AMD Ryzen 9 3900X And Ryzen 7 3700X Review: Zen 2 Impresses

To test our 3nd Generation Ryzen 3000 series processors, we got our hands on a trio of new X570-based motherboards from some popular manufacturers. Although we are featuring all three here, please note than all of our performance tests on the proceeding pages were performed on the MSI MEG X570 Godlike. We will follow up with additional numbers and reviews of the other motherboards at some point down the road.

The three motherboards we have on-hand include the Gigabyte X570 Aorus Pro WiFi, Asus CrossHair VII Hero WiFi, and the aforementioned MSI MEG X570 Godlike.

As is tradition with Gigabyte’s higher-end Aorus-branded gaming motherboards, the Gigabyte X570 Aorus Pro WiFi is jam-packed with features, including dual NICs (wired and wireless -- both Intel, including WiFi 6), quality audio, RGB lighting, beefy coolers, an integrated IO shield, and all of the features offered by the new X570 chipset.

Gigabyte’s Aorus-branded motherboards feature a graphically-rich, mouse friends BIOS, with “Smart Fan 5”– the latest generation of Gigabyte’s fine-grained fan controls. With Smart Fan 5, the boards have the ability to auto-sense what type of fan or device is plugged into a fan header and tune settings accordingly. For example, the headers can differentiate between a water pump and high-speed, PWM fan.
The Gigabyte X570 Aorus Pro WiFi also offers fully-customizable RGB lighting across a few sections of the PCB and the lighting can be configured via Gigabyte's “RBG Fusion 2.0” app for different modes (pulsing, color cycling, etc.). Additional RGB lighting can be added via headers as well, that can all be synced and tweaked from within the RGB Fusion 2.0 app.

There will be an array of X570-based motherboards in Gigabyte’s line-up; the Gigabyte X570 Aorus Pro WiFi sits near the top of the stack, but isn’t the company’s most extreme offering. Still, it has an extensive feature set, which includes, ALC1220-VB audio (120dB SNR) with an ESS SABRE DAC and WIMA Audio Capacitors, triple M.2 ports with included heatsinks / thermal guards, plenty of SATA ports (with support for RAID), USB 3.1 gen 1 and gen 2, dual BIOS (with a removable chip), and all of the IO you’d expect from a high-end board.
There’s even a built in IO shield, so you don’t have to fumble around installing one on your case. Built-in power and reset switches, a POST code error reporter, and beefy heatsinks installed on the VRM and chipset, with direct-touch heat-pipes for more efficient cooling, to round out its thermal features. Speaking of the VRM, the Gigabyte X570 Aorus Pro WiFi has a 12+2 digital PWM design.

The Gigabyte X570 Aorus Pro WiFi‘s BIOS is chock-full of overclocker friendly features too, and its accessory bundle is top-notch. The board includes all of the cables, multi-GPU bridges, software, and connectors to exploit numerous graphics configurations and all of the board’s standout features. XSplit Gamecaster and Broadcaster with 12 month licenses are included as well.
Next up we have the ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Hero WiFi. Like the other boards featured here here, this ASUS board targets hardcore-enthusiasts, and has a ton of features, over and above what’s offered by the AMD X570 chipset itself. The ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Hero WiFi includes things like a pre-mounted IO shield, addressable headers, M.2 heatsinks, digital power circuitry, high-end audio, and customizable RGB lighting.

The ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Hero WiFi has built-in support for AURA SYNC LED lighting, which can be extended with additional lighting strips. The board also has metal reinforcements on its expansion slots, and heavy-duty metal heat spreaders and heatsinks on the chipset and VRM. Additional shielding covers the back panel I/O and the front-end of the PCB as well. Extending out from the edge of the PCB, just above the top PEG slot, there is an M.2 heatsink, that matches the aesthetic of the other cooling hardware on the board. And there’s another down the below, as well.
As you would expect, the ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Hero WiFi has a modern, mouse-friendly BIOS / UEFI that’s easy to navigate and offers an extensive array of overclocking and performance-related options. The BIOS on this board sports everything from high resolution fonts to the latest version of ASUS’s hardware monitoring and fan control functionality. The ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Hero WiFi also features high-end capacitors and chokes throughout its design to ensure reliable operation over the long-haul, as well as smooth, clean power delivery and clean audio. The board is outfitted with an all-digital, 16-stage PWM as well, to optimized power efficiency and smooth power delivery to the processor, RAM, and add-in cards.
The ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Hero WiFi is compatible with AMD’s Ryzen Master performance tuning utility (as are the other boards), but the UEFI is outfitted with all of the overclocker-friendly tools ASUS is known for. The fan controls on the board are quite robust and ASUS has put in additional effort to ease configuration, by offering an array of auto-tuning options and presets that can be saved to individual profiles. Tweaking multiplier, voltages, and timings for virtually everything is supported as well.

Other features of the ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Hero WiFi include USB 3.2 Gen 2 type-C and type-A ports, Intel 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11ax Wi-Fi 6 with MU-MIMO, on-board power and reset switches, a POST code error reporter, CrossFire / SLI support, and dual M.2 slots. In addition to the aforementioned items, we should also mention that the ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Hero WiFi offers 8-channel audio with a Realtek S1220A codec and ES9023P DAC. The design also incorporates audio shielding, discrete power delivery, and high-end Japanese capacitors for clean sound.
Over and above what’s actually built into the board or available through the chipset, ASUS throws in a wide array of accessories and integrated peripherals including multi-GPU bridges, and a boatload of decals, documentation, cables, etc.

We found the layout of the ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Hero WiFi to be very good and also really like the overall aesthetic.