[Hardware] Gigabyte Z690 Tachyon Review: Born to Overclock

[Agent47]

 

 

Motherboards get segmented and marketed to specific groups, like gamers or professionals. But each major board partner also has a board dedicated to getting the most out of overclocking. Any of these boards aimed at a specific niche can usually do at least an adequate job as a more general-purpose board as well. That brings us to Gigabyte’s Z690 Tachyon, which is designed to handle the rigors of extreme overclocking, but is also surprisingly well-rounded for more typical computing needs. This overclocking-centered board includes all of the basic specifications of the Z690 platform and features an extreme overclocker will love for $549.99.

The Tachyon has all you’d expect in a Z690 motherboard. There are a total of four M.2 sockets (but none are PCIe 5.0), premium audio, plenty of USB ports (including USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 ports), overbuilt power delivery, along with built-in overclocking buttons and switches to help speed enthusiasts get the most out of their platform. Compared to the Z590 version, the new model sports similar styling and layout. There’s one less PCIe slot, one more M.2 socket, and much-improved VRMs to help support extreme overclocking of Intel’s 12th Gen Alder Lake processors.

Performance using the Z690 Tachyon was slightly above average overall, with most benchmarks running as fast or faster than on other boards. We saw some of the fastest results in our new Blender benchmark, Cinebench R23, Procyon Office, and more. Power consumption was, surprisingly, slightly better than most, while gaming performance was spot on compared to others. The only result slower than average was the Procyon Video editing test. In our testing, almost all motherboards from Gigabyte sit around this same middling score in that benchmark. In all, the Tachyon is one of the faster Z690 boards we’ve tested out of the box.
Below, we’ll look more closely the latest Tachyon’s features, including all of the overclocking goodies, software and performance, to see if this $550 motherboard is worth the expense and perhaps a place on our best motherboards list. But first, here’s a detailed list of the Z690 Tachyon’s specs, direct from Gigabyte.
Inside the box, along with the motherboard, Gigabyte includes your standard fare of accessories including SATA cables, Wi-Fi antenna, and more. Curiously, a driver disk/USB stick is missing, but you can download them from the website. Below is a complete list of the included extras.

(4) SATA cables
(2) Temperature probes
RGB extension cable
(3) M.2 screws
Wi-Fi Antenna
Microphone
G-connector
Stickers/case badge
Rear IO plate
Installation manual