Starting with the top half of the board, we get a closer look at the large heatpipe-connected heatsinks to cool the power delivery. On top, the MSI dragon RGBs are saturated and colorful, while not being too bright and overwhelming. The board gives off a glow that lights up the inside of your case, but does not make it the center of attention. Just above the heatsinks, we spot two 8-pin EPS power connectors (one required) to power the processor. As with the 2D benchmark results we saw previously, the gaming benchmarks were similar regardless of the settings. However, it does appear that the same updates did help in some of our game titles, specifically Far Cry6, where the 12900K got a 20 FPS increase since we first started testing in November. 1440p Gaming Benchmarks Our memory tests show that the different RAM generations make little difference in the CPU and FPU tests aside from Photoworx, which appears to get a significant boost from the extra bandwidth. The DDR5 also had an advantage in the memory benchmark with increased bandwidth but sacrificed latency by nearly 30 ns compared to the EDGE. Looking at the two DDR4 options, the MPG Z690 EDGE pulled ahead in most tests, but the gains are marginal. Real-World Tests Cinebench, Corona, and 7Zip Benchmarks Cinebench R11.5/R15, POVRay, x265 (HWBot), 7Zip – Raw Data Enhanced Power Design: Direct 18+1+1 phases power, dual 8-pin CPU power connectors, Core Boost, Memory Boost For PCIe, we have three full-length PCIe x16 slots, of which only the top one is x16 electrically; we have supplied a bandwidth breakdown in the table below. The top full-length PCIe slot features MSI’s PCI Express Steel Armor technology for added strength with reinforced, heavy solder points and EMI shielding for signal integrity. The upper slot (from CPU) will run in PCIe Gen 5.0 mode, and the two lower full-length PCIe slots (from PCH) are Gen 3.0×4. We also have a single PCIex3 slot for supporting add-in cards.

Lightning Fast Game experience: PCIe 5.0 slots, Lightning Gen 4 x4 M.2, Front & Rear USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 20G.Above the DRAM slots are 4-pin fan headers and RGB headers. In this location, there are CPU_FAN1 and PUMP_FAN1 headers, plus six others on the board for a total of eight. All headers support both PWM and DC-controlled fans. CPU_FAN1 defaults to auto control and outputs up to 2A/24W. PUMP_FAN1 defaults to PWM mode and outputs up to 3A/36W, while the SYS_FAN1-6 headers default to DC mode and output 1A/12W. There are plenty of headers and power to support your cooling ecosystem through the board. You can control the fans through the BIOS as well as MSI’s Center software.

On the memory side, the EDGE did well running DDR4 3600 at a 1:1 IMC gear ratio without any extra tweaking in the BIOS and performed slightly better than the Valkyrie. We were also able to run DDR4 4000 MHz Cl17-17-17 1:1 by manually setting the Gear Ratio. The memory ran stable through an AIDA64 memory test and also required no additional tweaking in the BIOS as the EDGE set adequate System Agent voltage on its own. Performance-wise our tests show that it’s more than capable of keeping up with the big boys and even surpassing them in some tests (Procyon Office). Gaming performance was also on par with the other tested boards, so i performs well across a wide variety of applications, even when using the power-hungry i9-12900K. Although during the stress test it thermally throttled (like most others), it otherwise handled the benchmarks we threw at it well. I would also like to note the odd results in WPrime 1024. Since we first started testing the new Alder Lake CPUs, the WPrime 1024 results seemed a bit off now with some updates, and they’re more in line with what we were expecting. Gaming TestsThe Z690 EDGE DDR4 has three full-length PCIe slots; only the upper slot has MSI’s PCIe Steel Armor for added strength and signal clarity. The upper slot is also connected directly to the CPU, getting the total bandwidth of PCIe Gen 5.0 x 16 for 128 GB/s. The remaining full-length slots get bandwidth from the chipset with a maximum PCIe 3.0 x4 speeds. They have also included a single PCIe 3.0 x1 slot for appropriate add-in cards. Lightning Fast Game experience: PCIe 5.0 slots, Lightning Gen 4 x4 M.2, Dual Front USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 20G.

