The AMD X570 Motherboard Overview: Over 35+ Motherboards Analyzed
by Gavin Bonshor on July 9, 2019 8:00 AM ESTGIGABYTE X570 Gaming X
Currently at the bottom of GIGABYE's gaming-focused product stack is the X570 Gaming X. With a slightly lesser 10+2 power delivery when compared to the X570 Aorus Elite with a 12+2, the X570 Gaming X includes a cheaper Realtek ALC887 audio codec, a Realtek RTL8111H Gigabit NIC, and two PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slots. On the boards PCB itself is a very funky and unique black and grey theme with triangle shaped accents which extends over the PCB onto the heatsinks. The X570 chipset heatsink includes a cooling fan, while the board has four memory slots with support for DDR4-4000 memory with up to 128 GB.
On the lower half of the GIGABYTE X570 Gaming X is two full-length PCIe 4.0 slots which run at x16 and x16/x4. The top slot takes its lanes from the CPU, while the bottom full-length slot is locked at x4 from the X570 chipset, while there are also three PCIe 4.0 x1 slots; this means up to two-way AMD CrossFire multi-graphics card configurations can be used. For storage, the X570 Gaming X has two PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slots with the top slot coming with a heatsink, and a total of six SATA ports capable of support RAID 0, 1, and 10 arrays. The X570 Gaming X uses a 10+2 power delivery which is driven by an ISL69147 PWM controller running at 5+2 and uses a single 8-pin 12 V ATX CPU power input to delivery power to the processor.
On the rear panel is a relatively basic set of input and outputs with no USB 3.1 G2 connectivity to speak of. What actually is there in terms of USB support is four USB 3.1 G1 Type-A and two USB 2.0 ports. There is a separate pair of PS/2 inputs for legacy keyboard and mice. Finishing off the rear panel on the GIGABYTE X570 Gaming X is a single HDMI video output for users looking to run a compatible Ryzen APU, three 3.5 mm audio jacks that are driven by a Realtek ALC887 HD audio codec, and a Realtek RTL8111H Gigabit controlled Ethernet port.
The GIGABYTE X570 Gaming X is its gaming inspired, but surprisingly natural looking entry model onto the X570 chipset. With an MSRP of $169, it sits as one of the cheapest X570 models at the launch of the Ryzen 3000 processors, and with a wallet-friendly feature set with everything needed to make use of PCIe 4.0, it's a viable option for entry-level users. The only glaring issue is that there is no USB 3.1 G2 ports at all on the rear panel, and other models from other vendors at the same entry-level price point does include some.
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abufrejoval - Tuesday, July 9, 2019 - link
PCI4 and 5, or for that matter IF will trigger rethinking motherboard layouts and form factors."The [Enthusiast] motherboard" dates back to 1981 or the dawn of the IBM Personal Computer, and physics are catching up everywhere, even on the motherboard.
Distance has a huge impact on speed, latency and power, so 'flat' and 'square' are both the first obstacles and the first who need to compromise. In the future every milimeter of distance between the die carrier and your point of interest will need to be paid for, in energy/time or extra switching silicon.
Linear extrapolations of the past have little use, when the barriers are exponential.
TheUnhandledException - Tuesday, July 9, 2019 - link
Even if you keep the board a square moving the CPU and chipset to the center of the board and having PCIe slots on either side would cut the trace to the furthest slots in half.The_Assimilator - Wednesday, July 10, 2019 - link
Hopefully at the same time we can ditch 12V as the rail to rule them all, so that we can bring the amperages in current systems back down to sane levels.ChubChub - Friday, July 12, 2019 - link
Would be cool to see the CPU on one side of the board, and the cards on the other; would shrink those distances, but would require a new form factor, which would kindof suck (but I can picture what the dual-sided boards would look like, and I think it's a pretty neat idea having two independent sides for cooling (also, in a tower setup, a CPU sitting vertically on the board, which would be nice).Targon - Thursday, July 11, 2019 - link
This is why if Gen-Z gets adopted, we could have PCI Express hanging off the Gen-Z bus as a way to deal with these issues.sing_electric - Wednesday, July 10, 2019 - link
I was thinking that the mobo costs made price comparisons more difficult. Then I remembered that AMD is still throwing in a pretty good stock cooler, while Intel makes you BYO. For MOST users, that means that your total build cost will be lower with AMD.If you're doing something exotic - say, with liquid cooling or heavy overclocking that requires a certain thermal solution - then sure, you lose those savings, but if you're spending $300 to keep your machine cool, is the price difference of the motherboard really going to sway you one way or another?
Oliseo - Thursday, July 11, 2019 - link
You're actually comparing the bundled CPU cooler to a $300 custom loop Intel Cooler?You're expecting people to take you seriously as well?
Targon - Thursday, July 11, 2019 - link
Consider that for those who buy the i9-9900k, you can't get away with a 95W cooler, even if the rated TDP is 95W. So, you do need to buy at least a $30 cooler for air cooling on the 9900k, while AMD does provide a cooler to handle the typical performance of its processors. Even then, $330 for the Ryzen 7 3700X or 3800X for 8 cores/16 threads, vs. the $489 for the 9900k+$30 or $40 will still be more expensive for an 8 core/16 thread chip.What many don't realize is that if you go with AMD and get a B450 or X470 chipset motherboard(that has an updated BIOS or with BIOS flashback), you get the motherboard price you want, and the cost of ownership will still be lower. Since Intel doesn't offer PCI Express 4.0, going with PCI Express 3.0 on the AMD side won't be a big deal from the comparison point of view. Overclocking potential has not been compared between the enthusiast class X470 and X570 based motherboards from what I have seen as well, but it could make a difference for many people.
Flunk - Tuesday, July 9, 2019 - link
I like how almost all of these boards have 2 or more M.2 slots. I had to be very careful when I bought my Z170 board to find one with 3 M.2 slots.But now there are boards with 3 slots so maybe I'll have to snag that Aorus Ultra.
drexnx - Tuesday, July 9, 2019 - link
it's amazing how fast number of M.2 slots has become the primary thing I look for in a mobo anymore too