Intel i9-9900k z370/z390 Question...

ttechf

Senior member
Jun 11, 2012
351
12
81
Hi,

I am going to be eventually buying the Intel i9-9900k processor and was wondering and wanted to make sure and certain that if I chose to, I could buy a cheaper z370 board instead of a z390 one? I've heard a ton of rumors that the new 9th gen processors can be backwards compatible with the z370 motherboards, I just wanted confirmation. Also, will using a z370 motherboard with the i9-9900k affect performance you think? As opposed to buying a new z390 motherboard? Does the z390 motherboard give better draw of power or something?

Thanks for any insight!
 

UsandThem

Elite Member
May 4, 2000
16,068
7,380
146
Based on how previous new CPU releases, I'd be surprised the Z370 motherboards (unless they had newest BIOS updates) would be able to work with the new CPUs. I haven't seen anything concrete about this, but just based on how new CPU releases worked in the past.

As far as the Z390 being "better", you would just have to look at an article like the Anandtech motherboard overview article, and see if any of the differences mattered for your use. As far as power delivery, a good Z370 motherboard would be just like a good Z390 motherboard. Both series have entry-level, mid-range, and high-end choices.

https://www.anandtech.com/show/13407/intel-z390-motherboard-overview-every-motherboard-analyzed
 

LTC8K6

Lifer
Mar 10, 2004
28,520
1,575
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It will be less hassle to buy a Z390 board that already recognizes the new chips.

It's very likely that a Z370 will need a BIOS upgrade, and that can be hard to do on most boards if you don't already have a CPU to use.
 

vailr

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
5,365
54
91
Look at the manufacturer's motherboard support page, checking for the file date of the bios update.
One example: the Gigabyte Z370 AORUS Gaming 7 board included "Update CPU microcode for upcoming CPU" dated 17 July.
https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/Z370-AORUS-Gaming-7-rev-10#support-dl-bios
So: after about 3 months, there's a good chance that a board purchased today would have the latest bios, depending on the turnover rate for any particular vendor. Newegg or Amazon would probably tend to have greater inventory turnover than most others.
Some Asus motherboards include the ability to flash update the bios firmware without any CPU present in the CPU socket. A USB thumb drive is prepared with the bios update file on it, and then a special button is pressed on the back panel to accomplish the flash procedure.