Next-generation hardware scheduler; adding support for these advanced scheduling capabilities will require Microsoft to add support for them to x86-64 Windows. Starting on the bottom left side, we see a full exposed audio section with the Realtek ALC4080 codec. Of the comparable (similarly priced DDR4) boards, this Edge board and the Gigabyte Aero G are the only ones that use a current-generation solution. While this isn’t a big deal as the ALC1220 codec sounds good too, it’s great to see it implemented on a board focused more on the budget side of things. Along with the codec, we spy an audio separation line to keep the audio bits away from the rest of the board (EMI mitigation), and several Chemicon-branded dedicated audio caps. Starting at the left is a large shroud covering the I/O. Unlike most, this shroud is part of the aluminum heatsink with access beneath for the RGB LEDs that illuminate the MSI Gaming dragon. We also have a smaller heat sink for the upper VRM connected via a heat pipe with the “MPG” series embossed on it. Using USB 3.2 devices has never been faster! MPG Z690 series motherboards offer a wide variety of options to connect and boost your USB devices, offering never before seen USB speeds up to 20Gb/s when connecting the Rear USB Type-C. DDR5 is available, as is the most recent Intel Z690 chipset, which has been tuned for it as well. We've tried the platform, and while my overall impression is positive, I believe that DDR5 might have been launched a bit too early and too soon. The MSI MPG Z690 Edge Wi-Fi DDR4 motherboard is up for review today, and it's a good one. Yes, you read it correctly: a Z690 platform with the most up-to-date memory interface is being introduced. In addition to meeting the requirement for a new platform, this one retains DDR4 capability at its core.

MPG Z690 EDGE WIFI DDR4

On the audio side, MSI chose the Realtek 7.1 channel High Definition ALC4080 processor, which is relatively new introduced in 2020. With MSI’s Audio Boost 5, we also have PCB optimizations such as an isolated audio section to eliminate EMI, separate layers on the board for left and right audio channels, and premium Japanese-made Nippon Chemicon audio capacitors. The most expensive chipset for motherboards of course is the Z690 chipset, which is the highest-end model released first. The CPU has 16 (or 2 times 8 PCIe 5.0 lanes), which can be used for graphics or storage, in addition to four NVME 4.0 lanes. What was previously said appears to be correct; the chipset has 12 times gen4 and 16 times gen3 processors. Additional features include support for two DIMMs per memory channel and dual-channel DDR4-3200 or DDR5-4800 with two DIMMs per memory channel.

Several headers are placed across the bottom, including USB and SATA ports, RGB, etc. Below is a complete list of all the headers across the bottom of the board: Next to the flash button are two USB 2.0 ports for your mouse and keyboard and the video-out options for CPUs with integrated graphics capabilities. The EDGE has one Display Port 1.4 with HBR3 (High Bit Rate 3) with a maximum resolution of 4K 60Hz. We also have an HDMI 2.1 port with HDR (High Dynamic Range) with a maximum resolution of 4K 60Hz. Moving to the right is the Z690 chipset covered by a good-sized heatsink that sports the EDGE logo six SATA 6 Gb/s ports. Only four of the SATA 6 Gb/s get bandwidth from the PCH and support RAID functionality. The upper two ports labeled “A” and “B” are driven by an ASMedia ASM1061 controller.MPG Z690 EDGE WIFI DDR4 / DDR4 3200 32GB (2x16GB) / 500P Mid-Tower Case / 750 Watt PSU / M.2 SSD 1TB A full Alder Lake-S will processor can include 8 Golden Cove cores and 8 Gracemont cores. It will be manufactured utilizing Intel's Intel 7 technology, which was previously known as the Intel 10 nm Enhanced SuperFin process. As previously stated, Alder Lake-S will have 8 Golden Cove cores, which are high-performance cores, and 8 Gracemont cores, which are high-efficiency cores. Due to the fact that Gracemont cores do not support Hyper-Threading (HT), Alder Lake-S will only be able to provide 16 cores and 24 threads, which is the same as the i9-12900K configuration. Z690 is the enthusiast chipset from Intel, and this motherboard is powered by it. It also marks the dawn of a new era; Intel's Alder lake processors are a wholly new and faster architecture. We have written a lot about it. The new processors will have energy and performance cores to balance power consumption in idle and load conditions. With the Alder lake platform, new features are brought to the table. DDR5 and PCIe Express 5.0 are among the first-ever for intel products. Quintuple M.2 Connectors: Onboard 5x M.2 connectors for the maximum storage performance with quad Lightning Gen 4 solution. Double-sided Shield Frozr design keeps M.2 SSDs safe while preventing throttling, making them run faster. This board breaks from the typical Z690 motherboard on the networking front and offers only a single Intel I225-V 2.5 Gbs port. We also have Intel Wi-Fi6 / Bluetooth 5.2 wireless connectivity out of the box with an included Wi-Fi antenna that connects at the rear I/O shield.