In this article, we have an experiment of the H610 vs Z690 Motherboard featuring the latest and fastest CPU, Intel Core-i9 12900K.
PC gamers often think buying a high-end GPU will provide excellent fps numbers for their games, but that’s not true. You might often face GPU bottleneck issues, mainly because of the CPU where the FPS stays at a certain level and does not go beyond that. Once you have upgraded the CPU, you will see that your bottleneck is gone. But that doesn’t end here.
Well, the answer is no, simply not. If you are now guessing that we will talk about boosting CPU and GPU, then you are wrong again. The smooth and high-end gaming performance also depends on the Motherboard you choose. Yes, you are reading right. A premium or high-end gaming motherboard can significantly impact your PC Gaming performance.
To check out the reality of this fact, we experimented with two Intel version motherboards, H610 vs Z690 Motherboard. We used one of the cheapest H610 and a higher, more costly motherboard, Z690, to see the real difference. Both the motherboards are based on the Intel 12th Generation platform. We used the latest and fastest gen Core-i9 12900K with Nvidia GTX 3090 GPU to ensure we are not leaving any stones unturned.
So without further delay, let’s check out the H610 vs Z690 Motherboard Gaming performance difference when paired with an Intel Core i9 12900K.
H610 vs Z690 Motherboard -Specs
Here are the full specifications of these two motherboards
| Motherboard Features | Z690 | H610 |
| Intel CPU Compatibility | 12th Gen Core | 12th Gen Core |
| CPU Overclocking Support | Yes | No |
| Memory Overclocking Support | Yes | No |
| Intel Integrated Graphics Support | Yes | Yes |
| Max Numbers of Displays Supported | 4 | 3 |
| CPU PCI Express 5.0 Lane Support | 1×16 / 2×8 | 1×16 |
| CPU PCI Express 4.0 Lane Support | 1×4 | 0 |
| Chipset PCI Express 4.0 Lanes | 12 | 0 |
| Chipset PCI Express 3.0 Lanes | 16 | 12 |
| DMI 4.0 Lanes | x8 | x4 |
| Memory Generation | DDR4 & DDR5 | DDR4 & DDR5 |
| Memory Channels | 2 | 2 |
| Max Memory Slots | 4 | 2 |
| Max Numbers of SATA 6.0 Gb/s | 8 | 4 |
| RAID Support | PCIe / SATA | None |
| RAID Modes | 0,1,5,10 | n/a |
| Max Numbers of USB Ports (total) | 14 | 10 |
| Max USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 Ports (20Gbps) | 4 | 0 |
| Max USB 3.2 Gen 2×1 Ports (10Gbps) | 10 | 2 |
| Max USB 3.2 Gen 1×1 Ports (5Gbps) | 10 | 4 |
| Max USB 2.0 Ports | 14 | 10 |
| Integrated Wi-Fi | Wi-Fi 6E | Wi-Fi 6E |
| Thermal Design Power (TDP) | 6W | 6W |
ALSO READ – GTX 1630 4GB vs GTX 1650 4GB
H610 vs Z690 Motherboard Experiment System Details
Here are the details of the PC system parts that we used for the H610 vs Z690 Motherboard Benchmark
| CPU | Intel Core-9 12900k Processor |
| Motherboard | ASRock H610M DDR4 Motherboard MSI PRO Z690-A DDR4 Motherboard |
| RAM | G.SKILL TridentZ RGB Series 32GB 288-Pin PC RAM DDR4 3600 MHz |
| Storage | 2 x SAMSUNG 970 EVO M.2 NVMe 1TB |
| PSU | Corsair RM 850W |
| CPU Cooler | Corsair iCUE H150i Cooler |
| GPU | Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 24GB |
| Cabinet | Coolermaster HAF 700 EVO |
| Operating System | Windows 10 Pro 64bit |
| Game Settings | 1080p High Settings |
ALSO READ – 16GB DDR5 vs 32GB DDR4
H610 vs Z690 Motherboard – Gaming Benchmark
Here are the details of the H610 vs Z690 Motherboard Gaming Benchmark Chart List
| Game Name | H610 Motherboard | Z690 Motherboard |
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 145 fps avg | 162 fps avg |
| Hitman 3 | 172 fps avg | 194 fps avg |
| Red Dead Redemption 2 | 144 fps avg | 152 fps avg |
| Forza Horizon 5 | 243 fps avg | 258 fps avg |
| PUBG | 262 fps avg | 290 fps avg |
| Days Gone | 209 fps avg | 225 fps avg |
| Microsoft Flight Simulator | 112 fps avg | 127 fps avg |
| The Witcher 3 | 236 fps avg | 276 fps avg |
From the above H610 vs Z690 Motherboard Gaming Benchmark chart list, we can see a good increment in the numbers of FPS in different games. One of the most optimized games in the PC Game Industry, The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt, delivers more than 40FPS when the system uses Premium and high-end Z690 Motherboard over cheap quality H610 motherboard. In all games, we can see that the Z690 has delivered approximately more than 25-30fps in every game.
So definitely, the CPU, GPU performance and FPS factors also depend on which Motherboard you choose. The Motherboard does not boost your CPU or GPU but lets the GPU, CPU, and RAM fully utilizes the resources to get the maximum performance. Thus, your system’s essential gaming hardware parts get unlocked and perform without restriction.
So this was all about H610 vs Z690 Motherboard Gaming Benchmark. If you think we missed out on anything, let us know in the comments down below.
That’s all, Folks!
Alapan, Editor at Xombied and Techuda, is a biomechanical Engineer education-wise. But he wanted to go ahead with his life and pursue his career as both Gaming and Tech Reviewer. He is occasionally invited to host, plan and execute Gaming events with multiple brands. Apart from gaming, he loves playing guitar and singing along to the music.