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Review: ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Formula Gaming Motherboard

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ASUS released a lineup of new and refreshed ROG Z790 motherboards to coincide with the launch of Intel 14th Gen Raptor Lake Refresh desktop CPUs. We reviewed the ASUS TUF Gaming Z790-Pro WiFi Motherboard a week ago, and today, we are taking a look at the ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Formula.

The ROG Maximus Z790 Formula is the ultimate motherboard, boasting a stunning Moonlight White design. Beyond its eye-catching appearance, it offers a boatload of features such as the exclusive HybridChill VRM cooling system for 14th-gen Intel processors, and advanced DDR5 settings. You also get multiple PCIe 5.0 slots for graphics cards and storage, rapid Intel Wi-Fi 7 networking, and extensive customisable ARGB lighting, ensuring whatever you build with this thing, is premium.

In terms of specifications, the ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Formula maintains its ATX form factor and incorporates a dual 8-pin CPU power connector setup. The VRM Configuration is 20+1+2(Core+GT+VCCIN) and backed up by a 10-phase supply count with 105A and 70A power stages.

The motherboard provides four DDR5 DIMM slots capable of supporting speeds exceeding 8000 MT/s and capacities of up to 192GB. The motherboard features a white shield covering its entire front, which also houses the M.2 heatsinks beneath it. Memory compatibility is a breeze with the Z790 Formula.

All XMP-certified kits can effortlessly reach their advertised speeds, as rigorous internal tests have verified these assertions. ASUS has also introduced a novel feature called DIMM Flex. DIMM Flex utilises an onboard thermal sensor located at the rear of the motherboard, beneath the memory slots, along with a microcontroller to continuously monitor temperature and dynamically optimise the memory refresh rate, providing an on-the-fly performance boost.

Regarding expansion options, the board includes two PCIe x16 slots and a diverse range of I/O ports, such as support for WIFI 7. You also get two Thunderbolt 4 Type-C ports, a USB 3.2 Gen 2 10 Gbps Type-C port, 5 GbE LAN, numerous USB 3.2 ports, and BIOS Flashback/Clear CMOS switches.

Other features of the motherboard include AI Overclocking, 2-inch Livedash OLED, AI Cooling II, and other bells and whistles. There are dual procool II power connectors, 20+1+2 power stages, and the motherboard comes with the Intel LGA 1700 socket that takes in 14th and 13th Gen Intel Core Processors, 12th Gen Intel Core processors, and Pentium Gold and Celeron processors.

In terms of I/O connectivity, you again get a boatload. The motherboard comes with one HDMI port, four USB 5Gbps Type-A ports, two Thunderbolt 4 USB Type-C ports, a Realtek 5Gb Ethernet port, six USB 10Gbps ports (five Type-A and one USB Type-C), Intel Wi-Fi 7, Optical S/PDIF Out, five gold-plated audio jacks, one USB 20Gbps USB Type-C front panel connector, and four SATA 6GB/S connectors.

Inside the package, in addition to the motherboard, cables, and other accessories, you’ll find an ASUS WiFi Q-Antenna. This antenna is equipped with dual transceivers, which provide support for the 2.4, 5, and 6 GHz bands, enhancing throughput speed. It also offers directional sensitivity to boost signal quality and expand coverage over longer distances.

Undoubtedly, the ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Formula is an exceptional and distinct motherboard. With its remarkable features and capabilities, I believe it will become a top choice for both enthusiasts and gamers in their feature builds. The ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Formula is currently available at a price of AED 3070.

Price: AED 3070

ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Formula Gaming Motherboard AED 3070
  • Final Rating
4

Summary

Beyond its eye-catching appearance, it offers a boatload of features such as the exclusive HybridChill VRM cooling system for 14th-gen Intel processors, and advanced DDR5 settings.

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Users Claim That Nvidia GPUs Are Melting Power Cables

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Early adopters of Nvidia’s new GeForce RTX 5090 graphics card are reporting issues with melting power cables, with at least one report on YouTube and another on Reddit. This situation mirrors an earlier problem with the RTX 4090, where power connectors melted or caught fire, damaging GPUs and power supplies.

Investigations revealed that the 4090’s connector issues were largely due to user error, with 12VHPWR connectors not being fully inserted or bent, creating stress and heat. The PCI-SIG, the standards body for the connector, stated the design was sound and blamed implementation issues. An updated connector, 12V-2×6, which ensures proper seating before delivering power, replaced the 12VHPWR connector in the RTX 50-series cards.

