ASRock is well known among PC enthusiasts for its graphics cards, motherboards, power supplies, and gaming monitors. Now, it has entered the market for liquid cooling solutions.

We’re looking at two of the company’s first AIOs here, the Phantom Gaming 360 LCD and Steel Legend 360 LCD. Both of these liquid coolers feature 3.4-inch 480 x 480 displays for showing off animations and monitoring performance metrics. Aside from aesthetics, the main differences between the two are the included fans and radiator size. The Steel Legend 360 incorporates a standard 27 mm thick radiator, whereas the Phantom Gaming 360 uses a thicker-than-normal 32 mm radiator.

Let's take a look at the specifications and features of the coolers, then we’ll go over thermal and noise benchmarks and decide whether ASRock’s Phantom Gaming and Steel Legend AIOs deserve to make our list of the best CPU coolers.

Cooler specifications

Features of ASRock Phantom Gaming & Steel Legend 360 LCD

▶️ 60hz 3.4-inch LCD display

Both the Phantom Gaming 360 LCD and the Steel Legend 360 LCD include a 3.4-inch square IPS screen with a 480 x 480 resolution and 60 Hz refresh rate, with brightness rated at 250 nits.

To control and customize the screen, you’ll need to download ASRock’s Polychrome Display software. You have the option of selecting six preset themes, or you can build your own theme, and/or customize the individual elements shown on the display.

While I certainly wish there were more presets available, my biggest complaint using this software is the extreme file compatibility limits. If you’d like to upload a custom background, the image or video file needs to be less than 20 megabytes and 1080p or lower in resolution.

▶️ RAM Clearance

As with most liquid coolers, the design of both the Steel Legend and Phantom Gaming 360 has the CPU block set so it doesn’t overhang or interfere with the DIMM slots – ensuring that all sizes of RAM, no matter how tall, are compatible.

▶️ VRM fan

Included on top of the CPU block is a 70 mm, 3,000 RPM fan designed to help keep your RAM and motherboard’s VRM modules cool. As you’ll see in our Karhu benchmarks, it does an excellent job of cooling these parts of your computer.

▶️ Thick CPU cold plate

The copper contact plate is unusually thick, like you’d more typically see in an AIO supporting AMD Threadripper or Intel Xeon server CPUs.

Differences between the ASRock Phantom Gaming 360 LCD and Steel Legend 360 LCD

▶️ Color schemes and aesthetic

While they are similar in many ways, each of these AIOs has a different aesthetic, similar to what you’d see in the company’s motherboard lines. The Steel Legend might appeal to those who prefer simpler designs, with a white body and gray fan blades.

If you want flashy lighting, the Phantom Gaming 360 might be your thing. In addition to ARGB lighting on the fan blades, it also includes a lighting strip across the side of the radiator.

▶️ Radiator sizes: 32 mm and 27 mm

There are two primary technical differences between the Phantom Gaming 360 LCD and the Steel Legend 360 LCD; one of those is the radiator size. The Steel Legend 360 LCD has a standard 27 mm radiator, whereas the Phantom Gaming 360 features a thicker 32 mm radiator.

▶️ 120 mm fans

There’s more to a liquid cooler than just the radiator and liquid pump. The included fans directly impact noise levels and cooling performance. This constitutes the second primary technical difference between the AIOs we’re reviewing today.

Both units include fans that are 28 mm thick and pre-installed for user convenience. The Steel Legend 360 features three individual 120 mm fans, with a white shell and gray blades.

The Phantom Gaming includes a fancier fan block instead of individual fans, and features ARGB lighting on the fan blades and a strip across the radiator. These fans aren’t as powerful – or as noisy – as the fans included with the Steel Legend, but this is balanced by the thicker 32 mm radiator included on the Phantom Gaming 360 LCD.

Packaging

The outer packaging is a bit flashy – at least, in comparison to your normal AIO box. It features a rendering of the cooler against a black background with streaks of purple hues.

The inner packaging is just as fresh as the outside, with each component of the cooling system well protected from the chaos that shipping can bring by using a combination of soft covers and individual cardboard walls for each component.

Included with the package are:

• Mounting hardware for AMD and Intel platforms
• Tubing clips
• A small tube of thermal paste
• 360 mm radiator and 120 mm fans
• 3.4-inch LCD display

AM5 Installation

This section assumes you’ve already mounted the 360 mm radiator. Installation of AIOs is typically much easier when you have already secured the radiator to your computer case.

To begin putting things together, you’ll first need to remove the default AM4/5 retention from the motherboard.

The next step is to place the mounting bars on top of the studs, securing them with the included screws. The middle of the mounting bars includes a helpful image indicating the direction the bars should be installed, with an arrow pointing towards where the CPU should be.

Now you’ll want to apply the included thermal paste. If you’re not sure how to do that, we have a handy thermal paste application guide that covers the different methods you can use.

Afterwards, place the pump block against the CPU and mounting bars, and use a screwdriver to secure it. You should have the liquid tubing in the south position for best thermal performance.

The next step is to slide the LCD display on top of the VRM fan. To complete the AIO’s installation, you’ll want to connect the USB, PWM, and ARGB headers as appropriate – then you can power on your system.

Real-world testing configuration – AMD AM5 platform

We’ve tested coolers with both the Ryzen 9950X3D and its non-V-Cache sibling, the 9950X. There are some differences in how the 9950X and 9950X3D CPUs are impacted by thermal events. While the heat output of the CCDs of AMD’s 9950X3D is relatively balanced, the 9950X I used has one CCD that runs much hotter than the other, with a difference of over 10 degrees Celsius in some scenarios, shown below.

We’ve since returned to using a 9950X3D for cooler testing, as it has a more balanced heat profile, and is almost certainly a more widely adopted CPU. The benchmark results shared in these reviews may differ from others because I emphasize results that are comparable to real-world use. This means I generally test CPU coolers inside of a closed desktop case, which increases cooling difficulty compared to other testing methods.

Many reviewers test coolers on open test benches, which have a combination of lesser airflow needs and lowered ambient temperatures. This results in making weak coolers appear stronger than they really are. Some also use generic thermal plates to test cooling solutions. I reject both of these methods because they don’t accurately reflect real-world cooler conditions.

Our latest testing setup uses the Flova F50 computer case from Tryx.

This case features a unique “crossflow” fan that pulls air from the side, which the company claims is more effective than traditional intake fans. For air cooling tests, we’ve added a single Noctua NF-A12 G2 intake fan.

We’re going to start this review’s benchmark section by focusing on a traditional maximum performance test, with the CPU cooler’s fans allowed to reach their fastest speeds for the best cooling possible.

Turning on PBO allows AMD’s Ryzen 9 9950X3D to stretch its legs to an extent, and all air coolers I have tested with PBO enabled using MSI’s X870E Carbon Wifi motherboard reach the maximum CPU temperature of 95 degrees C (203 F) and thermally throttle to some extent.

The thermals of both ASRock AIOs are excellent, able to keep AMD’s Ryzen 9 9950X3D under its peak temperature (TJ Max) in Cinebench R23 with PBO enabled – allowing for the best possible benchmark performance. Of particular note is the performance of ASRock’s Steel Legend 360; it maintained an average of 61.5C over ambient (83.5C), the best result we’ve seen on this test bench.

Some coolers perform well in maximum strength tests, but require running loudly to maintain said performance. The ASRock AIOs we tested reach 46.9 and 47.8 dBA, which is about average for most liquid coolers on the market.

200W thermal benchmarks

For the next thermal test, I leave the motherboard settings at their defaults, which results in a power limit of 200W when running Cinebench R23.

When a standard power limit is imposed, the thermal differences between the two ASRock coolers close, with both coolers performing about the same. I measured 47.3 and 47.9 degrees over ambient, giving them the third- and fourth-best performing results from this test bench.

150W + GPU thermal results, noise levels

Our next test runs Cinebench on the CPU with a 150W power limit, while also running Furmark on MSI’s RTX 4070 Ti Super Ventus 3x OC. This causes the GPU to consume ~295W of power. This test is designed to emulate the thermals of games, which primarily stress the CPU and GPU.

ASRock’s Steel Legend stood out in this test, outperforming all other competitors, with an average temperature of 57.4 C (35.4 C above ambient). The Phantom Gaming AIO also performed well, taking the fourth-place spot.

But thermals are only part of the story. Noise levels, especially when you’re gaming, are far more important here. When tied to my motherboard’s default fan curve, ASRock’s Steel Legend 360 had a noise level measured at 39.2 dBA. The Phantom Gaming 360 LCD was just a hair louder, measuring 39.6 dBA.

Noise-normalized testing

Most testing is performed with the cooler tied to the default fan curve of our MSI X870E Carbon motherboard, but some prefer to see tests when the noise levels of coolers are equalized. This is especially important to those of you who prefer silent computers. This next test has the CPU cooler noise-normalized to 38.9 dBA, with PBO enabled for the Ryzen 9 9950X3D CPU.

With recordings of 258.8 and 258.2W average CPU power consumption, ASRock’s AIOs perform essentially on par with each other while noise-normalized.

Karhu DDR5 RAM thermals testing

Your CPU cooler does not operate in isolation. It has an impact on not just your CPU’s temperatures, but also the other components in your build, like your RAM and GPU. To that end, I’ve run the Karhu RAM stress test. This places a load of ~153W on the CPU and ensures system RAM (DDR5 in my case) is fully stable. In this type of scenario, most AIOs tend to produce worse results than air coolers.

DDR5 temperatures were excellent in this test, with averages of 20.9 C (Steel Legend) and 21.5 C (Phantom Gaming) recorded. Of the AIOs I’ve tested on this configuration, only Silverstone’s IceMyst Pro with its unique stackable fans performs better.

We’ve also included a chart showing the CPU temperatures in this test, and thermal performance was strong – outperforming air coolers by ~5 degrees C. But I haven’t recorded this data for other AIOs yet.

Conclusion

ASRock’s Steel Legend 360 LCD and Phantom Gaming 360 LCD are both strong coolers, well suited to heat-intensive CPUs like AMD’s Ryzen 9950X3D or Intel’s Core i9-14900K.

Of the two ASRock AIOs, I would recommend the Steel Legend 360 LCD for users who want the best thermal performance possible (and a lower price tag). It might lack the thicker 32 mm radiator included with the Phantom Gaming 360 LCD, but its included fans are stronger, and as a result provide lower CPU temperatures and quieter noise levels in common scenarios. Still, at around $160, the Steel Legend is far from the most affordable AIO with a display, and it’s only available in white.

Leading Japanese capsule toy maker Tarlin International has announced an official collaboration with “the four major manufacturers” of the PC components industry. The teased result means that gachapon fans will be able to get their hands on tiny models of ASRock, Gigabyte, MSI, and Intel parts (plus fans, PSUs, and cases), accurate enough “that you can assemble and play with.” In 2026, PC building has become so expensive that perhaps Tarlin’s latest wares will fill an emotional vacuum in the market.

In the image above, you can see Tarlin has inked some kind of official licensing deal with ASRock, Gigabyte, MSI, and Intel. There’s already been four series of networking equipment gachapon launched by Tarlin, for some context.

As far as we can see from the social media posting, the new Tarlin gachapon series includes three branded miniature motherboards: the ASRock Z890 Steel Legend WiFi, the Gigabyte Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7 Plus, and the MSI MEG Z890 Ace. Premium stuff. Intel’s Core Ultra 7 270K Plus seems to be the only CPU choice. There are also case fans, a PSU, and a tower case for your minuscule components PC build.

Tarlin’s eccentric gachapon pedigree

Compared with gachapon rivals like Bandai and Takara Tomy, Tarlin has carved a niche, eccentric furrow in the industry. It has a reputation for turning everyday, mundane, or highly technical objects into accurate scale miniatures.

Examples of other incredibly niche Tarlin-produced capsules include its Temporary Toilet Series, a realistic Articulated Crayfish, and its series of Cisco rackmount network gear toys. In this context, it's “serious spec” PC component capsule toys, which are made to such exacting precision that they can be assembled to make tiny tower PCs, aren’t so unusual.

In 2024, we spotted a Japanese capsule toy machine filled with Intel CPUs. One gacha chancer acquired an Intel Core i7-8700 CPU after inserting 500 Yen (around $3.25) and twisting the customary knob.

Tom's Hardware stopped by the ASRock booth, and we were greeted by a wide variety of products at this year's Computex. From AI machines and new AIOs to power supplies and a one-click OpenClaw installation, there was a lot to take in, but not much new on the component side beyond the new AIOs and power supplies. The 10th-anniversary edition Taichi products they showed off had their own unique look, but unfortunately for us, they were concept models and will likely not be released.

Starting with the AIOs, the new Taichi Aqua 360 LCD cooler is a hybrid of a custom loop and an AIO of sorts, with features like an inline flow meter, G 1/4 connectors for expansion, a dual-pump architecture said to support a 500W TDP (and for redundancy). The radiator is thick at 38mm and comes with an ‘aerospace grade’ LCP fan. The pump/block combo uses the latest-generation Asetek pump to push water through the loop running up to 4,000 RPM. It also has a unique dual-mode Top cover design with a detachable magnetic 3.4-inch LCD that shows system information. When removed, it reveals the transparent design, showing the water flowing in the loop and lit by RGB LCDs. Pricing wasn’t mentioned, but we should see this available around Q3 2026.

The Taichi 360 Holo’s claim to fame is the implementation of a unique 4-inch holographic feature on top of the pump to display images or system information. Its POV-based (Persistence Of Vision effect) holographic film spins like a fan, creating a floating, customizable, 3D-effect image that’s truly unique to AIOs. Like the Taichi Aqua, it’s only found in a 360mm size, but it is a bit thinner than the Aqua 360.

Moving down the product stack, ASRock showed off its new Rock and Challenger series AIOs that will be much cheaper than the flagships above. The Rock 360 Digital sports a small digital display on the pump/block, while the Rock (non digital) forgoes the display and instead has a small, frosted RGB line on top of the block. The showstopper on these is an awesome price point. The Rock 360 digital comes in at a low $69.99, with the plain Rock at a wallet-sparing $59.99.

ASRock is diving headfirst into power supplies, expanding its portfolio into the AI realm with the Taichi WS (Workstation) line, which consists of three models ranging from a mere 2,600W to a monster 3,200W flagship capable of supporting up to FOUR RTX 5090s. They feature ASRock’s cable Over-temperature protection, which, as the name implies, shuts the system down when it detects that a GPU's 12-V2x6 connector has overheated.

We also saw the Phantom Gaming lineup, which is 80Plus Platinum-rated and earned a Cybenetics A++ rating (850W model; 1KW is A+) for noise, so it should be not only efficient but quiet, too. These come in 850W and 1,000W models and also use Cable Over-temperature protection. They also updated the Steel Legend SKUs (80Plus platinum) and the Pro models for entry-level SKUs. Pricing or availability was mentioned on these.

Motherboard sales are collapsing amid unprecedented shortages fueled by AI, causing prices for many major PC components to rise across the board during the past six months, with memory modules and storage drives leading the way.

Those shortages are being exacerbated by chipmakers like Nvidia, Intel, and AMD, which have reduced production of consumer chips so they can manufacture more AI processors. The AI infrastructure buildout is also causing shortages for Intel and AMD CPUs (and even high-end Macs), as interest in agentic AI rockets through the roof.

Because of this, users who lack deep pockets are putting off upgrading their PCs and holding on to their current devices longer. Motherboard manufacturers have begun to feel the effects of these delayed purchases, with Digitimes [machine translated] reporting that the four major firms are revising target sales downward.

Asus, which sold 15 million motherboards in 2025, has shipped only a little more than 5 million in the first half of 2026. The company will have to push hard to even move 10 million units by the end of the year, marking a 33% decrease in sales year-on-year. Gigabyte and MSI sold 11.5 million and 11 million motherboards last year, respectively. The companies have revised their internal forecasts for 2026 to 9 million (Gigabyte) and 8.4 million (MSI), a 22% drop for the former and a 24% contraction for the latter.

ASRock will be hardest hit by the situation: The company’s shipments are projected to fall by 37%, from 4.3 million in 2025 to just 2.7 million by the end of the year. This marks a contraction of 28% for the overall motherboard market, at least for the big four manufacturers.

AI’s demand for memory, storage, and processors is the primary driver for this drop in sales. Shortages that have been caused by their massive purchases have forced PC builders and enthusiasts to fight over a smaller pie of PC components, resulting in higher overall prices for these components.

Aside from this, AMD continues to use the AM5 socket for its latest processors, while Intel's Nova Lake, which will reportedly use LGA 1954, isn’t available until later this year. The situation is further compounded by Nvidia not releasing a refreshed RTX 50 Super series this year, while rumors claim that the RTX 60 series will not debut until 2028. This confluence of factors is discouraging PC builders from upgrading their current systems.

Despite this drop in sales, these companies aren’t exactly struggling. Asus, Gigabyte, and ASRock have pivoted some of their production towards AI servers, allowing them to capture some of the investments that hyperscalers are generously pouring into their data centers.

If you’re planning to build a completely new PC from scratch, you might be able to find good deals on motherboard combos, especially as retailers are keen on getting their inventories moving. Although these discounts might not be enough to offset the increased costs of memory, storage, and, to some extent, processors, it will at least save you a few dollars as you navigate the current chip crisis.

Thanks to the AI boom, component prices have skyrocketed in the past few months, leading constituents to come up with creative ways to fight the RAMpocalypse. ASRock has previously introduced a motherboard with both DDR4 and DDR5 slots to help alleviate the crisis, but now it's teaming up with Intel and TeamGroup to launch "HUDIMM" — a new type of DDR5 RAM that can potentially help you save money.

DDR5 memory (UDIMM) typically uses two 32-bit subchannels per stick, requiring enough chips to populate a full 64-bit wide bus. This constitutes a single rank. HUDIMM, or Half Unbuffered DIMM, uses just a single 32-bit subchannel instead, effectively halving the bandwidth and density of the RAM. This allows for cheaper sticks that use fewer modules and are basically "half-rank" in nature.

ASRock has partnered up with TeamGroup to produce some of these first HUDIMM sticks, which are already working on Intel 600, 700 and 800-series motherboards. ASRock is also making HSODIMM, which is basically the same concept but for SO-DIMM (laptop/mobile) instead of U-DIMM (desktop). The company is targeting entry-level users across both segments that don't need the highest performance, or capacity.

According to ASRock, "two sub-channel (2*32-bit)" architecture is beneficial for high-capacity single DIMM module, however, it is not so practical for current PC market." That being said, HUDIMM has asymmetrical dual-channel support at the BIOS level. This should allow you to mix and match different DDR5 RAM to circumvent the single subchannel limitation and achieve higher bandwidth, while still maintaining compatibility.

For instance, an 8 GB HUDIMM stick paired with a 16 GB UDIMM stick will run in proper dual-channel mode with at least 3x 32-bit subchannels active — one from the HUDIMM and two from the standard UDIMM. This Frankenstein 24 GB setup apparently provides better bandwidth than a single 2x 32-bit 24 GB stick, which would be more expensive to manufacture anyway. Though ASRock's press material shows a 90 ns latency, which would be considered high by any modern standards.

Following ASRock's announcement, Asus also chimed in with its own HUDMM showcase on a ROG Maximum Z890 Apex motherboard. A member of the R&D team took two regular 24 GB DDR5 RAM sticks and just taped half of the contact points, effectively disabling half of the ICs. Instead of showing 48 GB in the BIOS, these taped sticks showed only 24 GB.

The company didn't say whether it was partnering up with TeamGroup as well to add official HUDIMM support, but the fact that an engineer acknowledged it could signal something is in the works. If Asus hops on board the standard, an industry-wide push for this would be imminent, and we could genuinely see more affordable DDR5 soon. There is no word on availability or pricing from any side, however.

The ongoing RAMpocalypse has led many to think of creative solutions to acquire memory at reasonable prices. ASRock, a leading motherboard manufacturer, has chimed in with its answer: a motherboard that supports both DDR4 and DDR5, so you can simply pick whatever's cheapest. The "H610M Combo II" is an LGA 1700 board, meaning it supports Intel's 12th, 13th, and 14th Gen CPUs.

This is actually the company's second motherboard of this nature. We previously saw the H610 Combo, which was a full-size ATX option, and it was more feature-rich. For instance, that board had 6 DIMM slots, while this one is limited to just three. Out of those three, two are meant for DDR5, while the one closest to the CPU is DDR4. The DDR4 slot can take up to a single 32 GB stick and maxes out at 3,200 MT/s.

The dual DDR5 slots are a bit more forgiving, allowing for a combined 96 GB of maximum memory, running at up to 5,600 MT/s on only 14th Gen CPUs — 13th and 12th Gen are limited to DDR5-4800 instead. The overall config is a bit ironic considering how DDR4 is always encouraged to be run in dual-channel, while a single stick of DDR5 can suffice without major performance degradation.

The rest of the motherboard is pretty barebones; it's an mATX offering with one PCIe 5.0 slot for the GPU, another PCIe 3.0 x1 slot for expansion cards, and a single PCIe 3.0 x4 slot for the M.2 SSD. The power is handled by a 6+1+1 phase VRM, and the I/O is nothing special either. You only get 2x USB 3.0 ports; the rest are USB2, and there's no wireless connectivity onboard. You do get gigabit Ethernet, however.

Those specs, along with how the H610M Combo II generally looks, should tell you that it's a basic motherboard aimed at entry-level gamers. After all, they're the ones most affected by the ongoing component crisis. Pricing and availability haven't been disclosed yet, but, according to Videocardz, ASRock has said the board might not launch in every region.

There's a rare but persistent issue with Socket AM5 processors where, occasionally, they burn out. The name that has come up the most in discussions of this issue is ASRock, which might make you think that ASRock has had the most failures. That's not necessarily a given; the tracking of the problem started on the /r/ASRock sub-Reddit, and that's why many of the failure reports are on ASRock motherboards. Given its proximity to the problem, you might expect that ASRock would have already put out a statement about it. Well, it hadn't — until now, anyway.

In an official statement published on its website's "News" section, ASRock says it is "closely monitoring recent discussions regarding the performance and behavior of AMD Ryzen™ 9000 series processors on ASRock AMD platforms." No mention of exactly what the issues are, and no specific mention of Ryzen 9 or X3D processors, either — simply, 'we heard there's a problem, and we're looking into it.' Ten-four, ASRock. This echoes a similar statement from ASUS recently, and MSI has also released remarks on the issue.

In most reports, these chips normally get so hot that they leave scorch marks on the CPU and socket. Well, they don't normally fail at all, but you understand. We don't want to overstate the frequency of this issue; at the time of writing, there are around 350 reports, which sounds like a lot until you consider both that reports are not the same as verified, root-caused failures, and also the hundreds of thousands of Socket AM5 CPUs that are out there. This problem affects an infinitesimally tiny fraction of Socket AM5 users — but that doesn't make it any less frustrating, of course.

The "burnt CPUs" issue initially plagued the Ryzen 7000 series processors way back in 2023, and last year, it was frequently framed as an issue specifically affecting AMD's "X3D" gaming processors with 3D V-Cache. While the pictures of burned processors and melted CPU sockets are certainly evocative, it's not really clear that this problem is indicative of any kind of design flaw or reproducible fault in the processors or the motherboards. ASRock issued BIOS updates aimed to minimize the issue after community outrage, but some insist that the problem persists to this day.

Hardware YouTubers Gamers Nexus have put quite a few hours into trying to intentionally cause this kind of failure, and their efforts have largely been in vain, even when using a motherboard that was known to have already killed a processor once. Much like the situation with Intel's 13th/14th-generation CPUs, it's possible there is an element of "CPU vendor offers wide range of possible values; motherboard vendor picks the most extreme possible values" here. Who's actually at fault in that case is difficult to say, but AMD is replacing CPUs that die in this manner under its standard warranty, so it's hard to find fault there, anyway.

ASRock says it is "working in seamless coordination with AMD continuously to further validate system performance across a wide range of hardware configurations, while optimizing BIOS and enhancing overall system stability." While some users see the company silently shipping BIOS updates that modify voltage behavior and power profiles as an admission of guilt, it's just as likely that ASRock wants to minimize the amount of support requests it has to field and the number of processors AMD has to replace. Given the relatively low frequency of the faults, this one is probably better filed under "unfortunate manufacturing issues" and moved away from.

PC hardware manufacturer ASRock has just announced its slate for CES 2026, and it includes all-in-one (AIO) liquid coolers for the first time, marking another entrant into a crowded (and competitive) market. ASRock is known for having some of the best motherboards on the market, alongside producing mini PCs. The company is also a notable AIB partner for both AMD and Intel GPUs.

The company has dabbled in cooling products once before, when it partnered with Cooler Master in 2019 to create a Phantom Gaming-themed AIO, but it wasn't a mainstream release. Now, it's set to debut liquid coolers across the Taichi, Phantom Gaming, Steel Legend, Challenger, Pro, and workstation (WS) lineups at CES 2026.

ASRock says these coolers feature an "industry-leading pump architecture" paired with "expertly engineered flow-path design" that results in maximum performance and efficiency. High-end models will feature large screens capable of displaying telemetry and custom backgrounds (hopefully, there's no AI involved).

No other details were shared yet, but we can make out at least four of the six models with an LCD, which is an ongoing trend in the segment. We also see one model with just a faceplate featuring the company's logo on it, and another sporting a pumpless look. It's unclear whether these are just licensed Asetek designs, or custom-built in-house.

ASRock will take the show floor from 9 AM to 6 PM at the Las Vegas Hotel, between January 6th and January 9th. So, we should learn more about these products very soon.

Since the X870 chipset release in mid-2024, we’ve covered several ASRock boards for Intel and AMD, including the Taichi. That name was used solely for the company’s flagship model until recently, when it released the AM5-based Taichi OCF (designed for overclocking), and now the X870 Taichi Creator. The latest iteration of the Taichi, as its name implies, is designed for creators (think visual media, broadcasters, audio creators, streamers) and, as ASRock says, the board delivers precise performance, stable power, and advanced connectivity to empower workflows with reliability and style.

