The AMD X570 Motherboard Overview: Over 35+ Motherboards Analyzed
by Gavin Bonshor on July 9, 2019 8:00 AM ESTGIGABYTE X570 Aorus Master
Moving down the product stack from GIGABYTE's X570 SKU list is the GIGABYTE X570 Aorus Master which has a range of high-end features such as 2.5 Gigabit LAN, three PCIe 4.0 M.2 slots, and Intel's Wi-Fi 6 802.11ax wireless interface. The GIGABYTE X570 Aorus Master could be considered its flagship for general consumers without the hefty price tag attached to the higher grade X570 Aorus Extreme ($699).
Included is support for up to 128 GB of DDR4 memory across its four slots, with support for DDR4-4400 with three PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slots each with its own individual M.2 heatsink, and six SATA ports. There are three full-length PCIe 4.0 slots which operate at x16, x8/x8, and x8/x8/x4, with a single PCIe 4.0 x1 slot. On the power delivery front, GIGABYTE is using a formidable setup with a 12+2 design with power stages rated for 50 A, and with two 8-pin 12 V ATX CPU power inputs. The boards aesthetic is focused on the outer edges with a rear panel cover with RGB LEDs which stretches down to the audio PCB. For the X570 chipset, there's an actively cooled chipset heatsink which encompasses the Aorus Falcon into the design.
The onboard audio is handled by a Realtek ALC1220-VB HD audio codec and is complemented by an ESS Sabre 9118 DAC chip to enhance the auditory quality. This equates to five 3.5 mm audio jacks with a single S/PDIF optical output. Also on the rear panel is a Q-Flash Plus button for updating the firmware, a clear CMOS button, three USB 3.1 G2 Type-A, one USB 3.1 G2 Type-C, two USB 3.1 G1 Type-A and four USB 2.0 ports. The board's rear panel networking capabilities consist a Realtek RTL8125AG 2.5 G port with an assisting Intel Gigabit port for dual networking, as well as an Intel AX200 802.11ax Wi-Fi 6 wireless interface which also includes support for BT 5 devices.
GIGABYTE's X570 Aorus Master targets gamers and enthusiasts looking to push their processors further than the rated specifications, as well as offering 2.5 G and Wi-Fi 6 capable networking. The pricing reflects this with a price tag of $359 which puts it in the upper echelon of models, but the price seems fair all things considered.
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PeachNCream - Tuesday, July 9, 2019 - link
Pretty much this. Modern games on DX12 won't see any benefit unless the game developer bakes in support (which they appear uninterested in doing for cost reasons) and older games run very well on a single modern GPU. AMD and NV are hardly acknowledging SLI these days either and nowhere but at the top end so there is even less compulsion for developers to bother with supporting it. All in all, you're better off not worrying about SLI unless the industry changes direction significantly in the next few years.ajlueke - Tuesday, July 9, 2019 - link
The real question however, is does all this power delivery actually have any practical benefits? If I drop a 3000 series CPU in an X570 board vs X470, can I achieve any additional performance? And what is the power consumption differences in the respective chipsets? That is the type of info I would like to see.PeachNCream - Tuesday, July 9, 2019 - link
It's a marketng differentiator only as motherboard manufacturers all use the same core components and are quick to emulate one another with similar features. Through branding and obscure features that do not significantly impact computer operation, they search for something they can offer that may encourage you to make a purchase in a very, very crowded field of offerings.lopri - Tuesday, July 9, 2019 - link
Solid power delivery for high-performance CPUs is perhaps the farthest thing from obscure marketing features. OEMs do play with marketing BS for differentiation, but the underlying power delivery system is extremely important and can impact everyday operation for these multi-core CPUs.PeachNCream - Wednesday, July 10, 2019 - link
At long as it meets AMD specifications, no it won't. If it doesn't meet specifications, then it's a bad design. There's no reason to tout being mediocre or a hair or two above mediocre unless you're running out of unique bullet points for the backside of the box that nobody bothers to read anyway.Death666Angel - Tuesday, July 9, 2019 - link
Stock performance will be the same across the board unless the manufacturer royally screwed up and the power delivery has to throttle due to temperatures (which there are some cases of with super cheap motherboards and 8 cores). Doing OC (and PBO is already OC) is where things start to change. More / better phases means less heat output and better voltages (ripple). This can potentially give you better clocks. But most of this is only useful when you start OCing on water or sub zero systems. Air cooled overclocking will hardly benefit at all. And regarding power consumption you can go into a lot of detail. Sometimes more power phases simply destroys efficiency, when they are all fired up all the time. Sometimes more power phases are smartly managed and load balanced to be kept at their optimal efficiency. It really depends on the implementation.Peter2k - Wednesday, July 10, 2019 - link
If you leave everything at stock, then there is no real reason to upgradeMost people would think keeping the socket backwards compatible as an upside
In a desktop the only real reason why we think about power draw going up from 5w to 11w is because manufactures like to keep the cooling block small, and those need a fan
Chipset fans bring back memories out of terrible noisy days
Also I remember chipset coolers to be a bit bigger in the past, I'm sure if you're just trying to provide food cooling, without trying to hit that gamer look, then you can cool that chipset without active fan
If you want to try your hand at OC'ing you should probably want the better power delivery
And there is no telling if the older boards will also run fine with higher memory speeds
Guessing they would, at least until the magical 3600, that's not that outlandish high
And how much that affects performance this time around still has to be tested
Short story
You have a Ryzen already, just make it a drop in replacement
No need to throw out the board
Peter2k - Wednesday, July 10, 2019 - link
Any one that would argue about the electricity costs going up (I've encountered those) should also not that all that shiny bling probably draws more watts then the 6w or so difference between last gen and this genpavag - Tuesday, July 9, 2019 - link
I expected benchmarks.sorten - Tuesday, July 9, 2019 - link
You expected benchmarks on 35+ boards that were released two days ago, and many of which aren't even available at retail?