Are EVGA's Z490 boards as gimmicky as they appear, or are there really people who think having only 2 DIMM slots will make any difference?

[viivo]

I was looking at the three boards in EVGA's Z490 lineup and there was something bugging me that I couldn't quite put my finger on. It took a fair few minutes going over the images before it struck me - there are only two RAM slots! But wait, maybe it's ITX and-- oh, EATX. I already knew the reason (spoiler: marketing) before searching, but went down the rabbit hole anyway: "wiTh only 2 u get mooor stabillytees!!111"

So who is benefitting from EVGA's revolutionary design? Are your memory settings at least 1.9% more stable now without those two other pesky slots sponging up all the stable-ness particles?

 

[bwang]

The 2-slot boards are for sub-ambient overclocking; the performance gain is not huge but when everyone is competing with top binned parts, you need every MHz to get the world records.

 

[Dan_D]

The 2-slot boards are for sub-ambient overclocking; the performance gain is not huge but when everyone is competing with top binned parts, you need every MHz to get the world records.

This. Not only that, but if you are seriously into memory overclocking, then it matters. These two slot solutions are really for people pushing beyond DDR4 5000MHz.

 

[Nobu]

Fewer traces means more room to design an efficient design with less cross-talk and minimal latency. Makes sense to me.

Run of the mill consumers need not apply, of course (I sure wont).

 

[lopoetve]

Zadak memory and the like - super fast, or super dense dimms, overclocked to within an inch of their lives. Most EVGA motherboards in my experience are specialty-built for things like that (outside of the top-end big guys).