ASUS ROG Z690 Maximus Extreme Motherboard Review

The ASUS ROG Z690 Maximus Extreme motherboard offers a top-end hardware platform at half the cost of the Glacial. Let's explore.

Published
Updated
Manufacturer: ASUS
6 minutes & 20 seconds read time
TweakTown's Rating: 94%
TweakTown award

The Bottom Line

The ASUS ROG Z690 Maximus Extreme is a full featured hardware platform for gamers looking to take their Intel 12th Gen experience to the highest level!

Pros

  • + Big discount over Glacial
  • + Performance
  • + 10Gbe
  • + Thunderbolt 4
  • + PCIe Gen5

Cons

  • - Still expensive

Introduction, Specifications, and Pricing

ASUS ROG Z690 Maximus Extreme Motherboard Review 01

With Intel's 13th Gen launch window fast approaching, we are down to our last few 600 series motherboards in the lab. While we do know the upcoming Raptor Lake CPUs are said to work with Z690 and B660 motherboards, it will be interesting to see where the new run of 700 series boards land in comparison.

Over the years, one of the more popular motherboard platforms has been the top-end ROG Maximus Extreme from ASUS, going to the end of the earth to offer the best available hardware for gamers wanting the best in every category. That said, we have had its water-blocked counterpart in house already, so it will be interesting to see if any performance gains are to be had from the much more expensive "Glacial" model.

As for hardware, the two boards are identical. 600 series platforms supporting 12th Gen CPUs. The Maximus Extreme is a DDR5 platform that supports the low-end 4800MHz kits as a base, with the high-end being 6400MHz with an OC, max capacity is 128GB over four slots.

The expansion includes two PCIe 5.0 slots, with the split being x16 if using one slot and x8x8 if utilizing both. A third slot is available, too, an x1 slot offering PCIe Gen3 connectivity. For storage, this board has five m.2 slots; the top slot support Gen5, and the rest on Gen4. We do also have SATA III for legacy devices.

Connectivity includes Thunderbolt 4 and USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 for high throughput applications, and this board has seven USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports alongside 10Gbe from Marvell and 2.5Gbe via Intel. Wi-Fi is the AX211 6e chipset, again from Intel.

Pricing

As for pricing, even the standard Maximus Extreme will set you back a pretty penny, as its MSRP sits at $1099.99.

Buy at Amazon

ASUS ROG Z690 Maximus Extreme Motherboard

TodayYesterday7 days ago30 days ago
$366.88$1099.99$1099.99
* Prices last scanned on 3/27/2024 at 3:13 pm CDT - prices may not be accurate, click links above for the latest price. We may earn an affiliate commission.

Packaging, Accessories, and Overview

Packaging and Accessories

ASUS ROG Z690 Maximus Extreme Motherboard Review 05

ASUS has given the Extreme the ROG black and red treatment. The box does offer a few details, including chipset and CPU support alongside DDR5 and WiFi6e.

ASUS ROG Z690 Maximus Extreme Motherboard Review 06

On the back, we have features listed off to the right and specs below.

ASUS ROG Z690 Maximus Extreme Motherboard Review 07

The delivery scope includes a Wi-Fi antenna and SATA cables, the DIMM.2 module, and the ROG fan controller.

ROG Z690 Maximus Extreme Overview

ASUS ROG Z690 Maximus Extreme Motherboard Review 08

The Extreme is an eATX platform taking up another inch of real estate inside your chassis. The board is covered with "Armor" and a large heat pipe connecting all three VRM heat sinks and the chipset.

ASUS ROG Z690 Maximus Extreme Motherboard Review 09

On the back of the board, we do have armor as well.

ASUS ROG Z690 Maximus Extreme Motherboard Review 10

Rear I/O includes HDMI at the top along with USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports in red. We have a 20Gbps USB 3.2 port next to the Thunderbolt 4 port, and along the top edge are the 10GBE and 2.5GBE ports. At the bottom, we have audio with gold-plated connectors and Wi-Fi.

ASUS ROG Z690 Maximus Extreme Motherboard Review 11

The board layout starts with the headers for audio and ARGB lighting.

ASUS ROG Z690 Maximus Extreme Motherboard Review 12

Further down, we run into the USB 2.0 headers and several BIOS switches.

