Overclocking

Alright, so 5 GHz on a single core is great, and 4.9 GHz on all cores is pretty good too, but what is the new 9000 series really capable of? Obviously, every unit overclocks a little differently, and I can't say that the MEG Z390 GODLIKE will definitively get the most out of my sample, but I expect that it will do as well as any other board on the market. Between the robust VRM design and excellent BIOS, this board is a pleasure to overclock on. Generally, to expedite the writing process and give each board as close a test as possible, I manually set a Vcore voltage and then increase the multiplier until the system becomes unstable. I typically use 1.35 V for my tests as that is high enough to put out decent numbers but low enough that the results could still apply to an everyday user. For this CPU sample, I will be using 1.385 V for my manual overclocking results. My i9 booted at up to 5.3 GHz on all cores, but crashed when tested; ultimately, 5.1 GHz was my highest stable clock.


I have teased that this board goes to eleven, and that's not just metaphoric. The MEG Z390 GODLIKE comes with a Game Boost dial that has pre-programmed overclocking profiles attached to each setting. While most designers would make the dial go from zero to ten, MSI decided to add a little style by taking their Game Boost to eleven (literally). This dial, which is physically present on the board and also adjustable via the BIOS, applies different clock profiles on the fly. The physical dial can be changed with the system powered down or even before the system is built. So if you are like me and can't resist messing with a dial when examining a board, be sure it is set to zero before booting for the first time. Like with all pre-configured overclocking tools, Game Boost from MSI does not guarantee that every CPU will be stable at higher clocks. My i9-9900K was not able to get anywhere near eleven, which offers up to 5.7 GHz single core boost. Two was stable for me, and four would boot, but any higher and my i9-9900K just couldn't do it. I think that an overclocking dial is a neat feature, but would highly recommend configuring your overclock manually to ensure best efficiency and component longevity.

As for the RAM, the MEG Z390 GODLIKE offers an abundance of overclocking options, standard XMP included. I was not able to boot with the XMP profile active for my 3866 MHz G.SKILL kit, which was a bit of a disappointment. It is too early to judge the MEG Z390 GODLIKE by this metric, however, as this kit is notoriously temperamental (which makes it a great test kit) and this new CPU may not be able to achieve that 3866 MHz on any board. I was able to boot and test at 3733 MHz, which is really quite good. The MEG Z390 GODLIKE has a very easy-to-navigate BIOS and narrow enough memory dividers that you can really fine-tune your clocks.

Overall, my overclocking experience on the MEG Z390 GODLIKE was excellent, and I didn't even scratch the surface of what this board would be capable of in the hands of a true expert.