Photos show DDR4 and DDR5 variants of ASUS Z690 motherboards
ASUS is going to release DDR4 and DDR5 variants of Prime motherboards with the Intel Z690 chipset. This is evident from photos that have been put online. In the Prime series appear four motherboards with DDR5 memory slots and six DDR4 variants.
The upcoming Intel Alder Lake processors are the first consumer CPUs with DDR5 support, but the new memory will probably be considerably more expensive than DDR4. The processors are also compatible with that memory type and it seems that manufacturers will initially release Z690 motherboards in DDR4 and DDR5 versions. VideoCardz has posted pictures online of several ASUS motherboards that show this.
It concerns ten motherboards from the ASUS Prime series. Those are mid-range motherboards. Registrations previously showed that there will also be Z690 variants with DDR4 and DDR5 in the ROG Strix series. It is the first time that the new motherboards are on display. Versions for DDR4 memory have the designation D4 in the name. The DDR5 versions do not have an additional designation in the name.
| ATX | 4x DDR5 | 4 / 0 / 2 | 3 | – |
| ATX | 4x DDR4 | 4 / 0 / 2 | 3 | – |
| ATX | 4x DDR5 | 4 / 0 / 2 | 3 | Wi-Fi 6 card |
| ATX | 4x DDR4 | 4 / 0 / 2 | 3 | Wi-Fi 6 card |
| ATX | 4x DDR5 | Nnb | Nnb | – |
| ATX | 4x DDR4 | Nnb | Nnb | – |
| ATX | 4x DDR5 | Nnb | Nnb | – |
| ATX | 4x DDR4 | Nnb | Nnb | – |
| ATX | 4x DDR4 | Nnb | Nnb | For system builders |
| Micro ATX | 4x DDR4 | 2 / 0 / 2 | 3 | Mini-PCIe slot |
The DDR4 and DDR5 variants of the motherboards look pretty much the same. The memory slots are the same size, but the design and layout of the memory slot pins is different on the DDR5 boards. The Z690 motherboards in the Prime series are also very similar to the Z590 variants, notes VideoCardz. The connections have remained the same and the components on the board are almost identical. The Z690 boards get the new LGA1700 socket for Intel’s Alder Lake processors.