Overclocking

The ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming 9 did a little better than the Taichi I tested a few weeks ago because it would boot at up to 5.3 GHz. However, stability is a lot more than just making it into Windows. Ultimately, the ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming 9 produced the same results as the other two boards I have looked at; 5.1 GHz at 1.380 volts. Still, this board came closer than any other to passing the test at 5.2 GHz, though a few weeks of BIOS updates could account for the difference.


The postcode display on the ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming 9 is well placed for easy problem diagnosis, on the bottom of the board, below the M.2 heatsink. My typical overclocking tests don't even come close to taking advantage of ASRock's built in overclocking hardware "Hyper BCLK".

The ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming 9 proved equally well suited to memory stability. My G.Skill 3866 MHz had no trouble booting with XMP on this board. I am very glad the rock-solid memory compatibility that I have come to expect from ASRock's Taichi boards has carried over on to the Phantom Gaming line.