tps3443

I think it’s a 2021 model sold as a 2022 lol. The 2022 Apex boards received major updates to the dimm soldering, traces, and cpu pins apparently. (Some said the 2022 was over re-engineered) so the 2022 Apex’s were just killer boards. Unfortunately not that many out there in the wild. The Apex is an already exclusive product! Always sold out.

I have never had this issue that he is describing. I have tested over 10+ 13th gen i9 chips K/KF/KS, numerous remounts and every one could run 7200+ XMP with tuned timings right out of the gate on my Z690 Unify-X motherboard. But I do think there could be some potential weak socket pin issues going on. When I first installed my KS in to the Asus it threw a code 55 lol. I think maybe just the Z690 Apex is heavily inadequate. I thought DDR5 7000 was good, until I went and tuned the timings up. Then I quickly discovered it’s not. It would probably need to run like DDR5 6400 C36 to be happy. What a terrible motherboard. You really think If I went bending up pins I’d have better memory overclocking though?

I get excited over any new AAA/FPS games. Lol. Something new to look at, new graphics settings to tweak. And a new story.

I feel like I’d be better off getting the Z690 Apex on hwbot which does DDR5 8200+ for $300 it’s missing all of the covers and heat sinks and accessories. Which I have a perfect donor for all of that 🙂

Good news is. I have filed a warranty claim for the Asus Z690 Apex. The S/N was right on the back of the motherboard. This is definitely a 2021 model from the looks of it. I’m wondering will the replacement be better? Is Asus even going to say this is a problem? Hopefully they don’t throw in some slow DDR5 6000 c36 and test it. This seems like its a real problem to me. My Unify-X will do so much better than this thing. EDIT: Board just failed at DDR5 7000 lol. My goodness.

It has these three stickers on it. EDIT: memory seems to be stable at 7,000Mhz.

It doesn’t have any sort of S/N stickers on the board it’s self. The seller just said “The box is 2021, but the board is a 2022 replacement they sent me” no S/N stickers anywhere on the actual board though.

It’s definitely the motherboard. It errors out in the Aida 64 memory test. Which is a fairly weak memory stability test already 🤦‍♂️. Even just XMP 7200 ultra loose timings low tREFI. I even bumped all supporting memory voltages IMC/VDDQ TX/ SA by a good unrealistic amount that would even be needed. It’s gonna be a no go on this one. I feel like this is not a 2022 Apex, and some one got me. Because if it was it would run 7800+ easily. Some can even do 8200-8800 performing equally as good as their Z790 Apex bigger brothers. (Luck of the board lottery of course if hitting 8000+ DDR5) The MSI Unify-X Z690 is kicking this thing straight in the pants!

I’m trying so hard to make this Z690 Apex work for me… And I just can’t find the reason. I cannot stabilize anything with it! Power usage at 6Ghz and temps to even get through R23 are absolutely stupid. I don’t get it.. I can barely manage 5.9-6.0Ghz stability on this thing, and it can’t even run games stable. I spend all of my hours of the day inside the bios tuning around my tail and back again. Then I’m still on the same unstable system haha! The board is beautiful! And It also has really nice features. But I’m done with it.

It’s always cat and mouse with AMD and Intel. I’m really loving my Intel chips though (Both of them K and KS. Especially being able to run frequencies of 6.4Ghz on (4) cores is just ridiculous. 2500 in R23 single. 🤯