At $319.99, it’s decidedly a mid-range board and getting well into X870E territory. For the money, the Taichi Creator gives you dual LAN ports (10 and 5 GbE) and Wi-Fi 7, two full-length PCIe 5.0 slots (three total), 12 USB ports on the rear IO (two USB4/40 Gbps), capable power delivery, and a high-quality audio solution. On top of that, its all-black PCB and heatsinks feature a gold accent line, while clear plexi covers on the chipset and VRM heatsinks give it a unique color scheme and premium (though somewhat plain) appearance that’s sure to look good in any black chassis.

The board’s performance was good across most of our testing suite, even though we, yet again, were forced to use our alternate DDR5-6000 set as our primary kit, which isn’t compatible with the latest batch of ASRock AM5 boards (and their new BIOSes) we’ve reviewed. This usually results in some memory-intensive tests running slightly slower than they would on the other kit with tighter tertiary timings (we set primary/secondary to match). Still, it did well in our benchmarks, including gaming. But oddly, this kit worked with all the company’s boards at launch, then suddenly stopped being compatible.

Below, we’ll examine the details and determine whether it deserves a spot on our list of the Best Motherboards. But before we share test results and discuss details, here are the specifications from ASRock’s website.

Specifications of the ASRock X870 Taichi Creator

Inside the Box

ASRock includes its typical mid-range accessories to help get you started. They include four SATA cables, an ARGB splitter cable, a thermistor cable (for additional temperature source/reading), and the Wi-Fi antenna. There’s nothing special. It’s not even worth a picture.

Design of the Taichi Creator

Design-wise, the all-black 8-layer PCB features black heatsinks around the board for a stealthy look. There’s a gold accent strip running vertically on the left side, while the heatsinks use a ribbed pattern for additional surface area and, of course, looks. Plexi coverings with Creator branding sit atop the chipset and the left portion of the VRM heatsink, creating a unique look. If you’re looking for RGB lighting, you’ll have to attach to one of the board’s multiple headers, as none are integrated.

The Taichi Creator's appearance is appealing overall, though a bit understated. This aesthetic aligns well with its target audience, where functionality is generally prioritized over elaborate design or "bling."

Focusing on the top half of the board, we get a better look at the large VRM heatsinks (not connected) and the plexi design piece (don’t worry, it didn’t seem to affect cooling), along with the Creator’s “precision by design” branding. Above that are the two 8-pin (4+4) EPS power connectors (one required) for the CPU.

Moving past the socket, we next run into the four DRAM slots, with a single locking mechanism located at the top. ASRock lists support up to DDR5-8000, which isn’t high, but is well past AMD’s sweetspot (around DDR5-6000-6400), so no worries there. We again had issues with our common Kingston kit, so we’d suggest sticking to the memory QVL list for assured compatibility.

Above the RAM slots are the first three (of seven) 4-pin fan headers. In this case, it’s the CPU_FAN1/2 and AIO_PUMP headers. Each header supports PWM and DC-controlled devices. Power output varies among the headers, with the CPU_FAN1 capable of 1A/12W, while the rest are 3A/36W. There’s plenty of power to go around. The BIOS or the FANTastic Tuning found in the A-Tune application controls any pumps or fans. On the right edge, working our way down, the first item is the 2-character Dr. Debug display, convenient power and reset buttons, two 3-pin ARGB headers (another and an RGB header are on the bottom edge), the 24-pin ATX power connector for the board, and finally, a front panel USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 (20 Gbps) Type-C header.

Power delivery on the Taichi Creator consists of 21 phases, 18 of which are dedicated to Vcore. Power is supplied via the 8-pin EPS connector(s) to a Monolithic Power Systems MPS2512 controller. From there, it moves to the 80A MPS2425 SPS MOSFETs. The 1,440A available is enough, even for the flagship Ryzen 9 7950X or 9950X.

We've also included some pictures of the other controlling ICs on the board. This includes ASMedia ASM1074(x2 - USB 3.0), ASM1164 (PCIe to SATA controller), the Monolithic Power Systems VRMs, and the Realtek audio and power controller.

On the bottom half of the board, starting on the left, we see the audio solution, flagship Realtek ALC4082, a couple of dedicated audio caps, and the audio separation line. It doesn’t come with additional amplifiers or DACs, but it is the best codec available.

In the middle of the board are three full-length PCIe slots for graphics and expansion. The top two slots connect to the CPU, with the top-most running at PCIe 5.0 x16 and the bottom slot at x8. With both slots populated, they’ll run at x8/x8. The good news is, there’s plenty of room between the slots for a thick graphics card and other high-bandwidth add-in cards. The bottom slot connects through the chipset and runs at PCIe 3.0 x4 speeds.

In between the slots and around the PCIe slots are four M.2 sockets. The top M.2 socket, under the larger easy-release heatsink, is one of two CPU-connected PCIe 5.0 x4 (128 Gbps) sockets; the other is hidden under the plate heatsink. Also under the plate heatsink are two more M.2 sockets, though these are PCIe 4.0 x4 (64 Gbps). All M.2 sockets support devices up to 80mm.

As is common with X870 and B850, there is some lane-sharing between the sockets and the USB4 ports. If M2_2 is occupied, both rear USB4 Type-C ports and M2_2 downgrade to x2 mode. You can use x4 via a BIOS setting, but that disables those USB4 ports altogether. If M2_4 is occupied, PCIE3 (bottom slot) and M2_4 downgrade to x2 mode. Last on the bottom half, along the right edge, there isn’t much outside the four SATA ports and one 19-pin USB 3.2 Gen 1 connector.

Along the bottom edge are a slew of headers for additional connectivity. From left to right, you have the following:

• Front panel audio
• 3-pin RGB header
• 4-pin ARGB header
• (3) USB 2.0 headers
• (4) System fan headers
• 19-pin USB 3.2 Gen 1 connector
• 2-pin Clear CMOS jumper
• Front panel header

Before getting to the rear IO, we snapped a few pictures of the onboard ICs that control some of the board's features including ASMedia 1074 (two, USB 3.0), ASM1164 (PCIe to SATA controller), the Monolithic Power Systems VRMs (MPS2425) and controller (MPS2512), and some Realtek ICs for USB-C power and audio.

The rear IO on the Creator is busy, offering tons of USB connectivity. Starting on the left are two buttons: one to clear the CMOS and the other to perform a BIOS flashback. Next are the Wi-Fi 7 connectors and an HDMI (v2.1) output for integrated video. Next are 12 USB ports. You get 10 total Type-A ports: two 10 Gbps, six 5 Gbps, and two USB 2.0 ports. The two Type-C ports are 40 Gbps USB4. Above that are the two fast LAN ports at 5 and 10 GbE, respectively. Last but not least is the simple audio stack consisting of two 3.5mm jacks (mic, line out) and the SPDIF.

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Firmware

Like other ASRock boards, the X870 Taichi Creator starts in the informative Easy Mode, but it also lets you adjust several options (XMP, profiles, boot order, access to Fan-Tastic Tuning, etc.). The OCF uses a black background with purple and light blue accents (a Phantom Gaming theme), making it easy to read. The standard BIOS displays headings across the top, with subheadings and details below.

You can tweak everything here, as ASRock includes every option you can think of. Overclocking is straightforward, with most options readily available. The layout is logical, and the mouse movement is smooth. We have no significant complaints about the ASRock firmware, and this board even has room for two (which is also helpful for extreme overclocking and pushing the limits). But it certainly needs an update to match the UEFIs from recent Gigabyte and MSI offerings.

Software

ASRock offers several different software options. These include the App Store, which lets users install drivers and software; the Nahimic 3 audio control panel; the A-Tuning application that allows you to overclock and control fans; the Polychrome RGB software; and more. There’s also a Blazing OC Tuner and a pop-up for ASRock Auto Driver Install when the system first boots, which is convenient. ASRock’s software provides everything users need to manage and tweak their systems.

Test System / Comparison Products

We’ve updated our test system to Windows 11 (23H2) 64-bit OS with all updates applied as of late September 2024 (this includes the Branch Prediction Optimizations for AMD). Hardware-wise, we’ve updated the RAM kits (matching our Intel test system), cooling, storage, and video card. Unless otherwise noted, we use the latest publicly available non-beta motherboard BIOS. The hardware we used is as follows:

TEST SYSTEM COMPONENTS

• CPU - AMD Ryzen 9 9900X
• Cooling - Arctic Liquid Freezer II 420
• Storage - Crucial 2TB T705 M.2 PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSD
• RAM - Kingston Fury Beast DDR5-6000 CL36 (KF560C36BBEAK2-32)
• RAM - Teamgroup T-Froce Delta DDR5-7200 CL34 (FF3D518G7200HC34ABK)
• RAM - Klevv Cras XR5 RGB DDR5-8000 (KD5AGUA80-80R380S)
• GPU - Asus TUF RTX 4080 16G
• PSU - EVGA Supernova 850W P6
• Windows 11 64-bit (24H2)
• NVIDIA Driver 561.09

Benchmark Settings

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Benchmark Results

Our standard benchmarks and power tests are performed using the CPU’s stock frequencies (including any default boost/turbo) with all power-saving features enabled. We set optimized defaults in the BIOS and the memory by enabling the XMP profile. For this baseline testing, the Windows power scheme is set to Balanced (default) so the PC idles appropriately.

Synthetic Benchmarks

Synthetics offer a valuable method for evaluating a board's performance, as identical settings are expected to yield similar results. Turbo boost wattage and advanced memory timings are areas where motherboard manufacturers can still optimize for stability or performance, though, and these settings can impact specific testing scenarios.

Performance was solid across the board in our synthetic results. Nothing really stood out in these benchmarks.

Timed Applications

The Taichi Creator happily charred through our timed applications and mixed in with the other results. We find nothing to worry about here, either!

3D Games and 3DMark

We updated our game tests with the launch of Zen 5, keeping the F1 racing game but upgrading to F1 24. We also dropped Far Cry 6 in favor of an even more popular and good-looking game in Cyberpunk 2077. We run both games at 1920x1080 resolution using the Ultra preset (details listed in the table above). Cyberpunk 2077 uses DLSS, while we left F1 24 to native resolution scaling.

The goal with these settings is to determine if there are differences in performance at the most commonly used (and CPU/system-bound) resolution with settings most people use or strive for (Ultra). We expect the difference between boards in these tests to be minor, with most falling within the margin of error. We’ve also added a minimum FPS setting, which can affect your gameplay and immersion.

In our 3DMark and game tests, the Taichi Creator was a bit slower than average in the tightly packed 3DMark benchmark, and average in Cyberpunk 2077 and F1 24. In the end, it’s apparent that the Taichi Creator excels where it’s designed to (productivity), but is also a good gamer after hours.

Overclocking

Over the past few CPU generations, overclocking headroom has been shrinking on both sides of the fence while the out-of-box potential has increased. For overclockers, this means there’s less fun to have. For the average consumer, you’re getting the most out of the processor without manual tweaking. Today’s motherboards are more robust than ever, and they easily support power-hungry flagship-class processors, so we know the hardware can handle them. There are multiple ways to extract even more performance from these processors: enabling a canned PBO setting from the BIOS, manually tweaking the PBO settings, or just going for an all-core overclock. Results will vary and depend on the cooling as well. In other words, your mileage may vary. Considering all the above, we will not be overclocking the CPU. However, we will try out all our different memory kits to ensure they meet the specifications.

ASRock boards have been finicky with our Kingston kit for a while now, but otherwise work similarly to other motherboards. We could boot our Klevv kit, but couldn't pass a stress test with what I tried. That said, our Team Group DDR5-7200 kit worked without issue, as it has on every AMD board we’ve tested. Nothing atypical here!

Power Consumption / VRM Temperatures

We used AIDA64’s System Stability Test with Stress CPU, FPU, Cache, and Memory enabled for power testing, using the peak power consumption value from the processor. The wattage reading is from the wall via a Kill-A-Watt meter to capture the entire PC (minus the monitor). The only variable that changes is the motherboard; all other parts remain the same. Please note that we have transitioned to using only the stock power use/VRM temperature charts, as this section aims to ensure the power delivery can handle flagship-class processors.

Power consumption during our worst-case stress testing reached 249W, one of the lower peak results. Idle power use was in line with others reaching almost 80W. Nothing out of whack here.

VRM temperatures peaked around 52 degrees Celsius on our sensors and 56 degrees according to the internal sensor. While these values are warmer than several boards, it’s still well within specification. For those who would like to overclock manually or PBO, there’s plenty of headroom left, even for more powerful processors.

Bottom Line

The ASRock X870 Taichi Creator is a solid motherboard around the $300 price point and was close to making our best Motherboard list. If you’re someone who needs a lot of USB ports, a flexible PCIe configuration (including dual 5.0), and fast networking, it’s one of the best for the price. Sure, any board could do the same things, but not as many at this price have three full-length PCIe slots and dual 10/5 GbE ports. This allows creatives to install capture cards for streaming or, even better, audio cards for audio work, while still having room for 3-slot-plus graphics in the primary slot. Beyond creatives, if you like the features and design here, the performance results speak for themselves: this board can do anything well.

There are a couple of competing ‘creator’ boards, like Asus’ ProArt X870E-Creator Wi-Fi ($539.99), but that one is also much more expensive and, frankly, doesn’t offer much more than this Taichi Creator at $319.99. Other, non-Creator boards do exist in this price range, but most don’t provide three PCIe slots, like the Asus ROG Strix X870-A Gaming Wi-Fi ($329.99) and Gigabyte X870 Aorus Stealth Ice ($305.99), or have tight spacing like the MSI X870 Tomahawk Wi-Fi - now $259.99. While it stands on its own merit at the current price and is worth it for those who need the features, I’d love to see this board drop to $299.99, which would make it attractive to an even broader audience.

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ASRock’s X870E Taichi OCF is a purpose-built motherboard designed for extreme overclocking. All the buttons you see, the two-slot/1 DIMM-per-channel DRAM configuration, and the overbuilt power delivery are just some tools of the trade. Strap a liquid nitrogen pot on top, pour in some of that -196 degree Celsius goodness, and see if you can break some records (there’s more to it than that, but get the idea). And while that’s incredibly fun to do, people tend to use ambient cooling as their daily driver. But don’t worry, the Taichi OCF can do it all well.

Priced around $499 (ASRock has not confirmed pricing at this time), the board has a long list of features and specifications, so it’s not a pared-down racer either. The X870E Taichi OCF comes with six M.2 sockets (two PCIe 5.0 x4), fast networking with 5 GbE LAN and Wi-Fi 7, and a flagship-class audio solution with a DAC. I didn’t expect to see dual front panel USB Type-C headers (the Taichi doesn’t have them), but they’re here if you need them. The DIY-friendly M.2 socket (toolless SSD and heatsink) and EZ Release PCIe slot make swapping out storage and video cards easy, which is common when benchmarking is the rig's primary purpose.

Overall performance in our testing suite was right around average overall, with results varying by test. We again had to use our ‘backup’ DDR5-6000 kit, as the Kingston Fury Beast DDR5-6000 kit we use for baseline testing did not boot. We match the primary timings, but the sub timings are left to auto, which could explain some of the results, as they are looser. No results were out of whack, and in the end, we don’t have any concerns about them.

Below, we’ll examine the board's details and determine whether it deserves a spot on our list of the Best Motherboards. But before we share test results and discuss details, here are the board’s specifications from ASRock’s website.

Specifications of the ASRock X870E Taichi OCF

Inside the Box of the ASRock X870E Taichi OCF

Inside the box, ASRock gives you the basics and not much else. Included are two SATA cables, a Wi-Fi antenna, ARGB splitter cables, two thermistor cables, and a DRAM cooling fan. The latter is certainly helpful when dumping voltage into the DRAM as DDR5 (and its PMIC) can get wonky at higher temperatures. Otherwise, it’s typical motherboard extras.

Design of the Taichi OCF

Hailing from the Taichi family, the X870E OCF features the familiar gear/cog aesthetic, a large, actively cooled VRM heatsink, and OC Formula branding on the other side. There are also yellow and silver diagonal accent lines running across all of them. A set of RGB lighting runs under the bottom, lighting up the entire chassis. All this sits on a black 10-layer, server-grade PCB. It’s a decent-looking motherboard, but the black-and-yellow combo is more of a love-hate thing for me. Still, it’s neutral enough to fit in with most any black build theme and looks spectacular on an open test bench!

Starting in the top left, the first feature is the beefy, heatpipe-connected VRM heatsinks, and where we spy the first RGB feature illuminating the Taichi cogs. We can also see the four vents to help the tiny integrated fan draw in and expel cooler air. Above that are two 8-pin EPS power connectors for the processor. The socket area is relatively clean, so it's easier to apply a conformal coating or a pliable eraser, to prevent moisture from reaching the PCB during sub-ambient overclocking sessions.

To the right of the socket are two DIMM slots with locking mechanisms to secure the sticks on both sides. With two slots, capacity is up to 128GB, with speeds listed at an incredible DDR5-10400 (when using 8000-series APUs). If you have a 9000 processor, it drops back to a still-fast 8400 MT/s (7000 series to 8000 MT/s). Outside of Mini-ITX boards, if you want to try to break records or just run your memory insanely fast, this is one of the boards that can do it.

Above the DRAM slots are the first three (of seven) four-pin fan headers. Each header supports PWM and DC-controlled devices. The CPU header outputs up to 1A/12W, while the rest support a more robust 3A/36W. Control over these headers is handled through the BIOS or through the A-Tune application.

Just off to the right are our first RGB headers — two (of three) 3-pin ARGB headers. The 4-pin RGB is located along the bottom edge, along with the third 3-pin. Control over these devices is handled through Polychrome RGB software.

Rounding the corner, working our way down the right edge, we spot the two-character Dr. Debug display. During POST, it displays codes that help locate any problems during boot. Skipping past the buttons for now, we see the 24-pin ATX power connector to feed the board, along with an 8-pin PCIe connector for supplemental power (to support 36W charging). Below that is a rare feature: two front-panel USB Type-C (3.2 Gen 2x2, 20 Gbps) ports, which are great if you can use both, but a bit of an oddity for a dedicated overclocking board.

Now that we have all the everyday motherboard items out of the way, we can focus on the OC Toolkit. A series of physical OC buttons offers hardware-level control of overclocking (the +/-) and easy access to Nick Shih’s OC profiles (the buttons labeled 1, 2, and 3). These are especially useful for the extreme overclocking crowd, where, with the help of the ASRock Hyper BCLK Engine (BCLK generator chip), you can use them at the razor’s edge of stability to get that last MHz out of your CPU or RAM. Set your speed (MHz) in the BIOS for the three buttons, and you can use them in Windows to recall the profile. The two rudimentary buttons below are for the Safe Boot and Retry functions.

Tucked next to the Power and Reset buttons are seven small copper holes, dubbed the V-Probe. As the name implies, this area allows users to measure the board's voltage directly and is considered more accurate than software readings. While this isn’t terribly helpful for the average user, as software is generally good enough, it is fun to play around with. The last of the OC Toolkit is two switches along the bottom edge. One is for LN2 mode, and the other for Slow Mode; both are useful for extreme overclocking.

As you may expect, power delivery on the X870E Taichi OCF will handle anything you can put in the socket, no matter how hard you push it. The Renesas RAA229628 PWM controller manages the 22-phase ‘duet’ rail for Vcore to the Renesas R2209004 110A SPS MOSFETs. The 2,420A available for Vcore is one of the highest values we’ve seen this generation and won’t flinch under pressure, even if it’s a liquid nitrogen-cooled Ryzen 9 9950X at its limits.

On the bottom half of the board, partially hidden under the heatsink on the left, is the audio section. In typical Taichi fashion, we see the latest-gen flagship Realtek ALC4082 codec. Around it are multiple WIMA Audio caps and the ESS SABRE9219 DAC. Supported by the Nahimic audio application, you won’t find much better, even out of more expensive motherboards.In the middle are three PCIe slots for graphics cards and expansion, with the two full-length slots using reinforcement. Starting at the top is an open-ended PCIe 4.0 x4 slot (PCIE1) that connects through the chipset. Both full-length slots connect to the CPU: The EZ Release top slot supports PCIe 5.0 x16, while the bottom slot supports up to PCIe 5.0 x8. When the bottom slot is occupied, both slots soak up the 16 lanes and run x8/x8.

Hidden all around the slots are SIX M.2 sockets. The top two sockets, each with its own heatsink, are your CPU-connected PCIe 5.0 x4 (128 Gbps) connections. The top socket features ASRock’s M.2 Toolless design on the top SSD and heatsink, but not the rest. I would have loved to see the toolless design extend at least to the socket below. Under the large plate heatsink are four more M.2 sockets. These are all chipset-connected; two (M2_4/6) running PCIe 4.0 x4 (64 Gbps), while M2_3 runs at PCIe 4.0 x2 (32 Gbps). M2_5 also runs at 32 Gbps, but is PCIe 3.0 x4-capable.

And with all that, there’s a lot of bandwidth sharing going on: When M2_2 is occupied, both rear USB4 Type-C ports and this socket downgrade to x2 mode. You can run M2_2 in x4 mode with a simple BIOS setting, but that disables the USB4 ports altogether. Lastly, PCIE1 (the x4 slot) downgrades to x2 mode if M2_3 is occupied.

Across the bottom of the board are several exposed headers. You’ll find the usual, including additional USB ports, RGB headers, and more. Below is a complete list, from left to right.

• Front panel audio
• (2) 2-pin thermistor headers
• 4-pin RGB header
• 3-pin ARGB header
• TPM header
• (3) USB 2.0 headers
• (3) System fan headers
• 19-pin USB 3.2 Gen 1 header
• Power LED and Speaker header
• Front Panel header

The rear IO is packed with connectivity, with little room to spare. On the left is the BIOS switch, which is in a unique position, as it's typically on the motherboard. Next to that are the Clear CMOS and BIOS Flashback buttons. Continuing right, we encounter Wi-Fi 7 connectivity and an HDMI output for integrated video. That purple-and-green connector is a PS/2 port — something we don’t typically see on modern motherboards, but is helpful for extreme overclocking (USB use can cause instability). Next, there are a slew of USB ports, 12 to be exact. You get seven 3.2 Gen2 (10 Gbps) Type-A ports, 1 Type-C port, 2 USB 2.0 (480 Mbps) ports, and two USB 4 (40 Gbps) Type-C ports. Last but not least, the 5GbE port, and the 2-plug plus SPDIF audio stack.

There are plenty of ports on the rear IO for daily use, and even a few are suitable for the extreme crowd, too.

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Firmware

Like other ASRock boards, the X870 Taichi OCF starts in the informative Easy Mode, but it also lets you adjust several options (XMP, profiles, boot order, access to Fan-Tastic Tuning, etc.). The OCF uses a black background with white characters and yellow highlights, matching the OCF theme and making it easy to read. The standard BIOS displays headings across the top, with subheadings and details below.

You can tweak everything here, as ASRock includes every option you can think of. Overclocking is straightforward, with most options readily available. The layout is logical, and the mouse movement is smooth. We have no significant complaints about the ASRock firmware, and this board even has room for two (which is also helpful for extreme overclocking and pushing the limits). But it certainly needs an update to match the UEFIs from recent Gigabyte and MSI offerings.

Software

ASRock offers several different software options. These include the App Shop, which lets users install drivers and software; the Nahimic 3 audio control panel; the A-Tuning application that lets you overclock and control fans; the Polychrome RGB software; and more. There’s also a Blazing OC Tuner and a pop-up to install drivers when the system first boots. ASRock’s software provides everything users need to manage and tweak their systems.

Test System / Comparison Products

We’ve updated our test system to Windows 11 (23H2) 64-bit OS with all updates applied as of late September 2024 (this includes the Branch Prediction Optimizations for AMD). Hardware-wise, we’ve updated the RAM kits (matching our Intel test system), cooling, storage, and video card. Unless otherwise noted, we use the latest publicly available non-beta motherboard BIOS. The hardware we used is as follows:

TEST SYSTEM COMPONENTS

• CPU - AMD Ryzen 9 9900X
• Cooling - Arctic Liquid Freezer II 420
• Storage - Crucial 2TB T705 M.2 PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSD
• RAM - Kingston Fury Beast DDR5-6000 CL36 (KF560C36BBEAK2-32)
• RAM - Teamgroup T-Froce Delta DDR5-7200 CL34 (FF3D518G7200HC34ABK)
• RAM - Klevv Cras XR5 RGB DDR5-8000 (KD5AGUA80-80R380S)
• GPU - Asus TUF RTX 4080 16G
• PSU - EVGA Supernova 850W P6
• Windows 11 64-bit (24H2)
• NVIDIA Driver 561.09

Benchmark Settings

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Benchmark Results

Our standard benchmarks and power tests are performed using the CPU’s stock frequencies (including any default boost/turbo) with all power-saving features enabled. We set optimized defaults in the BIOS and the memory by enabling the XMP profile. For this baseline testing, the Windows power scheme is set to Balanced (default) so the PC idles appropriately.

Synthetic Benchmarks

Synthetics offer a valuable method for evaluating a board's performance, as identical settings are expected to yield similar results. Turbo boost wattage and advanced memory timings are areas where motherboard manufacturers can still optimize for stability or performance, though, and these settings can impact specific testing scenarios.

Performance across our synthetic benchmarks was normal, with the Taichi OCF ending right around average, depending on the test.

Timed Applications

In our timed applications, we again saw results very close to average. So far, it is a performant option!

3D Games and 3DMark

Starting with the launch of Zen 5, we’ve updated our game tests. We’re keeping the EA’s F1 racing game and have upgraded to the most current version, F1 24. We also dropped Far Cry 6 in favor of an even more popular and good-looking game in Cyberpunk 2077. We run both games at 1920x1080 resolution using the Ultra preset (details listed above). Cyberpunk 2077 uses DLSS, while we left F1 24 to native resolution scaling. The goal with these settings is to determine if there are differences in performance at the most commonly used (and CPU/system bound) resolution with settings most people use or strive for (Ultra). We expect the difference between boards in these tests to be minor, with most falling within the margin of error differences. We’ve also added a minimum FPS value, which can affect your gameplay and immersion experience.

In gaming, it was a tale of the tests. It performed well in F1 24 and the Steel Nomad benchmark, but was slightly below average in Cyberpunk 2077 and the Speed Way benchmark. These results are jammed together with very little difference, especially in the UL benchmarks. And in most cases, wouldn’t know the difference unless you had an FPS counter on the screen.

Overall, the board passes our performance tests. It wasn’t the fastest, nor the slowest, so you have nothing to worry about.

