, IP68 rating and strapping options. This is also more rare than with flash drives. The mounting of the SSD itself is along the lines of modern Asus motherboards. The subject of the analysis will first be the TUF Gaming A1, the cheaper of the pair of available enclosures. However, it too already supports USB 3.2 gen. 2 with Type-C connectivity. Read more “Especially durable. Asus TUF Gaming A1 SSD enclosure test”
The number of graphics cards tested over the recent period has reached a number after which we can pause a bit and specifically focus on the noise level of their coils. The latter has always been recorded in standard measurements, but in large tests with lots of other information, this unique data was getting lost. That is why it will now, within the scope of this article, be limited to these only. So which of the modern graphics cards has the quieter coils? Read more ““All” graphics cards in in-depth coil whine analysis”
This is a first – a fan with the leading edges of the impeller blades on the opposite side to normal ones. This is primarily done for a better view of “fans without stator struts” in cases with glass side panels. In addition, such an unconventional design also has quite clear and measurable advantages and disadvantages, also in terms of functional characteristics. Let’s take everything in turn. Read more “Asus TUF Gaming TR120 (ARGB) Reverse: A nicer look? Yes, but…”
Latest comments