@Mr. Fox Just go buy a random retail KS (Maybe from like BestBuy). Not even kidding. I know some people are funny over SP rating and hold it as high as god lol. Let me tell ya this first!! My 13900KS is an SP104 Global lol. P-SP114, E-SP86. Low SP that I was not expecting at all! Chip is a straight monster though… I have personally tested over 10+ chips. There are plenty of crappy 13900K/KF out in the wild. I have ran some my self and literally laughed. Chips that needed 1.350+ volts for 5.7Ghz. My (SP104) 13900KS will do 6.0P/4.6E/5.1R with 1.305V in the bios and it’s solid as a rock. Not to mention run reliably with 6.4Ghz on (4) cores. (Good luck with that with a stack of random 13900K chips. 6.1P/4.8E/5.1R is also Battlefield 2042 stable. (Very tough to do) I could actually feel the slightly weaker E-cores on the KS. Even with the mere -2 lower E-Core SP. It is minor, but there. The P-Cores are just entirely different. Anyways, I already raved about how great this KS is on my Unity-X. And yeah lol. It’s an SP104. I am guessing this is all chips. (1) Buy a KS (2) Open the box (3) Delid it Don't even check SP. This chip holds stability very well with really high wattage up past 420+ or so. And that is something difficult with a K/KF. They prefer that SUB 360 watts for stability, and most of them cannot stay inside of that with 6-6.1Ghz Intel is clearly testing them and seeing how they do, and they are selling some good chips as KS examples. This KS is just slightly better than my SP110 13900K. And I’m stoked with its performance. I just tested a SP117 13900KS which was just slightly better than my SP104 13900KS.

I’m just struggling to get any CPU Overclock stable on this Apex motherboard at all. I can get them Cinebench stable, but that’s not exactly what I’m after. I’m trying to play a game (The Last of Us) PC release, and it does this shader compiling in first launch that uses tons of power on the cpu 300+ watts, and if it’s not stable it crashes. I’m limited to about DDR5 7400 on the memory. I did manage to get inside windows at 7800 (That was very very difficult to do) But definitely not stable. I can actually run my Unify-X at DDR5 8000 and game lol. Or shader compile (The last of Us at 6.1Ghz with my Unify-X I feel like the board is just crap… I like the OC of the EVGA and MSI bios. Set Pcore, set Ecore, set ring. Disable load line or set some heavy duty LLC! Enter cpu voltage and go! Im gonna keep messing with it, but I’m leaning towards selling it or use as SP work horse only, but it struggles to even do that right lol, probably going back to my MSI Unify-X. I hate the Apex…Wow, glad I got that off my chest. The Unity-X is a stability BEAST! This thing? 🤞🤣

I’m really missing the MSI Unify-X… I may go back. I’m not really loving this bios, like at all.

What sort of drawbacks with the Dimm2? Does it effect memory overclocking?

Will do, 13900KS is running pretty well, I have updated the bios and firmware on my Z690 Apex, but my SP reading is still glitched. I’m thinking I’ve got to re-seat the cpu, pull battery, etc (I assume this will fix it, but I’m annoyed I’ve gotta do all of this). When I pull the cpu, it’ll be to put the 13900K back in to see its updated SP rating and test on this Z690 Apex. The voltage delivery on this motherboard is really amazing though, I will say that. Asus has that stuff down to a science. I was extremely disappointed when I removed the covers on this Apex to find a measly (2) whole M.2 slots … Like seriously? (2)?!!! That was literally going to be a deal breaker for me and I was gonna box it, and put it in the closet. Because I have several M.2’s. And I like to use them all. Fortunately!!! Saving grace came through! The board included a brand-new ROG Dimm2 that holds an M.2 on each side, and slots in to a look-a-like memory slot right beside the DDR5 dimms. It also included another PCI-e x4 M.2 5.0 to add another. I also switched my main OS to Windows 11 Spectre which is stripped down and very very fast!

This was from a different seller. There was a Z690 Apex on Hwbot missing the covers/heat sinks/box/accessories. Just a bare board for $300 and however much to ship to the USA from another country. This one came in retail packaging though for $270 shipped, it has all of the accessories, heatsinks, covers, box, M.2 ram slot card, and a PCI-e 5.0 M.2 card, and everything else that’s included with one.