Overclocking

Over the past few CPU generations, overclocking headroom has been shrinking on both sides of the fence while the out-of-box potential has increased. For overclockers, this means there’s less fun to have. For the average consumer, you’re getting the most out of the processor without manual tweaking. Today’s motherboards are more robust than ever, and they easily support power-hungry flagship-class processors, so we know the hardware can handle them. There are multiple ways to extract even more performance from these processors: enabling a canned PBO setting from the BIOS, manually tweaking the PBO settings, or just going for an all-core overclock. Results will vary and depend on the cooling as well. In other words, your mileage may vary. Considering all the above, we will not be overclocking the CPU. However, we will try out all our different memory kits to ensure they meet the specifications.

Overclocking the memory on this motherboard proved challenging. We again had issues with our base Kingston Fury Beast RAM kit and had to use an alternative (which could skew some results). I was hoping the two-slot config would run our Klevv DDR5-8000 kit, but it booted and failed the stress test like so many others. I shouldn’t be surprised, I suppose, as compatibility with that kit has been problematic with the latest ASRock boards. Stick to the QVL list is my suggestion.

Our RAM woes are only on this latest batch of ASRock boards/BIOS.’ They’ve been on the market since launch and worked in the first batch of ASRock motherboards. For the OCF, I know other reviewers have had better luck with kits on the QVL and overclocking RAM. It’s broken records at Hwbot, but they do seem more finicky. The OCF isn’t going to get your chip any further than most motherboards using ambient cooling. But it has some unique tools to play with regardless. But you definitely get the most out of the features when using sub-ambient cooling and really pushing the limits.

It's worth noting that ASRock left out memory profiles in the OCF, unlike its other boards, which have several per IC that you can try. I understand this is meant for manual overclocking, but there’s something to be said for leaving profiles in the BIOS. Maybe the company is making room for future processors, since the BIOS chips haven’t increased in size as we've seen on some other brands' refresh boards. Either way, it was a surprise to find they were missing here.

Power Consumption / VRM Temperatures

We used AIDA64’s System Stability Test with Stress CPU, FPU, Cache, and Memory enabled for power testing, using the peak power consumption value from the processor. The wattage reading is from the wall via a Kill-A-Watt meter to capture the entire PC (minus the monitor). The only variable that changes is the motherboard; all other parts remain the same. Please note that we have transitioned to using only the stock power use/VRM temperature charts, as this section aims to ensure the power delivery can handle flagship-class processors.

Power use peaked at 266W during the CPU/Memory stress test and idled at 95. Both values are higher than our average, but it’s to be expected from a high-end board, as there are more things to power than a mid-range or budget-class board.

VRM temperatures peaked at 44 degrees Celsius, the hottest recorded by our sensors. The “MOS” sensor in Hwinfo moved 0.5 degrees even at idle, so it was feeding us incorrect information. Still, what we gleaned from our hand-placed sensors is that the large actively cooled heatsink has no issues with our chip, nor would it with any compatible CPU. Between the high-end MOSFETs and heatsink, VRMs won’t be a worry.

Bottom Line

There is direct competition in the ‘premium overclocking’ segment. Asus has the ROG Crosshair X870E Apex ($679), and there’s the almost-vaporware Gigabyte X870 Aorus Tachyon Ice ($599). It’s tough to compare them head-to-head without reviewing each, but the Tachyon has the same style of overclocking buttons for on-the-fly adjustment, while the Asus doesn’t (though it has ways to do so in Windows, too, just not physical buttons). Gigabyte and Asus offer AI functionality to assist with the process (how useful that is for manual overclocking, I’m not sure), and their BIOSes are overall more refined.

The "premium overclocking" market is competitive, with notable contenders including the Asus ROG Crosshair X870E Apex ($679) and the practically-vaporware Gigabyte X870 Aorus Tachyon Ice ($599). A direct comparison is difficult without reviewing both. Still, a key difference is on-the-fly adjustment: the Tachyon features physical overclocking buttons, while the Asus does not (though it offers alternative methods in Windows). Both Gigabyte and Asus incorporate AI-assisted overclocking functionality (though its usefulness for extreme/manual overclocking is questionable), and both are generally noted for having more refined BIOS interfaces. It really depends on what your extreme overclocking goals are and how you want to achieve them as to which is best among them.

The Taichi OCF is priced at roughly $500, and for most users not using extreme cooling like Liquid Nitrogen, its performance will be comparable to the standard X870E Taichi. The main drawbacks of the ASRock boards are a simpler-looking (though functionally solid) BIOS and, specifically for the OCF, aesthetics that don't quite match those of other $500 overclocking motherboards. Think of the OCF as the "Taichi Plus," offering the standard Taichi's excellent features, with added tools for manual overclocking enthusiasts. It's a fantastic choice for those who love to push hardware limits without AI or PBO, as it’s the lowest-priced ‘overclocking’ motherboard. However, if you don't plan to use those specialized features, opt for the regular X870E Taichi (on our best motherboards list) to save money.

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The ASRock X870 LiveMixer Wifi motherboard, similar to its B850 LiveMixer counterpart ($189.99), is engineered with content creators in mind, offering extensive connectivity for streaming and various peripherals. The X870 model delivers enhanced, faster connectivity, benefiting not only creators but also a wider range of users. Its black-on-silver aesthetic mirrors that of the B850 version we reviewed, and looks good with a wide variety of build themes. Overall, it's a viable budget option for those who require abundant USB ports and other expansion options.

For $229.99, the LiveMixer gets you a whopping sixteen USB ports on the rear IO (13x Type-A, 3x Type-C). If this isn’t enough for 99% of those reading this, I’d be surprised. You’re not going to find a board from this generation with more ports on the rear IO. Content Creators often use capture cards and other PCIe expansion cards, so having two free slots in addition to the primary graphics slot is also useful. On top of that, you get fast networking (5 GbE and Wi-Fi 7, though only 160 Hz), a flagship-class audio codec, capable power delivery, and ample storage options (though a lot of that bandwidth is shared, which we’ll touch on later). For under $230, this is a capable and well-rounded solution in terms of hardware.

Like many ASRock boards we’ve tested lately, this one also had issues with our base Kingston Fury Beast DDR5-6000 kit (which is on the company’s QVL and it works on other boards), but worked fine with another Adata kit. That aside, performance was average to slightly below average across our benchmarking suite with this board. This could be due to different memory sub-timings, but it was, in general, close to the B850 Livemixer throughout, which makes sense, as it also didn’t want to play nice with the ADATA kit.

Below, we’ll examine the board's details and determine whether it deserves a spot on our Best Motherboards list. But before we look at test results and discuss the details, check out the specifications below, provided by ASRock.

Specifications of the ASRock X870 LiveMixer Wifi

Inside the Box of the ASRock X870 LiveMixer Wifi

As with most motherboards in this price range, you’ll get some accessories board, but only the essentials. ASRock includes two SATA cables, a Wi-Fi antenna, and a thermistor cable. Anything else you need, you’ll have to supply yourself.

Design of the LiveMixer Wifi

The X870 LiveMixer features a matte-black 8-layer PCB with contrasting silver heatsinks. A wavy line design meanders over the heatsinks, with some of the pattern extending onto the PCB. A large RGB strip runs the length of the bottom M.2 heatsink, lighting up the inside of your chassis. ASRock’s Polychrome RGB controls the integrated strip and any lights attached to the headers. The contrasting black and silver design is neutral and will look good in a wide variety of build themes.

Starting with the top half, in the upper-left corner, are two 8-pin EPS power connectors (one required) to power the processor. Surrounding them are two “XXL” VRM heatsinks that do a good job of keeping the power delivery components within specification. On top, it’s a two-tone silver/grey with the LiveMixer branding written in small letters.

Moving past the CPU socket to the right, the next thing we see are three 4-pin fan headers (in this case, CPU_FAN1/2 and AIO_PUMP). Each header supports PWM- and DC-controlled devices. Output varies among them: The CPU_FAN2, Chassis, and AIO_PUMP headers deliver up to 3A/36W, and the CPU_FAN1 header delivers 1A/12W. There’s plenty of power to go around for fans, AIOs, or even a custom loop.

Next are the four DRAM slots (not reinforced) with locking mechanisms on both sides. ASRock lists support for up to DDR5-8000, which is plenty fast for the platform. We again had some trouble with our default Kingston test kit on this board, but the others worked fine. I’m not sure why this specific kit doesn’t want to play nice with so many ASRock boards lately, even though it’s on the company’s QVL, but that has been a theme with these new boards.

Making our way down the right edge, we find the 4-LED POST Status Checker, which lights up during the POST process. If your system hangs in one of the four areas (CPU, Boot, DRAM, VGA), the corresponding LED remains lit, giving you a high-level idea where the problem lies. Next are two (of three) 3-pin ARGB headers for additional RGB lighting, a 24-pin ATX power connector for the motherboard, a front-panel 19-pin USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) header, and, finally, a front-panel USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 (20 Gbps) Type-C connector.

Power delivery consists of 19 phases, with 16 dedicated to Vcore. Power comes from the dual 8-pin EPS connectors to the Realtek RT3678BE dual-channel PWM controller. From there, it hits the Vishay Sic661 MOSFET, which ASRock lists at 80A. The 1,280A available to the processor is plenty to handle a Ryzen 9 9950X3D, even with PBO enabled.

At the bottom of the board, starting from the left and hidden under heatsinks and shrouds, is the audio solution. Here we spy the flagship Realtek ALC4082 codec, some dedicated audio capacitors, and an ESS ES9219 Quad DAC/Amp. It’s arguably the best integrated solution for this generation and chipset and perhaps a bit surprising to see on a budget board.

In the middle of the board are two full-length PCIe slots, each of which connects directly to the CPU. The top slot, using the updated PCIe Slot Q-Release function, supports speeds of up to PCIe 5.0 x16, while the bottom slot has a maximum speed of PCIe 5.0 x8. There is considerable lane sharing between the PCIe slots and M.2 sockets, though.

When M.2_2 is enabled and M.2_3 is disabled, PCIEX16_1 will run in x8 mode, and PCIEX16_2 will be disabled. When M.2_3 is enabled but M.2_2 is not in use, PCIEX16_1 will operate in x8 mode, and PCIEX16_2 will operate in x4 mode. If both M.2_2/3 are enabled, PCIEX16_1 will run at x8 mode and PCIEX16_2 will be disabled. In other words, if you plan on using the second and third PCIe 5.0 M. 2s, you will sacrifice PCIe slot bandwidth. We would have liked to see the M.2 Q-Release feature on this heatsink as well. As it stands, you have to use tools to access M.2_2/3 (and remove the GPU).

Speaking of M.2 sockets, we find three in the middle of the board: one above the top PCIe slot, under the large heatsink, and the others under the large plate heatsink. The topmost slot, M.2_1, connects directly to the CPU and is the only PCIe 5.0 x4 (128 Gbps) socket that will not affect any other components. It supports devices up to 110mm in size (as does M.2_3). M.2_2 holds 80mm modules. Asus lists RAID 0/1/5/10 support with 9000 series processors.

At the right edge, again hidden under shrouds and connected horizontally, is an 8-pin supplemental board power, a 19-pin USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) header, four SATA ports, another 19-pin USB 3.2 Gen 1 connector, and finally, two more 4-pin fan headers (rad fan).

Along the bottom edge is a range of connectivity and functionality, some of which you don’t usually see. From left to right are the front panel audio BCLK +/- buttons, LN2 Mode jumper, 2-pin thermistor header, and two 3-pin ARGB headers. Next to that are several switches helpful for extreme overclocking, including Pause, Slow Mode, a BIOS Switch, and a PCIe Mode switch. The latter two also have LEDs to display the current mode/BIOS. Next to that is a USB 2.0 header, the SlimSAS connector, the CMOS battery, and another USB 2.0 header. Then there’s the V-Latch switch, Retry and Safe Boot buttons, 4-pin water pump header, and finally, the front panel header.

• Front Panel audio
• 3-pin UART connector
• 2-pin Thermistor header
• 4-pin RGB, 3-pin ARGB headers
• (2) 4-pin Chassis Fan headers
• 2-pin Clear CMOS
• (2) USB 2.0 headers
• Power/LED/Speaker
• Front Panel

As you may have already guessed, the rear IO has a lot going on. To start, throw your USB hub away; there are 16 USB ports here (you can have up to 25 with all headers attached). Three Type-C and 13 Type-A dominate the real estate. In yellow are ASRock’s Lightning USB ports that are on their own controller and reportedly offer less latency and jitter (for whatever that is actually worth to the average gamer). On the left are standard Wi-Fi antenna connections and an HDMI port, while next to that is a simple BIOS Flashback button that you may be able to use to drop an AM6-based chip in when they arrive. On the right is the Realtek 5 GbE jack, and finally, the audio stack with SPDIF and two 3.5mm jacks for line out and microphone.

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Firmware

Like other ASRock boards, the X870 LiveMixer starts in the informative Easy Mode, but it also lets you adjust several options (XMP, profiles, boot order, access to Fan-Tastic Tuning, etc.). The LiveMixer uses a black background with light gray characters, making it easy to read. The standard BIOS displays headings across the top, with subheadings and details below.

You can tweak everything here, as ASRock includes every option you can think of. Overclocking is straightforward, with most options readily available. The layout is logical, and the mouse movement is smooth. We have no significant complaints about the ASRock firmware. But it certainly needs an update to match Gigabyte and MSI UEFIs on their new X870/B850 offerings.

Software

ASRock offers several different software options. These include the App Shop, which allows users to install drivers and software, the Nahimic 3 audio control panel, the A-Tuning application, which enables users to overclock their systems and control fans, the Polychrome RGB software, and more. There’s also a Blazing OC Tuner and a pop-up to install drivers when the system first boots. ASRock’s software provides everything users need to manage and tweak their systems.

Test System / Comparison Products

We’ve updated our test system to Windows 11 (23H2) 64-bit OS with all updates applied as of late September 2024 (this includes the Branch Prediction Optimizations for AMD). Hardware-wise, we’ve updated the RAM kits (matching our Intel test system), cooling, storage, and video card. Unless otherwise noted, we use the latest non-beta motherboard BIOS available to the public. Thanks to Asus for providing the RTX 4080 TUF graphics card and Crucial for the 2TB T705 SSDs. The hardware we used is as follows:

Test System Components

Benchmark Settings

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Benchmark Results

Our standard benchmarks and power tests are performed using the CPU’s stock frequencies (including any default boost/turbo) with all power-saving features enabled. We set optimized defaults in the BIOS and the memory by enabling the XMP profile. For this baseline testing, the Windows power scheme is set to Balanced (default) so the PC idles appropriately.

Synthetic Benchmarks

Synthetics provide a great way to determine how a board runs, as identical settings should produce similar performance results. Turbo boost wattage and advanced memory timings are areas where motherboard makers can still optimize for stability or performance, and these settings can impact some testing.

According to the synthetic benchmarks, our board was right around average, or slightly below average. But as you can see, that doesn’t matter too much in closely grouped results. You’d be hard-pressed to see a difference in most of these activities.

Timed Applications

In the timed applications, specifically Handbrake, the LiveMixer did well. It was slightly faster than average, while in LAME and Corona, it was on the slower side of the two results—still nothing you’d see unless you were staring at benchmarks.

3D Games and 3DMark

Starting with the launch of Zen 5, we’ve updated our game tests. We’re keeping the F1 racing game but have upgraded to F1 24. We also dropped Far Cry 6 in favor of a more popular and visually appealing game. We run both games at 1920x1080 resolution using the Ultra preset (details listed above). Cyberpunk 2077 uses DLSS, while we left F1 24 to native resolution scaling. The goal with these settings is to determine if there are differences in performance at the most commonly used (and CPU/system-bound) resolution with settings most people use or strive for (Ultra). We expect the difference between boards in these tests to be minor, with most falling within the margin of error. We’ve also added a minimum FPS value, which can affect your gameplay and immersion experience.

As expected, the LiveMixer can game with the best of them. While the 3DMark benchmarks were just below average, it performed well in games, floating near the top of the results. In short, this is a performant motherboard across a wide variety of functions.

Overclocking

Over the past few CPU generations, overclocking headroom has been shrinking on both sides of the fence while the out-of-the-box potential has increased. For overclockers, this means there’s less fun to have. For the average consumer, you’re getting the most out of the processor without manual tweaking. Today’s motherboards are more robust than ever, and they easily support power-hungry flagship-class processors, so we know the hardware can handle them. There are multiple ways to extract even more performance from these processors: enabling a canned PBO setting, manually tweaking the PBO settings, or just going for an all-core overclock. Results will vary and depend on the cooling as well. In other words, your mileage may vary. Considering all of the above, we’re not overclocking the CPU. However, we will try out our different memory kits to ensure they meet the specifications.

Again, our default Kingston DDR5-6000 kit didn’t work, so the ASRock board did not play nice, and we had to use the ADATA DDR5-6000 kit instead. Our DDR5-8000 kit didn't work at all, which was expected since it’s right at the limit of the board, and our sticks weren’t on the QVL. Also unsurprisingly, our DDR5-7200 kit did play nice. For AMD, aim for a frequency range of 6000 to 6400 MHz with the tightest timings possible. Vendors are releasing kits today with CAS ratings as low as 26, though they are as expensive as some of the high-speed kits. CL30 is a good middle ground.

Power Consumption / VRM Temperatures

We used AIDA64’s System Stability Test with Stress CPU, FPU, Cache, and Memory enabled for power testing, using the peak power consumption value from the processor. The wattage reading is from the wall via a Kill-A-Watt meter to capture the entire PC (minus the monitor). The only variable that changes is the motherboard; all other parts remain the same. Please note that we have transitioned to using only the stock power use/VRM temperature charts, as this section aims to ensure the power delivery can handle flagship-class processors.

The power consumption of the Ryzen 9 9990X is relatively low compared to the 7950X used for the X670/X670E platform. In the past, high-end boards peaked at nearly 300W, but current systems now reach a maximum of 250- 270W during CPU stress tests (gaming with the Nvidia RTX 4080 versus the RTX 3070 is a different matter).

The ASRock X870 LiveMixer Wifi peaked at 244W and idled at 77W, again around the average we expected from the hardware and performance results. The CPU averaged 151W during the test period.

The LiveMixer’s MOSFETs reached 43 degrees Celsius, according to our sensors (ASRock’s internal sensor showed 44 degrees Celsius). The power delivery and “XXL” heatsinks kept VRM temperatures under control with a 150W load from our CPU. There should be plenty of headroom for more powerful processors like the Ryzen 9 9950X, even when enabling PBO.

Bottom Line

ASRock’s X870 LiveMixer Wi-Fi is an expansion-ready motherboard designed for creators or those who need a lot of expansion, whether PCIe or USB-connected devices. At just under $230, the LiveMixer offers the most USB ports I can remember: 16 on the back and nine more via headers. There are also three full-length PCIe slots for add-in card expansion (think capture cards), with the key here being proper spacing to use them all concurrently. Its black and silver aesthetic blends in well with most build themes, and the hidden RGB strip is a nice addition for the target demographic, which tends to have flashy backgrounds and glowing PCs.

We do wish it had faster Wi-Fi 7 (though, how few this bothers is another story) and perhaps less lane sharing, but the latter is more a limit of the chipset. An X870E LiveMixer could resolve that issue and reduce the lane-sharing prevalent with the single PROM21 chip. I don’t see any of these issues as dealbreakers, but just things to be aware of when buying.

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ASRock has garnered borderline notoriety status because its motherboards keep killing off Ryzen 9000 processors. Throughout the year, we've seen various reports stemming from the r/ASRock subreddit detailing CPU after CPU hitting permanent sleep mode, with the company performing damage control to the best of its abilities. At least, up until now, the issue was largely reserved for X3D chips; now, one unlucky user reports that their ASRock motherboard killed off not one, not two, but three separate regular AMD CPUs.

User "OnOr" on the popular South Korean forum QuasarZone aired out their grievances after three Ryzen 7 9700X CPUs were all fried by their ASRock B850 Pro RS motherboard one by one. The first two 9700X chips were bought from AliExpress, and both failed in a row. The owner sent their motherboard in for service, reasonably suspecting a motherboard fault, but local retailer Compuzone (through ASRock) deemed it faultless, so the journey continued.

The victim then purchased a third 9700X, this time from an official distributor in South Korea to ensure the chips weren't dodgy, and guess what? It failed as well. That's an impressive kill streak for just one motherboard that was seemingly fine when diagnosed earlier. The user has since sent the dead 9700X and the ASRock B850 Pro RS to Compuzone, awaiting instructions on next steps.

This incident adds to the ever-increasing line of issues with ASRock's AM5 motherboard running Ryzen 9000 series processors. Other manufacturers aren't without issues, but Gamers Nexus has previously reported that over 80% of the complaints stem from ASRock, clearly isolating the brand from the rest. ASRock has so far largely denied responsibility outside of indirect statements, even initially pointing fingers at AMD, which just pointed them back.

ASRock released BIOS version 3.40 a few months ago to potentially address these issues, mentioning CPU stability and the like throughout the changelog, subtly hinting at the processor frying debacle without admitting anything, but it seems like that wasn't enough. Our victim always kept their BIOS updated, never overclocked or touched EXPO, and even said the board was running version 3.40 when issues started to occur.

There were no photos shared of this massacre, so we can't speculate much on what happened, but the pattern is quite clear. The Ryzen 7 9700X launched at $359 worldwide but can be had for a little less than that in Korea at the moment, meaning the victim has lost roughly $1,000 worth of CPUs in the span of a few months. ASRock has extended motherboard warranties in Japan, but that offer doesn't extend around the globe, which could imply a fourth CPU is for our OP. Hopefully, the RMA process comes in clutch and helps out before that.

AMD's Ryzen 7 9800X3D processors are the best gaming CPUs in the world, but the AM5 platform that they drop into hasn't been without problems, as there have been numerous reports of failures. So far, the issue appears limited, with around three hundred systems reported to be affected (as far as we know). It's not limited to any one particular motherboard vendor, but there does seem to be a bias toward those using ASRock motherboards. As a result, some people have described it as the "ASRock CPU burning issue." Folks in Japan probably don't have to worry as much, though, because ASRock just extended the warranties for most of its extant motherboard models in that region from two years to three years.

To clarify, this benefit is only available to "eligible ASRock Intel Z890/B860 and AMD X870/B850 series motherboards" in the Japan region. To qualify for the benefit, you must register for ASRock's mailing list, known as the Fan Club, between September 29th and December 31st. ASRock says the purchase date doesn't matter, so if you are both in Japan and the owner of a board that falls into the above categories, there's good news.

This announcement is a nice gesture toward the company's Japanese users, but the timing of it is extremely interesting. This post went up almost immediately after Gamers Nexus posted a video wherein the contentious consumer advocates thoroughly investigated the issue and came up with little in the way of answers. Still, the video title certainly seems to implicate ASRock in the issue, and the video does levy the accusation that ASRock has failed to follow through on its promises to users.

To clarify, there is currently no direct link between ASRock motherboards and the Ryzen 7 9800X3D failures. ASRock has been at the center of this controversy largely because discussions about it have been coordinated through the /r/ASRock subreddit. That, in turn, has led to the majority of reports of this problem coming from users with ASRock motherboards. Gamers Nexus reports that more than 80% of 9800X3D failures happened on ASRock motherboards, but Asus, Gigabyte, and MSI boards are also not immune.

It is somewhat suspect that ASRock made several seemingly spurious statements about the cause of the failures, though. The company claimed that AMD's Precision Boost Overdrive overclocking tech was at fault, when it clearly wasn't, as some users have seen failures when not using PBO. Similarly, ASRock also seems to be the only motherboard vendor that is taking active steps to try and counter the problem, although Gamers Nexus wasn't able to find much in the way of actual changes to voltage values or power limits beyond lowering a 1,000-watt cap to 270W—neither of which are limits a Ryzen 7 9800X3D is likely to actually reach.

ASRock hasn't said anything about bringing the one-year warranty extension overseas, so unfortunately, this probably doesn't apply to the vast majority of our audience. It's still interesting to consider in light of the AMD X3D CPU failures, though, particularly considering that the vast majority of the reported cases have been on ASRock B850 and X870 motherboards. Of course, ASRock's warranty extension covers Intel boards too, so it's probably just coincidental timing. If you're in Japan and have an eligible board, you can go here to sign up and claim your 3-year warranty.

ASRock released a special AI tool a few years back that gave users the ability to easily and quickly deploy AI applications on PCs with supported AMD or Intel GPUs. The board maker has announced its second iteration of the app, known as AI Quickset WSL, that further enhances the tool's capabilities. Giving users an environment that can easily deploy AI apps made specifically for Linux on Windows machines without dealing with a complicated setup process.

The app takes advantage of Microsoft's WSL virtual compatibility layer to achieve this. WSL is essentially a GUI-less virtual machine natively supported in the latest versions of Windows that allows users to run Linux apps in Windows through virtualization. AI Quickset WSL is built on AMD's ROCm platform to provide all the necessary setup configuration to run Linux AI-based apps efficiently on AMD's RX 7900 series GPUs or newer.

ASRock's tool is designed to automate all of the complicated parts of running AI applications on Windows. Depending on the method, installing and running AI models on a PC can be tough. You need to account for what hardware you have and what runtime(s) that hardware supports. You might also need to manually tweak the LLM's optimizations under the hood so it runs well on your hardware, if you're going with a manual setup.

Making matters worse, most "cutting-edge" AI applications are typically optimized for Linux, making it even harder for Windows users to get these apps up and running in Windows (if at all). AI QuickSet WSL essentially turns the process of running AI apps into a simplified wizard, with a GUI that provides a step-by-step process for whatever model you want to run (so long as it's also supported by AI QuickSet WSL). ASRock's app also includes several AI models ready to be used, such as audio, image, text, and object translators and detectors.

The original version of AI Quickset was only capable of configuring AI applications that were designed with either Windows or Linux in mind. AI Quickset WSL expands upon this and again allows users the freedom to run Linux-based AI apps on Windows, which is a huge deal if you dabble in AI models that are mostly regulated to the Linux space. But, just like most AI software, AI Quickset's minimum hardware requirements are high, requiring either Intel 12th Gen or newer or AMD Ryzen 5000 or newer CPUs, 64GB of memory, and ASRock's RX 7900 series or later graphics cards.