ASUS ROG Z690 Maximus Extreme Motherboard Review 13

Along the edge, we have the SATA connectors, two USB 3.2 headers, and USB-C.

ASUS ROG Z690 Maximus Extreme Motherboard Review 14

Getting to the top of the board, we have 6-pin additional power and 24-pin mains.

ASUS ROG Z690 Maximus Extreme Motherboard Review 15

Across the top, we have voltage measuring points and a host of fan headers.

ASUS ROG Z690 Maximus Extreme Motherboard Review 16

Rounding this out, we have two 8-pin CPU power connections.

UEFI, Software and Test System

UEFI

ASUS ROG Z690 Maximus Extreme Motherboard Review 20ASUS ROG Z690 Maximus Extreme Motherboard Review 21
ASUS ROG Z690 Maximus Extreme Motherboard Review 22ASUS ROG Z690 Maximus Extreme Motherboard Review 23
ASUS ROG Z690 Maximus Extreme Motherboard Review 24ASUS ROG Z690 Maximus Extreme Motherboard Review 25

This BIOS should look familiar to anyone that has used a ROG platform in the last few generations. For the 12th Gen, we have CPU information in the right panel and BIOS info in the center.

Extreme Tweaker includes current CPU and memory clocks at the top, tuning for both below. The Advanced menu contains options for SATA storage, PCH, Thunderbolt, and NVMe. CPU config includes the ability to enable/disable cores, including E cores and P cores, separately.

Monitoring is included alongside fan control, while the tool menu allows you to control RGB and Secure Erase storage devices.

Motherboard Software

ASUS ROG Z690 Maximus Extreme Motherboard Review 30

ASUS offers the software above for tuning your CPU and memory within Windows with features like AI overclocking.

ASUS ROG Z690 Maximus Extreme Motherboard Review 31

Users also can manually tune within the software.

ASUS ROG Z690 Maximus Extreme Motherboard Review 32

In manual tune mode, E cores and P cores are separated, and you can control the multiplier accordingly.

ASUS ROG Z690 Maximus Extreme Motherboard Review 33

Additionally, you can control the power output of the VRM.

Motherboard Testing Supporters

ASUS ROG Z690 Maximus Extreme Motherboard Review 36

Sabrent supports our storage testing with the Rocket 4 Plus.

TweakTown Intel Motherboard Test System

Cinebench R23 and AIDA64

Cinebench R23

Cinebench is a long-standing render benchmark that has been heavily relied upon by both Intel and AMD to highlight their newest platforms during unveils. The benchmark has two tests, a single-core workload that will utilize one thread or 1T. There is also a multi-threaded test that uses all threads or nT of a tested CPU.

ASUS ROG Z690 Maximus Extreme Motherboard Review 40

Starting our testing, the Extreme landed a fantastic 2009 score from a single thread workload.

ASUS ROG Z690 Maximus Extreme Motherboard Review 41

nT showed 27781.

AIDA64 Memory

AIDA was recently updated to version 6.6, which improved performance in both AES and SHA3 workloads for Alder Lake CPUs. You will notice this performance jump in the charts below compared to any earlier Z690 reviews.

ASUS ROG Z690 Maximus Extreme Motherboard Review 42

In AES, we picked up 207785 for the Extreme.

ASUS ROG Z690 Maximus Extreme Motherboard Review 43

SHA3 tapped in at 6036, on par with past boards.

ASUS ROG Z690 Maximus Extreme Motherboard Review 44

Memory throughput was perfect, on par with other X690 platforms. Read landed at 81K, followed by write at 77k, and copy at 79k.

UL Procyon, 3DMark, and CrossMark Benchmarks

UL Procyon Suite

The UL Procyon Office Productivity Benchmark uses Microsoft Office apps to measure PC performance for office productivity work.

The Photo Editing benchmark uses Adobe® Lightroom® to import, process, and modify a selection of images. In the second part of the test, multiple edits and layer effects are applied to a photograph in Adobe® Photoshop®.

The Video editing benchmark uses Adobe® Premiere® Pro to export video project files to common formats. Each video project includes various edits, adjustments, and effects. The benchmark score is based on the time taken to export the videos.

