Asus TUF Gaming Z590-Plus Wi-Fi
Not everyone needs an ROG or Strix board.
The Asus TUF Gaming Z590-Plus Wi-Fi is Asus’ entry level gaming board. It slots in below the high-end ROG and mid-level Strix series. The focus of TUF products has shifted away from the earliest military themed Sabretooth branded boards complete with extended warranties to a more budget gaming tier today. Though the reliability aspect remains, it seems to be more of an aesthetic these days. The TUF Gaming Plus is positioned as simplified and affordable option for a mainstream gamer.
The TUF Z590 Plus features a fairly simplistic design with minimal RGB and the trademark TUF splash of yellow. You get three M.2 slots with the topmost one supporting PCIe 4.0. There are six SATA ports. Four of them are vertically oriented which may not appeal to all. There are no real surprises with the layout and the white fonts add a small touch of class to the overall look.
The TUF Gaming has a decent but not spectacular 14+2 phase DrMOS power delivery system. There are 4 and 8-pin power connectors plus heatsinks that perform well. A stress test returned a VRM temperature of just 60 degrees which surprised us. We expected higher. This is probably due to the fact that the Asus was quite power thrifty, returning the lowest power consumption reading under both default and Adaptive Boost loads. So, while the VRM is perfectly adequate, it’s not a board you’d really want to smash out hour after hour of AVX512 rendering.
The rear I/O is on the basic side. We are happy to see a USB Type-C 2x2 port, otherwise there are no surprises. You also get two USB 3.2 Gen2, two 3.1 Gen1 and two 2.0 ports. Seven USB ports in this day and age is the bare minimum, though in fairness you can add more via case headers. Wi-Fi 6 (not 6E) and 2.5G Ethernet will be adequate for a typical gaming system. A budget Realtek S1200A codec takes care of the audio duties. You also get DP and HDMI ports. It’s better to have them as an option rather than not.
Performance can be tricky to analyse on boards that can play fast and loose with power management. Tiny margins don’t matter a lot at the best of times but it’s important to remember that the Asus consumed some 30w less than the other boards with AB on. We’re happy to give away a percent or two here or there for the sake of a significant power consumption reduction. Asus likely tunes its BIOS in order to protect its VRM from too much punishment. After all, this is a reliability themed board.
The $379 the Asus TUF comes in towards the mid-lower end of the Z590 range. If you went for a true entry level Z590 board, we probably wouldn’t feel comfortable pushing an 11900K with it. The Asus can and that adds a great deal of peace of mind. What does a gamer, as opposed to a PC enthusiast really need? It’s got Wi-Fi 6, 2.5G LAN and support for the fastest PCIe 4.0 SSDs. Setting it and forgetting it, out of sight and mind is how a lot of users run their system. And that will suit this board. It’s got the essentials, good bang for buck and it should be a safe and reliable option.