Priced at $269.99 at the time of this writing, the X870 Nova WiFi is a reasonably priced and handsomely equipped option in the budget X870 category. Around that price point, you can expect a well-rounded motherboard, and ASRock doesn’t disappoint, including a high-quality audio solution and arguably one of the better (though flashy) designs among its peers. It sports the familiar Phantom Gaming purple accents and integrated RGBs.

Hardware-wise, you get five M.2 sockets (2x PCIe 5.0), plenty of USB ports—including 40 Gbps USB4 ports—‘native’ 5 GbE and Wi-Fi 7 networking, a flagship-grade audio codec, and the Nova’s distinctive style with purple accents and bright LEDs running along under the bottom M.2 heatsink. Remember though, this is the X870 chipset (non-E), so you miss out on the second Prom21/chipset and the extra expansion that comes with it. Although there’s a lot of connectivity, much of the bandwidth is shared among M.2 sockets, USB, PCIe, and SATA, which we’ll get into later.

Performance was generally good in our testing, and it was the first of our recent ASRock motherboards to run the Kingston DDR5 kit that we use to measure performance. The board performed well overall and was often at or above average in most tests. It proved itself to be a capable all-around platform when utilizing the default BIOS settings and our mid-range RAM speeds.

Below, we’ll examine the board's details and determine whether it deserves a spot on our Best Motherboards list. But before we look at test results and discuss the details, check out the specifications below, provided by ASRock.

Specifications of the ASRock X870 Nova Wifi

Inside the Box of the ASRock X870 Nova WiFi

In line with most motherboards in this price range, the packaging includes only the essential accessories: two SATA cables, a Wi-Fi antenna, a thermistor cable, and an ARGB splitter cable. Nothing exciting here.

Design of the X870 Nova

The ASRock X870 Nova motherboard boasts an elegant, all-black, 8-layer server-grade PCB. Its capable VRMs are covered by large heatsinks, with the primary one on the left showcasing a striking blue-to-purple color scheme and a chrome/gray Phantom Gaming symbol. The bottom half features full-plate heatsinks for four M.2 sockets and the chipset, as well as a larger heatsink over one of the PCIe 5.0 sockets. A hidden RGB strip beneath the bottom heatsink emits a vibrant, rainbow glow, enhancing the case's interior. This aesthetically pleasing board will seamlessly integrate into most build themes. But if you don’t want any lighting, you should probably look elsewhere.

In the upper left is the large heatsink responsible for the VRMs on the left, while a smaller, all-black heatsink covers the top bank (not connected to the VRMs). Also here are two high-density 8-pin EPS connectors (one required) to power the processor.

On the right side of the socket are four unreinforced DRAM slots with locking mechanisms on one (top) side. The Nova supports up to 256GB, and with two sticks, running at speeds of up to DDR5-8400. However, there are a few reasons to run that fast on this platform. Our Kingston memory kit worked on this ASRock board, as did the faster DDR5-7200 kit. It didn’t play nice with the 8000MHz kit, but to be fair, few AMD boards have.

Above the DRAM slots are the first three (of seven) 4-pin fan headers (CPU_Fan1/2 and AIO Pump). Each header works with PWM- and DC-controlled devices. The CPU_FAN1 header outputs up to 1A/12W, while the remainder outputs up to 3A/36W. CPU_FAN2, CHA_FAN1-3, and the AIO_PUMP header auto-detect whether they are connected to 3- or 4-pin devices.

Power delivery isn’t the highest we’ve seen, with 21 total phases (18 for Vcore) and 80A Monolithic Power Systems MPS2425 MOSFETs. Still, they, along with the MPS2434/MP2857 controller, will handle the 9950X or 9950X3D, even with some PBO and increased power.

On the bottom half of the board, on the left, we see the flagship Realtek ALC4082 audio codec, along with a few dedicated audio capacitors. Being on the budget end of the spectrum, you won’t find any other DACs or amplifiers, but that’s to be expected in the sub-$300 price bucket.

Two PCIe slots flank the large plate-style heatsink in the middle of the board. The reinforced PCIe slot at the top connects directly to the CPU and supports PCIe 5.0 x16 (with most processors). The bottom full-length slot connects through the chipset and runs PCIe 4.0 x4 speeds.

In the middle of the board, and all under the heatsink, are four M.2 sockets, with a fifth located above the top PCIe slot under its own (larger) heatsink. The top slot is the first that’s PCIe 5.0-capable, with a second just below it. There are two additional PCIe 4.0 x4 sockets and another, slower PCIe 3.0 x2 (16 Gbps/SATA-capable) socket hidden underneath as well.

So how does that all shake out with only one chipset? Settle in (and maybe read the manual).

First, when M2_2 is occupied, the rear USB4 Type-C ports and M2_2 downgrade to x2 mode. In other words, it’s PCIe 5.0, but at 64 Gbps (PCIe 4.0 speeds). You can force this socket to x4 mode in the BIOS, but you’ll lose both USB4 ports in the process. If you want to use M2_3, you lose both SATA ports. Last, if you populate M.2_5, the PCIE2 slot downgrades to x2 mode. Only M2_1 and M2_4 don’t share bandwidth with another part. That all being said, it may not be a big deal unless you need or want to run an all M.2 setup with several drives.

Past the chipset, along the right edge, is a 19-pin front panel USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) connector, and below that are the two SATA ports—standard fare.

Across the bottom are several headers for additional connectivity. From left to right, you get:

• Front Panel audio
• 4-pin RGB, 3-pin ARGB
• (2) USB 2.0 headers
• (4) 4-pin Chassis Fan headers
• 2-pin Thermistor header
• 19-pin USB 3.2 Gen 1 header
• 2-pin Clear CMOS
• Front Panel

Focusing on the rear IO, there’s plenty of connectivity back here. You get 11 total USB ports (2x 40 Gbps Type-C, 3x 10 Gbps, 2x 5 Gbps - the lighting ports on their own controller, and 4x USB 2.0), along with the standard fare, including the NIC and Wi-Fi connectors, HDMI output for using the iGPU, and an audio stack with two 3.5mm jacks and SPDIF output. Outside of that are the handy Clear CMOS and BIOS Flashback buttons.

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Firmware

Like the other ASRock boards, the X870 Nova WiFi starts in the informative Easy Mode, but it allows you to adjust several options (XMP, profiles, boot order, access to Fan-Tastic Tuning, etc.). The Nova uses a black background with light gray characters, making it easy to read. The standard BIOS displays headings across the top, with subheadings and details below.

You can tweak everything here, as ASRock includes every option you can think of. Overclocking is straightforward, with most options readily available. The layout is logical, and the mouse movement is smooth. We have no significant complaints about the ASRock firmware. But, it’s due for an update to match Gigabyte and MSI UEFIs on their new X870/B850 offerings.

Software

ASRock offers several different software options. These include the App Shop, which allows users to install drivers and software, the Nahimic 3 audio control panel, the A-Tuning application, which enables users to overclock their systems and control fans, the Polychrome RGB software, and more. There’s also a Blazing OC Tuner and a pop-up to install drivers when the system first boots. ASRock’s software provides everything users need to manage and tweak their systems.

Test System / Comparison Products

We’ve updated our test system to Windows 11 (23H2) 64-bit OS with all updates applied as of late September 2024 (this includes the Branch Prediction Optimizations for AMD). Hardware-wise, we’ve updated the RAM kits (matching our Intel test system), cooling, storage, and video card. Unless otherwise noted, we use the latest non-beta motherboard BIOS that is publicly available. The hardware we used is as follows:

Test System Components

Benchmark Settings

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Benchmark Results and Final Analysis

Our standard benchmarks and power tests are performed using the CPU’s stock frequencies (including any default boost/turbo) with all power-saving features enabled. We set optimized defaults in the BIOS and the memory by enabling the XMP profile. For this baseline testing, the Windows power scheme is set to Balanced (default) so the PC idles appropriately.

Synthetic Benchmarks

Synthetics offer a valuable method for evaluating a board's performance, as identical settings are expected to yield similar results. Turbo boost wattage and advanced memory timings are areas where motherboard manufacturers can still optimize for stability or performance, though, and these settings can impact specific testing.

Across our synthetic benchmarks, the Nova shone brightly, with most results being average to above average. It was on the bottom half of the results during the Procyon MS Office tests, but you wouldn’t notice a difference.

Timed Applications

In the timed applications, the Nova again performed well, showing above-average results in Handbrake and LAME—nothing much to see here.

3D Games and 3DMark

Starting with the launch of Zen 5, we updated our game tests. We kept EA’s F1 racing game and have upgraded to F1 24. We also dropped Far Cry 6 in favor of the even more popular and visually appealing Cyberpunk 2077. We run both games at 1920x1080 resolution using the Ultra preset (details listed above). Cyberpunk 2077 uses DLSS, while we left F1 24 to native resolution scaling. The goal of these settings is to determine if there are differences in performance at the most commonly used (and CPU/system-bound) resolution with settings most people use or strive for (Ultra). We expect the difference between boards in these tests to be minor, with most falling within the margin of error. We’ve also added a minimum FPS value, which can affect your gameplay and immersion experience.

Results from our two games showed the Nova can do that just as well as any other here, too! In short, it performed as well or better than all the boards we’ve tested to this point. Again, it would be hard to tell a difference, but it’s still a good result for a sub-$300 board.

Overclocking

Over the past few CPU generations, overclocking headroom has been shrinking on both sides of the fence while the out-of-the-box potential has increased. For overclockers, this means there’s less fun to be had. For the average consumer, you’re getting the most out of the processor without manual tweaking. Today’s motherboards are more robust than ever, and they easily support power-hungry flagship-class processors, so we know the hardware can handle them. There are multiple ways to extract even more performance from these processors: enabling a canned PBO setting from the BIOS, manually adjusting the PBO settings, or opting for an all-core overclock. Results will vary and depend on the cooling as well. In other words, your mileage may vary. Considering all the above, we will not be overclocking the CPU. However, we will try out all our different memory kits to ensure they meet the specifications.

Testing our different memory kits yielded the same ending you may be used to seeing. Our DDR5-8000 kit didn't want to play nice, but the TeamGroup DDR5-7200 kit worked. For optimal compatibility, performance, and value, aim for a frequency range of 6000 to 6400 MHz with the tightest timings possible. Vendors are releasing kits today with CAS ratings as low as 26, though they are expensive.

Power Consumption / VRM Temperatures

We used AIDA64’s System Stability Test with Stress CPU, FPU, Cache, and Memory enabled for power testing, using the processor's peak power consumption value. The wattage reading is obtained from the wall via a Kill-A-Watt meter, capturing the entire PC (excluding the monitor). The only variable that changes is the motherboard; all other parts remain the same. Please note that we moved to using only the stock power use/VRM temperature charts, as this section aims to ensure the power delivery can handle flagship-class processors.

The ASRock X870 Nova peaked at 245W and idled at 75W, which was right around the average as expected from the hardware and performance results.

The Nova’s VRM temperatures maxed out at just over 43 degrees Celsius, according to our sensors. The Nova doesn’t appear to have an internal VRM sensor that reports, so we couldn’t gather that data. The capable power delivery and oversized heatsinks managed the VRM temperatures easily with a 150W load from our CPU. There’s plenty of headroom for more powerful processors and PBO.

Bottom Line

The ASRock X870 Nova, priced at just under $270, offers a compelling value proposition in the X870 space. It strikes a balance between B850 and X870E models, leaning towards the latter in terms of connectivity. So you get more without the premium on some X870E boards. Despite quite a bit of lane sharing, it boasts ample M.2 sockets and high-end audio, all within a design that seamlessly integrates into most build themes. But it’s definitely a flashy board.

The Nova differentiates itself from similarly priced competitors with a superior audio solution and more M.2 storage than most. Beyond these advantages, its overall performance aligns with that of its peers in the class, making the ultimate choice a matter of personal preference and specific needs. It should be on your short list; just be aware of lane sharing if you plan to fill up on M.2 storage. Really though, if you’re planning to install five M.2 drives, you should probably step up to the X870E model. It costs $50 more, but the higher-end chipset has more lanes, so you can keep your speedy USB4 ports and have your M.2 storage, too.

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AMD's Radeon AI Pro R9700 may not be a contender for inclusion on the list of best graphics cards for gaming. Nevertheless, the professional PCIe 5.0 graphics card powered by Navi 48 presents an excellent option for the AI and workstation sectors; consequently, ASRock has promptly introduced the brand's Radeon RX AI Pro R9700 Creator, which is based on the reference Radeon AI Pro R9700.

The Radeon RX AI Pro R9700 Creator is the third installment in ASRock's Creator lineup of graphics cards, succeeding the previous Radeon RX 7900 XTX Creator and Radeon RX 7900 XT Creator. Design-wise, you can never go wrong with a dual-slot design and a blower-type cooling system, a combination that facilitates multi-GPU setups on a single motherboard. ASRock implemented a vapor chamber under the Radeon RX AI Pro R9700 Creator's die-cast metal shroud. It also uses Honeywell PTM7950 phase-changing thermal pads for improved heat dissipation.

The Radeon RX AI Pro R9700 Creator, equipped with the Navi 48 silicon, boasts 4,096 Streaming Processors (SPs) and achieves game and boost clock speeds of up to 2,350 MHz and 2,920 MHz, respectively. These clock speeds align with the reference specifications.

One key attraction for AI and workstation users is the Radeon RX AI Pro R9700 Creator's memory capacity. This graphics card has 32GB of GDDR6 memory running at 20 Gbps. Additionally, its 256-bit memory interface allows for a memory bandwidth of up to 644.6 GB/s.

A common thread among increasing user reports of failing Ryzen 9000 CPUs was their connection to an ASRock AM5 motherboard. Citing a conversation with the partner at Computex, Tech Yes City has brought to light that ASRock's initial PBO (Precision Boost Overdrive) presets were set too aggressively for initial CPU samples. It is believed these aggressive settings are what ultimately lead to the premature demise of these processors. AMD declined to comment on the story, while ASRock wasn't immediately available.

Earlier this year, reports of failing AMD Ryzen 9000 (Granite Ridge) processors were common on Reddit and other forums. ASRock initially dismissed reports connecting their motherboards to the problem as 'misinformation', all the while supplying a new BIOS to address boot-up and memory compatibility issues. Affected users had no other choice but to RMA their broken CPUs.

According to new details from Tech Yes City, the problem stems from the amperage (current) supplied to the processor under AMD's PBO technology. Precision Boost Overdrive employs an algorithm that dynamically adjusts clock speeds for peak performance, based on factors like temperature, power, current, and workload. The issue is reportedly confined to ASRock's high-end and mid-range boards, as they were tuned far too aggressively for Ryzen 9000 CPUs.

ASRock just unveiled its new motherboard lineup at Computex 2025, showing off the latest versions of its flagship Taichi OCF and Taichi Creator AM5. It also has several mid-range and entry-level models on display, ensuring that it has a solution for everyone, no matter what their needs and budget are. What’s interesting, though, is that there weren’t any new Intel motherboards at ASRock’s booth.

This was unlike last year, when the company launched motherboards for both Team Blue and Team Red. Nevertheless, the company had a demonstration of how Intel’s AI prowess improves the gaming experience at its booth, and also launched the H810TM-ITX, a mini-ITX motherboard for the Intel Core Ultra Processors (Series 2) designed for AIO and mini-PCs.

As for its main motherboard lineup, we saw the X870E Taichi OCF, which the company builds for hardcore enthusiasts who want to push their hardware to the limit. This mobo is the first AMD chipset to get the OCF treatment, which stands for Overclock Formula.

Many overclocking enthusiasts have already attempted to break world records using an OCF motherboard paired with an Intel processor. So, with the introduction of the X870E Taichi OCF, maybe it’s time for AMD to reclaim the world overclocking record from Intel.

If you’re not one for breaking world records but still demand performance and reliability, ASRock released the new X870 Taichi Creator. This motherboard is still based on the company’s top-end line-up but focuses on delivering the expansion needs that gamers and creators need. It can accommodate up to four DDR5 DIMMs up to 256GB, has two PCIe 5.0 x16 slots and a PCIe 3.0 x16 slot, four M.2 slots, 15 USB ports (two of which are USB4 Type-C), 10 Gbps + 5 Gbps LAN, and Wi-Fi 7.

ASRock also has the X870E Nova WiFi for pure gamers, which only has one PCIe 5.0 x16 slot, a PCIe 3.0 x16 slot, and a PCIe 3.0 x1 slot. It also drops the extra 10 Gbps LAN you’d find on the Taichi Creator, but its capabilities should be more than enough to deliver what you need in almost every game.

There have been several reports of AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D CPUs refusing to boot on ASRock motherboards. The two companies have been aware of them since February 2025, with ASRock immediately releasing a beta BIOS update to address the problem. After a few weeks of investigation, the cause of the issue has finally been identified as a memory compatibility problem, but it has already been resolved with the latest BIOS release.

“We are aware of a limited number of user reports involving ASRock AM5 motherboards failing to complete POST. Following a joint investigation, AMD and ASRock identified a memory capability issue present in earlier BIOS versions, which has been rectified in the latest BIOS,” AMD told Tom’s Hardware. “ASRock has already issued guidance on this behavior and addressed a singular report of a damaged CPU.”

Even though more than a hundred motherboards failing to post with a 9800X3D chip have been documented, that is still a drop in the bucket compared to the thousands, if not millions, of motherboards and CPUs out there in countless variations. “It’s worth noting that a failure to POST can be caused by a range of factors and does not necessarily indicate a non-functional CPU,” added AMD. “We recommend that users start by updating their BIOS to the latest version available for their specific motherboard model.”

Still, if you have a problem even after updating your BIOS, the company says you should contact customer support. AMD adds, “If the issue persists, we encourage users to contact our customer support team for further assistance and diagnostics.” If the company can’t fix the problem on-site, it will probably tell you to RMA the CPU, which, in most cases, fixes the boot problem.

As for the February report of a burnt-out 9800X3D, AMD said that the motherboard did not have burn marks and that it was just debris that needed some cleaning. Sure enough, the motherboard successfully booted after this procedure and even passed some long-term testing.

The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D is one of the best gaming CPUs you can buy today, so both AMD and its motherboard partners are likely vigilant on any problems that might appear on these components. Thankfully, it seems that the issues that do occur are minor and can be easily resolved. However, we're following up with AMD for more details. Stay tuned.

The Intel Arc B570 picks up where the Arc B580 left off, namely with an even lower price point of $219. On paper, that's 12% cheaper, but it also comes with a 10% reduction in core counts, 3.5% lower clocks, and most importantly a 17% reduction in VRAM capacity and bandwidth. If you're trying to save money it might be worth considering, but the value proposition isn't as strong as the B580. It will compete with the best graphics cards of the rising generation, but only by virtue of very likely being the least expensive new GPU that we'll see in the coming year.

We've covered the Intel Battlemage architecture and the Arc B-series GPUs already. Now it's time to see how the B570 stacks up in real-world testing. Shaving $30 off the price while also cutting the memory by 2GB may not be the best solution for gaming or AI usage going forward. But let's start with the specifications.

As noted already, the Arc B5780 takes the same BMG-G21 core and trims a few functional units, with a lower core clock as well. The resulting card ends up with 13% less theoretical compute and 17% less memory bandwidth — and also 17% less memory capacity.

We haven't seen very many 10GB graphics cards over the year. There was the original RTX 3080, and more recently AMD's RX 6700 (non-XT), and that's basically it. We know there are quite a few modern games that can exceed 8GB of VRAM use, so the B570 may have a bit more wiggle room. However, lossless memory compression techniques in GPUs can also have an impact, so raw capacity isn't the final word.

Considering the Arc B580 ended up outperforming the prior generation Arc A770 by around 20%, we expect the new B570 to be slightly faster than the A770 as well. Except, higher resolutions where the extra VRAM capacity and bandwidth come into play will likely still favor the older GPU. Not that you'd really want to pick up an A770 16GB, considering they're now selling at $300 or more again.

Intel gives the Arc B570 a Graphics Clock of 2500 MHz, with a maximum boost clock of 2750 MHz. We noticed with the B580 that all the cards, including factory overclocked models, seemed to keep the maximum boost clock, and that appears to be the case with the B570 as well. Without manual overclocking, you'll get 2750 MHz peak performance, and in practice nearly every game and application we tested hit that clock speed.

Given the $219 MSRP, the Arc B570 will primarily face off against existing GPUs from AMD and Nvidia. Nvidia hasn't made a sub-$249 graphics card since the RTX 3050 8GB debuted in early 2022, three years ago. It now goes for $200, while supplies remain. There's also a more recent RTX 3050 6GB card as well, which we haven't tested, that sells for $170.

But we never particularly cared for the RTX 3050 cards. They were too slow for ray tracing to be a selling point, and in rasterization performance AMD's RX 6600 was clearly superior — it even competes with the higher spec RTX 3060 12GB. Our RX 6600 vs RTX 3050 GPU faceoff ended up being a clear victory for the RX 6600, mostly based on its superior performance. Despite being over three years old, the RX 6600 remains readily available, with prices starting at $190.

Time constraints (with holiday breaks and CES travels) meant we couldn't test every GPU we'd like to include for this review. We'll have the same cards as the Arc B580, plus a couple of additions (RTX 3060 and RX 6600). But before we get to the benchmarks, let's take a closer look at the ASRock Arc B570 Challenger OC we received for review.

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ASRock Arc B570 Challenger OC

Intel isn't making any reference Arc B570 cards, leaving that to its partners. It sent us an ASRock Arc B570 Challenger OC for this launch review, and we have some other B570 cards incoming... but those will probably have to wait until after we've cleared the RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 launches. Indications so far are that the various partner cards will all perform similarly, so it really comes down to pricing and aesthetics.

The primary attraction for the Battlemage GPUs will be their value proposition. Arc B580 is a great option for $249. At the current higher demand and backorder prices of $350 or more, though, it's nowhere near as interesting. The same goes for the Arc B570. It really needs to sell for $219, not $249 or $269.

We assume the ASRock Challenger OC will be a base MSRP model, as that's usually how ASRock approaches GPUs — the Phantom Gaming, Steel Legend, and Taichi brands are reserved for higher spec models with more RGB lighting. The Challenger B570 does have a small RGB strip, but otherwise it's a relatively barebones design.

ASRock's Arc B570 Challenger OC measures 248x130x42 mm and weighs 721g. It's a reasonably compact design in terms of the length, but it's taller than many lower tier cards. While it's a 2-slot card, there's also a metal backplate that makes it slightly thicker than some graphics cards and could preclude the use of an adjacent slot above the primary x16 slot (if you have a motherboard with such a configuration).

ASRock equips the Challenger with two older style 95mm custom fans, without the integrated rims that have become common on higher quality GPUs. We didn't encounter any issues with keeping the card cool and reasonably quiet, but these feel more like leftover fans from several years ago rather than quality components. You get what you pay for, in other words.

The Challenger comes with the usual complement of three DisplayPort 2.1 outputs and a single HDMI 2.1 port. We assume it's similar to the B580 LE in that one of the DP2.1 outputs supports UHBR13.5 (54 Gbps) while the other two are UHBR10, but we don't have a DP2.1 monitor for testing. Instead, we're using a 4K 240 Hz display that leverages DSC (Display Stream Compression) and runs on the older DP1.4a standard.

The B570 has an official TBP (Total Board Power) rating of 150W, and ASRock provides a single 8-pin PCIe graphics power connector. That can deliver up to 150W on its own, with an additional 75W provided by the x16 slot, so there should be ample margins for any potential overclocking.

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For 2025 (as well as the Arc B580 review), we've upgraded our GPU test PC and modernized our gaming test suite. The new system has an AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D processor, the fastest current CPU for gaming purposes. We did test the B580 on our old 13900K test bed as well, and most of the results were basically the same as the 9800X3D — meaning the GPU speed is the limiting factor in most games.

We're running Windows 11 24H2, with the latest drivers at the time of testing. We used AMD's 24.12.1 drivers, Nvidia's 566.36 drivers, and Intel's preview 6256 drivers for the B570. We also retested the B580 with the publicly available 6256 drivers, while the Arc A770 used the 6319 drivers.

Note that these changes mean all the results from our GPU benchmarks hierarchy, while still valid for when they were run, need to be refreshed. We'll be working on a revised GPU hierarchy in the coming weeks, but it will be a bit before that's fully ready — we want at least all the current generation cards to be included, and it's no secret that both Nvidia Blackwell RTX 50-series GPUs and AMD RX 9000-series RDNA 4 GPUs are incoming.

Our PC is hooked up to a Samsung Odyssey Neo G8 32, one of the best gaming monitors around, allowing us to potentially experience some of the higher frame rates that might be available on the fastest GPUs. Most games can't get anywhere close to the 240 Hz limit of the monitor, especially not with budget to midrange hardware like the Arc B570 and its direct competition.

The new (revised since B580) GPU test suite consists of 22 games. We dropped Call of Duty Black Ops 6 from the suite due to frequent changes and some other oddities, and we're still looking at other potential changes, but this is where we're at for now. We've also toned down on ray tracing tests, mostly because outside of a few select games, it often seems to kill performance for debatable image quality upgrades. So, while more of the games have RT support, it's only enabled in six of the games — and even then, the visual upgrades are only really noticeable in three of the games. The remaining 16 games are run in pure rasterization mode.

All 22 games were tested without any upscaling or frame generation. We'll see about doing additional XeSS testing in the future, but trying to compare DLSS 2/3 (and soon 4), FSR 2/3, and XeSS performance without accounting for differences in image quality strikes us as a bad baseline way of measuring performance. Plus, we'd rather the default in games be native rendering, leaving upscaling and framegen as true performance boosting options — so you can break 120 fps or 144 fps, rather than just trying to get to 60 fps.

All games are tested using 1080p 'medium' settings (the specifics vary by game and are noted in the chart headers), along with 1080p, 1440p, and 4K 'ultra' settings. Some may wonder about the reasoning behind the selected settings, so let's quickly elaborate.

What we want to show with graphics cards is how performance scales. We include 1080p medium as a baseline "everything released in the past few years ought to handle this" setting. Then moving to 1080p ultra provides enough of a gap to be interesting — sometimes it's still only 10% slower, but other games it might be half as fast as medium settings. If we tested 1080p high instead, that's potentially one less useful piece of information.

