The BIOS on this board sports everything from high resolution fonts to the latest version of ASUS’s hardware monitoring and fan control functionality. Tweaking multiplier, voltages, and timings for virtually everything is supported, and there are AI-enabled auto-overclocking modes available too, though we had limited success with the Core i9-11900K.Īs you would expect, the ASUS ROG Maximus XIII Hero has a modern, mouse-friendly BIOS / UEFI interface that’s labeled well and easy to navigate. The fan controls on the board are quite robust and ASUS has put in additional effort to ease configuration, by offering an array of auto-tuning options and presets that can be saved to individual profiles.
The ASUS ROG Maximus XIII Hero is compatible with the Intel XTU performance tuning utility, but the UEFI is outfitted with all of the overclocker-friendly tools ASUS is known for, should you want to tinker the old-fashioned way. The board is outfitted with an all-digital, 16-stage (14+2) PWM rated for up to 90amps as well, for optimal power efficiency and consistently clean power delivery to the processor, RAM, and add-in cards. The ASUS ROG Maximus XIII Hero also features high-end capacitors and chokes throughout its design to ensure reliable operation over the long-haul, as well as smooth power delivery and clean audio. The ASUS ROG Maximus XIII Hero includes things like a pre-mounted IO shield, addressable LED / Lighting headers, M.2 heatsinks, digital power circuitry, high-end audio, and customizable RGB lighting, to name but a few. This ASUS board targets hardcore-enthusiasts, and has a ton of features, over and above what’s offered by the Intel Z590 chipset itself. To test the new Intel 11th Gen Core processors, we got our hands on the Z590-based ASUS ROG Maximus XIII Hero motherboard. The ASUS ROG Maximus XIII Hero Motherboard We'll have more on frequencies (and temps and power) a little later. CPU-Z was also able to identify and label the fastest two cores of the Core i9-11900K (highlighted in red), but no such feature was enabled on the Core i5. The Core i9-11900K idled at a similar frequency, but single-core boost typically hit ~5.1GHz and all-core boost about ~5GHz. The Core i5 idled at only ~800MHz, with a single-core boost to ~4.9GHz and all-core boost to ~4.6GHz. With intel Adaptive Boost enabled (in a system with a Corsair RM1000 PSU and Corsair H80i v2 AIO cooler), we monitored frequencies on the Core i5-11600K and Core i9-11900K under various conditions (idle, 1-core loaded, and all-cores loaded). (We have tables posted on the last page of this article detailing all of the Turbo / Boost modes available with all 11th Gen Core processors).Ĭore i5-11600K Clocks - Idle, 1-Core Loaded, All-Cores LoadedĬore i9-11900K Clocks - Idle, 1-Core Loaded, All-Cores Loaded Turbo Boost 3.0 and Thermal Velocity Boost are not enabled on the Core i5 and lower-end processors. The Core i5-11600K has a base clock of 3.9GHz with and all-core Turbo of 4.6GHz and Turbo Boost 2.0 frequency of 4.9GHz. Things are bit clearer with the 11th Gen Core i5. Factor in Adaptive Boost as well - which is available on Core i9 K and KF processors - and multi-core boosts may creep higher, temperature and power permitting.
With Turbo Boost 2.0, the CPU can boost up to 5.1GHz, Turbo Boost 3.0 up to 5.2GHz, and with Thermal Velocity Boost, single cores can boost up to 5.3GHz, with an all-core boost of 4.8GHz. The Core i9-11900K has a base clock of 3.5GHz, with an all-core Turbo frequency of 4.7GHz. Defining the clock speeds with these processors is much more difficult, however, due all of the various boost modes available - at least with the Core i9s. Underneath that heat-spreader, the Core i9-11900K features a monolithic, 8-core (16-thread) die that’s being manufactured on Intel’s 14nm++ process (the Core i5-11600K has only 6 cores / 12-threads).
From the top, there’s not much to see that's all that different from the previous-gen, save for the specific branding and model number information.
CPU Z REVIEWS SERIES
Physically, 11th Gen Intel Core series processors look much like their previous-gen counterparts - they fit into the same sockets, and work with all of the same coolers.