Yup a-die might run the most optimally, Asus for the maximus side has a bit of experimenting advantage from Shamino and team to unlock more MHz earlier on m-die.
Plus the random eastern european expert on the internet receiving a board/sample who also reads JEDEC papers and platform design spec numbers / rules contributing to decoding of the last 400-600MHz above MSI Edge on the Apex, checking the board impedances and how high mhz mem training respond to Skews, Slopes, ODT changes, if the Apex can’t out do MSI like with the Z690 it is a real fail with all that extra budget (money) from that price tag.
On MSI for optimal ram performance, it might be either SR tight a-die vs DR tight m-die when its training gets improved in the next BIOSes, preliminary testing with my i7 with a decent IMC at the price (probably the equivalent of a slightly below average i9 IMC), I think an i9 doing 7600-7800 tuned should be fairly realistic at ambient/WC temps. Any higher might be a luck draw unless the BIOS engineers and OC team figured out more suitable skews, slopes, odts. Oh, and that +200MHz / -2 CAS boost on the Z790I edge vs Z690I Unify
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With that, MSI did really well in price point and tuning despite the poor inventory turnover (a number of Mid to High tier Z690’s selling into late 2023/2024) compared to Asus milking on the Apex’s halo, cutting down severely on IC costs on products like the Hero and anything under while still selling better than the next few competitors.
MSI needs more entry level products disguised as mid-range that can fly off shelves just like Asus to support its bottom-line.