Going beyond 1080p ultra, we don't want to change both the resolution and the settings, as there's going to be a lot of overlap between 1440p medium and 1080p ultra as an example. So we just test 1440p and 4K ultra, at least where it makes sense. And keep in mind that today's ultra is tomorrow's high, the next day's medium, and next week's low — except it's more like a year or so between each level.

The end result is that our tests will show both how GPUs run at comparable settings, where some designs may have shortcomings (e.g. insufficient VRAM or bandwidth), and provide ways for people to extrapolate how things would run at other settings. While we don't test 1440p or 4K at medium settings, if you check the 1080p medium to ultra scaling on a slower GPU from the same vendor, that should also apply (roughly) to a higher tier GPU at higher resolutions.

As we're in the process of retesting everything on our new PC and test suite, we're toning down the number of comparison points. The most direct competition for the B570 is a bit hard to pin down. The RTX 4060 and RX 7600 XT clearly cost more, but we'll include them as the "step up" options alongside the B580. The RX 7600 also costs a bit more, but it's fairly close. Then we drop to the RX 6600 and RTX 3050 as sub-$200 options that cost less than the B570. Besides those cards, we also have Nvidia's RTX 3060 12GB (which isn't so readily available these days), and we also tested the Arc A770 and A750.

The primary competition for the B570 ends up being older GPUs that are on their way out, and we don't really expect any new AMD or Nvidia GPUs to target the sub-$250 market. Maybe we'll be wrong, but we suspect the eventual RTX 5060 will likely cost $299 or more, and RX 9060 will likewise probably cost $299 or more. That at least gives Intel a clear win as the least expensive new graphics card. If you want to get an idea of where other GPUs might land, check out our full GPU benchmarks hierarchy — and then use the percentage increase in the hierarchy and apply that to the test data from this review.

Our test PCs are now running Windows 11 24H2, with all the updates applied. We're also using Nvidia's PCAT v2 (Power Capture and Analysis Tool) hardware, which means we can grab real power use, GPU clocks, and more during our gaming benchmarks. We'll cover those results on the page with power use.

Finally, because GPUs aren't purely for gaming these days, we've run some professional and AI application tests. We've previously tested Stable Diffusion, using various custom scripts, but to level the playing field we're turning to standardized benchmarks. We use Procyon, and run the AI Vision test as well as the Stable Diffusion 1.5 and XL tests; MLPerf Client 0.5 preview for AI text generation; SPECworkstation 4.0 for Handbrake transcoding, AI inference, and professional applications; 3DMark DXR Feature Test to check raw hardware RT performance; and finally Blender Benchmark 4.3.0 for professional 3D rendering.

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We're breaking down gaming performance into two categories: Traditional rasterization games, and ray tracing games. Each game has four test settings, though for the B570 we're largely going to ignore the 4K ultra results. We also have the overall performance geomean, the rasterization geomean, and the ray tracing geomean.

We'll start with the rasterization suite of 16 games, because that's arguably still the most useful measurement of gaming performance, particularly for a budget GPU like the Arc B570. Each game has four charts, ordered by how we would rate their importance. For the B570, the order will be 1080p ultra, 1080p medium, 1440p ultra, and (just for laughs) 4K ultra.

Our overall rasterization results pretty much inform our opinion of the Arc B570. It achieves performance parity with the old RTX 3060 12GB, with worse 1% low results (i.e. drivers most likely). It's a bit faster than the 3060 at 1080p medium, basically tied at 1440p ultra, and 4K ultra performance struggles at best.

Give the price, looking more closely at 1080p gaming makes sense. AMD's cheaper RX 6600 wins in a few games, but the B570 easily outclasses it overall. It's 29% faster than the 6600 at 1080p ultra, and 14% faster at 1080p medium. And if you care, it's also 45% faster at 1440p ultra and 34% faster at 4K ultra. Is that worth the additional $30 in price? We think so.

Against the RX 7600, performance is a bit of a wash. Arc B570 leads by 10% at 1080p ultra, but falls 10% behind at 1080p medium. It gets pyrrhic victories at 1440p and 4K as well, leading by 23–24 percent overall, if that matters to you. But in this case, Arc B570 costs $30 less (at the time of writing, assuming MSRP pricing on the B570), so that's another easy win.

But what about the Arc B580? It costs $30 more, in theory — prices are jacked up right now. That's 14% more money, for 18% more performance at 1080p ultra, 13% higher performance at 1080p medium, and it's 22% faster at 1440p ultra. 4K ultra really wants more than the B570's 10GB of VRAM, and so the B580 ends up being 51% faster there.

Below are the individual rasterization results, in alphabetical order with limited commentary.

Assassin's Creed Mirage uses the Ubisoft Anvil engine and DirectX 12. It's an AMD-promoted game as well, though these days that doesn't necessarily mean it always runs better on AMD GPUs. It could be CPU optimizations for Ryzen, or more often it just means a game has FSR2 or FSR3 support — FSR2 in this case. It also supports DLSS and XeSS upscaling.

The B570 falls well behind the RX 7600 here, at least at 1080p. It does win at 1440p, however, and still manages a very playable 68 FPS in that case. Upscaling could make 4K run fine as well.

Baldur's Gate 3 is our sole DirectX 11 holdout — it also supports Vulkan, but that performed worse on the GPUs we checked, so we opted to stick with DX11. Built on Larian Studios' Divinity Engine, it's a top-down perspective game, which is a nice change of pace from the many first person games in our test suite.

The Arc B570 (and B580) really underperform here. We speculated that it was related to drivers, but that's a month ago and after four new drivers we still haven't a significant performance improvement. Even the RX 6600 generally beats the B570 here.

Black Myth: Wukong is one of the newer games in our test suite. Built on Unreal Engine 5, with support for full ray tracing as a high-end option, we opted to test using pure rasterization mode. Full RT may look a bit nicer, but the performance hit is quite severe. (Check our linked article for our initial launch benchmarks if you want to see how it runs with RT enabled.)

The Battlemage GPUs continue to underperform in Black Myth Wukong. We don't have a clear explanation as to what's going on, but it's one of a few games where Intel's GPU drivers still need work.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard uses the Frostbite engine and runs via the DX12 API. It's one of the newest games in my test suite, having launched this past Halloween. It's been received quite well, though, and in terms of visuals I'd put it right up there with Unreal Engine 5 games — without some of the LOD pop-in that happens so frequently with UE5.

The B570 basically ties the RTX 3060 at 1080p, with only the 7600 XT and B580 beating it at 1440p (at least among the tested GPUs — there are lots of faster cards not included in these charts).

Final Fantasy XVI came out for the PS5 last year, but it only recently saw a Windows release. It's also either incredibly demanding or quite poorly optimized, but it does tend to be very GPU limited. Our test sequence consists of running a path around the town of Lost Wing.

None of the tested GPUs do very well in Final Fantasy XVI. The 7600 XT takes the top spot at 1080p and 1440p, but the B570 is only somewhat playable at 1080p ultra.

We've been using Flight Simulator 2020 for several years, and there's a new release below. But it's so new that we also wanted to keep the original around a bit longer as a point of reference. We've switched to using the 'beta' (eternal beta) DX12 path for our testing now, as it's required for DLSS frame generation even if it runs a bit slower on Nvidia GPUs (not that we're using framegen).

The B570 comes in slightly behind the RX 7600 at 1080p and 1440p, but ahead of the RTX 4060. It's interesting that the Nvidia GPUs don't do too well here, possibly because of DX12.

Flight Simulator 2024 tends to struggle on 8GB cards at the ultra setting, and the B570 comes out ahead of the 4060 again at 1080p. AMD's RX 7600 and 6600 really struggle here, except at 1080p medium.

God of War Ragnarök released for the PlayStation two years ago and only recently saw a Windows version. It's AMD promoted, but it also supports DLSS and XeSS alongside FSR3. We ran around the village of Svartalfheim, which is one of the most demanding areas in the game that we've encountered.

The B570 underperforms in this game, falling behind the RTX 3060 at all four settings (not that 4K is really viable). It's not VRAM capacity either, as the 4060 does fine at 1440p and below.

Hogwarts Legacy came out in early 2023, and it uses Unreal Engine 4. Like so many Unreal Engine games, it can look quite nice but also has some performance issues with certain settings. Ray tracing in particular can bloat memory use and tank framerates, so we've opted to test without ray tracing.

The B570 lands between the RTX 4060 and RTX 3060, and this is one of the games where Nvidia's older GPU takes the lead over the newer model. Chalk that up to VRAM capacity.

Horizon Forbidden West is another two years old PlayStation port, using the Decima engine. The graphics are good, though I've heard at least a few people that think it looks worse than its predecessor — excessive blurriness being a key complaint. But after using Horizon Zero Dawn for a few years, it felt like a good time to replace it.

The B570 lands closer to the B580 here than in many of the other games, though performance tanks hard at 4K ultra. Minimum FPS isn't that great on the B570 either, though the latest drivers did improve the B580 performance consistency.

The Last of Us, Part 1 is another PlayStation port, though it's been out on PC for about 20 months now. It's also an AMD promoted game, and really hits the VRAM hard at higher quality settings. The B570 struggles here at ultra settings, falling to the bottom of the charts. At medium settings, it comes out just behind the RX 7600 and ahead of the RTX 3060. It's interesting that the RTX 4060 doesn't seem to be bothered much by only having 8GB of VRAM.

A Plague Tale: Requiem uses the Zouna engine and runs on the DirectX 12 API. It's an Nvidia promoted game that supports DLSS 3, but neither FSR or XeSS. (It was one of the first DLSS 3 enabled games as well.)

The B570 trades blows with the older A770 across our test settings. It also swaps spots with the 4060 a few times. AMD's 7600 and 7600 XT do pretty well here for an Nvidia promoted game.

Stalker 2 is another Unreal Engine 5 game, but without any hardware ray tracing support — the Lumen engine also does "software RT" that's basically just fancy rasterization as far as the visuals are concerned, though it's still quite taxing. VRAM can also be a serious problem when trying to run the epic preset, with 8GB cards struggling at most resolutions.

The B570 trails the RTX 3060 at 1080p, takes a slight lead at 1440p, and then performance collapses at 4K. It's basically only sufficient for native 1080p, though, and needs upscaling for 1440p to be viable.

Star Wars Outlaws uses the Snowdrop engine and we wanted to include a mix of options. Outlaws also happens to be one of the games where we've had the most difficulty on Arc GPUs, with continued rendering errors on the B580 and B570 even with the latest drivers. Crashes still occur with Battlemage as well.

Despite the stability issues, the B570 does beat the RX 7600 XT and below from AMD, and performance isn't too far off the RTX 4060 at 1440p and below. Only 1080p is really playable without upscaling.

Starfield uses the Creation Engine 2, an updated engine from Bethesda where the previous release powered the Fallout and Elder Scrolls games. It's another fairly demanding game, and we run around the city Akila, which is one of the more taxing locations in the game.

The B570 struggles here again, just like the B580. It's mostly playable at 1080p ultra, but 1% lows are in the teens, with lots of micro-stuttering.

Wrapping things up, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is yet another AMD promoted game. It runs on the Swarm engine and uses DirectX 12, without any support for ray tracing hardware. We use a sequence from the introduction, which is generally less demanding than the various missions you get to later in the game but has the advantage of being repeatable and not having enemies everywhere.

The B570 beats the RTX 3060 but trails the 4060 and RX 7600. It's also faster than the RX 6600, though, so as a budget option it's not too bad.

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As a $219 graphics card, ray tracing isn't really a major considering on the Arc B570. Yes, it can run some RT games fine, and it's generally much better with RT than AMD's existing GPUs. We'll have to see how RDNA4 changes things when it arrives.

Most RT games end up being better optimized for Nvidia GPUs, because Nvidia has been pushing the tech far more than AMD or Intel. We selected six reasonably demanding RT games for our testing (and we may add Indiana Jones and the Great Circle at some point in the future).

The Arc B570 does pretty well overall in our geomean for ray tracing. AMD's GPUs fall to the bottom of the charts, though 4K RT proves to be too much for the B570. It's basically on par with the previous generation A770 16GB, despite having far less theoretical compute and a lot less VRAM.

Nvidia's RTX 4060 beats the B570 at 1080p, but the card are basically tied at 1440p. Intel's new budget card also leads the 3060 at 1440p and below. If you're looking for a sub-$250 card that can sort of handle RT, the new Arc B570 might suffice, but in general you'll probably want to just leave RT disabled for this level of GPU.

And now that we have all the rasterization and ray tracing results, we can also look at the big picture. These charts use the geomean of all 22 games that we've tested, with RT basically accounting for a quarter of the overall score.

We think it's fair to say that there are a lot of RT games where the tech doesn't really do much other than tank performance, but there are also a select few games that definitely benefit visually from RT. So, we have far more rasterization games in our suite but still include a handful of RT games to give a more balanced overall view of how the GPUs stack up.

The Arc B570 ends up placing just ahead of the RTX 3060, and the ray tracing games really punish AMD's 8GB GPUs so that they fall to the bottom of the charts at ultra settings. The B570 and A770 16GB end up being pretty closely matched overall. But let's look at the individual games again.

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora uses ray tracing, but it's not particularly forthcoming on when and where it's used. Reflections in general don't appear to use RT, which is one of the most noticeable upgrades RT can provide. Instead, it's used for shadows and possibly global illumination and some other effects. What I can say for sure is that nothing in the menus (other than "BVH Quality") directly mentions ray tracing, and the performance hit doesn't seem to be as severe as in some games. Still, since there's supposed to be RT of some form, this one gets lumped into our DXR suite.

The B570 does decently overall, though it's a bit odd how close the A750 gets, even taking the lead at 1440p and 4K. Probable VRAM bandwidth is a factor. For 1080p, the B570 leads everything except the RTX 4060 and B580, and it trades blows with the A770.

If you want a game where ray tracing is both clearly visible and actually makes the game look better, without totally destroying performance, look no further than Control. It's now five years old, and we're using the Ultimate version, but it's still arguably the best example of using RT well. And probably a lot of that is because you're running around the Federal Bureau of Control, an office space of sorts that has good reasons to have plenty of glass windows that reflect the scenery.

AMD's GPUs have a lot of issues with Control, especially on the 8GB cards. Performance degrades over time, which didn't happen a couple of years back. It's almost like AMD stopped worrying about the game at some point.

The Arc B570 is able to match or exceed the performance of the RTX 4060 in this game, not too shabby for a $220 GPU.

Possibly the most hyped up use of RT in a game, Cyberpunk 2077 launched with more RT effects than other games of its era, and later the 2.0 version added full path tracing and DLSS 3.5 ray reconstruction. Ray reconstruction ends up looking the best but only works on Nvidia GPUs, so as with upscaling it can be a case of trying to compare apples and oranges.

We're using medium settings with RT lighting at medium and RT reflections enabled, and then the step up uses the RT-Ultra preset. In all cases, any form of upscaling or frame generation gets turned off.

AMD's GPUs struggle badly in Cyberpunk 2077, but the Arc B570 mostly manages a playable level of performance at 1080p. 1440p is out of reach without upscaling, though the game does have XeSS support if you want to give that a shot.

F1 24 enables several RT effects on the ultra preset but leaves them off on medium. But then 1080p medium runs at hundreds of frames per second, so we went ahead and turned all the RT effects on for our testing.

The B570 results are odd here. B580 does quite well in F1 24, but the B570 falls well off the pace. It could be the reduced VRAM, or perhaps newer drivers have caused a drop in performance. The B570 mostly trails the RTX 3060 in this game, at least in our testing.

Minecraft supports full path tracing, and that kills performance on the AMD GPUs. The Arc B570 does better, but it's only reasonable for 1080p. Performance also dropped quite a bit with the B570 at 1440p and 4K, falling below the A750.

Last on our list of RT-enabled games, Spider-Man: Miles Morales doesn't look as nice with RT turned on as the previous Spider-Man: Remastered. The reflections are less obvious, and perhaps performance is better as a result. But beyond the RT effects, maxed out settings in Miles Morales definitely needs more than 8GB of VRAM.

The B570 does well at 1080p both at medium and maximum settings. 1440p starts to show a lot of performance inconsistency, however, and 4K performance died hard. So stick with 1080p if you want maxed out settings on the new Arc GPU.

One final ray tracing benchmark we have is the 3DMark DXR Feature Test, where we report the average FPS rather than the calculated score. This is similar to full RT in a game, only done via a standalone benchmark and perhaps in a more vendor agnostic fashion.

Things here are... odd. We retested the B580, as the B570 with newer drivers initially delivered better performance. The B580 did improve and is now 15% faster than the B570, right in line with expectations. That's good to see, but then we still have the A750 matching the B580 with the A770 performing 10% faster than the B580. Does that mean the A770 still has more RT performance? It might, or it might just be something where further tuning of drivers will help.

The RT hardware in Battlemage is supposed to be up to twice as fast as what was in Alchemist, so 20 ray tracing units in the B580, running at higher clocks, should be able to surpass the performance of the 32 RTUs in the A770. That it doesn't do so in this test raises some interesting questions, and we don't have all the answers just yet.

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Modern GPUs aren't just about gaming. They're used for video encoding, professional applications, and increasingly they're being used for AI. We've revamped our professional and AI test suite to give a more detailed look at the various GPUs. We'll start with the AI benchmarks on the Arc B570, as those tend to be more important for a wider range of users.

Procyon has several different AI tests, and for now we've run the AI Vision benchmark along with two different Stable Diffusion image generation tests. The tests have several variants available that are all determined to be roughly equivalent by UL: OpenVINO (Intel), TensorRT (Nvidia), and DirectML (for everything, but mostly AMD). There are also options for FP32, FP16, and INT8 data types, which can give different results. We tested the available options and used the best result for each GPU.

Arc B570 performs well in the Stable Diffusion tests, with the only faster GPU in our budget to midrange collection for SDXL being the B580. The 4060 does pull ahead in the older and less taxing SD 1.5 test, but the value proposition looks strong on the B570 for these AI workloads. Note that the SDXL test failed to run on the RX 6600, after multiple tries — it needs more VRAM, apparently.

The AI Vision test uses older workloads like ResNet50 to test performance, and again the B570 takes second place behind the B580. How applicable these results are in the real world remains debatable, but for properly optimized software Battlemage looks good.

ML Commons' MLPerf Client 0.5 test suite does AI text generation in response to a variety of inputs. There are four different tests, all using the LLaMa 2 7B model, and the benchmark measures the time to first token (how fast a response starts appearing) and the tokens per second after the first token. These are combined using a geometric mean for the overall scores, which we report here.

While AMD, Intel, and Nvidia are all ML Commons partners and were involved with creating and validating the benchmark, it doesn't seem to be quite as vendor agnostic as we would like. AMD and Nvidia GPUs only currently have a DirectML execution path, while Intel has both DirectML and OpenVINO as options. We reported the OpenVINO numbers, which are quite a bit higher than the DirectML results.

The B570 takes the second spot again, after the B580. All of the Arc GPUs have a fast time to first token result, which again seems to stem from the OpenVINO path. For the average tokens per second, Battlemage takes first and second, but AMD's 7600 XT ranks third, ahead of the 4060. The older RX 6600 falls far behind, both in time to first token and average tokens per second.

We'll have some other SPECworkstation 4.0 results below, but there's an AI inference test composed of ResNet50 and SuperResolution workloads that runs on GPUs (and potentially NPUs, though we haven't tested that). We calculate the geometric mean of the four results given in inferences per second, which isn't an official SPEC score but it's more useful for our purposes.

Again, software optimizations will likely make or break performance here. The A770 comes out on top, followed by the 4060 and 3060. All three of the AMD GPUs fall in the middle, then the A750 trails the A770 by a larger than normal margin, and the Battlemage GPUs take the two bottom slots.

For our professional application tests, we'll start with Blender Benchmark 4.3.0, which has support for Nvidia Optix, Intel OneAPI, and AMD HIP libraries. Those aren't necessarily equivalent in terms of the level of optimizations, but each represents the fastest way to run Blender on a particular GPU at present.

The B570 and Battlemage results once more fall behind some GPUs we would normally expect them to beat, like the A750 and A770. Nvidia's 4060 and 3060 place first and second, while AMD's GPUs bring up the rear. As this test should stress the hardware RT units, it could indicate that the reduced number of RT units (relative to Alchemist) is to blame, or it could be a lack of tuning in the current Intel drivers.

SPECworkstation 4.0 has two other test suites that are of interest in terms of GPU performance. The first is the video transcoding test using HandBrake, a measure of the video engines on the different GPUs and something that can be useful for content creation work. Here we use the average of the 4K to 4K and 4K to 1080p scores.

Here the Arc B570 does very well, matching the B580 and easily surpassing the other GPUs. You can also see the different generations of video codec hardware at play, with the two 7600 cards basically tied while the 6600 is quite a bit slower. Battlemage appears to have some improvements that help relative to Alchemist in this particular workload as well.

Again, it's disappointing that Intel killed off the studio portion of its drivers that allowed users to easily capture video content. OBS hasn't worked for me on the Battlemage cards, perhaps drivers again, or possibly just because it's more complex and I didn't set it up correctly.

Our final professional app tests consist of SPECworkstation 4.0's viewport graphics suite. This is basically the same tests as SPECviewperf 2020, only updated to the latest versions. (Also, Siemen's NX isn't part of the suite now.) There are seven individual application tests, and we've combined the scores from each into an unofficial overall score using a geometric mean.

The Arc B570 lands at the bottom of the overall chart, and does somewhat poorly relative to the other GPUs in several of the individual tests. 3dsmax, Creo, and Maya have the B570 in last place, often quite a bit behind the B580. AMD meanwhile offers a strong point for its GPUs in this set of tests, so if you use any of these professional applications, check the individual results.

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All of our gaming tests are conducted using an Nvidia PCAT v2 device, which allows us to capture total graphics card power, GPU clocks, GPU temperatures, and some other data as we run each gaming benchmark. We have separate 1080p, 1440p, and 4K results for each area.

The Arc B570 has an official power rating of 150W. That's for the whole board, not just the GPU — and we've noticed that some software seems to only grab GPU power (RivaTuner Statistics Server as an example). But the PCAT provides real power use.

As we saw with the B580, the B570 comes in below its rated power level. We say average power use across our test suite of 130–140 watts, slightly more than the RX 6600 but less than the RX 7600 — and far below the previous generation A750 and A770. But Nvidia's RTX 4060 still ranks as the lower power use of the tested GPUs.

Clock speeds among the different GPUs and architectures aren't particularly important, but it's interesting to see where things land. Intel specifies a "Graphics Clock" of 2500 MHz for the B570, and that's supposed to be an average across a suite of games. But it's a conservative average if so, and in fact the ASRock B570 card basically ran at it's maximum 2750 MHz boost clock in nearly all of our tests.

Like the clock speeds, comparing GPU temperatures without considering other aspects of the cards doesn't make much sense. One card could run its fans at higher RPMs, generating more noise while being "cooler." So these graphs should be used alongside the noise and performance results.

The ASRock B570 card ends up in the top three for running cool and quiet. It's slightly warmer than the RTX 4060 and RX 6600, landing just above 60C under load.

We check noise levels using an SPL (sound pressure level) meter placed 10cm from the card, with the mic aimed right at the center of one fan: the center fan if there are three fans, or the right fan for two fans. This helps minimize the impact of other noise sources like the fans on the CPU cooler. The noise floor of our test environment and equipment is around 31–32 dB(A).

[Charts to come, sorry! Still testing...]

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It's nice to see a new graphics card that has a theoretically budget price of $219. We'll have to wait and see how things develop over time, though, as the Arc B580 has been sold out and overpriced basically since it launched last month. Hopefully things calm down soon and prices drop to MSRP levels.

Could the same thing happen to the Arc B570? Yes, but it probably won't be as severe. The B580 ends up as the more desirable card, since performance scales more than the price. For most graphics cards, you'll typically pay 20% more money for 10% more performance, rather than 12% more money for 18% more performance.

We haven't talked a lot about drivers this time, but as with our B580 testing, there are definitely anomalies and issues that still need fixing. Some games underperform, other crash on a regular basis. This is the Intel "fine wine" argument where performance and compatibility improve over time. But most people would likely prefer having something work properly from the start.

Battlemage in many ways feels like a rehash of the Alchemist launch. It's faster than the outgoing AMD and Nvidia GPUs, but new models are coming soon. But we don't expect Nvidia's future RTX 5060 to cost less than $300, and even AMD's RX 9060 may start at $300. That leaves the sub-$250 and "closer to $200" market to the Arc B570 by default.

It still has to contend with older model cards, but the RX 6600 isn't able to keep pace. Even in rasterization games, the B570 ends up being almost 30% faster than the 6600, while costing about 16% more. So unless prices on the RX 6600 drop another $20 or more, the B570 wins that comparison.

It also wins against the RX 7600. It's only slightly faster in general, and tied at 1080p medium, but it costs $30 less. Basically, the Arc B570 ends up standing alone as a brand new chip that only costs $220. There's nothing else released in the past two years that sits in that price bracket.

If you're mostly concerned with price and value rather than performance and compatibility, the Arc B570 should be a reasonable option. But if you can afford the extra $30 — and find a B580 in stock for that price — its sibling GPU remains the better option.

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Previous iterations of ASRock’s Taichi motherboards (from both AMD and Intel camps) have impressed us as top values of the upper mid-range segment. These boards have tended to offer flagship-like features such as fast ports, robust power delivery, a premium appearance fitting for a high-end motherboard, and a palatable price. Fast-forward to today, and the ASRock X870E Taichi receives an updated design, more powerful VRMs, USB 4.0 (40 Gbps) Type-C ports again (now a standard for the platform), updated networking to 5GbE and Wi-Fi 7, and more. The best part? Its launch price is less than the previous-gen X670E Taichi that came out nearly two years ago.

ASRock’s product stack for AMD’s update X870/X870E chipset platform consists of seven boards at the time of publication. From the top down, there’s the Taichi ($499.99) and Taichi Lite ($399.99), X870E Nova WIFI ($349.99), X870E Riptide WIFI ($279.99), X870 Steel Legend WIFI ($259.99), and finally the Pro RS WIFI ($209.99) and Pro RS ($199.99). It’s a complete lineup, at least price/feature-wise, but I’d like to see Micro ATX and Mini-ITX options. Perhaps we’ll see that on the “B” series boards, whenever they release.

