NZXT N7 Z690 Motherboard Review

CPU Performance

To test the CPU performance in our motherboard reviews, we use a variety of software that can test both single-core and multi-core performance in different ways. While these tests are aimed at the processor more than the motherboard, it does give us a chance to analyse the power delivery that’s being fed directly to the socket and the components that are needed on the motherboard for the CPU to perform at the highest level possible.

Tests that are run include CPU specific tests, along with render based benchmarks and calculation tests that give us the very best idea of how a specific board compares with the competition when using the same hardware

Cinebench R23

In our single-threaded Cinebench test the N7 got very good results, landing right towards the top of the chart.

The multi-threaded score was low, too low, in fact. We ran this test multiple times to see if the really low score was an anomaly but found that the board got around the same score each time with very little variation.

Geekbench 5

Geekbench saw the N7 at the bottom of the chart, being outperformed by it’s cheaper counterpart, the N5.

The multi-threaded test in Geekbench separated the DDR4 boards from the DDR5 boards in a significant way. Amongst the DDR4 boards we see that the N7 got some of the best scores, meaning that the N7 reaches our expectations for performance on a board of this type.

Compression & Decompression

Compared to the other DDR4 boards, the N7 is the best performer here. When we are comparing performance in this test it is unfair to consider the DDR5 options to the DDR4 options so for fairness I am only considering the boards that can take the same hardware.

Decompression had a far less dramatic difference for the DDR4 boards and as result, the scores were all pretty similar. The N7 wasn’t on the high end of scores here but managed to get better scores than two of the other DDR4 boards and even a DDR5 board.

Rendering

The N7 wasn’t the very worst performer in Corona but was still one of the worst, though the differences here are so small that the result we saw is still perfectly acceptable.