The ASRock Z490 PG Velocita Motherboard Review: It Means SPEED
by Gavin Bonshor on September 21, 2020 9:00 AM ESTGaming Performance
For Z490 we are running using Windows 10 64-bit with the 1909 update.
Grand Theft Auto V
The highly anticipated iteration of the Grand Theft Auto franchise hit the shelves on April 14th 2015, with both AMD and NVIDIA in tow to help optimize the title. GTA doesn’t provide graphical presets, but opens up the options to users and extends the boundaries by pushing even the hardest systems to the limit using Rockstar’s Advanced Game Engine under DirectX 11. Whether the user is flying high in the mountains with long draw distances or dealing with assorted trash in the city, when cranked up to maximum it creates stunning visuals but hard work for both the CPU and the GPU.
For our test we have scripted a version of the in-game benchmark. The in-game benchmark consists of five scenarios: four short panning shots with varying lighting and weather effects, and a fifth action sequence that lasts around 90 seconds. We use only the final part of the benchmark, which combines a flight scene in a jet followed by an inner city drive-by through several intersections followed by ramming a tanker that explodes, causing other cars to explode as well. This is a mix of distance rendering followed by a detailed near-rendering action sequence, and the title thankfully spits out frame time data.
F1 2018
Aside from keeping up-to-date on the Formula One world, F1 2017 added HDR support, which F1 2018 has maintained; otherwise, we should see any newer versions of Codemasters' EGO engine find its way into F1. Graphically demanding in its own right, F1 2018 keeps a useful racing-type graphics workload in our benchmarks.
Aside from keeping up-to-date on the Formula One world, F1 2017 added HDR support, which F1 2018 has maintained. We use the in-game benchmark, set to run on the Montreal track in the wet, driving as Lewis Hamilton from last place on the grid. Data is taken over a one-lap race.
Strange Brigade (DX12)
Strange Brigade is based in 1903’s Egypt and follows a story which is very similar to that of the Mummy film franchise. This particular third-person shooter is developed by Rebellion Developments which is more widely known for games such as the Sniper Elite and Alien vs Predator series. The game follows the hunt for Seteki the Witch Queen who has arose once again and the only ‘troop’ who can ultimately stop her. Gameplay is cooperative centric with a wide variety of different levels and many puzzles which need solving by the British colonial Secret Service agents sent to put an end to her reign of barbaric and brutality.
The game supports both the DirectX 12 and Vulkan APIs and houses its own built-in benchmark which offers various options up for customization including textures, anti-aliasing, reflections, draw distance and even allows users to enable or disable motion blur, ambient occlusion and tessellation among others. AMD has boasted previously that Strange Brigade is part of its Vulkan API implementation offering scalability for AMD multi-graphics card configurations.
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YB1064 - Monday, September 21, 2020 - link
It would be nice if you can thrown in a comparable dataset from an AMD system. It wouldn't be remiss to cut out motherboard gaming benchmarks altogether. The motherboard stopped being a factor cince, 2001 (?)Udyr - Monday, September 21, 2020 - link
Although I agree with you that some comparison is necessary for the majority of users to have a "visual" difference vs other products, the board has always been a factor. Bad VRM, conductor and other important parts of it have to work properly for the overall system to have good stability, otherwise you start having random issues or, worst case scenario, fried componentsYB1064 - Monday, September 21, 2020 - link
The stress tests should bring out any issues with the VRM. Gaming benchmarks don't add much to a MB review.oRAirwolf - Tuesday, September 22, 2020 - link
I think it is good just to validate that there are no glaring performance issues that haven't been addressed. I agree that the benchmarks are pretty much useless otherwise though.AMDSuperFan - Monday, September 21, 2020 - link
Why didn't they benchmark this system with an AMD CPU in it? Scared?Tomatotech - Tuesday, September 22, 2020 - link
Absolutely agree. Don’t forget the hammer to help install an AMD cpu in it. The benchmarks won’t be great though.mattkiss - Monday, September 21, 2020 - link
Hmm...Buildzoid didn't like this mobo very much: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmKiwDL3UrAwhatthe123 - Monday, September 21, 2020 - link
Seems more accurate than this review. This review just focuses on general performance out of the box if a normal single gpu config, so yes it's similar in performance with but with better DPC latency.Problem is other models at this price point have more features and/or more efficient/powerful VRM design that doesn't require a bunch of little fans. The little fans are what help it drop VRM temps down to the 60s, but most VRMs don't really have any degradation problems even at in the 90Cs, so it's not clear what the price premium is paying for except DPC latency.
mattkiss - Wednesday, September 23, 2020 - link
"This review just focuses on general performance out of the box if a normal single gpu config, so yes it's similar in performance with but with better DPC latency."Not sure I understand your statement...both reviews are of the ASRock Z490 PG Velocita.
whatthe123 - Friday, September 25, 2020 - link
I meant that as in, this review compares the velocita in a single GPU config against other motherboards then just checks the results, whereas buildzoid's review actually looks into what features the board provides and how it manages to achieve its results i.e. a bunch of proprietary small fans when competitors have passive cooling more than good enough to keep VRMs stable.The conclusion anandtech's review makes only makes sense if you ignore all the other features offered by competitors. Otherwise it doesn't make sense because you're paying the same price and getting fewer features on top of having more moving parts that can fail.