The Best Intel Motherboards for Gaming in 2024

howtogeek.com:

Have an Intel CPU? You'll need a quality motherboard that's compatible with it. The motherboard is essentially the central nervous system of every PC, and the right one will make sure your rig will work flawlessly without overworking the other components.

• Gigabyte Z790 AORUS Elite X AX

  Best Intel Motherboard for Gaming Overall $250 at Amazon

• MSI PRO B760M-A WiFi DDR4

  Best Budget Intel Motherboard for Gaming $150 at Amazon

• MSI MPG Z790I Edge WiFi

  Best Mini-ITX Intel Motherboard for Gaming $310 at Amazon

• ASRock Z790 Nova WiFi

  Best DDR5 Intel Motherboard for Gaming See at Newegg

• Gigabyte Z790 AORUS Tachyon

  Best Intel Motherboard for Overclocking See at Newegg

What to Look For in an Intel Gaming Motherboard in 2024

First, you should consider whether the board you're eyeing is compatible with your CPU. In other words, its chipset and the CPU socket must be compatible with the processor you plan on buying.

After you find out your CPU's socket and the chipsets your processor is compatible with, it's time to focus on motherboard features. The most important feature of every board is its voltage-regulating module (VRM), which keeps the voltage supplied to your CPU consistent.

If you get a board with a low-quality VRM, said motherboard won't be able to run your CPU at its max power and performance, which can leave a lot of gaming performance on the table.

Next, focus on expansion ports, connectivity, and storage support. You should find a board that hits all the boxes regarding your needs and then some, so you have enough storage support to add more SSDs or HDDs, hook up more case fans, and have enough USB ports for any new peripherals you might add in the future.

For instance, while multi-GPU gaming is dead and gone, you might want to pick a board with multiple high-bandwidth PCIe x16 slots—like dual PCIe 5.0 x16 slots that can work in x8/x8 mode along with another PCIe 4.0 x4 slot—in case you want to add a capture card, an adapter allowing you to install