Asus lists its Z690 motherboards before the EEC, most have DDR4 memory slots

Less and less is missing for the launch of Alder Lake-S and the new LGA 1700 motherboards that will accompany these processors, and preparing for this, Asus listed its first Z690 motherboards for their corresponding validation before the EEC, revealing a lot of information about what expect from their line based on this chipset.

These are all the Z690 motherboards listed by the EEC company:

• ROG MAXIMUS Z690 EXTREME (DDR5)
• ROG MAXIMUS Z690 FORMULA (DDR5)
• ROG MAXIMUS Z690 HERO (DDR5)
• ProART Z690-CREATOR 10G (DDR5)
• ROG STRIX Z690-A GAMING D4 (DDR4)
• ROG STRIX Z690-E GAMING D4 (DDR4)
• ROG STRIX Z690-F GAMING D4 (DDR4)
• TUF GAMING Z690-PLUS D4 (DDR4)
• PRIME Z690-A (DDR5)
• PRIME Z690-A D4 (DDR4)
• PRIME Z690M-PLUS D4 (DDR4)
• PRIME Z690-P (DDR5)
• PRIME Z690-P D4 (DDR4)
• PRIME Z690-V (DDR5)
• PRIME Z690-V D4 (DDR4)
• PRIME Z690-V-SI-D4 (DDR5)

The first thing that caught our attention is that most of Asus’ Z690 motherboards will support DDR4 memory instead of DDR5. The entire STRIX line will use DDR4, and a large part of the Prime line will also use it, while the top of the range line, the Maximus line, will use DDR5 memory in all its models, and there will also be several models of the Prime line with support. to DDR5. This is something that is surprising since most Z690 motherboards were expected to use DDR5, and support for DDR4 is left for the lower chipsets like H670, B660 and H610, something that did not end up happening at least in the case of Asus. .

Another interesting aspect is that Asus changed the nomenclature of its Maximus line, leaving aside the numbering in Roman numerals and directly placing the chipset in its name for easier identification by users.

It will be interesting to see what the strategies of the other manufacturers are regarding what type of memory to use in their different lines, and to see if they end up opting for DDR5 in most of the models, or they go the way of Asus and launch most of their models with DDR4 support.

What do you think about this decision by Asus regarding its Z690 motherboards? Is it okay that you have chosen to place DDR4 modules instead of DDR5 in most of your models?