"The latest and strongest mother who does not shine" has arrived! Core i9-12900K "MEG Z690 UNIFY" with a powerful power supply that can afford full operation

Z690 largest scale! Direct drive 19+2 phase power supply circuit

MSI's "MEG Z690 UNIFY" is the latest model of the "UNIFY" series, which has become a standard as the company's "non-lighting high-end mother". The most notable feature is the ultra-robust design of the power supply circuit. It has 19 + 2 phases and the largest number of Z690 motherboards, and the MOSFET also supports 105A Smart Power Stage and high output. In addition, direct drive that does not use a phase doubler has excellent responsiveness and power efficiency.

Cooling is powerful only for a large-scale power supply circuit. Although it doesn't have a fan, it uses a large heat sink with a heat pipe and sandwiches it between thermal pads with a fairly high thermal conductivity of 7 W/mK, which efficiently transfers and disperses the heat of the power supply circuit. . In addition, an aluminum back plate for heat dissipation is also installed on the back. This back plate has the role of increasing rigidity, and it also has the advantage that it is very easy to hold because the solder protrusion on the back does not stick to your fingers.

The power circuit is 19 + 2 phase direct drive. The Z590 UNIFY was driven by a phase doubler with 16+2+1 phases, so the considerably enhanced power circuit has a large heat sink with a heat pipe. The thermal pad has a high thermal conductivity of 7W/mK. The PWM controller is Renesas' RAA229131. In the high-end model of Z690, the standard MOSFET is Renesas' "RAA22010540". It's a 105A Smart Power Stage

With this power supply circuit, I'm worried about the temperature and stability when the MTP 241W Core i9-12900K is fully operated. I want to try it as soon as possible. The verification environment is as follows.

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[Verification environment]

CPU	Intel Core i9-12900K (8P + 8E core 24 threads)
Memory	Kingston FURY Beast DDR5 KF552C40BBK2-32 (PC5-41600 DDR5 SDRAM 16GB x 2)
SSD	M.2 NVMe SSD [M.2 (PCI Express 4.0 x4), 1TB]
Video Card	MSI GeForce RTX 3070 VENTUS 2X OC (NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070)
CPU cooler	MSI MEG CORELIQUID S360 (simple liquid cooling, 36cm class)
Power supply	1000W ATX power supply (1,000W, 80PLUS Gold)
OS	Windows 11 Pro 64bit version

Power limit is virtually unlimited (4,096W), DDR5 reads XMP profile and drives DDR5-5200, simple water cooling fan setting is MSI Center application I set each to "Game Mode". "CINEBENCH R23" Multi Core test, "OCCT 9.1.4" CPU test (test mode: normal, load type: constant), "Cyberpunk 2077" (4K, image quality "ray tracing: ultra", DLSS "balanced" ) for 10 minutes each, check the CPU temperature, VRM (power supply circuit) temperature, P core execution clock, and CPU Package Power, which is a measure of CPU power consumption.

For each confirmation, use the application "HWiNFO64" that can display hardware information, CPU temperature is "CPU Package", VRM temperature is "MOS", P core execution clock is "P-core 4 T1 Effective Clock” and CPU Package Power are the results of following the item of the same name “CPU Package Power”. Room temperature is 22°C.

Transition of CPU temperature during bench execution Transition of VRM temperature during bench execution

CINEBENCH R23 is a test that puts the maximum load on Core i9-12900K. The fact that the CPU temperature is overwhelmingly higher than OCCT, a stress test application that puts an intense load on the CPU usage rate of all cores at 100%, also tells it. At CINEBENCH R23, the CPU temperature seems to be high at a maximum of 90 degrees Celsius, but it is an excellent class when using this CPU.

More attention will be VRM temperature. Very low maximum of 50 degrees even when running CINEBENCH R23. When Cyberpunk 2077 was running, it only went up to 43 degrees Celsius. The CPU cooler MSI MEG CORELIQUID S360 used this time is equipped with a 6 cm fan in the water cooling head part, and it seems that it is also successful in that it is a specification that blows air around the CPU socket, but even with high load, this much temperature Surprisingly low.

