ASUS Z590-Plus TUF Gaming Review

Pricing and Conclusion

Any time there is a new product launch we all, regardless of current system, get that itch to do some retail therapy. Suddenly the system that we were perfectly happy with yesterday seems like it’s been consigned to the history books and is missing all those elements which we cannot live without. It’s just the nature of the beast. No matter what your hobby the need for the latest and greatest can be all-consuming.

With the launch of the Rocket Lake 11th Generation of Intel Processors and the Z590 Chipset bringing PCI Express 4.0 to the Intel platform for the first time, you could be forgiven if you start checking your bank balance. If, like your erstwhile writer, your bank balance is measured in double figures then an affordable product would be the perfect solution to this need for the new platform without having to eat nothing but beans on toast for the next year. The ASUS Z590-Plus TUF fills that hole in your life perfectly, being the only one of the six Z590 motherboards we’re reviewing today whose price starts with a 2 instead of a 3. Better than that, it rocks up just under £245. If you saw some of the prices of the AMD X570 motherboards, or even most of the others that we’re reviewing today, that price tag is extremely attractive. 

Available to purchase here: https://geni.us/TUF_Z590

  

Naturally when a motherboard costs this little there have been some compromises made to achieve such an affordable price point, but the TUF still brings all of the important technologies to the party. There is a single PCI Express 4.0 slot, which for anyone on a budget is enough because a single GPU is the way we all roll. There are three M.2 NVMe slots with two of them being PCI Express 3.0 but the main one is PCI Express 4.0. Again, if you’re building to a budget then chances are you can’t afford more than one PCIe 4.0 M.2 drive anyway. If you want a platform to build a gaming system around then the ASUS Z590-Plus TUF is all the motherboard you actually need.

Clearly to get down to this price point some elements aren’t quite as good as the other Z590s we’re reviewing today. We’re never keen on vertical SATA ports, there are only two USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A ports and one USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 Type-C, and the aesthetics are utilitarian at best. Throughout our performance results it was, generally, at the lower end of the graphs although it is always worth bearing in mind the actual numbers involved where even the worst isn’t all that far behind the best. The Z590 is nothing if not consistent. However, these are all areas that you understand will be what you have to put up with when you’re getting a product significantly cheaper than the competition.

If you’re the type of person who primarily games and wants a platform they can put a 11th Gen Core i5-10600K into along with a good GPU and just get on with the business of gaming then the ASUS Z590-Plus TUF is the most affordable entry point and wins our OC3D Gamers Choice Award.

  

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