On the hardware front, the ASRock X870E Taichi has everything you’d expect from the platform. In addition to the dual USB 4.0 (40 Gbps) Type-C ports, you get 10 Type-A ports of varying speeds on the rear IO, two full-length PCIe 5.0 slots, a flagship-class audio solution with DAC, dual 2.5 and 5 GbE ports and Wi-Fi 7, four M.2 sockets (two with EZ-release latches), six SATA ports, active VRM cooling, and more.

The X870E Taichi performed well in our updated testing suite and with the Ryzen 9 9900X processor. From our first batch of testing, the Taichi and Gigabyte’s Aorus Master traded podium spots in the productivity tests and also showed off their grit in gaming. The Taichi's default settings let any installed CPU reach its potential.

Below, we’ll examine the board's details and determine whether it deserves a spot on our Best Motherboards list. But before we share test results and discuss details, we’ll list the specifications from ASRock’s website.

Specifications of the ASRock X870E Taichi

Inside the Box of the ASRock X870E Taichi

ASRock includes a few accessories to get you going. This includes SATA cables, the Wi-Fi antenna, three thermistor cables, and an ARGB splitter. Compared to some others around this price point, you don’t get a lot of extras, but it’s not missing anything major, either.

Design of the Taichi

Like all X870/X870E-based boards, the X870E Taichi also receives aesthetic updates. The board is still on a black, server-grade, 8-layer PCB with 2 Oz. of copper and uses an extra-large heatpipe-connected heatsink on the VRMs and PCIe 5.0-capable M.2 socket. Design-wise, the famous cog/gears aesthetic (“Philosophy of Infinite Potential”) is still prominent, with the focal point an RGB illuminated area (controlled through Polychrome Sync) on the left VRM heatsink with the cogs shining through. Brushed aluminum finishes grace most surfaces, along with the curious addition of gold dots. I could do without it, but it’s still a good-looking board, even compared to the competition.

Our trip around the board starts in the left corner, where we run into two (one required) 8-pin EPS connectors for powering the processor. The “XXL” VRM heatsink is also actively cooled with a tiny fan hidden underneath. Thankfully, we couldn’t hear it over ambient room noise and other fans during testing. On top is the RGB feature with the gears and the ASRock name in white.

Moving past the socket area, we first encounter the four DRAM slots with locking mechanisms on both sides. The unreinforced DRAM slots support up to 256GB of RAM with speeds listed to DDR5-8200+(OC). Like the MSI and Gigabyte X870 boards we covered, the Taichi could boot with our DDR5-8000 kit but couldn’t run the stress test with out-of-the-box settings. Again, Klevv kits were on the memory QVL (Hynix-M die) but not our DDR5-8000 kit (Hynix A-die). Stick to the QVL list and you shouldn’t have many issues getting RAM to work at their rated speeds.

Above the DRAM slots are the first three (of eight) 4-pin fan headers. Each header supports PWM- and DC-controlled devices, and plenty of power is available on these headers. The CPU fan has the least at 1A/12W, but the rest are 3A/36W. The BIOS or the Blazing OC Tuner software handles control over these devices.

Next, in the upper-right corner, is the Dr. Debug LED that displays POST codes during boot and temperatures while in Windows. Below are the power and reset buttons and our first two 3-pin ARGB connectors. Control over the integrated and any attached RGB lighting is managed through the ASRock Polychrome RGB application. Continuing down the right edge is the 24-pin ATX connector to power the board and two USB headers (19-pin USB 3.2 Gen2 and USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Type-C connector). Running vertically in this area is one of the M.2 sockets that includes a toolless heatsink.

Power delivery on the X870E Taichi is one of the most capable, consisting of 27 phases (24 to Vcore). Power moves from the EPS connector(s) to a Renesas RAA229628 20-phase controller. The next hop is to the 24 Renesas R2209004 SPS MOSFETs in a ‘teamed’ or ‘dual’ configuration. The 2,640 Amps available is one of the highest values we’ve recorded and surely won’t get in the way of overclocking, including extreme overclocking using sub-ambient cooling methods. You’re limited by cooling only.

On the bottom half of the board, starting on the left, is a mostly exposed audio section based around the flagship Realtek ALC4082 codec and the ESS Sabre9219 DAC. You can also see the audio separation line and four red WIMA audio capacitors peeking out from below an M.2 heatsink. This is one of the better audio implementations you’ll see on the platform without a separate DAC.

The middle of the board houses the two reinforced PCIe slots and three of the four M.2 sockets. Starting with the full-length PCIe slots, both connect through the CPU and run PCIe 5.0. The top slot sports the graphics card EZ release runs up to x16 and breaks down to x8/x8 when the bottom slot is populated. There isn’t much room for expansion, but there’s plenty of bandwidth.

Three M.2 sockets mix in around the PCIe slots, with the top slot using the largest (and toolless!) heatsink for the only PCIe 5.0-capable M.2 socket. The bottom two M.2 sockets run on the chipset and a maximum of PCIe 4.0 x4 speeds. All key-M M.2 sockets support up to 80mm modules (the other M.2 is key-e and 30mm for the Wi-Fi by the rear IO). If you’d like additional throughput or redundancy, the Taichi supports RAID 0/1/10 modes for the NVMe drives. Just past the chipset heatsink on the right edge are six horizontal SATA ports supporting RAID 0/1/10 modes. There are plenty of storage options available.

Across the bottom of the board are several exposed headers. You’ll find the usual, including additional USB ports, RGB headers, and more. Below is a complete list, from left to right.

• Front panel audio
• 4-pin RGB header
• 3-pin ARGB header
• (3) 2-pin temperature headers
• (2) USB 2.0 headers
• (4) System fan headers
• 19-pin USB 3.2 Gen 1 connector
• 2-pin Clear CMOS jumper
• Power LED and Speaker header
• Front panel

Working our way to the backplate on the X870E Taichi, we see an area packed with connectivity. Sporting a black background and grey text, it’s relatively easy to read, and the labels are descriptive, so we can’t ask for much more. In the middle are a whopping 12 total USB ports, including 2x USB 4.0 (Type-C - also supports video via DisplayPort), 5x USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps), 3x USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) and 2x USB 2.0). Flanking them on the left are an HDMI output, the standard Wi-Fi 7 antenna connectors, Clear CMOS and BIOS Flashback buttons. The audio stack has two 3.5mm jacks (microphone and output) and an SPDIF connection on the right. Last, to the left of the audio, is the 5 GbE port.

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Firmware

Like previous ASRock boards, the X870E Taichi starts in Easy Mode, which is primarily informative, but it lets you change several options (XMP, profiles, boot order, access to Fan-Tastic Tuning, etc.). The black background and light blue accent colors on the Easy and Advanced modes are easy to read. Advanced mode has the same theme but displays headings across the top, with subheadings and details below.

Here, you can tweak everything, as ASRock includes every option you can think of. Overclocking is easy, with most options at your fingertips. The layout is logical and the mouse movement is smooth. We have no significant complaints about the ASRock firmware, though it feels a bit dated compared to the updated Gigabyte and MSI UEFIs on X870/X870E.

Software

ASRock provides several different software options. It has the App Shop to install drivers and software, the Nahimic 3 audio control panel, the A-Tuning application to overclock your system and control fans, the Polychrome RGB software, and more. There’s also a Blazing OC Tuner and a pop-up to install drivers when you first boot the system. ASRock’s software provides everything users need to manage and tweak their system.

Test System / Comparison Products

We’ve updated our test system to Windows 11 (23H2) 64-bit OS with all updates applied as of late September 2024 (this includes the Branch Prediction Optimizations for AMD). Hardware-wise, we’ve updated the RAM kits (matching our Intel test system), cooling, storage, and video card. Unless otherwise noted, we use the latest non-beta motherboard BIOS available to the public. Thanks to Asus for providing the RTX 4080 TUF graphics card and Crucial for the 2TB T705 SSDs. The hardware we used is as follows:

Test System Components

Benchmark Settings

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Benchmark Results and Final Analysis

Our standard benchmarks and power tests are performed using the CPU’s stock frequencies (including any default boost/turbo) with all power-saving features enabled. We set optimized defaults in the BIOS and the memory by enabling the XMP profile. For this baseline testing, the Windows power scheme is set to Balanced (default) so the PC idles appropriately.

Synthetic Benchmarks

Synthetics provide a great way to determine how a board runs, as identical settings should produce similar performance results. Turbo boost wattage and advanced memory timings are places where motherboard makers can still optimize for stability or performance, though, and those settings can impact some testing.

The X870E Taichi performed well across our synthetic benchmarks, often average or above average in our early datasets. At this point, any differences between our first three boards we’ve tested aren’t noticeable and are within the margin of error.

Timed Applications

In our timed benchmarks, the Taichi led the pack. Like the synthetics above, any differences were negligible, with the Handbrake x265 test the most notable performance gap. It’s clear this board gets the most out of the Ryzen 9 9900X.

3D Games and 3DMark

Starting with the launch of Zen 5, we’ve updated our game tests. We’re keeping the F1 racing game but have upgraded to F1 24. We also dropped Far Cry 6 in favor of an even more popular and good-looking game in Cyberpunk 2077. We run both games at 1920x1080 resolution using the Ultra preset (details listed above). Cyberpunk 2077 uses DLSS, while we left F1 24 to native resolution scaling. The goal with these settings is to determine if there are differences in performance at the most commonly used (and CPU/system bound) resolution with settings most people use or strive for (Ultra). We expect the difference between boards in these tests to be minor, with most falling within the margin of error differences. We’ve also added a minimum FPS value, which can affect your gameplay and immersion experience.

If you’ve read any of the earlier X870/X870E reviews or cheated and looked at the charts, you know our Ryzen 9 9900X is a capable gaming chip, too. The 3DMark scores were strikingly similar, but the games show some early differences, mainly in the minimum frame rate. Without a frame counter on the screen, you wouldn’t notice.

Overclocking

Over the past few CPU generations, overclocking headroom has been shrinking on both sides of the fence while the out-of-box potential has increased. For overclockers, this means there’s less fun to have. For the average consumer, you’re getting the most out of the processor without manual tweaking. Today’s motherboards are more robust than ever, and they easily support power-hungry flagship-class processors, so we know the hardware can handle them.

There are multiple ways to extract even more performance from these processors: enabling a canned PBO setting, manually tweaking the PBO settings, or just going for an all-core overclock. Results will vary and depend on the cooling as well. In other words, your mileage may vary. Considering all of the above, we’re not overclocking the CPU. However, we will try out our different memory kits to ensure they meet the specifications.

Starting from the top, the Taichi, like the Carbon and Aorus Master, booted the DDR5-8000 kit and ran the AIDA64 memory bandwidth test but couldn’t make it through the stress test, with the Hynix A die-based kit failing early at these speeds. Perhaps with some tweaking, it would work, but our DDR5-8000 kit isn’t on the QVL either (the Hynix-M is). For your best chance at working out of the box, stick to a set on the Memory QVL.

Power Consumption / VRM Temperatures

We used AIDA64’s System Stability Test with Stress CPU, FPU, Cache and Memory enabled for power testing, using the peak power consumption value from the processor. The wattage reading is from the wall via a Kill-A-Watt meter to capture the entire PC (minus the monitor). The only variable that changes is the motherboard; all other parts remain the same. Please note we moved to use only the stock power use/VRM temperature charts, as this section aims to ensure the power delivery can handle flagship-class processors.

The Ryzen 9 9990X's power consumption is tame compared to the 7950X we used for X670/X670E. Where, in the past, high-end boards would peak at nearly 300W, the systems now top out at 250-270W during the CPU stress tests (gaming with the Nvidia RTX 4080 is another story). The X870E Taichi peaked at 261W and idled at 94W, two higher values but not far off the others.

VRM temperatures on the Taichi peaked at just under 45 degrees Celsius, landing in the middle of our two results. While these temperatures are great, I’m surprised the active cooling didn’t push it below the Aorus Master. Still, you’ll be limited far sooner by CPU cooling before the power delivery gets in the way, even if it’s the high-power flagship Ryzen 9 9950X.

Bottom Line

The X870E version of the Taichi, as are most X870/X870E boards, is an incremental update. With the jump up to X870/X870E, you get native support for Zen 5-based processors, USB 4.0, Wi-Fi 7, and guaranteed PCIe 5.0 on the NVMe and graphics. The latest Taichi has an updated look, additional DIY features, and more. Performance in our testing was good, averaging out to be one of the fastest so far, if only by meager margins. In short, it has everything you’d expect from a premium mid-range (by price) motherboard.

There is plenty of competition around the $500 price point. We already covered the Gigabyte X870E Aorus Master ($499.99 - less with rebates) and the MSI X870E Carbon WIFI ($499.99). We’re also working on testing the Asus ROG Strix X870-E Gaming WIFI ($499.99). These are all capable boards loaded with features at this spot in the product stack. The difference between them, outside of looks, comes down to the audio implementation, the number of M.2 and SATA sockets, PCIe slot count and configuration, and price. And there is where the Taichi has the advantage, priced at $449.99 - $50 less than the others. It is E-ATX, whereas the others are not, so make sure your chassis has room for the larger board.

The latest X870E Taichi is a worthy upgrade for those looking to upgrade to the X870/X870E platform. In addition to the basics, it has ample USB ports on the rear IO and additional DIY features such as the screwless M.2 mounting, heatsinks, and EZ Release PCIe latch. We know performance is good in both productivity and gaming, so there are no worries. Priced $50 less than its direct competitors, ASRock again has the pick of the premium mid-range litter so far.

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Intel Z890 chipset LGA1851 motherboards have gone up for pre-order at Newegg. These motherboards were announced only at the end of last week, so it is good to see big U.S. retailers exposing their stocks and pricing quickly. Newegg has a bountiful selection to pick over, with 36 boards from brands like MSI, Gigabyte, and ASRock available to order. As per our headline, you can jump on the Intel Arrow Lake-S and Z890 train for as little as $189. However, for those on the hunt for more features and premium frills it is possible to spend up to $799 right now. Thankfully, there are probably many perfectly Goldilocks choices between the extremes, in the $250 to $400 price bracket. All these products ship from Oct 24.

If your budget is tight but you are determined to be an early adopter of the new Arrow Lake-S / LGA1851 platform, your only sub-$200 options come from ASRock. Basically, you can get the ASRock Z890 Pro-A for $189, or the same board with bundled Wi-Fi adaptor for $199. These are full-sized ATX boards with 4x DDR5 DIMM slots, 1 PCIe 5.0 x16, 2 PCIe 4.0 x4, 1 PCIe 4.0 x1, and 1 M.2 Key E for WiFi. It also has HDMI, DP, and Thunderbolt 4 Type-C for integrated video-out. For storage, there are four M.2 slots, one Gen 5, and three can do Gen 4.

If your brand loyalty means you insist on a Gigabyte or MSI motherboard, your Arrow Lake platform entry prices will instead be $209 and $229 (after rebate), respectively. These sums can secure you a Gigabyte Z890 UD WIFI6E or an MSI PRO Z890-P WIFI, respectively. Compared to the entry-level ASRock contenders, you don’t get much more than a different brand and a few thermal armor / guard style extras for your VRMs and SSDs.

Just two Micro ATX options are available for pre-order at Newegg, if this form factor is your PC DIY preference. Gigabyte has the all-white Z890M Aorus Elite WIFI7 ICE listed at $239, and there is also the ASRock Z890M Riptide WiFi Micro ATX board at $259. They both still offer 4x DDR5 DIMM slots, but there are naturally fewer PCI slots and three M.2 storage slots per board.

OK, let’s see what Newegg has to tempt the big spenders who want the most fully featured motherboards. If you have wads of cash to invest in a platform that may only last one processor generation (there are rumors) then you may be drawn to the over $600 bracket. For $659 (after a $10 rebate) you can snag the MSI MEG Z890 ACE. MSI packs in lots of premium features here. We would highlight the stronger power solution and OC Engine, which could appeal to system tweakers. Access to five fast M.2 storage slots is also welcome. You will see the board design has abundant Frozr design touches for cool smooth running. The fastest connectivity features like WiFi 7, 10G LAN are also present.

The most expensive Z890 motherboard we see on Newegg at this time is the ASRock Z890 Taichi AQUA we highlighted yesterday. This futuristic alpine white EATX board offers 10 USB-C connectors on the back panel, completely eschewing Type-A (except for front panel options). If you can get past the back panel port decision, the Aqua has lots of great features for enthusiasts.

Asus Z890 boards are not listed on Newegg’s retail pages at the time of writing. Previously spilled U.S. pricing indicates that the biggest player in the PC DIY market will offer Z890 motherboards priced from $280 all the way up to $1,000 and beyond.

ASRock launched two cutting-edge Z890 motherboards in sync with Intel’s release of the Arrow Lake-S chips. One of these mobos, the Z890 Taichi OCF, is designed for extreme overclocking, and it supports up to 128GB of non-ECC DDR5 up to and beyond 10,133 MT/s overclocked, according to the product pages. Aside from that, ASRock also launched the Z890 Taichi Aqua, which stands out by dropping all USB-A ports in favor of 10 USB-C ports on the rear I/O.

While ASRock has been around for over 20 years making motherboards and other components, it has always lived in the shadow of the big three — Asus, Gigabyte, and MSI. Thus, it has to find ways to make its products stand out from the competition. The company is doing this by pushing the possibilities of overclocking and allowing enthusiasts to squeeze every drop of performance from their high-end CPUs with the new Taichi OCF line of motherboards.

The vanilla Z890 Taichi motherboard could support up to DDR5-9200, but its OCF variant bumps this up to DRR5-10133+ via overclocking. ASRock says that the latest Z890 Taichi OCF combines its OCF series, known for its water-cooling prowess, and its OC Formula series, which is built for overclocking. This fusion makes the Z890 Taichi OCF the perfect motherboard for extreme overclockers. Note that the fastest retail memory available today only offers 9,600 MT/s, so ASRock expects users to achieve these speeds through their own experiments with tinkering and extreme cooling.

ASRock also launched the Z890 Taichi Aqua motherboard - which stands out from the crowd for an entirely different reason. It’s still designed for Intel Core Ultra 200S chips with support for up to 256GB of DDR5-9200, has three expansion slots (two PCIe 5.0x16 and one PCIe 4.0x16), and will accept two PCIe Gen5.0 x4 and up to four PCIe Gen4.0 x4 M.2 NVMe SSDs. However, what separates this board from the rest of the competition is the number of USB-C ports on its rear I/O.

The Z890 Taichi Aqua has two USB4 Type-C/Thunderbolt 4 ports, four USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C ports, and four USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-C ports. It also has provision for two USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Type-C ports up front, bringing the total number of USB-C ports to 12. And while you might be forgiven for thinking that it’s sacrificing USB-A ports, the Taichi Aqua still supports four USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A and four USB 2.0 ports on the front I/O. This gives you a total of 20 USB ports, allowing you to connect as many USB devices as you want to your PC.

These new motherboards show how hard ASRock wants to be at the lead of motherboard design with their exotic offerings. Hopefully, the company can maintain its momentum, and keep a steady eye on quality and reliability, helping it to fight with the bigger fish in the pond.

Gamescom 2024 is starting in just a couple of days, but ASRock’s lineup of motherboards designed for AMD’s latest AM5 chips and Intel’s Arrow Lake processors may have already appeared online. Popular hardware leaker @momomo_us posted on X (formerly Twitter) a screenshot that appears to show all 800-series motherboard chipset products that ASRock will release.

ASRock's list includes 21 motherboards from the Intel Z890 (14) and AMD X870 (7) chipsets. Remember, as with any leak, please take this list as indicative, at best. Here’s the full leaked list:

We noticed that the ASRock leak does not include mid-range and entry-level motherboards for either Intel or AMD. Details for Intel’s 800-series chipset have reportedly been revealed showing nine chipset SKUs, for example. But higher-end processors and chipsets are often launched first, to make the most of enthusiast buying power.

AMD is expected to release brand-new 800 series chipsets for the just-launched Ryzen 9000 series desktop processors. However, since Intel’s next-gen chips also use the 800 series nomenclature for its latest chipsets, it is going to be easy to get confused when shopping for a motherboard and building a new PC in the coming months. That’s why you should be careful when shopping and always double-check the specifications indicating what processor the motherboard in your shopping cart is designed for.

Aside from the ASRock leak, two other major motherboard manufacturers have posted motherboard teasers on X. MSI Gaming showed a somewhat obscured image of a motherboard with the hashtag #MSIxGamescom2024, while ROG Global shared photos of its new ROG X870E and X870 AMD Ryzen 9000 motherboards.

We expect these three companies (and others) to launch their next-generation motherboards for the just released and upcoming processors from AMD and Intel at Gamescom 2024. All these developments are exciting for PC enthusiasts, especially as new processors that push the boundaries of computing also require chipsets that bring along other I/O and connectivity goodies. We also can’t wait to get our hands on these processors and motherboards, so we can put them through their paces and see how they compare to last-generation systems.

Several Intel motherboard partners have announced BIOS updates to patch the microcode and "mitigate the instability" of Core 13th and 14th Gen CPUs. Two motherboard makers — ASRock and MSI — have already made official announcements at the time of writing. Meanwhile, Asus ROG forum user and famed overclocker Safedisk posted links to Google Drive folders that purportedly contain BIOS updates for affected Asus motherboards.

Several Intel 13th and 14th Gen chips have been affected by instability issues, which Intel said has been caused by an error in the processor's microcode that led to increased voltages. Over time crashes and BSODs, especially during high workloads, have resulted, and the company said that it will release a patch to fix the issue in mid-August.

Unfortunately, this update will not help users who already have dead or dying Intel processors. Instead, those affected will need to go through Intel's RMA process to have the damaged chips replaced. The company recently added two years to the warranty of 22 affected Raptor Lake and Raptor Lake Refresh SKUs, giving them a five-year guarantee to assuage consumers' fears that their processors will fail after the warranty has lapsed. Despite the extended assurance, one user reportedly had to deal with some RMA drama with Intel when trying to replace two affected Intel Core i9-14900K processors.

However, if your Intel system is still running stably, you should download and install the new BIOS updates as soon as possible to mitigate any potential issues. MSI said that these are the first batch of motherboards that will receive the update:

·      MEG Z790 GODLIKE MAX

·      MEG Z790 ACE MAX

·      MPG Z790 CARBON MAX WIFI II

·      MPG Z790 CARBON WIFI

·      MAG Z790 TOMAHAWK MAX WIFI

·      Z790M POWER

ASRock released BIOS updates for the H610M-HDV and H610M-HVS motherboards. You can also find BIOS updates for Asus ROG and ProArt motherboards on the Asus ROG forum, although they're only Beta builds. We still recommend holding off on downloading these updates until Asus releases the final builds, though, to ensure that you're getting a stable patch.

Tom's Hardware has already reached out to Intel about the new BIOS updates to confirm if these updates will make it safe to run the affected chips at regular power levels. We are also testing the available BIOS updates to see how they affect system performance, so be sure to check back with us to stay up to date.  

Most high-end GPUs feature three fans or an AIO to cool down the extreme heat they deliver. But ASRock found a way to do this without fans or liquid cooling with its just-announced Passive Series graphics cards, featuring the RX 7900 XTX Passive 24GB and RX 7900 XT Passive 20GB GPUs.

The 7900 XTX and 7900 XT feature a vapor chamber heatsink to efficiently move heat from the GPU to the aluminum cooling fins. The cards also use an aluminum back plate to provide more structural strength and possibly reduce sagging caused by the heatsink's weight.

However, the 7900 XTX and 7900 XT Passive have slightly lower clock speeds compared to actively cooled versions from ASRock.

Interestingly, the passive versions are smaller and lighter than ASRock's overclocked triple-fan Taichi models. While it makes sense for the overclocked cards to be bigger and heavier because they're being pushed to their limits, you'd expect the passive GPUs to have much larger heatsinks than the non-overclocked GPUs with triple fans. But, according to ASRock's data, the passive GPUs have a slightly shorter length.

Unfortunately, we don't have pricing data yet for the 7900-series Passive GPUs. ASRock is one of the few suppliers of high-end passively cooled graphics cards, so let's hope pricing isn't too far removed from the air-cooled variants.

We're looking forward to getting our hands on these passive cards, as we want to see how they compare against their active brethren. Although it's a shame we didn't get these cooling options at the launch of the 7000-series AMD GPUs or even the 4000-series Nvidia cards, one can always say, "Better late than never."

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission sent letters to three computer companies, namely ASRock, Gigabyte, and Zotac, over their warranty policies. According to the agency, these policies violate the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, which prohibits companies from putting conditions on their warranties based on the use of a product or service, such as a repair service. Furthermore, the FTC said, “Warranty language that implies to a customer acting reasonably under the circumstances that warranty coverage requires the consumer to purchase an article or service identified by brand, trade, or corporate name is similarly deceptive and prohibited.”

The primary concern of the FTC with these companies is specific language within their warranty policies. For example, ASRock includes the following in their written warranty: “Manufacturer’s warrant will be null and void if products are modified, damaged, or otherwise tampered with, for example, the outer case is opened or additional option parts/components are installed/removed.”

Similar statements are also found on Gigabyte’s and Zotac’s warranties. The former says, “If the manufacturing sticker inside the product was removed or damaged, it would no longer be covered by the warranty.” While the latter indicates, “Warranty claims will be void if the user: … [t]ampers, defaces, or removes any stickers indicating void warranty if broken.”

These policies basically prevent users from opening their devices, as doing so will void the manufacturer’s warranty. Asus was hit with a similar issue earlier this year, when it quoted a $2,750 fee to replace a chipped GPU power connector. While the company released a statement vowing to improve its warranty communication practices, Gamers Nexus proceeded with an in-depth investigation which forced the company to revamp its warranty and service policies.

Today, the FTC is taking notice of issues like these in the tech world. While giant tech companies like Apple and Microsoft have been in the limelight for several years due to their anti-repair practices, these “smaller” but nonetheless important players in the consumer PC hardware industry should be taken into account, too.

