Verdict and Conclusion
When Intel launched the Z790 chipset supporting their latest 13th Gen processors, I was like meh. It featured the same technologies as found on their previous generation Z690 chipset, such as the support for PCIE 5.0 for next-gen graphics card, PCIE Gen5x4 for SSDs and DDR5 ram. So nothing spectaular or special. The only difference is the support for their new 13th Gen core processors, which to my surprise, proved to be a winner in terms of both performance and price.
However having said that, most Z790 motherboards on the market are pretty expensive (even previous generation Z690 motherboards are holding their price). This could be partly due to chip shortages and supply chain issues. Whatever the reason, it doesn’t negate the fact that these new Z790 boards were just out of reach for most mainstream users and people who are on a budget.
To cater for this market, Intel have now release the B760 chipset. A more budget friendly chipset that’s perfect for the mainstream users. Previously, as I’ve explained earlier, the main difference between the enthusiast grade Z790 chipset and the B760, is the number of available PCIE 4 lanes. The Z790 has up to 20 PCIE 4.0 lanes and support more USB 3.2 ports, while the B760 has a total of 10 PCIE 4.0 lanes and less USB 3.2 ports. But as far as performance is concerned, there shouldn’t be much difference.
Now say hello to the ASRock B760M PG Sonic WiFi motherboard. It’s one of the first motherboard we’ve tested featuring Intel’s mainstream B670 chipset, and what a surprise in deed. ASRock have teamed up with Sega and taken this chipset, to produce a gaming motherboard featuring Sonic the Hedgehog design. Wow! It’s definately an eye-opener for sure!
The motherboard features a robust 12+1+1 Phase Power Design, and SPS for VCore+GT that’s rated up to 50A, which provides plenty stability for the motherboard. To help cool the VRMs/Mosfets and chipset, you’ll find several really cool-looking heatsinks featuring Sonic the Hedgehog design, and a unique hologram showing the iconic golden ring on the I/O hood.
The DDR5 DIMM slots features the same steel reinforcements as found on ASRock’s other motherboards. It can support memory speeds of up to DDR5-6800 (up to DDR5-7200+ OC). The PCIE 5.0 x16 slots support all the latest next-gen graphics card and feature surface mount technology, which gives it better strength and stability. Nice!
During our tests, we used an Intel 13th Gen Core i9-13900K processor and a GeForce RTX 3090 graphics card. We managed to pull some pretty good dscores in all of our benchmarks, including a Cinebench R23 scores of 22,768 (multi core) and 2,154 (single core). For PCMark 10, we got a score of 9,574, and a score of 11,567 for PassMark9.
For UL’s Procyon Photo Editing Benchmark, we got a score of 11,020 and 8,865 for the video editing suite. For 3DMark Speed Way and Port Royal, we got a score of 5,153 and 12,812 respectively. And finally, for Timespy and Firestrike, we got decent scores of 19,136 and 38,100 respectively.
For storage, you get a total of 4 x SATA ports, and 3 x Hyper M.2 (PCIe Gen4x4) slots. And as far connectivity is concerned, you get the Dragon 2.5G LAN, and WiFi 6E + Bluetooth 5.0 via the M.2 Key-E addon module. Sadly, there’s no support for PCIE Gen5x4 SSDs.
And if you want USB … there’s plenty. You get 2 x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C (1 Rear, 1 Front), 1 x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A (Rear), 6 x USB 3.2 Gen1 (4 Rear, 2 Front), and 6 x USB 2.0 (2 Rear, 4 Front). All USB ports support ESD Protection.
And finally, the board comes with the usual Realtek 7.1 HD Nahmic audio and ASRock’s Polychome Sync, which is perfect for RGB lovers. You’ll also find plenty of RGB headers on the motherboard including 2 x 3-pin ARGB (5V) headers located near the top right side of the motherboard, and 1 x 3-pin ARGB (5V) header, as well as1 x 4-pin RGB (12V) near the bottom right side of the board.
There’s no price available for the ASRock B760M PG Sonic WiFi motherboard just yet, but expect to pay around USD $250. You can buy something similar – the ASRock Z790 PG SONIC motherboard for around USD $369 from Amazon – https://amzn.to/3WnhAOs
Pros:
- Great design – Sonic the Hedgehog theme
- Decent performance
- Intel B760 chipset
- Supports Intel 13th Gen Core processor (Raptor Lake)
- Supports PCIE 5.0 x16 for GPU
- Supports DDR5-6800 (up to DDR-7200+ O.C.)
- Dragon 2.5G LAN
- WiFi 6e support
Cons:
- No support for PCIE Gen5x4 SSDs
Final Words:
The ASRock B760M PG Sonic WiFi motherboard offers decent performance and features, all thanks to Intel’s B760 chipset. It looks stunning with its unique design, and is perfect for modders and mainstream users, as well as gamers who love Sonic the Hedgehog.
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- ASRock Z790 PG SONIC Motherboard Review
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- ASRock B760M PG SONIC WiFi Motherboard Review
- ASRock Z790 Steel Legend WiFi Motherboard Review
- ASRock B650 PRO RS Motherboard Review
- ASRock B650E Taichi Motherboard Review
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2 comments
Your Cinebench R23 multicore score is way to low. A 13600K will get the same result. A 13900K will score around 40000.
May better monitore hwinfo64 while running benchmarks. May xou need to raise the powerlimit as the 125W PL1 is far too low.
Or the board did some clock stretching, you can try to change LLC level or lower vcore (fixed or offset) and check again the benchmarks.
This is a bug too and will lower the benchmark score as well.
Low score, low temperature…
Our benchmarks are based on “Default” BIOS settings to give an idea of how it performs with no tweaks or tuning… we leave that up to the individual user.