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Benchmark and Final Analysis
All standard benchmarks and power tests are performed using the CPU’s stock frequencies (including stock AMD Turbo), with all of its power-saving features enabled. Optimized defaults are set in the BIOS and the memory set. The memory is manually set up to run at DDR4 3200 MHz (base spec for Zen 2) @ 16-18-18-38 primary timings.
Synthetic Benchmarks
Synthetics are a great tool to figure out if a board is running out of spec, as identical settings should produce extremely similar performance results. Advanced memory timings are the one place where motherboard makers can still optimize for either stability or performance though, and those settings can impact some testing.
In our synthetic set of tests, the Asus TUF Gaming X570-Plus Wi-Fi performed well, mixing it up with the other X570 motherboards. All results were within general run variance difference with no anomalous data points. In general, PBO showed some improvement across most tests, but not much overall.
3D Games
Game results continue to show a very tight set of results without any appreciable differences. PBO didn’t do much for gaming, but did show an almost 5% gain in Ashes at 1080p using the ‘crazy’ settings.
Timed Applications
Our timed The timed applications also show little difference between the boards. Enabling PBO showed notable improvements here performing on average a bit over 4% better than stock in these tests.
Overall Performance
Overall performance differences between the boards we tested were negligible, outside of the PBO results which showed gains in timed applications, but otherwise nothing notable. The X570-Plus Wi-Fi’s worst showing was in productivity where it showed 6% less performance in those tests. Creativity testing showed it was 2% faster there, so it's a give and take it seems (that and PCMark’s consistency isn’t the greatest).
Power & Relative Energy Efficiency
On the power consumption front, the Asus TUF Gaming X570-Plus Wi-Fi idled at 68W, with load power reaching 143W. With PBO enabled, we saw 221W in our Prime 95 testing, nearly 80W more than stock. If you are the type of user interested in saving some power, leave PBO disabled as the performance gains are simply not worth the notable power increase.
Overall efficiency proved to be good here with a positive 7.6% result at stock. Enabling PBO kills that with a large power increase for not even a 1% overall performance bump.
Overclocking
Overclocking on this board yielded 4.224 GHz using 1.343V on the core. While the clock speed is a bit higher than what was achieved on the X570 Aorus Elite, this was due to spread spectrum and the floating BCLK as we used the same 42.25 multiplier. Anything above this voltage left us with temperatures above 90C, too hot for comfort. Regardless, anything above this multiplier at this voltage caused an error in stress testing.
Load voltage was fairly stable with LLC set to auto. With a BIOS setting of 1.343V, load in Windows turned into 1.328V. Raising the LLC to 2 ended eliminated the droop and we ended up at 1.328V which was similar to the Gigabyte overclocking results.
We successfully loaded up our GSKill Trident Z Neo 4x8GB DDR4 3600 16-16-16-36 sticks without issue here as well. Beyond that value, the memory divider hits 1:2 situation and overall performance tends to drop without much-increased speeds. So we aren’t pushing it past that point. AMD said DDR4 3600 is the sweet spot and we're able to reach that without issue on this board.
Overall, the board clocked well and brought the chip to its limit. This is the second board we’ve overclocked this CPU on so far and were met with the same result. Perhaps a higher-end board with a more robust VRM could help things, but the main issue is getting those temperatures in order.
Final Thoughts
The Asus TUF Gaming X570-Plus Wi-Fi ($200) passed all of our tests with flying colors both at stock and when overclocked with PBO and manually. The feature set versus the similarly priced Gigabyte X570 Aorus Elite has it as the preferred board between the two, even more so if you’re in need of integrated Wi-Fi and a USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C port on the back.
Other features include the full complement of eight SATA ports (the Aorus Elite had six), dual PCIe M.2 slots (with one heatsinked) and a VRM capable of driving our Ryzen 7 3700X to its thermal limits while not melting the heatsinks attached. If a front panel USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C port is a requirement, the Gigabyte board is your only option at the sub $200 price. Another value-added feature on this board is the debug LED which is not typically found on entry-level boards.
The Asus TUF Gaming X570-Plus Wi-Fi is a competent motherboard which starts off at a very reasonable price. Performance against similarly priced and more expensive boards is, for all intents and purposes, the same and even in our overclocking tests. Between the TUF and the Aorus Elite, the Asus is the more feature-rich option. If you’re after rear USB-C and Wi-Fi, while keeping your board budget tight, look no further than the Asus TUF Gaming X570-Plus Wi-Fi.
Image Credits: Tom's Hardware
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