that the APEX is perhaps just a slightly
larger Gene (I was of this mind when
the announcement of this board was
made). This VRM power phase design
is naturally more capable than the one
featured on the Gene. If it makes any
difference at all to CPU overclocking,
I couldn’t tell. What I can say however
is that this upgraded power phase can
only help your overclocking, especially
given just how power hungry the Core
i9 9900K can be at high frequencies.
Compared to its direct predecessor,
the MAXIMUS X APEX, what we have
here is a minor bump in feature
set and even where overclocking is
concerned these boards deliver similar
overclocking with the 8700K and
8086K. It is only with the 9900K that
there may be some minor differences.
With the Core i9-9900K the newer
board consistently delivered better
performance. What would otherwise
be within the margin of error was
consistent throughout several
benchmarks. As such, I’m inclined to
say that the latest board most likely
delivers better support due to the
improved, or superior if you will, power
phase system.
Such a thing is difficult to state
conclusively given the small sample
size of all components involved. Suffice
to say, with the previous generation
i7-8700K, the there was no meaningful
difference between the two.
Concerning the software side of the
MAXIMUS XI APEX, you’re literally
dealing with exactly what’s been on
offer for the last few generations. It’s
the familiar UEFI, with some added
options. The A.I training has become
standard across the ROG boards and
the APEX is no exception. What hasn’t
been updated, unfortunately, are the
DRAM profiles. These have remained
the same for a number of generations
and they don’t always translate into
valid options when loaded. I have
previously experienced a situation
where the values in the input fields
are obviously incorrect. When this
happens, you have to go through all the
options in all the various performance
tuning menus to fix all such instances.
They work for the most part, but they
are due for some updates.
Where the Windows software is
concerned, you’re again dealing with
the familiar AI Suite and myriad of
Issue 47 | 2019 The OverClocker 21