Benchmark Results and Final Analysis
Gigabyte’s GeForce RTX 2070 Gaming OC 8G and AMD’s Ryzen 7 3700X update the hardware configuration of our most-recent X470 test system, while a newly configured test suite brings all the compatibility benefits of Microsoft’s latest Win10 patches.
3DMark and PCMark
The Strix X570-E Gaming falls behind in the Physics score of Firstrike Extreme, but produces par performance in nearly every other test. Let’s see if that single difference is reflected at all in games.
3D Games
The Strix X570-E Gaming comes up in line with the competition again in our CPU and DRAM bottlenecked gaming titles. Perhaps we’ll find a difference in encoding applications?
Mixed Apps
We’ve seen enough competitive results from the Strix X570-E Gaming to dismiss its loss in only one synthetic benchmark as a likely hiccup within the benchmark itself. Will it stand out better in efficiency?
Power, Heat And Efficiency
The Strix X570-E Gaming scores here as the second-most power-hungry board, and a look back at our test notes reveals that it ran between the Taichi’s 4.1 GHz and the Aorus Master’s 3.9 GHz, and at 3.95 to 3.975 GHz, in Prime95. We’re not sure why it didn’t idle down to a lower number, though.
The Asus board had the second-highest full-load frequency and the second-highest full-load power consumption, and it also produced the second-highest thermal measurements. Concerning the voltage regulator, the results shown are from an infrared scanner that reported the highest temperature at the chokes: The Strix X570-E Gaming’s software reported the lowest MOSFET temperature at 10° over ambient, for what that’s worth.
Differences of less than half a percent are hard to track in individual benchmarks, but the average of these put the ROG Strix X570-E Gaming in second place to the X570 Taichi and farther ahead of upmarket models from Gigabyte and MSI. That small boost in overall performance loosens up the efficiency deficit of its relatively high energy use, so that it finishes between the Taichi and Aorus Master overall.
Final Thoughts
As the second-cheapest board in our lineup, the ROG Strix X570-E Gaming produces the second-greatest performance per dollar. With its 2.5GbE secondary Ethernet controller, WiFi 6 controller and bundled remote thermistor, it’s far closer to the X570 Aorus Master in features than to the X570 Taichi, and it beats all comers when it comes to USB3 Gen2 port count.
The Strix X570-E Gaming splits the difference in price between the Taichi and the Aorus Master, taking the trophy in features for the money. This, despite its lack of a third M.2 slot, since the Strix board focuses instead on having eight SATA ports. While it may be difficult for some of us to fathom substituting four SATA ports for a third NVMe interface, we’re sure that someone out there plans to build with more than four SATA, and no more than two M.2, drives.
That ideal buyer sounds more like power user than a gamer. But the marketing aim being a bit off doesn’t detract from this board’s features and abilities. The ROG Strix X570-E Gaming offers an advantage over competing X570 boards in features-per-dollar, making it easy to recommend, unless of course you need to install a trio of M.2 SSDs without the use of an expansion card.
Image Credits: Tom's Hardware
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