Overclocking is a largely defunct market segment: no more Asrock OC Formula, Gigabyte SOC, or MSI's Xpower. There is, however, the Asus Maximus XII Apex. These boards were the most overclocking-centric motherboards on the market. If you are interested in benchmarking as a hobby, or simply want to get every possible frame per second out of your games, I suggest you take a closer look at this Z490 motherboard.

Asus' Republic of Gamers series is, as the name suggests, a motherboard series ostensibly aimed at gamers. With a few exceptions, many gaming motherboards are simply boards with a bit of fancy aesthetics.

The same cannot be said for true overclocking motherboards. You need VRMs that are proven to withstand OC with liquid nitrogen, high-quality cooling, sub-zero friendly sensors and controls, and a sophisticated and feature-rich BIOS that has been developed over time. And one obvious visual feature is the dual memory slot design. And it is this area in particular that allows users to push the ultra-fast memory to its fullest potential.

At about $420, the Apex is not a cheap motherboard. We have long considered it almost normal for motherboards to exceed $500, but compared to some flagship boards, the Apex is quite a bargain. In fact, it is only a few dollars more than the lightweight spec Maximus XII Hero.

The Apex is perhaps more practical looking. The heatsinks are thick and heavy, perfect for dealing with the shock of VRMs. As one would expect from a high-end 2020 board, there is a smattering of RGB, but perhaps the most eye-catching feature is the indentation where the SATA ports are located.

Is this unnecessary? However, we will admit that Asus has a bit of flair. Just be sure to install the SATA cable before connecting the GPU. We speak from experience.

VRM can easily destroy the Intel Core i9 10900K; there are 16 stages of 70A power supply and two more for the SoC. Dual 8-pin EPS connectors power all the power supplies. In terms of maximum current capability, the Apex is a bit inferior to some rivals like the MSI Ace and Aorus Extreme. However, that is not a problem. Asus' in-house team, which overclocked the Apex to 7.7 GHz using liquid helium, doesn't seem to think so.

Asus continues to use its own DIMM.2 M.2 drive storage solution. While this does not affect performance, it is ideal for easy installation of SSDs. Many modern motherboards require removal of the GPU and half of the heatsink assembly to access the M.2 slot, which can be cumbersome.

The rear I/O has most of what one would expect from a board of this price. There are many USB ports, WiFi 6, and an Intel i225-V 2.5G LAN for networking. There is also an overclocker friendly PS/2 keyboard and mouse connector. While such a board is unlikely to be used with onboard graphics, a DP or HDMI port would have been a welcome option, albeit useful for only a small percentage of users.

We tested the Maximus XII Apex against other high-end Z490 boards. As expected with modern motherboards, the stock performance is similar and mostly within the margin of error. However, the Apex lives or dies as an overclocking board.

As far as the 10900K sample tested is concerned, the limitation is clearly cooling, as the 360mm NZXT X73, despite being a top-class AIO, quickly runs out of cooling capacity. The sample reaches 5.4GHz on all cores, but the temperature rises to 100°C and throttles instantly under load; the Apex is the only board that can run DDR4-4800 on this 10900K sample without throwing the IMC voltage out of whack. This is a step above the other Z490 boards we tested, none of which recorded 4,800 MHz. If you want the fastest memory, dual DIMMs are the way to go.

Being enthusiasts ourselves, it is easy for us to recommend these boards. However, they are not for everyone. Gamers who are not interested in overclocking and just want to let Intel's Turbo Boost do the work for them will find this board completely unnecessary. If you plan to run your memory at XMP settings, have a decent GPU, and immerse yourself in gaming as is, there are plenty of cheaper boards that will do the job without fuss.

But that's not what this board is about. If you like to explore the internals of your PC and tinker with the PC itself as much as you like to play games, the Maximus XII Apex is for you.

The Apex is a board designed to take full advantage of 10th generation K-series CPUs and the fastest memory, especially when it comes to cooling performance. There is a reason this board ranks high on many overclocking leaderboards. It is the best overclocking motherboard on the market.

Is it necessary? You may not need it, but if you are into memory tweaking, CPU delids, hours of stability testing, and competing on HWBot, the Apex is the best Z490 board on the market.