The ASRock Z590 OC Formula Review: An Iconic Brand Revival
by Gavin Bonshor on September 10, 2021 9:00 AM ESTGaming Performance
For Z590 we are running using Windows 10 64-bit with the 20H2 update.
Civilization 6
Originally penned by Sid Meier and his team, the Civilization series of turn-based strategy games are a cult classic, and many an excuse for an all-nighter trying to get Gandhi to declare war on you due to an integer underflow. Truth be told I never actually played the first version, but I have played every edition from the second to the sixth, including the fourth as voiced by the late Leonard Nimoy, and it is a game that is easy to pick up, but hard to master.
Benchmarking Civilization has always been somewhat of an oxymoron – for a turn based strategy game, the frame rate is not necessarily the important thing here and even in the right mood, something as low as 5 frames per second can be enough. With Civilization 6 however, Firaxis went hardcore on visual fidelity, trying to pull you into the game. As a result, Civilization can taxing on graphics and CPUs as we crank up the details, especially in DirectX 12.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider (DX12)
The latest installment of the Tomb Raider franchise does less rising and lurks more in the shadows with Shadow of the Tomb Raider. As expected this action-adventure follows Lara Croft which is the main protagonist of the franchise as she muscles through the Mesoamerican and South American regions looking to stop a Mayan apocalyptic she herself unleashed. Shadow of the Tomb Raider is the direct sequel to the previous Rise of the Tomb Raider and was developed by Eidos Montreal and Crystal Dynamics and was published by Square Enix which hit shelves across multiple platforms in September 2018. This title effectively closes the Lara Croft Origins story and has received critical acclaims upon its release.
The integrated Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmark is similar to that of the previous game Rise of the Tomb Raider, which we have used in our previous benchmarking suite. The newer Shadow of the Tomb Raider uses DirectX 11 and 12, with this particular title being touted as having one of the best implementations of DirectX 12 of any game released so far.
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 arisen 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. For our testing, we use the DirectX 12 benchmark.
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Kracken'm all - Friday, September 10, 2021 - link
Frankly overpriced and useless if we are being scalped hard for higher end cpu and gpu.Actually mobo manufacturers should pay us on top using their board as nvidia and amd are fucking everything up so bad but just don't give a crap but fakers for money.
prophet001 - Friday, September 10, 2021 - link
HPCs are like fishing lures... they're not made to catch fish they're made to catch fishermen.I feel embarrassed thinking about some of the stuff I bought and bought into when I was younger.
Wrs - Friday, September 10, 2021 - link
Why would you blame or take out your anger on a mobo maker for a shortage of cpus/gpus caused by a biological virus?!The mobo is a beast and seems priced at a slight *discount* to the market. Let's hope it's dependable because I don't know about that warranty... probably explains the discount.
For those that don't appreciate on-board power buttons and resets/switches and metal backplates because its all covered by a computer case, get a cheaper board, this one isn't for you. It's a niche product painfully torn between mass-market usability and catering to a small community of hardcore overclockers. Because it includes features for two mutually exclusive audiences, it's always going to be at least somewhat overpriced to either group.
The only complaint I'd have is the placement of that on-board OLED display. It's likely to be obscured by insulation or high end air cooling. Probably should get rid of it, buff up the diagnostic display to a full time monitoring display.
TheinsanegamerN - Monday, September 13, 2021 - link
"Why would you blame or take out your anger on a mobo maker for a shortage of cpus/gpus caused by a biological virus?!"Still on that theory? That's cute. There's plenty of GPUs shipping out of china, they just are not coming to us.
" It's a niche product painfully torn between mass-market usability and catering to a small community of hardcore Suckers."
FTFY. All this money and design for another 50 MHz bin over a normal $180 Z series board. The days of hardcore OCingbeing entertaining ar ebehind us when CPUs hit 95% of that performance level on their own now.
Wrs - Monday, September 13, 2021 - link
What? It's generally accepted that Covid is the primary cause of the chip shortage, but far from the only cause. Covid produced quarantines and lockdowns, messed with factory production here and there, made a lotta people scramble for electronics to work from home - there's the impact on both supply and demand. There are some compounding factors like China tariffs, an island off China running out of water (I don't say that with a straight face), car industry cutting orders before a surprise sales boom, and other details I needn't list here.Overclocking is legit, but getting more niche these days - on that you are absolutely right. The mainstream has trended toward what formerly was entry level OC - big beefy ambient coolers. I don't particularly like the inefficient Rocket Lake to start - inefficiency is what necessitates expensive boards, after all - but this article isn't about a board built for mainstream cooling, and 50 MHz is certainly not all you're expected to get over a $180 board... though perhaps it is close to all you'll get using what this site did, an ambient AIO cooler. That's just not right to cool >300w in half a square inch, nor is it any good for reducing thermal and electrical resistivity in silicon. Rocket Lake runs so hot, the minimum you'd need to see real progress is ice water. This board, with all its slow boot switches, is clearly set up for phase change or LN2, and I am not prepared to ask Anandtech to cough up that kind of expertise...
Spunjji - Monday, September 13, 2021 - link
"Frankly overpriced and useless"Yes
*everything else you wrote*
No
svan1971 - Friday, September 10, 2021 - link
AsRock before you buy check out their warranty info its a disaster.Slash3 - Friday, September 10, 2021 - link
The first board in the series was the Z77 OC Formula, not the Z87. I've still got mine running in a secondary system. :)Slash3 - Friday, September 10, 2021 - link
One other note, the testbed chart lists an 11900K with pricing of $374, which is clearly incorrect.AllMuscle1 - Friday, September 24, 2021 - link
Same here! I was about to laugh when I saw it clearly displayed in the photograph and yet, he stated Z87. The Z77 for Ivy Bridge was amazing! It's now in my daughter's system.