The AMD X570 Motherboard Overview: Over 35+ Motherboards Analyzed
by Gavin Bonshor on July 9, 2019 8:00 AM ESTMSI MEG X570 Godlike
Swinging around onto MSI's X570 product stack and we open up with its most premium and ultimately the flagship, the MSI MEG X570 Godlike. The MSI MEG X570 GODLIKE is its flagship X570 motherboard designed for both enthusiasts and gamers with a range of high-end controllers, accessories, and also features a 20-phase power delivery; 14-phase for the CPU VCore and 4-phase for the VGT/SoC.
The X570 chipset on MSI motherboards including this model is actively cooled by a single fan featuring double ball bearing technology which MSI is calling Zero Frozr. Aesthetically the MEG X570 Godlike is impressive and even features an OLED screen which is implemented between the four DDR4 memory slots and the 24-pin ATX 12 V motherboard power input. The four memory slots have support for DDR4-4800 and up to 128 GB of total system memory. Touching on the accessories bundle included with the X570 Godlike is an Aquantia AQC107 10 GbE add-in card and M.2 Xpander-Z Gen4 M.2 PCIe add-on card which allows users to add an additional two PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 drives on top of the three PCIe 4.0 x4 slots that are present on the board. Each onboard M.2 slot includes its own individual Lightning Gen4 M.2 heatsink.
The MSI MEG X570 Godlike comes with an M.2 Xpander-Z Gen4 and Aquantia 10 G NIC add-on card
The MSI MEG X570 Godlike's PCB is four full-length PCIe 4.0 slots which operate at x16, x8/x0/x8, and x8/x4/x4, with the last full-length slot locked down to PCIe 4.0 x4. This means both two-way NVIDIA SLI and up to four-way AMD CrossFire multi-graphics card setups. A lot of focus has also been put enthusiasts with its 16-phase power delivery for the VCore; this power delivery uses Infineon TDA21472 MOSFETs with IR3599 doublers and runs from an IR35201 Digital PWM controller. Providing power to the CPU is two 8-pin 12 V ATX CPU power inputs setting the Godlike up as MSI's most enthusiast-level desktop board for any AMD platform in recent times.
Looking at the rear panel of the X570 Godlike, there are three USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A, one USB 3.1 G2 Type-C, and two USB 3.1 G1 Type-A ports. Commonly featured on premium models, the MSI MEG X570 Godlike also has a pre-installed rear panel IO shield. Also present is a Flash BIOS button with a highlighted Type-A port dedicated to firmware flashing, as well as a Clear CMOS button, and a PS/2 combo port. The onboard audio is powered by two Realtek ALC1220 HD audio codecs with five 3.5 mm jacks and S/PDIF optical output, MSI has included an ESS E9018 DAC for good measure, which also adds a dedicated 6.3 mm jack for studio headphones which is included in the accessories bundle. The rear panel has two Ethernet ports with a Killer pairing consisting of an E3000 2.5 G, and E2600 Gigabit NIC.
The MSI MEG X570 Godlike E-ATX motherboard has an MSRP of $699 which for everything that is included is quite impressive. With an impressive accessories bundle which includes an Aquantia AQC107 10 G NIC add-on card, an Xpander-Z Gen4 M.2 card which adds a scope for an additional two PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 drives to be installed bringing to total to five is also a nice touch. It's not a cheap investment, but it's an impressive option for gamers, enthusiasts, and hardware aficionados looking to create a high-end system using Ryzen 3000.
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DigitalFreak - Tuesday, July 9, 2019 - link
I think the only advantage of using a 2000 series CPU with an X570 board will be PCIe 3.0/4.0 support. The X370/X470 only supported PCIe 2.0. In theory, the connection from the 2000 processor to the X570 chipset should run at PCIe 3.0 speeds.FreckledTrout - Tuesday, July 9, 2019 - link
The x370 chipset and x470 both supported PCIe 3.0 with either a 1xxx or 2xxx Ryzen CPU. If you are not running a 3xxx CPU in the x570 board there isn't any major feature that should cause one to want to upgrade.DigitalFreak - Tuesday, July 9, 2019 - link
@FreckledTrout - Yes and no. The interconnect between the CPU and the chipset is PCIe 3.0 on X370 / X470, but all the PCIe lanes that come off the chipset are 2.0. Running a 2000 series CPU in an X570 board would give you a PCIe 3.0 link between the CPU and the chipset, with either PCIe 3.0 or 4.0 lanes coming off the chipset (depends on if AMD drops everything to PCIe 3.0 with a 2000 series processor).extide - Tuesday, July 9, 2019 - link
It looks like they still allow the chipset lanes to be 4.0. So you'd have 3.0 link to cpu, but 4.0 from chipset to devices.Targon - Thursday, July 11, 2019 - link
Since you have at least one or two PCI Express slots that are connected to the CPU, not chipset, that almost becomes a non-issue. On my Asus ROG Crosshair VI Hero(X370), you have PCI Express 3.0 x16 for the first slot, or x8/x8. The third PCI Express x16 slot is a 2.0 I believe, which is still enough to get the job done for many devices. Even with the X570 board with a first or second generation Ryzen processor, the most you end up with is an extra 3.0 supporting slot. Note that many boards may have x16 slots, but they are x8 electrically, so you won't see the full bandwidth anyway in those slots.sorten - Tuesday, July 9, 2019 - link
Thanks Gavin! This is a great resource and is exactly what I needed to help build my new system.willis936 - Tuesday, July 9, 2019 - link
The return of the 40mm fan! Those are the most obnoxious components ever. No one has missed them in the past ten years.Kastriot - Tuesday, July 9, 2019 - link
Buy Asrock aqua and problem solved.FreckledTrout - Tuesday, July 9, 2019 - link
I'm waiting for the next iteration of board for this reason. I'm speculating the next round the chipset will be on 7nm.abufrejoval - Tuesday, July 9, 2019 - link
The genious about that chiplet design is that the chipset doesn't actually benefit nearly as much from the shrink, as pure logic or SLC caches: The monolithic guys pay the 7nm overhead (e.g. EUV) for I/O while the geometry of the transistors in the I/O area is mostly determined by the need to power long motherbord or even slot traces.So while waiting is never a bad idea when your need clearly isn't overwhelming you, waiting for that shrink could turn out rather long. These days I/O heave chips might never be done in smaller geometries, because of that and because packaging has matured.