Both connectors aim to deliver significant power to high-end GPUs via a single cable, reducing the need for multiple 8-pin connectors and saving board space. While Nvidia, Intel, AMD, Qualcomm, Arm, and others are PCI-SIG members, Nvidia is the primary user of these connectors in its GPUs. AMD and Intel continue using 8-pin connectors, with some Nvidia partners doing the same for lower-end cards like the RTX 4060 and 4070 series.

The two reported RTX 5090 incidents involved third-party cables, one from MODDIY and another from an FSP power supply, rather than Nvidia’s provided 8-pin adapter. It’s too early to determine if the problem lies with the cables, Nvidia, the connector design, or user error, or if it’s simply a coincidence.

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Cooler Master Launches MasterLiquid Core II

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Cooler Master has announced the MasterLiquid Core II, a next-level liquid cooler that comes in both 240mm and 360mm sizes. This latest version of Cooler Master’s MasterLiquid series builds on the excellence of that renowned series of liquid coolers while bringing an array of new features to the table. With a refined G9R dual chamber pump, updated CPU compatibility, and more, the MasterLiquid Core II is an upgrade fit for the next generation.

Key features and benefits of the MasterLiquid Core II include:

  • Dual chamber pump: Upgraded design resulting in a compact cooler with superior performance.
  • Updated CPU compatibility: The Core II is compatible with all the latest AMD and Intel CPUs.
  • Innovative design: An infinity mirror pump cover gives the Core a stellar aesthetic.
  • Revamped fans: Brand-new fan blades and revamped visuals deliver outstanding performance with a fresh look.
  • Easy installation: Now includes a quick-mount kit compatible with all mainstream processor sockets, along with pre-installed fans.
  • Optimum tubing length: 400mm of tubing enables effortless mounting in any orientation.
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NVIDIA Announces Blackwell GeForce RTX 50 Series

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NVIDIA today unveiled the most advanced consumer GPUs for gamers, creators and developers — the GeForce RTX 50 Series Desktop and Laptop GPUs. Powered by the NVIDIA Blackwell architecture, fifth-generation Tensor Cores and fourth-generation RT Cores, the GeForce RTX 50 Series delivers breakthroughs in AI-driven rendering, including neural shaders, digital human technologies, geometry and lighting.

“Blackwell, the engine of AI, has arrived for PC gamers, developers and creatives,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “Fusing AI-driven neural rendering and ray tracing, Blackwell is the most significant computer graphics innovation since we introduced programmable shading 25 years ago.”

The GeForce RTX 5090 GPU — the fastest GeForce RTX GPU to date — features 92 billion transistors, providing over 3,352 trillion AI operations per second (TOPS) of computing power. The Blackwell architecture’s innovations and DLSS 4 mean the GeForce RTX 5090 GPU outperforms the GeForce RTX 4090 GPU up to 2x.

GeForce Blackwell comes to laptops with all the features of desktop models, bringing a considerable upgrade to portable computing, including extraordinary graphics capabilities and remarkable efficiency. The Blackwell generation of NVIDIA Max-Q technology extends battery life by up to 40% and allows for thin and light laptops that maintain their sleek design without sacrificing power or performance.

DLSS 4 debuts Multi Frame Generation to boost frame rates by using AI to generate up to three frames per rendered frame. It works in unison with the suite of DLSS technologies to increase performance by up to 8x over traditional rendering, while maintaining responsiveness with NVIDIA Reflex technology.

DLSS 4 also introduces the graphics industry’s first real-time application of the transformer model architecture. Transformer-based DLSS Ray Reconstruction and Super Resolution models use 2x more parameters and 4x more compute to provide greater stability, reduced ghosting, higher details and enhanced anti-aliasing in-game scenes. DLSS 4 will be supported on GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs in over 75 games and applications on the day of launch.

NVIDIA Reflex 2 introduces Frame Warp, an innovative technique to reduce latency in games by updating a rendered frame based on the latest mouse input just before it is sent to the display. Reflex 2 can reduce latency by up to 75%. This gives gamers a competitive edge in multiplayer games and makes single-player titles more responsive.