The consumer protection agency gave the three companies 30 days to change and update their policies to comply with the warranty law. While the FTC sent the letters to the companies as a warning, they also included the following: " We do not waive the FTC’s right to take law enforcement action and seek appropriate injunctive and monetary remedies against [the companies involved] based on past or future violations.”

Just days before Computex kicks off, ASRock introduced its first Radeon RX 7900 WS graphics cards. These cards are not primarily aimed at gamers (even though they are clearly among the best graphics cards) but rather multi-GPU environments used for AI training and creative professionals. ASRock's new Radeon RX 7900 WS-series boards also happen to be the industry's first Radeon RX 7900 graphics cards with a blower cooler and a 12V-2×6 power connector. 

ASRock's Radeon RX 7900 XT WS 20 GB and Radeon RX 7900 XTX WS 24 GB graphics cards come with specially designed cooling systems featuring a vapor chamber and one blower fan. While such coolers are two slots wide, they promise utmost efficiency under high loads and decent reliability, but at the cost of loud noise produced by the fan. The add-in-boards (AIBs) also come with a 12V-2×6 power connector — a first for a modern Radeon card. 

ASRock says that its Radeon RX 7900 WS-series graphics cards are designed for multi-GPU environments, which is why they are equipped with a dual-slot cooler and a 12V-2×6 power connector in a bid to simplify installation into servers or large towers and avoid cable clutter. While the 12V-2×6 power plug might be an overkill for a Radeon RX 7900 from a power delivery point of view (as the Navi 31 GPUs consume considerably less than Nvidia's GB102), one power cable is definitely better than two.

Given the positioning of ASRock's Radeon RX 7900 XT WS 20 GB and Radeon RX 7900 XTX WS 24 GB graphics cards, we do not expect any factory-overclocked products and we can only wonder whether they can be overclocked at all. Yet, usage of a dual-slot cooling system on a 350W Radeon RX 7900 XTX may be a relatively risky choice. Even AMD's Radeon Pro W7900 48 GB workstation board has a triple-slot blower-type cooler and two eight-pin power connectors.  

Of course, ASRock could increase the rotation speed of its blower and, therefore, noise level, and in a multi-GPU environment, noise level is hardly a big problem. Yet, the 'WS' moniker in the products' names clearly points to workstations, which are not meant to be utterly quiet but should not produce noises that are uncomfortable for the user. 

It remains to be seen whether Radeon RX 7900 WS-series graphics cards will be widely used. The vast majority of professional users prefer Nvidia cards for ProViz applications, and using consumer-grade Radeon for AI training may not be the best, as Tinybox has demonstrated.

The U.S. government has extended the tariff exemptions on graphics cards, motherboards, and even SSDs imported from China for another year, now lasting until May 31, 2025, reports PCMag citing representatives from the U.S. Trade Representative and a new document. This extension contradicts previous indications that Trump-era tariffs on these components would be reinstated.

In 2018, the U.S. government under former president Donald Trump imposed a 25% tariff on certain products made in China. This included graphics cards, motherboards, SSDs, and other products that rely on printed circuit boards. The Trump administration then suspended tariffs on products such as 'graphics processing modules' and 'unfinished logic boards' in September 2019 till January 2021. The Biden administration did not remove the import rule altogether, but continued to temporarily suspend it using a temporary exclusion process.  

As a result, when the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) initially suggested that tariffs would continue, it said nothing new as the Biden administration did not charge the law itself, just suspended it for a while for select items using exemptions. Therefore, a closer examination revealed that the administration is re-enabling these exemptions to support efforts to find alternative sources outside of China, where availability remains limited.

"Based on evaluation of the factors set out in the December 29 notice, and pursuant to sections 301(b), 301(c), and 307(a) of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended, the U.S. Trade Representative has determined to further modify the action to extend the exclusions listed in Annex C to this notice through May 31, 2025," a statement by the U.S. government reads. "The U.S. Trade Representative has found that extending these exclusions will support efforts to shift sourcing out of China, or provide additional time where, despite efforts to source products from alternative sources, availability of the product outside of China remains limited." 

ASRock confirmed that the exclusion has been imposed in a conversation with PCMag, emphasizing its importance for its business. The decision is also advantageous for consumers and PC vendors. In fact, numerous companies reportedly tried to lobby for these exemptions due to scarcity of electronics manufacturing outside China. The Biden administration initially lifted tariffs on these components in 2022 through a temporary exclusion process, which has now been extended.

Other products, such as air fryers, certain video cameras, and specific bicycle models, will continue to face Trump-era tariffs. Additionally, the administration has increased import fees on Chinese steel, aluminum, semiconductors, electric vehicles, EV batteries, and solar panels.

ASRock is looking to attract monitor buyers with its new Phantom Gaming PG27QFT2A and PG27QFT1B monitors, both of which feature 27-inch IPS displays with QHD 1440p resolution and 180 Hz refresh rates. 

The key difference between the monitors is that the PG27QFT2A comes with a swivel-, height-, and tilt-adjustable stand with an integrated Wi-Fi antenna. With this monitor, users should be able to get better reception over Wi-Fi antennae bundled with motherboards and/or PCIe-based Wi-Fi cards. The company assures compatibility with all Wi-Fi bands up to Wi-Fi 7. As for adjustability, the stand provides height adjustment of up to 100mm, swivel of +/- 20 degrees, and tilt of between -5 and 20 degrees. 

Wi-Fi antennae-integrated stand aside, both monitors sport VESA DisplayHDR 400 certification (indicating they provide a peak brightness of 400 nits) and support for AMD Freesync. Other features include flicker-free technology and low blue light features for reducing eye strain, as well as 99% sRGB and 90% DCI-P3 color space. Both monitors have two HDMI 2.0 ports and one DisplayPort 1.4, built-in 2W speakers, and a headphone jack.

ASRock did reveal more of its monitor lineups at CES 2024, including the PGO27QFW2A 1440p OLED monitor and a VA panel-based PG32QRT2A. It's not the first component company to venture into the monitor market — it follows the footsteps of companies such as Gigabyte and Cooler Master.

But there are a lot of gaming monitors out there. Monitor makers source their panels from a handful of OEMs — who also sell monitors under their own brands, e.g. LG and Samsung. So, companies need to come up with unique features, such as integrated Wi-Fi antennae, to stand out. 

ASRock did not list pricing in its press release, and these upcoming monitors will only be available in select regions. However, Texas-based online retailer AztekComputers has already listed the PG27QFT2A for $250; a Wi-Fi antenna would be a neat extension in that price range, even if it's in the stand. At least the stand is highly-adjustable, though, ensuring users are more likely to use it over aftermarket options in many situations. 

As AMD is getting ready to launch its Zen 4-based Ryzen 8000G processors with decent integrated graphics, its partners are gearing up to introduce their compact desktops supporting Ryzen 7000 and 8000-series processors. ASRock is undoubtedly one of them, with DeskMeet X600 and DeskMini X600 systems showcased at CES. Both machines use AMD's unannounced X600 chipset and support USB4.

Both DeskMeet X600 (8 liters), DeskMini X600 (1.92 liters), and Jupiter X600 (1.0 liters) support AMD's Ryzen 7000 and Ryzen 8000G-series processors with up to 65W thermal design power. The larger DeskMeet X600 features a PCIe x16 slot for graphics cards as well as four slots for DDR5 memory modules, whereas the smaller DeskMini X600 and Jupiter X600 do not have a slot for discrete graphics boards and are equipped with two slots for DDR5 SODIMMs.

A version of the DeskMeet X600 that ASRock demonstrated at CES packed AMD's Ryzen 7 7700 and latest Radeon RX 7600 XT graphics card, though actual configurations may vary.

There are two intriguing things about these systems. Firstly, all three machines are said to be based on AMD's unannounced X600 chipset, and we can only wonder about its differences from the A620, the company's entry-level AM5 platform. Secondly, ASRock representatives at the trade show implied that the company's DeskMeet X600, DeskMini X600, and Jupiter X600 will support USB4, even though product descriptions do not reflect this capability for now (probably due to lack of formal certification, but we are speculating here).

Although both the DeskMeet X600, DeskMini X600, and Jupiter X600 are positioned as mainstream compact desktops, all three can pack capable hardware. For example, the DeskMini X600 has two M.2 2280 slots for SSDs featuring a PCIe 5.0 x4 and PCIe 4.0 x4 interface and an M.2 2230 slot for a Wi-Fi + Bluetooth module.

The DeskMini X600 machine also has a 2.5 GbE port, four display outputs (DisplayPort, HDMI, D-Sub, USB-C), a combination of USB Type-A and USB Type-C connectors, and an audio jack for headsets. Meanwhile, the Jupiter X600 does not have a D-Sub but has a COM port.

ASRock says its DeskMeet X600 should be available shortly, so expect it to arrive in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, the DeskMini X600 and Jupiter X600 will hit the market later, probably after AMD launches its Ryzen 8000G APUs with built-in RDNA 3-based graphics.

Traditionally, the way AMD and its partners have positioned B650-based motherboards placed them either into a mainstream category or into a category of high-end products where they competed with B650E or even X670. It Looks like ASRock has decided to change this practice a bit and introduced its B650 Steel Legend Wi-Fi that offers premium features for gamers, but maintaining a relatively affordable $200 price tag.

The ASRock B650 Steel Legend Wi-Fi comes in a matt grey and white color theme and supports all AMD's AM5 processors released to date, including the range-topping Ryzen 9 7950X3D and Ryzen 9 7950X CPUs for gamers as well as the upcoming Ryzen 8000G-series accelerated processing units. The motherboard is outfitted with a 14+2+1-phase voltage regulating module (VRM) featuring 80A Dr.MOS stages and solid-state capacitors to ensure stability and overclocking potential for those who need it.

Expandability looks promising. The B650 Steel Legend Wi-Fi has four slots for DDR5 memory modules, a PCIe 5.0 x16 slots for graphics cards, an M.2-2280 slot for PCIe 5.0 x4 SSDs, two M.2-2280 slots for PCIe 4.0 x4 drives, a PCIe 3.0 x16 for another add-in-board, a PCIe 4.0 x1 slot, and four SATA ports. 

As for connectivity, the B650 Steel Legend Wi-Fi has virtually everything one might need, including a Wi-Fi 6E + Bluetooth adapter, a Dragon-badged 2.5 GbE port, three display outputs (DisplayPort, HDMI, USB-C with DisplayPort Alt Mode), a plethora of USB Type-A connectors (including USB 3.2 Gen2x2, USB 3.2 Gen2, USB 3.2 Gen1, and USB 2.0), audio jacks, and S/P DIF.

Traditionally for ASRock's premium motherboards, such as the Steel Legend, there is support Nahimic Audio software enhancements by SteelSeries and Polychrome RGB addressable RGB LEDs and appropriate connectors.

ASRock did not specifically disclosed launch date for its B650 Steel Legend Wi-Fi, though it is reasonable to expect it to hit the market in the coming weeks or months.

ASRock is prepping its new Mini-ITX motherboard that promises to enable compact high-end PCs without breaking the bank. The Phantom Gaming B760I Lightning Wi-Fi will support Intel's range-topping Core i9-14900K, a decent voltage regulating module (VRM), and respectable connectivity, all for $200.

ASRock's Phantom Gaming B760I Lightning Wi-Fi motherboard is designed to combine relative affordability with premium features and build quality. The mainboard supports Intel's unlocked CPUs in LGA1700 packaging, including a top-of-the-line Core i9-14900K processor, and enables decent overclocking potential using a 14+1+1 voltage regulating module covered with massive heatsinks. Since the Mini-ITX motherboard is (naturally) equipped with two DDR5 memory slots, expect the platform to offer great memory overclockability, too. 

The Phantom Gaming B760I Lightning Wi-Fi motherboard is equipped with pretty much everything expected from a decent gaming platform, including a PCIe x16 slot for graphics cards, an M.2-2280 slot for SSDs with a built-in heat spreader, and two SATA ports. 

On the connectivity side of matters, ASRock's Phantom Gaming B760I Lightning has a relatively standard set of wireless and wired technologies, including a Wi-Fi 6E + Bluetooth adapter (as the name of the motherboard suggests), a 2.5 GbE port, three display outputs (DisplayPort, HDMI, USB-C rated for 10 Gbps), multiple USB Type-A 3.0 connectors rated for 5 Gbps, two audio connectors, and an S/P DIF. 

The key selling point of ASRock's Phantom Gaming B760I Lightning Wi-Fi motherboard is certainly its combination of advanced features aimed at gamers, overclocking potential, and a relatively low price. Meanwhile, ASRock's Phantom Gaming B760I Lightning Wi-Fi is certainly not the only gaming-oriented platform out there that costs around $200. For example, Asustek's ROG Strix B760-I Gaming Wi-Fi is available for $183.99. Therefore, it looks like we will see some tough competition between Intel's B760-based motherboards in this segment in the coming months, which is certainly not bad.

Last week, we got early word of new ASRock Phantom Gaming monitors that would be displayed at CES, and the news was scintillating. The headliner was undoubtedly the Phantom Gaming PG27FFX2A, which boasted a 520Hz refresh rate. We’ve finally had a chance to see the 27-inch PG27FFX2A in person, along with a few additional entries in the family, including some OLED goodness. 

The PG27FFX2A is likely the most technically impressive for competitive gamers, boasting a fast IPS panel with a Full HD (1920 x 1080) resolution. ASRock promises a maximum refresh rate of 520Hz with AMD FreeSync Premium support. However, it wasn’t specified whether this is the native spec or if you’ll have to enable an overclock function in the OSD. Regardless, we’re looking at a 1ms response time, 1,000:1 contrast ratio (average for an IPS panel), maximum brightness of 400 nits, and 99 percent coverage of sRGB (90 percent DCI-P3).

You’ll likely need a Radeon RX 7000 Series graphics card for a data pipe sufficient to handle a 1080p stream at 520Hz. AMD’s latest Radeon graphics cards have the necessary HDMI 2.1 compliance to handle those data rates. The PG27FFX2A includes two HDMI 2.1 ports and one DisplayPort 1.4 port. You’ll also find two USB 3.0 Type-A ports, one USB 2.0 Type-A port, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. One curious addition is an integrated Wi-Fi antenna, which we imagine could be used for native media streaming services and cloud gaming. 

If you’re adamant about the 27-inch screen size but want a little more resolution, there’s the Phantom Gaming PG27QFW2A. This IPS monitor bumps the resolution to QHD (2560 x 1440) but drops the maximum refresh rate to a still impressive 400Hz with FreeSync Premium support. You’ll find the same 1,000:1 contrast ratio, but maximum brightness takes a slight step backward to 350 nits. Available ports are more comprehensive with the PG27QFW2A, as you’ll get two each of HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 1.4, while a USB 3.0 hub offers up Type-C and Type-A ports for your peripherals. And like the PG27FFX2A, integrated Wi-Fi is included in the mix.

Rounding out the 27-inch trifecta is the Phantom Gaming PG0270W2A, which also has a QHD resolution. The big news with the PG0270W2A is that it swaps out the IPS panel in favor of OLED technology. Opting for an OLED panel means the native refresh rate is 360Hz (FreeSync Premium Pro supported), which is still impressive (if you leave out the overachieving 480Hz ROG Swift OLED PG32UCDP).

As is typical with OLED panels, response time is impressive at just 0.03ms, and maximum brightness is not a strong suit, with a maximum of 250 nits. However, the 1,500,000:1 contrast ratio is no doubt a critical advantage of this panel type. Wi-Fi also appears on the PG0270W2A along with two HDMI 2.1 ports, one DisplayPort 1.4 connection and a single USB-C 3.0 port.

ASRock has not yet announced pricing or availability for its new 27-inch Phantom Gaming monitors family.

ASRock is a relatively new entrant to the display world. Still, the company is ambitious enough to demonstrate something that can easily be called the King of Speed: a Phantom Gaming monitor with a 520 Hz refresh rate. The LCD joins several other Phantom Gaming displays the company plans to showcase at the upcoming CES next week.

The Phantom Gaming monitor in question is called the PG27FFX2A, and we are likely talking about a TN-based 27-inch LCD with a whopping 520 Hz refresh rate featuring a 1920x1080 (1080p) resolution, a set of characteristics that can place it into the list of the best gaming monitors for professional e-sport gamers. ASRock has yet to disclose other monitor specifications. Still, we should expect the monitor to support VESA's Adaptive Sync-compliant variable refresh rate technology. However, we do not know whether it will carry AMD's FreeSync or Nvidia's G-Sync badge on top. We will refrain from discussing how this display is made (but you can read about a 600 Hz display in another story).

When it comes to connectivity, ASRock remains mum for now. Meanwhile, it is an interesting point to consider as even a 1080p video stream at up to 520 Hz refresh rate requires a lot of bandwidth if uncompressed. When it comes to a color depth of eight bits per channel (8 bpc), one would need a DisplayPort with a UHBR 10 support (38.68 Gbit/s) or an HDMI 2.1 with a 48G cable (using the FRL5 40G transmission mode). Regarding ten bpc, we are looking at graphics processors that support DisplayPort with UHBR 13.5, as the HDMI 2.1 specification only supports up to 505 Hz using a 48G cable and the FRL6 transmission mode.

AMD's high-end Radeon RX 7000-series graphics cards support DisplayPort 2.1 with UHBR 13.5 (and offering 54 Gbit/s of raw bandwidth); they also support HDMI 2.1 with up to 48 Gbps throughput so that they can handle such displays without problems at eight bpc. By contrast, Nvidia's GeForce RTX 30 and RTX 40-series only support DisplayPort 1.4 (which rules out compatibility) and HDMI 2.1 48G with DSC 1.2a, which should technically be sufficient both for eight bpc and ten bpc. Still, we recommend consulting with ASRock's compatibility table before making a purchase decision. Furthermore, since most GeForce RTX 40-series graphics boards have only one HDMI output, using two of ASRock's Phantom Gaming PG27FFX2A displays on a single PC with these cards will be impossible.

The Phantom Gaming PG27FFX2A monitor is just one of the displays that ASRock plans to demonstrate at CES. The lineup also includes OLED models, curved monitors, and moderate-sized gaming IPS displays with a 180 Hz resolution and probably a reasonable price.

ASRock Industrial has launched one of the first Meteor Lake NUCs with its NUC Ultra 100 (via LinuxGizmos). The NUC comes with up to a Core Ultra 7 155H, and users may optionally add up to 96GB of RAM and two SSDs. Although oriented towards business, professional, and industrial use cases, the NUC Ultra 100 is presumably just as good at gaming as we've seen with mobile Meteor Lake chips.

The NUC Ultra 100 can be configured with a Core Ultra 5 125H or a Core Ultra 7 155H. Since the 125H has just four P-cores to the 155's six, we can probably expect the 155H to have significantly more raw horsepower in multi-threaded workloads. That will especially be true for a NUC since there's more than enough power and cooling to go around.

Despite its small form factor, there's a considerable amount of configurability for the NUC Ultra 100. Users can add up to two PCIe 4.0 SSDs (provided they have the right size) and 96GB of DDR5 RAM clocked at 5,600MHz. 

Speaking of graphics, the NUC Ultra 100 has no shortage of display options thanks to its two HDMI 2.0b ports and its DisplayPort-capable USB4 and USB 3.2 Type-C ports. These displays can drive a 4K monitor at 60Hz, though 1440p at 144Hz and 1080p at 240Hz should also be possible per HDMI 2.0b's official specs.

Regarding networking, there are two 2.5 gigabit Ethernet ports, but no Wi-Fi card is included. Though, considering the target audience for this NUC, that makes sense. There is an M.2 slot inside where a Wi-Fi card can be installed, though ASRock doesn't make any claims about compatibility with the latest Wi-Fi 7 standard.

Currently, there's no price tag attached to the NUC Ultra 100, as ASRock Industrial has buyers send in a product inquiry to ask for pricing, which is standard for business-to-business dealings. It's unlikely this NUC will ever hit store shelves, but if you're craving Intel's latest chip inside a mini PC, there will be other options. Asus is apparently launching its own Meteor Lake NUC, and a Chinese-exclusive NUC is confirmed to launch on January 11.

ASRock has issued a beta firmware compatible with its AMD and Intel motherboards to support the Microsoft Dynamic Lighting standard in Windows 11. Support at this time is limited to "most" Intel 600/ 700 series and AMD B550/X570, A620/B650 and X670 motherboards.

With the beta firmware, together with Microsoft's integration (also in beta) in the latest Windows 11 23H2 builds, users can sync RGB lighting and effects on motherboards, graphics cards, gaming keyboards, mice, headphones, and microphones under one native ecosystem. 

Microsoft's idea is to bring order to the chaos by tying all RGB and lighting devices compatible with the open HID LampArray standard to its ecosystem. This will be appreciated by many who have RGB setups controlled by resource-hungry and confusing OEM utilities. Microsoft Dynamic Lighting is open source and the company is working with several OEM and ODM partners. Since many Tier 1 manufacturers have a plethora of RGB hardware, devices, and peripherals, this seems like a good way to simplify setup and controls for enthusiasts. 

While Microsoft Dynamic Lighting may not be enough to make Windows 10 users shift to Windows 11, Microsoft is at least working diligently on the operating system to make it more appealing by incentivizing existing users.

However, it will be interesting to see how many other OEMs will jump onboard and how long it will take for them to roll out initial support to customers.

ASRock and MSI announced they now support higher capacity 64GB DDR5 RAMs on each DIMM slot, allowing up to 256GB on four-slot and 128GB on two-slot motherboards. ASRock also announced it can do the same. 

MSI didn't reveal which of its motherboards includes this support. The screenshot from MSI shows CPU-Z results using the PRO X670-P WIFI motherboard. But ASRock showed its X670E-Taichi and the Z790 Nova WiFi supporting 64GB DDR5 per DIMM slot. What's interesting is that ASRock is showing the AMD Ryzen 7 8700G APU with its X670E motherboard. 

Both motherboard makers use the 64GB x 4 Kingston Fury Renegade KF560C36-64 memory kits with DDR5 chips made by Micron. We aren't sure why MSI couldn't provide a full-size screenshot, but ASROCK provided screenshots showing the support on both chipset platforms. These kits support EXPO and XMP 3.0 profiles, which support up to 6000 MT/s with 36-38-38 latency at 1.350v.

This was made possible by Micron and its 1-Beta node, which provides higher performance, increased bit density, and better power efficiency. This new tech was originally designed for the LPDDR5X mobile chips. It is likely anyone making DDR5 rams with Micron chips made from 1-Beta nodes should be able to provide higher-capacity memory sticks. 

Though MSI and ASRock were the first to make the announcement, it is safe to say other motherboard makers with AMD X670E and Z790 chipsets should be able to support 64GB-per-stick DDR5 kits, which for now is made possible by Micron. This is great for those with a dual-DIMM slot mini-ITX motherboard using these chipsets who want higher capacity RAMs. It is uncertain if this support will extend to X670 motherboards since the only addition to the X670E is the support for sixteen PCIe 5.0 lanes via the Ryzen 7000 series CPUs. 

ASRock's newest Phantom Gaming Z790 Nova WiFi motherboard has six — that's right, six — M.2 NVMe slots. Needless to say, this motherboard should keep storage-lovers happy for a while. 

The ASRock Phantom Gaming Z790 Nova WiFi motherboard is a standard ATX motherboard using the Intel Z790 chipset supporting the LGA 1700 socket-based 12th, 13th and 14th gen Intel CPUs.

It packs 20+1+1 90A SPS Phases, an SPS Power Stage, and 20K black capacitors with a 20,000-hour MTBF rating. The motherboard uses an eight-layer PCB with a 2oz copper layer in between. To further support its VRM configuration, it has two XXL heatsink blocks with one using a cooling fan and connected together to a heatpipe for a bit of added heat exchange when needed. 

M.2 and SATA III Storage Ports

Six full-size M.2 slots in a motherboard sounds like a lot to squeeze in. ASROCK limits the motherboard with two PCIe x16 slots (PCIe 5.0 x16 supporting up to x16 mode and PCIe 4.0 x16 slot supporting x4 mode) and one PCIe 3.0 x1 slot at the end. The vertical Key-E slot is for the type-2230 WiFi 7/ BT 5.4 with MU-MIMO module. This makes way for multiple secondary M.2 slot options. 

All the M.2 NVMe slots support type 2260 and 2280 drives. The first slot supports PCIe 5.0 drive giving 128 Gb/s throughput and the second supports PCIe 4.0 up to 64Gb/s via the CPU lanes. Via the chipset's PCIe bandwidth, three more slots operate at PCIe 4.0 mode with the one using SATA III and PCIe 4.0. HKEPC provides a better look at the motherboard's layout. 

Additionally, there are 4x SATA III slots. The M.2 NVMe and the SATA III ports support RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5 and RAID configuration.

Users should know that the M.2_1 will downgrade the PCIe1 bandwidth to x8 mode.

Re-Inforced Support to Prevent Motherboard Bending and GPU Sagging

The Z790 Nova WiFi also provides a 'backbone,' or support for heavier graphics cards: a large metal backplate is pre-installed to prevent bending. The SMT type PCIe 5.0 slot uses 15μ gold contact ensuring ideal signal flow as per ASRock's findings. It is further reinforced with extra anchor points and a stronger latch. To balance the GPU's weight, it includes a graphics card holder kit, which is installed to the chassis with two types of screws for the motherboard stand-offs (which have a bracket to hold the graphics card in place).

Other Notable Features

The onboard audio uses a Realtek ALC4082 codec with R/L audio channel in individual PCB layers, 2.5Gigabit Killer 3100 and 802.11be 2x2 WiFi 7+ BT 5.0 module. The rear I/O houses up to 9 USB Type-A ports (2x USB 2.0, 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1, 5x USB 3.2 Gen 2) and a USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Type-C port.

The motherboard also includes a TPM header, a Thunderbolt AIC connector for Thunderbolt AIC cards, three temperature headers, an RGB and three addressable RGB headers with an ARGB splitter cable included to split one header into three.

ASRock also manages to put in a CMOS reset switch, a Power/ Restart switch and a Debug code indicator. To boot, ASRock says it provides high-density 2x CPU 8-pin and 24-pin connectors to provide a more stable connection and reduce the risk of damage under heavy overclocking. The motherboard is able to carry forward Intel XMP and AMD EXPO profiles.

Newegg is currently the only online retailer selling this motherboard, which costs $299.99, but it should be available at Amazon and at other retailers soon. 

