Best Intel 13th Gen motherboards in 2023 – best gaming, Z690 and overall

The ROG Strix line of Asus is one of the top-tier models of its famous motherboards. Since the ROG Maximus Z790-Extreme went end of life, the Z790 Hero is the next best offering for us.

These are boards built especially for overclocking, marketed toward enthusiast gamers. Starting with its personalization features, the Hero gives users the opportunity to be unique by synchronizing lighting and the overall look of the rig across components via AURA sync RGB.

It’s a Z790-based board, so you can expect native Raptor Lake support, plus top-of-the-line features, including: such as AI overclocking, Extensive Gen 5.0 compatibility (PCIe 5.0 x16 slots, and 5x M2 slots), 10 GigE port, WIFI6E, plus a powerful 20+1 VRM power stage setup with power connectors.

If you intend on heavy overclocking and high-end gaming, this beast should go with. Although set at a relatively high price, these motherboards wield an extremely high standard and build quality. The Maximus Z790 Hero holds more than enough reasons to place it at the top of the best Intel 13th Gen motherboards.

And its cheaper than the Extreme was too!

Not all gamers are looking for overclocking features. If you’re a gamer looking for the best motherboard for your out-of-the-box Raptor Lake processor, but don’t want to keep spending exorbitant amounts on components, or just want to save some bucks for a new Nvidia RTX 4090, Gigabyte’s got you covered.

The Aorus range was Gigabyte’s way of punching into the big leagues. It was with this line it reached back onto the top as the market was being dominated by other brands, Asus and MSI. Now, Gigabyte keeps making hits with its Aorus Elite AX models.

This motherboard features a twin 16+1+2 digital VRM design up to 70A smart power stage, a 6-layer 2x copper PCB, and PCIe 5.0 ready Mid-loss PCB. The Aorus Elite ensures you won’t be short on bandwidth or storage thanks to its incredible specs. 

The Z790 motherboard can’t directly compete with high-end offerings but it’s definitely the best mid-range Z790 component on the market. If you want to enjoy almost all the qualities of high-end gaming in tandem with an impeccable look, while at the same time not breaking the bank, you should consider the Aorus Elite AX. There’s not a single video game you won’t be able to comfortably play more than with this powering your Intel 13th Gen processors.

Much akin to how gamers like to sit and play their games without any breaks, overclockers will spend the whole time trying to break through the limits of power on their various components. The Aorus Z690 Tachyon is the pinnacle of PC overclocking. It has a specialized VRM design and built-in switches to enable swift overclocking potentials.

The best part about the Tachyon, of course, is that Intel 13th Gen CPUs can run beautifully on this board. If you’re not ready to upgrade to a Z790 mobo just yet, you can safely pick this one up and garner unimaginable performance limits in computing without overspending.

The Tachyon VRM design features Dual 8-pin CPU power connectors and 15 Vcore phases at a 105A power stage. Furthermore, the Gigabyte design uses full Tantalum polymer capacitors for a better transient response and stability. According to Gigabyte, this design can offer up to 30% lower voltage spikes compared to its predecessor.

Let’s face it, you already spent a fortune on your brand-new Raptor Lake CPU, and you most likely picked up an RTX 4090 GPU, as well. Now, you just want to put these sweet components to good use without yet another wallet-burning component. If that’s the case, you should go with the ASRock Z690 Extreme. This motherboard will allow you to squeeze the best out of your CPU and GPU while you save up for a new Z790 board.

Back in 2021, the Z690 Extreme succeeded in all the benchmarks it was subjected to. Although it showed to have some problems in multi-threaded workloads, it performs incredibly in gaming environments and light single-threaded tasks. It’s a low-priced board that is still well-equipped. The ASRock Z690 Extreme WiFi has three M2 sockets, 8 SATA ports, a 13 Phase (10+1+2, 105A SPS MOSFETs for Vcore), and DDR5 6400 with 64GB capacity DIMM slots. 

If we compared this one with the new Z790 motherboards, it’ll obviously fall short. However, if we match it up with its peers, the ASRock board outperforms many of its rivals. Like we said in the beginning, this is a great component to pair alongside a new 13th Gen processor without spending too much money.

The ASUS Prime is a motherboard that offers a simple and reliable design, while still ensuring clean power delivery with its 16 + 1 DrMOS power stage design. It is not specifically made for overclocking, but it can still allow the CPU to reach its maximum boost speed without any problems.

The Prime supports DDR5 memory up to DDR5 7000MHz, which is slightly lower than what other motherboards offer. However, it is important to consider the competitive price point of the ASUS Prime.

The ASUS Prime also supports PCIe Gen 5, as expected from a Z790 motherboard. PCIe Gen 5 is available on one PCIe x16 GPU slot. However, the M.2 SSD slots do not offer PCIe Gen 5 support. It still includes all the essential features that an average PC gamer would require, such as USB ports, USB type-C ports, audio connections, DisplayPort, and 2.5GB/s Ethernet. These connectivity options ensure seamless integration with a variety of peripherals and provide ample networking capabilities.