Twenty-five years ago, NVIDIA introduced GeForce 3 and programmable shaders, which set the stage for two decades of graphics innovation, from pixel shading to compute shading to real-time ray tracing. Alongside GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs, NVIDIA is introducing RTX Neural Shaders, which bring small AI networks into programmable shaders, unlocking film-quality materials, lighting and more in real-time games.

Rendering game characters is one of the most challenging tasks in real-time graphics, as people are prone to notice the smallest errors or artefacts in digital humans. RTX Neural Faces takes a simple rasterized face and 3D pose data as input and uses generative AI to render a temporally stable, high-quality digital face in real-time.

RTX Neural Faces is complemented by new RTX technologies for ray-traced hair and skin. Along with the new RTX Mega Geometry, which enables up to 100x more ray-traced triangles in a scene, these advancements are poised to deliver a massive leap in realism for game characters and environments. The power of neural rendering, DLSS 4 and the new DLSS transformer model is showcased on GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs with Zorah, a groundbreaking new technology demo from NVIDIA.

GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs bring industry-leading AI TOPS to power autonomous game characters in parallel with game rendering. NVIDIA is introducing a suite of new NVIDIA ACE technologies that enable game characters to perceive, plan and act like human players. ACE-powered autonomous characters are being integrated into KRAFTON’s PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS and InZOI, the publisher’s upcoming life simulation game, as well as Wemade Next’s MIR5.

In PUBG, companions powered by NVIDIA ACE plan and execute strategic actions, dynamically working with human players to ensure survival. InZOI features Smart Zoi characters that autonomously adjust behaviours based on life goals and in-game events. In MIR5, large language model (LLM)-driven raid bosses adapt tactics based on player behaviour, creating more dynamic, challenging encounters.

Use cases span LLMs, vision language models, image generation, speech, embedding models for retrieval-augmented generation, PDF extraction and computer vision. NIM microservices include all the necessary components for running AI on PCs and are optimized for deployment across all NVIDIA GPUs.

Showcasing how RTX enthusiasts and developers can use NIM microservices to build AI agents and assistants, NVIDIA will release a pipeline of NVIDIA NIM microservices and AI Blueprints for RTX AI PCs from top model developers such as Black Forest Labs, Meta, Mistral and Stability.AI. To demonstrate how enthusiasts and developers can use NIM to build AI agents and assistants, NVIDIA today previewed Project R2X, a vision-enabled PC avatar that can put information at a user’s fingertips, assist with desktop apps and video conference calls, read and summarize documents, and more.

The GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs supercharge creative workflows. RTX 50 Series GPUs are the first consumer GPUs to support FP4 precision, boosting AI image generation performance for models such as FLUX by 2x and enabling generative AI models to run locally in a smaller memory footprint, compared with previous-generation hardware.

The NVIDIA Broadcast app gains two AI-powered beta features for live streamers: Studio Voice, which upgrades microphone audio, and Virtual Key light, which relights faces for polished streams. Streamlabs is introducing the Intelligent Streaming Assistant, powered by NVIDIA ACE and Inworld AI, which acts as a cohost, producer and technical assistant to enhance live streams.

For desktop users, the GeForce RTX 5090 GPU with 3,352 AI TOPS and the GeForce RTX 5080 GPU with 1,801 AI TOPS will be available on Jan. 30 at $1,999 and $999, respectively. The GeForce RTX 5070 Ti GPU with 1,406 AI TOPS and GeForce RTX 5070 GPU with 988 AI TOPS will be available starting in February at $749 and $549, respectively. The NVIDIA Founders Editions of the GeForce RTX 5090, RTX 5080 and RTX 5070 GPUs will be available directly from nvidia.com and select retailers worldwide.

Stock-clocked and factory-overclocked models will be available from top add-in card providers such as ASUS, Colorful, Gainward, GALAX, GIGABYTE, INNO3D, KFA2, MSI, Palit, PNY and ZOTAC, and in desktops from system builders including Falcon Northwest, Infiniarc, MAINGEAR, Mifcom, ORIGIN PC, PC Specialist and Scan Computers.

Laptops with GeForce RTX 5090, RTX 5080 and RTX 5070 Ti Laptop GPUs will be available starting in March, and RTX 5070 Laptop GPUs will be available starting in April from the world’s top manufacturers, including Acer, ASUS, Dell, GIGABYTE, HP, Lenovo, MECHREVO, MSI and Razer.

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