Changes in P core execution clock during bench execution

Let's take a look at the execution clock of the P core. Cyberpunk 2077 changes in detail according to the game situation, so please use it as a reference. CINEBENCH R23 and OCCT have almost no clock fluctuation even under high load conditions. Even if there is, it is very stable around 1MHz. The reason why there are places where the clock drops in CINEBENCH R23 is that there is a timing when processing stops for a moment between tests. With this, the performance of the Core i9-12900K will continue to be maintained even if CPU load continues such as CG rendering and video encoding.

Changes in CPU Package Power during bench execution

In addition, let's pay attention to CPU Package Power. It is natural that the CINEBENCH R23, which has the highest load, consumes the most power, but it does not reach the 241W MTP of the Core i9-12900K, which is about 235W at maximum. Since the power limit is unlimited, it should be possible to drive at 241W or more, and it is a test that can exceed 250W on other motherboards. The detailed score will be described later, but since the CINEBENCH R23 score was actually excellent enough as a Core i9-12900K, this is not because the power of the CPU cannot be drawn out, but with a CPU Package Power of 241W or less. It would be correct to see that the performance of the i9-12900K has been fully exploited.

Even if the Core i9-12900K is fully operated, there is still room for OC. With this alone, I can recommend it to OC enthusiasts (of course, OCs are at their own risk).

Let's check the other parts. Both PCI Express x16 slots support PCI Express 5.0 directly connected to the CPU. It supports split operation, x16 operation when only one is used, and x8 operation when both are used. It also supports SLI and CrossFireX multi-GPU operation. It also has a PCI Express 3.0 x4 slot connected via the chipset.

Both x16 slots support PCI Express 5.0. Works at x16/- or x8/x8

It has 5 M.2 slots. Four of them are compatible with PCI Express 4.0 x4 and can build a high-speed storage environment (the remaining one is 3.0 x4). In addition, all M.2 slots are equipped with heat sinks, and all thermal pads are double-sided and have a perfect cooling surface.

Equipped with five M.2 slots. Four of them are 4.0 x4 compatible and one is 3.0 x4 compatible. All M.2 slots are equipped with heatsinks. If the thermal pads are attached to both sides of the M.2 SSD, cooling is perfect

The memory supports DDR5, and if there are two single ranks, it supports up to DDR5-6666. DDR5-6666 products are already listed in the list of compatible memory, so it can be said that it is perfect for those who want to use high-speed memory in the future.

Supported memory is DDR5. It works easily even with DDR5-5200 setting by loading the XMP profile. Recommended for those who aim for high clock memory

Let's check other interfaces. The back panel cover is already built in, and the back panel USB is equipped with 1 USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 (Type-C) port, 7 USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports, and 2 USB 2.0 ports. Video output is not provided, so be careful if you want to use the built-in GPU.

As for the network function, the wired LAN has two Intel I225V 2.5G LANs, and the wireless LAN supports Wi-Fi 6 (IEEE802.11ax) with Intel AX211. At 5 GHz (160 MHz), communication at a maximum of 2.4 Gbps is possible. Also supports Bluetooth 5.2.

The back panel cover is an integrated type Wireless LAN is equipped with Intel AX211. A large antenna is also included

For the USB port of the PC case, there are USB pin headers for 1 USB 3.2 Gen2x2 Type-C, 4 USB 3.2 Gen 1, and 4 USB 2.0 ports. ing. Although the mother's eye is drawn to the sharp power supply, it also has the expandability necessary for general use, and is dressed as "a versatile high-end for everyday use."

The audio codec, which has a power button and a reset button on the motherboard, has become a standard since the Z590 generation "Realtek ALC4080". The back panel also has an S/P DIF output

When installing Windows 11, it should be noted that the driver for the wired LAN (Intel I225V), which should be supported by default, is not automatically installed (wireless LAN's Intel AX211 is not included in the Windows 11 standard driver in the first place). Windows 11 Home requires an internet connection for installation, so download the driver from the web in advance using another PC, put it in a USB memory, and load it when installing the OS, or use a network device that operates with the standard driver (USB connection Please note that it is necessary to prepare a wireless LAN cordless handset, etc.