The ASUS Pro WS X570-Ace Review: x8x8x8 with No RGB
by Gavin Bonshor on August 12, 2019 9:00 AM ESTSystem Performance
Not all motherboards are created equal. On the face of it, they should all perform the same and differ only in the functionality they provide - however, this is not the case. The obvious pointers are power consumption, but also the ability for the manufacturer to optimize USB speed, audio quality (based on audio codec), POST time and latency. This can come down to the manufacturing process and prowess, so these are tested.
For X570 we are running using Windows 10 64-bit with the 1903 update as per our Ryzen 3000 CPU review.
Power Consumption
Power consumption was tested on the system while in a single ASUS GTX 980 GPU configuration with a wall meter connected to the Thermaltake 1200W power supply. This power supply has ~75% efficiency > 50W, and 90%+ efficiency at 250W, suitable for both idle and multi-GPU loading. This method of power reading allows us to compare the power management of the UEFI and the board to supply components with power under load, and includes typical PSU losses due to efficiency. These are the real world values that consumers may expect from a typical system (minus the monitor) using this motherboard.
While this method for power measurement may not be ideal, and you feel these numbers are not representative due to the high wattage power supply being used (we use the same PSU to remain consistent over a series of reviews, and the fact that some boards on our test bed get tested with three or four high powered GPUs), the important point to take away is the relationship between the numbers. These boards are all under the same conditions, and thus the differences between them should be easy to spot.
Looking at the power consumption numbers outputted from the ASUS Pro WS X570-Ace, it performs slightly worse than the MSI MEG X570 Ace model in both a long idle and idle power state. At full load, the tables are turned and the WS X570-Ace without RGB LEDs and unnecessary fluff managed to pull around 7-8 watts less at the wall than both the MSI MEG X570 models.
Non-UEFI POST Time
Different motherboards have different POST sequences before an operating system is initialized. A lot of this is dependent on the board itself, and POST boot time is determined by the controllers on board (and the sequence of how those extras are organized). As part of our testing, we look at the POST Boot Time using a stopwatch. This is the time from pressing the ON button on the computer to when Windows starts loading. (We discount Windows loading as it is highly variable given Windows specific features.)
In our POST time test, the ASUS Pro WS X570-Ace took a considerable amount of time to boot into Windows 10, but with controllers disabled, we managed to squeeze a much quicker time with a POST time of around 20 seconds. This is down to the Realtek RTL8117 Gigabit NIC requiring extra POST time to initialize, which in a professional environment, isn't too much of a burden to bear.
DPC Latency
Deferred Procedure Call latency is a way in which Windows handles interrupt servicing. In order to wait for a processor to acknowledge the request, the system will queue all interrupt requests by priority. Critical interrupts will be handled as soon as possible, whereas lesser priority requests such as audio will be further down the line. If the audio device requires data, it will have to wait until the request is processed before the buffer is filled.
If the device drivers of higher priority components in a system are poorly implemented, this can cause delays in request scheduling and process time. This can lead to an empty audio buffer and characteristic audible pauses, pops and clicks. The DPC latency checker measures how much time is taken processing DPCs from driver invocation. The lower the value will result in better audio transfer at smaller buffer sizes. Results are measured in microseconds.
We test DPC at default settings, out of the box, and the ASUS Pro WS X570-Ace performs very well in comparison to other models on test.
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shabby - Monday, August 12, 2019 - link
I agree, the difference between $200 and $400 boards is slim. The extra power/vrm features aren't needed since all cpus hit a 4.3ghz wall, 10gbe should be standard here.1_rick - Monday, August 12, 2019 - link
I bought one of these a couple days after launch and it came with a code for 20% off a custom cable order at CableMod.funks - Monday, August 12, 2019 - link
PCIE Bottlenecked out of the box.Target: Hypothetical 4K -> 8K Video Editing workstation station (using Davinci Resolve)..
Wants:
2 - x8 lanes PCIE 3.0 Video Cards - Primary and Secondary X16 slots
x4 lanes NVME PCIE 4.0 (OS / Application Drive) - Primary M2 slot
x4 lanes NVME PCIE 4.0 (Data / Scratch Drive) - Secondary M2 slot (hanging off chipset)
x4 lanes PCIE 2.0 (10 Gigabit NIC) - Tertiary x16 slot (hanging off chipset)
PCIE 4.0 NVME x4 drives already exist out in the wild, so if you plug one of those on the secondary M2 slot (Data Drive), and happen to plug in a 10 GB PCIE 2.0 x4 card on the third mechanical PCIEx16 slot - then you are bottle necking already as both are trying to go through the PCIE 4.0 x4 link between the chipset and the CPU. For 4K -> 8K Video Editing using a shared file server (connected via 10 Gigabit NIC) along with the DATA drive (secondary M2 running at PCIE 4.0 x4) as a scratch disk - there's a bottle neck. Davinci Resolve for example can use multiple video cards (so primary and secondary PCIEx16 slot will be at 8x each populated with a video card). Primary M2 slot can be used with PCIE 4.0 NVME for OS / Application Data.
It's like buying a network switch without adequate switching capability for the number of ports exposed. I guess it's why TR4 ain't obsolete.
cygnus1 - Monday, August 12, 2019 - link
I'd say it's fine. You're just building it wrong. I'd suggest putting the scratch disk on the x4 NVMe slot and your boot/app drive on the x2 slot. Scratch disk needs throughput a lot more than the app/boot disk. PCIe 4.0 x4 is overkill for a disk if it's just boot and apps, x2 is fine. The lesser number of channels does not reduce IOPs capabilities and that's more important than bandwidth on the boot/app disk.funks - Monday, August 12, 2019 - link
For the price you pay on these boards, shouldn't have to compromise.BTW, what's up with the dual LAN ports on these boards? People planning on setting up their machines as a router or something? Those two PCIE lanes (One for Realtek LAN - RTL8117 , and one for Intel LAN - I211-AT should have been connected to an Aquantia 10 Gigabit NIC instead.
2 - PCIE 3.0 lanes have about 2 GB/sec of bandwidth, plenty for a 10 Gigabit ethernet
cygnus1 - Monday, August 12, 2019 - link
So, realistically this has 1 real NIC. The RTL NIC is the remote management controller, aka a BMC. I myself really wouldn't put that on a network that gets exposed to the internetkobblestown - Monday, August 12, 2019 - link
I fail to see why would anyone choose this instead of a Threadripper board. I bought the Asrock X399 Professional Gaming (stupid name!) one year ago for 350 UK pounds and TR 1920X for the same price. The board has 10G ethernet + plus 2 1G intel ones (plus WiFi but who uses that for real work), 8 memory slots with ECC support, two 16x and 2 8x PCIe slots plus three M.2 slots. No compromises. It even has a serial port (so you can configure Linux with serial console support and log in over that from, say, an RPi). I don't miss anything I see here.ibejohn818 - Monday, August 12, 2019 - link
Really liked Asus x99 WS boards. However, this feels like a girl with a stuffed bra and fake id... you take her home and realize you can't go all-the-way :(.I hope they put together an x399 WS board for TR3 release and I'm looking forward to seeing the TR3 yields and if slim yields are going to raise the prices on the top of the line sku's
Lord of the Bored - Monday, August 12, 2019 - link
But without the lights, how will you know it is working?The_Assimilator - Tuesday, August 13, 2019 - link
What utter trash. No front USB 3.2, no 10GbE, only 7 rear USB ports. "Workstation" used to mean "no frills and tons of features", Asus has changed that to "has no RGB and costs double the price of better-featured boards".