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Firmware and Overclocking
Firmware
The X570 Taichi’s OC Tweaker menu provides the overclocking controls we needed to reach 4175 MHz at 1.375V. More voltage would allow it to run temporarily at 4.20 GHz, but that’s hardly worth fighting for at the cost of CPU longevity. The board’s default “Level 3” Load-Line calibration even did an adequate job of stabilizing core voltage under shifting loads, though higher levels might be appropriate to maintain competition-level voltage settings.
Memory voltage was far less accurate, with the board’s 1.338V setting producing a measured 1.351V at the slots. We keep that under 1.355V for all boards to make sure nobody gets a leg up in overclocking by understating voltage, yet the X570 Taichi still pushed our DDR4-2933 to a stable DDR4-3733 with four DIMMs installed, and DDR4-4000 with only two DIMMs.
We base our memory overclock on CAS 21 straight timings (21-21-21-42) to give our modules a little breathing room, yet the first setting (CAS) showed 21 cycles when we set 20. Because our memory reaches the same overclock at either 20-21-21-42 or 19-21-21-42 (depending on the CPU), trimming one cycle off the front end of our limit doesn’t reduce its clock ceiling.
Though the board’s RGB software is more elaborate, its firmware app provides a variety of patterns for both the onboard strip (under the board’s front edge) and RGB headers.
Fan speeds are adjustable using either motherboard-defined profiles or custom slopes/curves, and the board’s FanTuning algorithm adds automatic customization to modify the factory profiles to better-match individual hardware. Five of the fans can be automatically (via motherboard detection) or manually switched between voltage and PWM-based RPM control, leaving just the primary CPU fan header as PWM-only.
Users who want a to create their own fan profile without keying in percentages can use ASRocks’ Fan-Tastic Tuning menu to drag set points around on a map.
Overclocking
| Frequency and Voltage settings | ASRock X570 Taichi | Gigabyte X570 Aorus Master | Gigabyte X470 Aorus Gaming 7 WiFi |
| BIOS | P1.20 (06/20/2019) | F5e (07/04/2019) | F40 (05/16/2019) |
| Reference Clock | 100-200 MHz (1 MHz) | 100-300 MHz (10kHz) | 100-300 MHz (10kHz) |
| CPU Multiplier | 22-63x (0.25x) | 8.00-63.75x (0.25x) | 8.00-63.75x (0.25x) |
| DRAM Data Rates | 1866-2400/5000/6000 (267/66/100 MHz) | 1333-2666/5000/6000 (267/66/100 MHz) | 1333-5000 (66.67 MHz) |
| CPU Voltage | 0.90-1.55V (6.25 mV) | 0.75-1.80V (6.25mV) | 1.00-1.70V (6.25mV) |
| CPU SOC | 0.90-1.60V (5 mV) | 0.75-1.80V (6.25 mV) | 0.80-1.70V (6.25mV) |
| VDDP | 0.80-1.30V (10mV) | Offset -0.2 to +0.70V (20 mV) | Offset -0.2 to +0.70V (20 mV) |
| DRAM Voltage | 1.00-1.80V (6 mV) | 1.00-2.00V (10 mV) | 1.10-2.00V (10 mV) |
| DDR VTT | Offset -600 to 600 mV (10mV) | 0.44-0.98V (5 mV) | 0.83-1.66V (8.33 mV) |
| Chipset 1.05V | 1.00-1.20V (5 mV) | 0.80-1.50V (20 mV) | 1.05-1.41V (20 mV) |
| CAS Latency | 8-33 Cycles | 8-33 Cycles | 8-33 Cycles |
| tRCDRD/RDCWR | 8-27 Cycles | 8-27 Cycles | 8-27 Cycles |
| tRP | 8-27 Cycles | 8-27 Cycles | 8-27 Cycles |
| tRAS | 21-58 Cycles | 21-58 Cycles | 21-58 Cycles |
We’re comparing the X570 Taichi to Gigabyte’s X570 Aorus Master, which we’re then comparing to that company’s previous-gen X470 Aorus Gaming 7 WiFi. All three boards provide a range of voltage levels that exceed what we’re able to use effectively on our dual-fan closed-loop cooler.
Both X570 boards reached the same 4175 MHz CPU clock, but the X570 Aorus Master edged out the X570 Taichi with the highest stable data rate for our DDR4-2933. With four DIMMs installed, the X570 Taichi even fell victim to the X470 comparison board.
Performance is the point of overclocking, and the X570 Aorus Master needed that extra 133 MHz data rate (for four DIMMs) simply to produce the same performance as the X570 Taichi. Some companies use more-conservative advanced memory settings than others to gain an advantage in clock numbers, but the identical performance number puts both boards on par.
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