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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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?