After more than four years, I decided it was time to upgrade my PC. I usually upgrade while my current setup still holds value, allowing me to sell it and offset the cost of the new build. Last time, I went with an Asus ROG motherboard—a top-tier option—because the price difference between high-end and mid-range models was minimal. This time, however, the TUF series offers similar features at a much lower price, making it the better choice for me. Going for the top-tier option would have cost me twice as much, which I found unnecessary.
This upgrade is a solid four-generation leap, promising around 30% better performance for my workloads.
I built my new PC using the Asus TUF GAMING Z790-PLUS WIFI motherboard. Since Asus boards often reset or recommend resetting settings after a BIOS update, I wanted to document my preferred configuration to make future setups easier.
BIOS Configuration
Press F7 to enter Advanced Mode:
- Ai Tweaker (optimize RAM performance):
- AI Overclock Tuner -> [XMP I]
- DRAM Frequency -> [DDR5-6000 30-36-36-80-1.40V] (your values may differ)
- Advanced:
- Platform Misc Configuration (power management settings):
- PCI Express Native Power Management -> [Enabled]
- Native ASPM -> [Auto]
- CPU Configuration (virtualization optimizations):
- Intel (VMX) Virtualization Technology -> [Enabled]
- System Agent (SA) Configuration:
- VT-d -> [Enabled]
- PCI Subsystem Settings:
- SR-IOV Support -> [Enabled]
- APM Configuration:
- ErP Ready -> [Enable(S4+S5)]
- Onboard Devices Configuration:
- HD Audio -> [Enabled]
- Intel LAN Controller -> [Disabled] (I don’t use it)
- USB power delivery in Soft Off state (S5) -> [Disabled] (prevents mouse lighting when shut down)
- LED lighting (disable motherboard lighting when shut down):
- When system is in sleep, hibernate, or soft off states -> [Stealth Mode]
- Platform Misc Configuration (power management settings):
- Monitor:
- Q-Fan Configuration:
- CPU Fan Q-Fan Control -> [PWM Mode] (recommended by Arctic Liquid Freezer III)
- CPU Fan Profile -> [Silent] (my preference)
- AIO Pump Q-Fan Control -> [PWM Mode]
- AIO Pump Profile -> [Silent]
- Q-Fan Configuration:
- Boot:
- Boot Configuration:
- Fast Boot -> [Disabled] (improves dual-boot Linux/Windows setups)
- POST Delay Time -> [1 sec]
- Setup Mode -> [Advanced Mode] (defaults to Advanced Mode)
- Boot Configuration:
- Tool:
- Download & install ARMOURY CRATE app -> [Disabled]
- ReSize BAR -> [ON]
Over-Clocking/Undervolting
Warning
Overclocking or undervolting might damage your CPU! Do it at your own risk!
Intel’s 14th generation of CPUs has faced criticism regarding energy efficiency and stability, with some reports suggesting issues with durability after a few months of usage. Intel has stated multiple times that these issues have been addressed… Were they? 1
The CPU’s temperature can jump within a second to over 80°C for a single core and within 3-5 seconds for the entire package. Despite using AIO cooling, the CPU can still reach 87-90°C during Cinebench R23 tests. Single-core results are not significantly better. Each core operates at frequencies ranging from 800 MHz to 5300 MHz. I observed that when running processes utilizing 2-4 cores (not all cores), the scheduler frequently moves the workload between cores. Context switches are computationally expensive, and each time a process is moved, it lands on a less “stressed” core with a lower frequency, requiring time to ramp up. This results in temperatures rising to 60-70°C before the scheduler moves the workload again, ultimately degrading single-core performance. Another concerning behavior observed in CPU-Z is that, even when idle, the CPU voltage frequently spikes to 1.3V or higher, often reaching around 1.4V under light loads. This behavior appears unnecessary and resembles issues reported with i9 variants, where voltage spikes occur exactly during idle conditions.
I first tried to overclock the CPU (just for sport), but the results were negligible, and the CPU was reaching 100°C in a moment. This is where undervolting came into play. I tried it and was surprised by the results:
- CPU reaching max 67°C, even during prolonged load.
- Fans silent all the time.
- Around 120W package load, with default limits set to 181W.
- Single core performance, around the same.
- Around 5% lower all core performance.
Interestingly, in some scenarios, single-core workloads performed better than on default settings. For example, when running the SuperPI benchmark with 1M, it finished 1 second faster, and the 2M test completed 3–4 seconds faster! This improvement can be attributed to undervolting, which reduces thermal throttling and stabilizes core frequencies. By maintaining a stable frequency of 5.1–5.3 GHz, the CPU avoided frequent context switches caused by thermal spikes, allowing the workload to execute more efficiently without interruptions.
I’ve got nice results with those settings:
- AI Tweaker:
- DIGI+ VRM:
- CPU Load-line Calibration -> [Level 4:Recommended for OC]
- Internal CPU Power Management:
- IA VA Voltage Limit -> [1300]
- Global Core SVID Voltage -> [Adaptive Mode]
- Offset Mode Sign -> [-]
- Offset Voltage -> [0.05]
- Cache SVID Voltage -> [Adaptive Mode]
- Offset Mode Sign -> [-]
- Offset Voltage -> [0.02]
- DIGI+ VRM:
They run CPU in really cool temps, even when transcoding videos or running all core workloads. But with those settings CPU rarely reach 5.3 GHz on performance cores.
I bumped IA VA Voltage Limit to 1350 and Global Core SVID Voltage to 0.07 to reach it. Now it can run at 5.3GHz. It works nice with silent setting for AIO. Only rarely I can hear soft tone of fans, but for that it require a long run under the load.
Hardware Installation Considerations
This motherboard, like my previous one, has a quirk: the first NVMe socket (M.2_1) uses the CPU’s PCIe lanes. If you install your main drive there, it reduces the first PCIe slot’s bandwidth to 8x. To avoid this, I use the M.2_3 socket at the bottom, which utilizes chipset lanes and doesn’t throttle the GPU’s PCIe slot.
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