[PLUS] 16 Mainboards for Core i-12000 in Largest PCGH Mainboard Test Ever

16 boards for 16 cores

As we announced in a previous issue, this month’s biggest PCGH motherboard review awaits you. This is because of changes in testing hardware, testing software, rating systems, and above all, firmware from the manufacturer. So the values ​​and grades measured from the newly tested boards are no longer comparable with the results of previous articles – and these too deviate sharply from the current status quo. So time to start again from scratch.

new hardware and software

The starting point for our innovations is the failure of a memory channel in the original test CPU and after a while the memory bar of the DDR5 kit is no longer used. The latter could have been replaced by a similar module after the same delivery time, and the faulty Core i9-12900K would be replaced by a new processor of the same type anyway. However, even two CPU models of the same model differ slightly in terms of their turbo behavior, their power consumption, and their heat development. In terms of absolute performance, it doesn’t make a big difference, but if there’s a test tool to spot the sometimes subtle differences between processor mainboards, even small shifts become a problem – blame board A because its The system uses 10 watts as much power with factory settings as Circuit Board B, while in fact the built-in processor converts 5 percent more energy, would be unreasonable. So after replacing the processor, we decided to throw all the old measurement results overboard and only accept the new values.

pc games hardware plus