We’ve put together a list of all Z890 motherboard models coming out from Gigabyte, Asus, ASRock, and MSI. For full details about Arrow Lake and Intel’s new Core Ultra 200S series CPUs check out ourprevious coverage. But in a nutshell Z890 is Intel’s new flagship chipset powering the LGA 1851 platform, which comes with updated connectivity features including Thunderbolt 4 support and built-in Wi-Fi 6E.
All four motherboard makers are going the extra mile by adding features beyond what the chipset supports, primarily for higher-tier board models. These additional features include Thunderbolt 5, Wi-Fi 7, 2.5GbE, and Bluetooth 5.4 support. A handful of board models should also come with 10GbE, just like the previous generation of Intel boards. Z890 motherboards also see a drastic improvement in memory frequency support with many supporting memory speeds of 9000MHz or faster.
Beyond connectivity, all the board makers have seemingly refreshed most of their board models from the past generation, adding brand-specific aesthetic touches and new features. Asus for instance, has incorporated a new screwless M.2 mounting solution in its motherboards as well as a new PCIe x16 slot that doesn’t require unlocking the latch to release the GPU from the slot.
Gigabyte
Gigabyte has twelve new Z890 motherboard SKUs featuring a mix of mainstream Gigabyte-branded boards and higher-tier Aorus-branded models. Aorus boards take up most of the Gigabyte Z890 lineup, featuring two E-ATX models, five ATX models, two Micro ATX models, and one Mini-ITX SKU.
For the non-Aorus models, there is one E-ATX board, five ATX boards, and one Micro-ATX variant. General changes for the Z890 series compared to the Z790 series (beyond the obvious updates to the chipset functionality) include the introduction of AI-specific board models, such as the Z890 AI TOP and Aorus Master AI TOP. For the flagship Aorus Xtreme motherboard, Gigabyte has also gone the extra mile and included a full-blown RGB-illuminated DRAM cooler on top. A niche product aimed at improving DRAM temperatures for improved overclocking headroom.
Asus
Asus has 13 Z890 motherboards ready for launch. Featuring ten ATX boards, one Mini-ITX board, and one Micro-ATX board. All of Asus’s main offerings have been refreshed such as the ROG Extreme, Apex, Hero, ROG Strix -E, -F, -I models, and Prime -P, except for the Maximus Gene which is not present.
Asus has purportedly made “sweeping changes” to the BIOS interface for its Z890 motherboards, which now render the UEFI/BIOS at a native 1920 x 1080 Full HD. Most of Asus' boards come with its new PCIe Slot Q-Release which allows you to easily remove a graphic card without releasing the PCIe latch or touching it at all. The same goes for the M.2 slots which are a latched design that doesn’t require a screwdriver for installation. The primary M.2 heatsink gets a screwless Q-Release design too.
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Asus has also debuted an Asus “DriverHub” app for managing driver updates for its boards.
MSI
MSI has nine new Z890 offerings, all in E-ATX or full ATX form factors. Many boards are making a comeback too including the Godlike, Ace, Unify-X, Carbon, Tomahawk and more, all updated with the Z890 chipset, and new features.
MSI says its entire Z890 line-up is capable of running DDR5 memory modules at up to 9200MHz, which is significantly higher than the Z790 series boards which toped out at just under 8000MHz. The Unify-X in particular is capable of going even higher reaching up to 9600MHz.
MSI has also taken a similar approach to Asus in developing new mechanisms for installing/removing graphics cards and M.2 SSDs. EZ PCIe Release and EZ PCIe Clip 2 enable users to quickly and easily remove a GPU. EZ M.2 features allow users to install or remove M.2 SSDs without a screwdriver.
All of MSI’s Z890 boards also have an 8-pin supplemental PCIe power connector designed to power AI computing and GPU heavy tasks. The main purpose of the extra 8-pin is to give the PCIe slot additional power, for power hungry GPUs that can take advantage of more than 75W of power from the main PCIe slot.
ASRock
ASRock has unveiled a plethora of Z890 motherboard model for Arrow Lake’s launch, with 16 SKUs in total. There’s a grand total of 14 ATX models, one Micro ATX model and one ITX model.
One of the most notable changes with Asrock’s Z890 lineup is the Taichi series. Rather than being one or a few models as was the case in past generations, ASRock has turned the Taichi name into a full blown sub-lineup, featuring four models in total. The Taichi Aqua is the flagship board and as the name suggests is compatible with custom loops cooling for cooling the power delivery on the board. The Taichi OCF is the overclocking-specific variant and successor to the ASRock Formula series, and the Taichi Lite is a more budget-friendly version of the vanilla Taichi model.
ASRock has upgraded some of its boards to 10 layer PCBs which purportedly provide more stable signal tracing, delivering lower temperatures and higher energy efficiency. Similar to Asus and MSI, ASRock is also employing a toolless M.2 installation mechanism for better ease of use.
Aaron Klotz is a contributing writer for Tom’s Hardware, covering news related to computer hardware such as CPUs, and graphics cards.
