The AMD X570 Motherboard Overview: Over 35+ Motherboards Analyzed
by Gavin Bonshor on July 9, 2019 8:00 AM ESTASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Formula
The ASUS ROG X570 Crosshair VIII Formula represents its flagship X570 entry onto the market with some very notable features, including a revamped design with a strong focus on performance, and ROG themed aesthetics. First of all, the ROG Crosshair VIII Formula uses EKWB heatsinks which can be connected to a custom water cooling loop for better power delivery temperatures, or as passive cooled. This has been seen on numerous iterations of its Maximus Formula boards created for Intel chipsets. This marks a shifting tide where ASUS seem to have confidence in AMD and the ability of its 7nm Ryzen 3000 processors, by opting for such a premium model for the X570 chipset.
One of the main focal points of the X570 chipset is its native PCIe 4.0 support. The ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Formula has three-full length PCIe 4.0 slots operating at x16, x8/x8, and x8/x8/x4, with the final x4 coming from the chipset. This allows users to use two-way NVIDIA SLI and two-way AMD Crossfire multi-graphics card configurations. For add-on cards, a single PCIe 4.0 x1 slot is also present. There are also four DDR4 memory slots with a maximum supported capacity of up to 128 GB. Also included are a LiveDash OLED screen, a full metal backplate for a more rigid frame, and ROG armor across the majority of the PCB; not to forget about the swathe of RGB LED zones and the integrated fan within the chipset heatsink. On the rear of the board is a metal backplate which adds reinforcement to keep the board's structure intact.
On the componentry, the Crosshair VIII Formula uses a premium controller set with the most notable inclusions coming on the networking side. An Aquantia AQC111 5 GbE controller with a secondary Intel I211AT gigabit chip offers users dual LAN, but more impressively, ASUS has jumped onto the Wi-Fi 6 bandwagon by including the new Intel AX200 2x2 Wi-Fi adapter. The onboard audio is controlled by the Realtek SupremeFX S1220 HD audio codec. On the rear panel is a wide array of connections including seven USB 3.1 G2 Type-A, one USB 3.1 G2 Type-C, and four USB 3.1 G1 Type-A ports. Users can add to this with one USB 3.1 G2, two USB 3.1 G1 and two USB 2.0 front panel headers, with the USB 3.1 G2 offering one additional port, and the rest each offering an additional two ports per header.
The ASUS ROG X570 Crosshair VIII Formula is a mixture of premium controllers, quality features, and classic Formula aesthetics due to the implementation of an EKWB water block to keep the power delivery cool. This not only adds extra weight to the board but also cost and that is represented with an MSRP of $700.
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Spoelie - Tuesday, July 9, 2019 - link
Is there any information on the performance of the Ryzen 3000 series on X/B400 series chipsets? Assuming that the power delivery is up to snuff and the bios is updated, will performance be similar and the only thing lacking vs X570 the connectivity upgrades? Or are there again some features that are exclusive to the newer chipsets like PBO2 or ...haukionkannel - Tuesday, July 9, 2019 - link
There Are some test and the the speed is the same. You only miss that pci 4.0... and that is not so big deal in anyway. One video in YouTube shows Ryzen 3900 running in 350 based motherboard quite nicely. He did not try to overclock the cpu though...dm29-84 - Tuesday, July 9, 2019 - link
Puzzles me the little attention paid to sound department. Specifically Gigabyte's notable inclusion of ESS Sabre DAC. If I'm right, USB DACs based on this controller justifies 200-400$ price tag with excellent scores. Great Anand site should include some procedure in that regard.Death666Angel - Tuesday, July 9, 2019 - link
Great DAC inside an electrical noisy environment is still questionable. People who care about great PC sound have external means. People who don't don't care about it apart from having a jack for their headphones.Qasar - Tuesday, July 9, 2019 - link
why not just get a better quality discrete sound card and disable the onboard sound altogether ? i havent used onboard sound since the K7 days and Nvidia's SoundStorm :-)RSAUser - Wednesday, July 10, 2019 - link
I don't think 99% of us have the equipment and heating capability to truly need an external sound card.RSAUser - Wednesday, July 10, 2019 - link
Hearing *Qasar - Wednesday, July 10, 2019 - link
wasnt referring to external, was referring to an internal discrete sound card, like the soundblaster, asus or the like.. there is another sound card maker i am thinking of, but i can't remember the name of it right now....ishkatar - Tuesday, July 9, 2019 - link
Which of these boards support SLI? I have 2 x GTX 1070 that I want to keep.Jansen - Tuesday, July 9, 2019 - link
SLI is pretty much dead, but Asus PRIME X570 SERIES, MSI MEG X570 Godlike, and MEG X570 ACE do.