The ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Impact: A Sharp $430 Impulse on X570
by Gavin Bonshor on October 25, 2019 11:30 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 testbed 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.
The ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Impact performs very competitively against other X570 models on test with good results at long idle, and idle power states. At full load, the Impact also performs well, sitting in the middle of the pack.
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 Crosshair VIII Impact has the best for POST times out of all the X570 models we have tested so far. At default, it managed to post the joint-fastest time with 18.9 seconds, and the fastest time with non-critical controllers disabled with a time of 17.5 seconds.
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 the DPC at the default settings straight from the box, and the ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Impact did well with a latency time of 128.2 ms.
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Holliday75 - Friday, October 25, 2019 - link
Been a bit disappointed in Zen2, X570/PCI4 boards in general and fans certainly do not help. Bleeding edge for sure, but bleeding edge issues as well. My I7-3770k (longest lasting CPU I ever had) is going to have to last another year. Hoping Zen3 things settle down and the tech is mature enough to jump on board.hansmuff - Friday, October 25, 2019 - link
On any decent board you can set a fan curve and effectively silence the fan. On my Gigabyte X570 it never runs at all even in intense benchmark or gaming sessions. I do agree that having fans back on motherboards is just crap and should have been avoided. I can only guess that there are edge cases that made AMD demand this level of cooling, I just haven't found it yet.Korguz - Friday, October 25, 2019 - link
all these people complaining about the chipset fan.. the 2 fans for my cpu cooler would probably drown it out, and is probably louder, let alone the other 6 case fans i have in my case...PeachNCream - Saturday, October 26, 2019 - link
Concerns from most people are about fan longevity and not noise, although I will readily admit that after using several low end laptops that rely purely on passive cooling and eMMC or other form of solid state storage, the silence is difficult to give up in exchange for what feels like a archaic, non-portable box filled with fans. That's really where I'm at in computing these days. My needs, even gaming, are met by passively cooled, tiny laptops and I really see no reason to go back to desktop computers, dedicated GPUs, and systems that need cooling fans.Korguz - Saturday, October 26, 2019 - link
i have fans from 5+ years ago, spinning 8-10 hrs a day, that still work just fine, i even booted up an old A64 fx60, with an Asus board, that has a chipset fan, and it still works just fine. so i dont get the longevity aspect..sorry PeachNcream, but you always comparing a desktop vs a notebook, kind of makes your view moot. a desktop will, for the most part, always be louder then a notebook, and the fact that you use passively cooled ones on top of that, further makes it moot
you needs may be met by such a laptop, but, what games do you play???????? that's the key, my guess, nothing that was released in the last few years if they run fun on such a laptop, or facebook type games. i have some old games, that i bet, would make your laptop cry, and on the one i have, to get them to play, its medium graphics or less. but each use case is different, but also, cant compare them, equally.
PeachNCream - Saturday, October 26, 2019 - link
Your older motherboard is a sample size of one.TheinsanegamerN - Sunday, October 27, 2019 - link
I have a nforce 2 motherboard running windows xp, and it has had its chipset fan replaced several times before getting a large heatsink upgrade to be rid of that annoyance.I vividly remember my pentium II/III PCs getting new fans every year, because those tiny fans would gum up and become rattly garbage.
I still replace laptop fans on the regular that are 3-4 years old and are used on a daily basis.
There is a reason so many people have an aversion to tiny fans. They are junk.
Oliseo - Sunday, October 27, 2019 - link
If you've no interest, why read the articles, let alone argue with people in the comments.AshlayW - Monday, October 28, 2019 - link
No one cares that you use a passive mobile potato for your Facebook gaming needs. This website is about hardware enthusiastsPeachNCream - Wednesday, October 30, 2019 - link
Ah, I understand now. Because I don't use a computer in the same way you do and my opinion threatens yours, it's clearly the case that we need to make up rules here at Anandtech that disallow somone from reading an article until they can prove that it is directly relevant to the computing choices they currently make.What a flawed method of arguing -- of all things, over the presence of a small cooling fan. Feel threatned about a couple of 30mm fans that might fail? Defend the lack of noise! On wait, it's isn't about noise?! You're not allowed to be here arguing in the first place with your point about fan failures!
What children you're acting like over your toys and hobbies.