I’m so surprised by this $270 dollar in total Apex Z690 right now! The RGB’s on the I/O seem to be broken I believe, unless they are just turned off somewhere. 🤷‍♂️ no big deal. How it runs a CPU default with the vid’s and load cpu vcore is just impressive though! It’s just really really efficient and does a fantastic job with voltages! I’m shocked seeing this. Many people sell these boards and claim they‘re 2022 models. So, I’m not 100% sure what this thing is. But it’s working great I know that. I was told it’s a 2022, but how do I even know that for sure? It was a replacement and the box does not match. I doused the dimm slots in 100% alcohol and brushed them and the entire board for that matter this was done before even mounting it up. I will get in to some overclocking here shortly. I did run XMP 7200c34 no problems and ran some games for a bit to check stability. So, It is stable and working at 7200 at least, will try to actually see what it can do foreal!

So! Good news my Z690 Apex booted right up with XMP 7200 maxed out tREFI. Yay!! Going to keep tuning with it, so far so good! Now to just learn this bios. My P-SP is like 194 yeah I knew this thing was a beast dog. (joking) I know it’s definitely glitched 😂

This is 6.0P/4.5E/5.1R with 15C-17C water and the chip is consuming 1.288V under load. This is with 1.300V in the bios. This is really impressive for just some random 13900KS. Just KILLER! This chip is great!!!

This new 13900KS is really a nice darn chip! Batch# X252N653. Runs similar to my 13900K across the board only this 13900KS uses -0.040V to -0.050V less voltage at any frequency. Not as good as that last 13900KS lol. But definitely half way there! This chip is really great though! I’ll find out the SP rating when my Z690 Apex arrives. It sits comfortably between my 13900K (SP110) and that really nice 13900KS (SP117) I tested. This chip is probably an SP112-SP115 if I had to guess. It uses just a little more voltage over that SP117 13900KS about +0.045V more at 6.1Ghz. I was quite surprised to see it was even better than my 13900K. I’m not sure if this is just dumb luck or what.

The Z690 Apex was $699.99 new. Asus ROG boards really hold their value believe it or not (I know this is silly, but it’s really one of the few PC products that does). Too much so actually lol. A good Z690 Apex that is a 2022 model is worth $450-$500 bucks used easily if you can find one. If it’s brand new, then honestly it’s worth $550-$625 because you cannot even find a brand new Z790 Apex anywhere, they are always sold out at $699.99 + Taxes. So you’ve gotta deal with scalpers. Which keep the market prices high on these boards. Clean used Asus ROG boards with all accessories in great shape fetch a premium close to what they costed when brand new. I know some had their issues, but the 2022 models resolved all of that. And they really are the best “all around” motherboards you can buy. All motherboards have their fair share of problems. I have owned (3) generations of EVGA Dark motherboards. While re-sale value on these is very poor, they had minimal surface level issues, and ran rock solid for the most part.

I think $270 is normal or fair. This is a last gen chipset motherboard Z690 Apex, and it’s used definitely not worth $800 even brand new (Maybe $500). They also had a lot of issues with the memory dimm slots. So most of the 2021 built Z690 Apex boards had poor memory overclocking. This was fixed on some boards through warranty, but definitely 100% good to go on the models built in 2022 or later. So when people buy a Z690 Asus board Hero/Apex/Formula they want it to be a 2022+ model just to certain it’s good due to this memory issue they all had.

There is not supposed to be a catch with it, just a good deal I suppose. I did put up a “Wanted add” and I had a few people respond to it. The seller apparently is buying a Z790 Apex and he is using the funds towards that. Now that I think about it. I have never owned an Asus ROG motherboard in my life... But the board is only used for SP testing. It better be solid as a rock in order to replace my trusty Unify-X, because this MSI board has been just incredible. It really gave me a new found respect for MSI.

I just bought an Asus Z690 Apex 2022 from a guy for $270.00 shipped! It has all of the covers and accessories, and he’s in the USA! 😀😀😀 Freaking awesome!!! And my 13900KS showed up. And also an SP113 global (13900K) for testing. It has a higher P-SP and E-SP than my 13900K.

Thanks! He PM’ed me back. Yeah he must be very busy. He said he’s gotta use the board in a competition or something then he can send it off.