• reviews
  • motherboards
  • EVGA Z790 Dark Kingpin Edition Motherboard Review
  • EVGA Z790 Dark Kingpin Edition Motherboard Review

    Author:
    Published:

    Benchmark Configuration

    The System as it was Tested

    EVGA Z790 Dark Kingpin – Z790 Chipset
    Intel Core i9 13900k (3.0Ghz) Twenty Four Core 8+16 48KB L2 Cache 12+12 x 2MB L3 Cache 36MB 
    Cooler Master MasterLiquid PL360 Flux
    1x nVidia RTX 2080 Super
    2x Crucial PC5-5600 16GB DDR5 (46-45-45-90)
    Patriot P200 512GB SSD
    HP dvd1260i Multiformat 24x Writer
    Thermaltake Toughpower Grand 1050 Watt PSU
    Windows 11 Pro 64bit 

    Reference System

    Z690 Aorus Pro Gaming – Z690 Chipset
    Intel Core i7 12700k (3.2Ghz) Sixteen Core 12+12 32KB L2 Cache 9+9 x 1.25MB L3 Cache 25MB 
    Cooler Master MasterLiquid PL360 Flux
    1x nVidia RTX 2080 Super
    2x Crucial PC5-4800 16GB DDR5 (40-39-39-76)
    Patriot P200 512GB SSD
    HP dvd1260i Multiformat 24x Writer
    Thermaltake Toughpower Grand 1050 Watt PSU
    Windows 11 Pro 64bit 

    Reference System

    ASUS STRIX Z690-E Gaming WiFi – Z790 Chipset
    Intel Core i7 12700k (3.2Ghz) Sixteen Core 12+12 32KB L2 Cache 9+9 x 1.25MB L3 Cache 25MB 
    Thermaltake Water 2.0 Extreme
    1x nVidia RTX 2080 Super
    2x Crucial PC5-4800 16GB DDR5 (40-39-39-76)
    Patriot P200 512GB SSD
    HP dvd1260i Multiformat 24x Writer
    Thermaltake Toughpower Grand 1050 Watt PSU
    Windows 11 Pro 64bit 

    Reference System

    ASUS Maximux XII Hero – Z490 Chipset
    Intel Core i9 10900k (3.7Ghz) Deca Core 10 x 32KB L2 Cache 10 x 256KB L3 Cache 20MB 
    Thermaltake Water 2.0 Extreme
    1x nVidia RTX 2080 Super
    2x GSKill TridentZ PC4-330000 8GB DDR4 (19-19-19-39)
    Crucial  MX500 500GB SSD
    HP dvd1260i Multiformat 24x Writer
    Thermaltake Toughpower Grand 1050 Watt PSU
    Windows 10 Pro 64bit 

    CPUz

    Our motherboard testing suite has been compiled to subject the system to a variety of different scenarios that help uncover some of the subtle differences in motherboard design.  Normally these differences are driven by the processor and BIOS programming but with the advent of an IMC and PCI Express moving to the CPU we have discovered that raw performance numbers are virtually identical across the systems.  

    Our new approach is to look at total system performance and minimize the variances.  The results will tell us how the system responded as a total package and also give us something to use in our comparisons.