ASUS ROG Z690 Maximus Extreme Motherboard Review 46

UL Procyon is new to our testing, which offers us the ability for more real-world testing in motherboard reviews. The Extreme gave us 8289 for Office, 7534 for Photo, and 2967 for Video.

CrossMark

ASUS ROG Z690 Maximus Extreme Motherboard Review 45

Crossmark scored 2320, slightly above the working average for Z690.

3DMark

ASUS ROG Z690 Maximus Extreme Motherboard Review 47

The Maximus did well with CPU profile, 16-threads giving us a score of 10872.

ASUS ROG Z690 Maximus Extreme Motherboard Review 48

Timespy showed the Extreme running on par with other platforms, scoring 927 from the integrated graphics.

ASUS ROG Z690 Maximus Extreme Motherboard Review 49

Firestrike, like Timespy, shows performance on par with other Z690 motherboards at 2759.

Storage Benchmarks and Final Thoughts

3DMark Storage Benchmarks

UL's newest 3DMark SSD Gaming Test is the most comprehensive SSD gaming test ever devised. We consider it to be superior to testing against games themselves because, as a trace, it is much more consistent than variations that will occur between runs on the actual game itself. This test is, in fact, the same as running the actual game, just without the inconsistencies inherent to application testing.

In short, we believe that this is the world's best way to test an SSDs gaming prowess and accurately compare it against competing SSDs. The 3DMark SSD Gaming Test measures and scores the following:

  • Loading Battlefield V from launch to the main menu.
  • Loading Call of Duty Black Ops 4 from launch to the main menu.
  • Loading Overwatch from launch to the main menu.
  • Recording a 1080p gameplay video at 60 FPS with OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) while playing Overwatch.
  • Installing The Outer Worlds from the Epic Games Launcher.
  • Saving game progress in The Outer Worlds.
  • Copying the Steam folder for Counter-Strike Global Offensive from an external SSD to the system drive.
ASUS ROG Z690 Maximus Extreme Motherboard Review 50

Storage for the Extreme gave us a score of 568 MB/s, making it one of the better boards in this category.

Final Thoughts

Even with the cost of the Maximus Extreme being half of its Glacial counterpart, these boards are downright expensive still. That said, like the Glacial, the standard Maximus Extreme packs in some of the best hardware I've ever seen on a motherboard, including 10Gbe, Thunderbolt 4, and PCIe Gen5 support on more than one slot. It's also one of the few platforms to allow Gen5 for m.2, ready for whoever can provide the first drives to market.

In testing, this variant of the Extreme was within 2% of the Glacial in every scenario we ran. R23 numbers were identical in single thread operations and within a few in multi. The same can be said for CrossMark and CPU Profile, and the storage benchmark in 3DMark ran just as well on this standard model, scoring 568 MB/s.

Software too is identical and equally good as is the BIOS/EFI, offering plenty of configuration options and tools to update the BIOS, clean your NVMe and test your memory.

At the end of the day, this board sacrifices only the additional cooling from the full board water block on the Glacial but produces identical performance at a $900 discount. Along with this comes a fantastic aesthetic nearly blacked out with minimal RGB.

Photo of product for sale

Performance

95%

Quality

95%

Features

95%

Value

90%

Overall

94%

The Bottom Line

The ASUS ROG Z690 Maximus Extreme is a full featured hardware platform for gamers looking to take their Intel 12th Gen experience to the highest level!

TweakTown award
94%

ASUS ROG Z690 Maximus Extreme Motherboard

TodayYesterday7 days ago30 days ago
$366.88$1099.99$1099.99
* Prices last scanned on 3/27/2024 at 3:13 pm CDT - prices may not be accurate, click links above for the latest price. We may earn an affiliate commission.

Tyler joined the TweakTown team in 2013 and has since reviewed 100s of new techy items. Growing up in a small farm town, tech wasn't around, unless it was in a tractor. At an early age, Tyler's parents brought home their first PC. Tyler was hooked and learned what it meant to format a HDD, spending many nights reinstalling Windows 95. Tyler's love and enthusiast nature always kept his PC nearby. Eager to get deeper into tech, he started reviewing.

Newsletter Subscription
We openly invite the companies who provide us with review samples / who are mentioned or discussed to express their opinion. If any company representative wishes to respond, we will publish the response here. Please contact us if you wish to respond.