ASRock has launched the Challenger Series of gaming monitors. The firm made its debut in the premium gaming monitor market just over a year ago with the Phantom Gaming Series. The new Challenger Series is aimed somewhat lower at customers interested in “Light Gaming,” to use ASRock’s terminology. ASRock lays the foundation of the Challenger Series with two flat-screen FHD monitors: the 25-inch CL25FF and the 27-inch CL27FF.

Introducing the more affordable monitor line, ASRock seeks to assure would-be customers that plenty of attractions remain. It says these monitors deliver all-round performance for office tasks, entertainment, and gaming. Thus, features like flicker-free technology, AMD FreeSync, and low blue light modes remain. Furthermore, it says these “light gaming” screens still offer “a remarkable 100Hz refresh rate” and 1 ms (MPRT) 4 ms (GTG) response times. This represents a worthwhile upgrade from a bog-standard 60 or 75 Hz office monitor.

The ASRock CL25FF and CL27FF appear remarkably similar when we check through the key specifications. Apart from the physical dimensions and pixel pitch, the only other primary spec that varied between the two was the contrast ratio, which is a superior 1300:1 on the smaller monitor and 1000:1 on the 27-incher. Both values are average for IPS screens. Check out the table below for a thorough spec rundown with the 27-inch monitor spec differences put in brackets.

Pondering over the above, you can see that some specs might be described as entry-level, especially the max brightness levels and ASRock’s simple stand. However, we should hope that ASRock would reflect the admitted “light gaming” and humble specs in the price. No pricing has been revealed, and we couldn’t find any listings for the ASRock Challenger CL25FF or CL27FF monitors at the time of writing.

We reviewed the ASRock Phantom Gaming PG34WQ15R2B monitor back in February, where it won a well-deserved four stars, largely thanks to its great HDR image quality. However, it still wasn’t good enough to earn a place in our Best Curved Gaming Monitors 2023 list. The new Challenger series isn’t likely to make a splash in our best monitors lists either, unless perhaps we open up a new budget “light gaming” category.

ASRock has quietly started to offer its low-end low-profile Intel Arc A310 graphics card designed mostly to build, upgrade, or repair compact PCs that need basic graphics and decent video playback capabilities, such as office desktops or home theater PCs. The unit can hardly run demanding games properly and will unlikely join the ranks of the best graphics cards, but will work with almost all desktop systems out there.

ASRock's Intel Arc A310 Low Profile 4GB graphics board comes with the Intel ACM-G11 graphics processor with 6 Xe cores (768 stream processors at 2.0 GHz) and carries 4 GB of GDDR6 memory that uses a 64-bit interface. While this card features a cut-down version of the ACM-G11 GPU that has lower performance in games (and which makes it a low-end graphics card), it still features world-class media processing capabilities with hardware encoding/decoding for popular formats, such as AV1, H.264, H.265, and VP9.

When it comes to display outputs, the ASRock Arc A310 Low Profile graphics board has one DisplayPort 2.0 with DSC and one HDMI 2.0b. There is no mention that the DP supports multi-stream transport technology (MST), so it is likely that the card can only support up to two displays simultaneously.

As for cooling system, it has a dual-slot dual-fan cooler, which is frankly speaking an overkill for the product that consumes 75W maximum. Meanwhile, it looks like ASRock is re-using both the cooler and the printed circuit board from its recently launched low-profile Arc A380 graphics card. This certainly limits compatibility with the most compact PCs, but also cuts down costs.

ASRock doesn't mention price on its website, which is unsurprising. While there are not many low-profile graphics cards on the market today, there are low-profile Arc A310 board from various vendors. That said, it is unlikely that the company will charge a premium for the form-factor and the product will be affordable, just as an entry-level product is meant to be.

We previously reviewed the Z790 Taichi and found it loaded to gills with high-end specifications. And if you have the Carrara version, you get a truly unique marbled look that sets it apart from the competition.But while the current $479.99 price of that board is good among flagship-class competition, it’s still not cheap. What if you can have your cake and eat it too? This is where the Z790 (and B650E) Taichi “Lite” comes into play. While the premium appearance is gone, the impressive hardware list remains intact, while the price drops $100.

Priced at $379.99, the Z790 Taichi Lite sits squarely in the upper mid-range price bracket of the current motherboard spectrum. For the money, you get dual Thunderboard 4 (40 Gbps) Type-C ports, an abundant number of storage options, including PCIe 5.0 M.2 socket and eight total SATA ports, a flagship-class audio solution with a DAC, Killer-based networking, and power delivery fit for sub-ambient overclocking.

The biggest change is in the appearance – gone are the stylish heatsinks and the signature cog look the Taichi series is known for. While the cog theme remains, what was once 3D and made from metal, these familiar shapes are stenciled on the heatsinks and PCB instead. The board doesn’t look bad with the mostly black theme. It’s just not the same compared to the original. But that’s also the point – to bring one of the more impressive sets of specifications with unlocked performance, but at a lower cost to the consumer.

Below, we’ll dig into the details of the board and see if costume change helps the Taichi Lite find its way onto our Best Motherboards list. Before we get into our testing and board details, though, we’ll start by listing the specifications from ASRock.

Specifications: ASRock Z790 Taichi Lite

Inside the Box of the ASRock Z790 Taichi Lite 

Inside the retail box, along with the motherboard, is a small trove of accessories. ASRock includes the basics to get you started (and a bit more than the full-flavor Taichi), but not much more. Below is the full list.

• User Manual
• Four SATA cables
• Wireless Dingle USB bracket
• ASRock WiFi 2.4/5/6 GHz antenna
• Four Screws for M.2 Sockets

Design of the Taichi Lite

Taking the Z790 Taichi Lite’s look at face value, the matte-black 8-layer E-ATX PCB with oversized black heatsinks doesn’t look bad. It just doesn’t give off the same premium vibes the original does with its 3D design and RGB implementation. Instead of heatsinks and shrouds covering the PCB, more is exposed, giving way to strips of heatsinks for the M.2 sockets compared to the full coverage the non-lite version has. RGB lighting has also changed, now hiding only under the bottom M.2 heatsink. It’s still bright, with saturated colors and will easily light up the inside of your chassis. 

Starting in the upper-left corner, we see two 8-pin EPS connectors (one required) to power the processor. We also get a better look at the new design on the VRM heatsinks here. Along with all the dark gray cogs, we see the Taichi branding at the bottom, sa well as deep mitered cutouts to promote airflow and increase surface area. The cog design bleeds into the black socket area, which looks cool with all the other black on the board.

Just past the socket area above the top VRM heatsink are the first two (of eight) 4-pin fan headers. Each supports PWM- and DC-controlled devices and is managed through the BIOS or via ASRock’s A-Tuning software. There’s plenty of power to go around, too, with output ranging from 1A/12W to 3A/36E, depending on the header (check the manual). Overall, there are plenty of headers, even if you want to run custom watercooling.

Just past the socket area are four unreinforced DRAM slots with locking mechanisms on both sides. The four slots support up to 192 GB of DDR5 RAM with speeds listed to DDR5-7200, a slight increase over the original Taichi (DDR5-7000). We didn’t have any issues in our testing up to that limit either, as the system tested stable when overclocked using the Teamgroup DDR5-7200 kit, the fastest in our stable.

In the right corner, we run into the first two (of four total) RGB headers. In this case, it’s two of the three 4-pin ARGB headers. Along the bottom edge, you’ll find others, 3-pin and the third 4-pin headers. Control over these devices and the integrated RGBs is handled through the Polychrome RGB software or inside the BIOS.

Continuing down the right edge, we run into the 24-pin ATX connector to power the motherboard and a horizontally mounted 6-pin PCIe adapter to enable USB PD 3.0 up to 20V@3A (60W). If this plug is not used, it supports the same protocol but has lower power output at 9V@3A (27W) for fast charging. Below that is another fast USB port, USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 (20 Gbps) Type-C, for the front panel.

For power delivery, electricity flows from the EPS connector(s) onto a 24-phase Renesas RAA229131 controller. For Vcore, power moves to the 24x 105A Renesas RAA22010540 SPS MOSFETs for a staggering 2,520A available to the processor. The VRMs on the Taichi Lite can handle our Intel Core i9-13900K at stock and while overclocked, even when using sub-ambient cooling methods.

On the bottom half of the board, we find three full-length PCIe slots, five M.2 sockets, and the audio section. Starting out on the left, we spy a fully exposed audio solution based on the flagship Realtek ALC4082 audio codec, supported by an ESS SABRE9218 DAC and red WIMA audio caps. On paper, it’s one of the best integrated audio solutions you’ll find on this platform.

We’ll start with the three PCIe slots in the middle of the board. The top slots (primarilyy for graphics) are reinforced and both source their lanes from the CPU. The top slot runs at PCIe 5.0 x16 when only the top slot is populated or x8/x8 speeds with PCIE_2 occupied. The bottom slot runs at PCIe 4.0 x4, with lanes coming from the chipset. When the bottom slot, PCIE3, is occupied, SATA ports 0-4 will be disabled, so you must carefully populate the board with your hardware. For those considering a multi-GPU setup (who are you?), this configuration supports AMD Crossfire, but NVIDIA SLI is not listed.

If you plan to use one of the latest and greatest PCIe 5.0 M.2 SSD modules, you may want to look into ASRock’s Blazing M.2 Heatsink designed for the job. The M.2 heatsink is much larger than what comes installed on this board, and has active cooling via a small fan in the middle of the fin array. During our testing, we saw significant drops, up to 10 degrees Celsius, which prevented the drive from throttling on longer-running transfers/benchmarks. The difference wasn’t much in our testing environment, but if you want the most out of these hot-running drives, it’s best to use a larger heatsink.

Located around the PCIe slots and under heatsinks are five M.2 sockets. The top socket, M2_1, connects through the CPU and runs PCIe 5.0 x4 (128 Gbps) speeds, while M2_2 runs at PCIe 4.0 x4 (64 Gbps) and connects through the processor. These share the same physical location, so you can only run one of these two sockets at a time. Also, when M2_1 is populated, PCIE1 downgrades to x8 mode, and if PCIE2 is occupied, M2_1 will be disabled.

Along the right edge is one of the USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) connectors and eight SATA ports. If you’d like to RAID your storage, the boards support RAID0/1/10 modes for NVMe storage and RAID0/1/5/10 modes for the SATA ports. Between all the lane and port sharing, at worst, you’re looking at four M.2 sockets (either 5.0 or 4.0) and four SATA ports available at one time. A more typical configuration, with the bottom slot unoccupied, yields four more SATA ports for a total of eight. Either should be fine for most users.

Across the bottom of the board are several exposed headers. You’ll find the usual, including additional USB ports, RGB headers, and power/reset buttons. Below is a complete list from left to right.

• Front panel audio
• Clear CMOS header
• 4-pin ARGB header
• 3-pin RGB header
• Noise sensor
• (2) System Fan headers
• USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) connector
• (2) USB 2.0 headers
• Dr. Debug display
• (2) System Fan headers
• Power/Reset buttons
• Clear CMOS button
• TPM header
• System fan header
• System panel header

The rear IO plate on the Taichi Lite comes preinstalled on the motherboard. It sports a black background with grey cog desings, along with some Taichi branding. There are a total of 12 USB ports scattered across the rear IO. You get two Thunderbolt 4/USB4 (40 Gbps) Type-C ports that double as video outputs, two USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) ports (these are the lightning USB ports, yellow, with lower afvertised latency), six USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) ports, and two USB 2.0 ports. Also found here are the Killer Intel 2.5 GbE and Intel GbE ports and Killer Wi-Fi 6E antenna connections for networking. Lastly, the audio stack consists of two analog plugs and the SPDIF output.

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Firmware

Like the other boards, you start in Easy Mode when jumping in the BIOS, which is mostly informative but lets you change a few options (XMP, profiles, boot order, Fan-Tastic Tuning, etc.). Advanced mode displays headings across the top, with details below. 

Here you can tweak everything that can be tweaked, as ASRock includes every option you can think of. Overclocking is easy, with most options on the same page, although some power options are in a different section. It’s a logical layout. The movement is smooth, and it’s easy to read. No significant complaints from us about the ASRock firmware.

Software

For software, ASRock provides several different options. It has the App Shop to install drivers and software, the Nahimic 3 audio control panel, the A-Tune application that overclocks your system (if applicable), control fans, the Polychrome RGB software, and more. There’s even a pop-up to install drivers when you first boot the system. ASRock’s software provides everything users need to manage and tweak their system.

Test System / Comparison Products

We’ve updated our test system to Windows 11 64-bit OS with all updates applied. We kept the same Asus TUF RTX 3070 video card from our previous testing platforms but updated the driver. We also updated to F1 22 for our games and kept Far Cry 6. We use the latest non-beta motherboard BIOS available to the public. The hardware we used is as follows:

EVGA supplied our Supernova 850W P6 power supply (appropriately sized and more efficient than the 1.2KW monster we used previously) for our test systems, and G.Skill sent us a DDR5-5600 (F5-5600U3636C16GX2-TZ5RK) memory kit for testing. 

Benchmark Settings

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Benchmark Results

Our standard benchmarks and power tests are performed using the CPU’s stock frequencies (including any default boost/turbo), with all power-saving features enabled. We set optimized defaults in the BIOS and the memory by enabling the XMP profile. The Windows power scheme is set to Balanced (default), so the PC idles appropriately.

Synthetic Benchmarks

Synthetics provide a great way to determine how a board runs, as identical settings should produce similar performance results. Turbo boost wattage and advanced memory timings are places where motherboard makers can still optimize for stability or performance, though, and those settings can impact some testing. 

Across our synthetic tests, the fully unlocked Taichi did well, posting average results. As you’ll see, the Tachi Lite and Taichi Carrara we tested earlier average out to perform similarly, but vary in some tests even though they are both unlocked. The cooler you can keep things, the better this board does out of the box.

Timed Applications

Our timed tests showed similar results, with the LAME, Corona, and both Handbrake tests average as well. Nothing to worry about in these tests either.

3D Games and 3DMark

Starting with the launch of AMD’s Ryzen 7000 platform, we’ve updated F1 21 to F1 22 while keeping Far Cry 6. We run the games at 1920x1080 resolution using the Ultra preset. As the resolution goes up, the CPU tends to have less impact. The goal with these settings is to determine if there are differences in performance at the most commonly used (and CPU/system bound) resolution with settings most people use or strive for (Ultra). We expect the difference between boards in these tests to be minor, with most falling within the margin of error differences. We’ve also added a minimum FPS value, which can affect your gameplay and immersion experience.

The games and 3DMark results were great. Our Z790 Taichi Lite was one of the top-scoring boards in the 3DMark tests and did well in Far Cry: 6, while F1 22 was one of the faster results. There isn’t a significant difference across most boards in our gaming tests, but the Taichi Lite works very well for gaming. 

Overclocking

When overclocking, we aim to increase the power and add stress to the VRMs. We do so by increasing the clock speed and voltage until we’re at the thermal threshold for the processor during stress testing. However, where these CPUs are allowed to run with ‘boost’ speeds, those speeds are closer to the limit than ever before. 

With our Core i9-13900K, the approach was a bit different. We had to lower the voltage from what was recorded during stress tests to overclock our chip. We increased the clock speeds of the “P” and “E” cores by 100 and 200 MHz, respectively, over the turbo boost and limited by our cooling. We ended up with  5.6 GHz P core and 4.5 GHz E core clocks using about 1.34V (from DMM). Temperatures peak at or just under the throttling point with this configuration. And as we’ve noted elsewhere, this is the intended performance for Intel’s flagship CPU. 

Overclocking on the Taichi is as easy as most. We settled around 1.33V (less than stock, note) and still had some throttling, but we completed the 30-minute stress test. On the memory side, all three of our kits, including our Teamgroup DDR5-7200 kit (the board's limit), worked without additional tweaks when we enabled XMP. To ensure compatibility, especially at the edge of listed support, it’s best to stick with the QVL list of expressly supported kits.

Power Consumption / VRM Temperatures

We used AIDA64’s System Stability Test with Stress CPU, FPU, Cache and Memory enabled for power testing, using the peak power consumption value. The wattage reading is from the wall via a Kill-A-Watt meter to capture the entire PC (minus the monitor). The only variable that changes is the motherboard; all other parts remain the same. Please note we moved to use only the stock power use/VRM temperature charts, as this section aims to ensure the power delivery can handle the chip even when overclocked. Since we’re using less power to get more clocks, those datasets are more novel than useful. We’re also temperature limited on the processor, so adding more power isn’t possible without increased throttling. 

Idle power consumption using the 360/480mm AIO setting in the BIOS yields 65W (an average result), while the load peaked at 395W (slightly on the higher side). Between them both, power use is right around average. Nothing to see here.

VRM temperatures on this board get warm, with the hottest set (on top of the socket) peaking around 64 degrees Celsius. While this is warmer than some others we’ve tested due to the board allowing so much power use by default, it’s still well within the operating parameters of the Intersil SPS MOSFETs. As usual, the power delivery won’t get in the way of overclocking with this platform. CPU temperatures will.

Bottom Line

In a market where the cost of motherboards has steeply increased over the last few years, it’s nice to see at least one partner offer something a bit less expensive than the flagship, but that’s still speced to gills. Priced at $379.99, the ASRock Z790 Taichi Lite  gets you everything the more expensive Taichi offers, including the incredibly robust power delivery, dual Thunderbolt 4 ports, loads of storage options including a PCIe 5.0 M.2 socket and eight SATA ports, premium audio solution, and more. What is missing is the high-end appearance. The 3D cogs and fine finishes on the heatsinks and shrouds give way to simpler heatsinks, a more exposed PCB, and stenciled designs, but it’s still recognizable as a Taichi.

As far as the competition in the sub-$400 space, there’s plenty out there. But put simply, none of the other boards available around that price come close hardware-wise. MSI has the MPG Z790 Edge Wi-Fi ($369.99) and Asus the ROG Strix Z790-A ($379.99). Gigabyte’s lineup bookends our Taichi Lite with the venerable Aorus Master ($489.99) and the Z790 Aero G ($279.99). The only board here that competes with the Taichi Lite hardware-wise is the Aorus Master, and it costs much more. The rest fall short in several ways, including power delivery specs and audio solutions. (The Aorus Master and Asus include a DAC, but only the Taichi Lite has the flagship codec). It boils down to whether you need what the Taichi Lite offers and whether the appearance fits your build theme and budget.

Ultimately, we like what ASRock is doing here. The Z790 Taichi was arguably one of the most well-equipped motherboards, even at $489. Now over $100 less expensive, it’s the most well-equipped board for the price. The biggest drawback of the board is the appearance, and even then, it’s not bad; it just doesn’t have the premium vibe the original Taichi does. If you want some of the best hardware the Z790 platform offers at a more reasonable price and your build doesn’t require flagship-class looks, the Taichi Lite has taken the weight off in all the right places.

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If your PC has Gigabyte components, you may be able to use a specialized version of HWInfo to monitor your components. The hardware and software companies announced a collaboration today that adds special skins and features to HWInfo on PCs with Gigabyte's motherboards.

One of the results of this partnership is that people will be able to check out the more advanced memory sub-timings to see how their RAM is performing, and there's also what appears to be a new breakout box specifically for monitoring those values. "This empowers users to make informed decisions when optimizing their memory configurations, ultimately enhancing system performance and stability," Gigabyte wrote in a press release.

There's also a new exclusive feature to see settings from your Gigabyte Aorus BIOS. While it doesn't appear that you'll be able to change BIOS settings from the app (that would be pretty wild!), you can check which settings you have enabled.

The new skins are pretty simple, with options for light mode and dark mode featuring orange highlights and an Aorus logo.

Both Intel and AMD motherboards will be supported. Here's the BIOS you'll need to get started on each one, per Gigabyte's release:

• Intel Z790/B760/Z690/B660/H610 motherboard, release BIOS date Jul 28, 2023.
• AMD X670/B650/A620 motherboards, beta BIOS date Jul 21, 2023.

The company suggests that more features will gain support in "the future," but hasn't laid out a timetable.

It's unclear how long these features will be exclusive to Gigabyte motherboards, and when or if HWInfo may bring them to PCs with boards from other companies.

This would hardly be the first piece of diagnostic software with hardware partners on board. CPU-Z, another popular diagnostic utility, has versions in partnership with Cooler Master, Asus ROG, MSI, ASRock and for both Gigabyte and Aorus.

HWInfo is a free download for all Windows PCs and is free for non-commercial use. (HWInfo 32-bit is freeware for everyone. HWInfo 64 v 7.00 and later requires a license if you're a commercial operator).

It seems that the Newegg-leaked, ASRock-made 16GB version of Intel's Arc 770 graphics card is on the verge of materializing, following a listing on ASRock's own website. The main point here is that there are few Arc A770 GPUs that actually sport the full memory buffer, especially since Intel discontinued its reference, Limited Edition Arc A770. Now, ASRock has confirmed that it is indeed launching a 16GB Arc under its "Phantom Gaming" marketing brand.

There's little to differentiate the 16GB ARC A770 from the 8GB version of the same card, as you might expect. The difference lies mostly in the memory chips used, which are now double the density (compared to the more common 8GB models) and offer slightly faster speeds. That said, any performance improvement from the additional memory throughput will be hard to detect, as the difference between both densities is small (17.5 Gbps on the 16GB model against the 16 Gbps on the 8GB one).

If you're interested in grabbing your own Intel ARC GPU (it's a piece of GPU history, after all), Newegg expects the card to hit shelves by July 28th. At a $329 listing price, the 16GB ASRock ARC A770 Phantom Gaming comes in at the same launch price as the 8GB version of the card. Considering the slump in PC hardware sales and the need for Intel and its partners to clear ARC inventory well before Battlemage (Intel's upcoming, revised discrete GPU design) hits shelves by 2024.

Don't expect Intel's ARC A770 to be the best graphics card you can buy for your money, however, as the performance crown still belongs to Nvidia's RTX 4090. But not everyone is looking for a halo product, and Intel's desktop GPUs have gotten some very impressive performance increases since their original launch. With the additional "savings" from the $329 pricing for this new, expanded-VRAM version, the performance/cost equation for Intel improves even further in the face of competition. And did we mention Intel also has its own great upscaling tech in XeSS?

ASRock B650E PG Riptide Wi-Fi is a budget-oriented motherboard ($239.99) that includes a lot of nice features for the price. Sporting a purple-on-black appearance, it fits most build themes and has the bits you’d expect from a mid-range B650E board. You get integrated Wi-Fi 6E and Killer Network-based LAN, PCIe 5.0 slot and M.2 socket, ample SATA storage, a budget audio codec, and plenty of USB ports on the back panel IO.

ASRock’s B650 lineup (at the time of this writing) consists of 13 different motherboards (up from 10 the last time we checked). You’ll find all the standard sizes and wide-ranging prices, with familiar names like the Taichi, PG Riptide, PG Lightning, Pro RS, Livemixer, and our Steel Legend SKU. Prices range from $349.99 (Taichi Carrara) to the ASRock B650M PG Riptide at $169.99. The existing lineup has plenty of options, including Micro ATX and Mini-ITX SKUs. There’s something for everyone in this product stack.

Our PG Riptide review unit did OK in testing and was above average to slightly slower than average across our testing suite – except for gaming, where it was one of the fastest so far. None of the results were significantly out of line. In most instances, you’d need a benchmark or scored test in front of you to notice the difference.

Below, we’ll dig into the details of the board and see whether it deserves a spot on our Best Motherboards list. But before we get into our testing and board details, we’ll start by listing the specifications from ASRock’s website. 

Inside the Box of the ASRock B650E PG Riptide

Inside the retail packaging, ASRock gives you two SATA cables, screws/standoffs for M.2, the user manual, and the most useful item, a graphics card holder to support heavy video cards.

Design of the PG Riptide

The PG Riptide targets the budget user who doesn’t want to spend much money to get into AMD’s Ryzen 7000 platform. While it’s not the least expensive of their platforms, B650E offers users a balance between the more expensive (and generally better equipped) X670/X670E motherboards and the true budget chipsets. The PG Riptide sits on a matte-black 8-layer PCB with black heatsinks and purple highlights on the chipset heatsink and above the IO area. The PCIe 5.0 M.2 socket (top) sports the largest heatsink, while a long bar covers the other two M.2 sockets. There’s a lot of motherboard showing, but that’s to be expected at this price point.

Under the chipset heatsink sporting the PG branding are a few RGB LEDs that light up the logo. The LEDs glow nice and bright, and the colors are saturated and true. If you have a beefy video card, it may cover some of the bling, but it still should still provide a nice glow inside your chassis.

Starting on the top half, we spy two sizeable heatsinks with mitered cutouts to keep the VRMs below cool, while hiding the rather unsightly IO area. On top of the left heatsink is the ASRock name and Riptide branding in a darker polished finish (stenciling) versus the sandblasted look below. Inside a purple border is the “PG” (Phantom Gaming) letters, just south of the heatsink. Between the VRM heatsinks is an 8-pin (required) and 4-pin EPS connectors to power the processor.

Moving right, just before the DRAM slots, is the first (of six) 4-pin fan headers. Each header supports PWM and DC-controlled devices. CPU_FAN1 outputs up to 1A/12W, while the rest double that to 2A/24W. You control the attached fans or pumps through the BIOS and FanTastic Tuning or the PG-Tune application in Windows. There are enough headers and power for your cooling setup, even if it’s a custom water loop.

Next, we run into four unreinforced DRAM slots with locking functions on the top and bottom. ASRock lists support for up to 128GB of DDR5, with speeds to DDR5-6600+(OC). We didn’t run into any issues with our two kits up to DDR5-6000, and the QVL list has plenty of approved kits reaching higher. Much past the 6400 MHz mark, things become less plug-and-play and more out of the sweet spot anyway. Stick to the QVL list and you should be OK.

Passing another fan header above the DRAM slots, we spy two 3-pin ARGB headers. You’ll find another 3-pin header along the bottom edge, as well as a single 4-pin header. You’ll control these devices through the BIOS version of Polychrome Sync or with the same software in Windows. Both versions of the app offer canned patterns and other options to adjust the integrated and attached RGB LEDs.

Continuing down the edge, we run into the EZ debug LEDs for troubleshooting the POST process. If there’s a problem, one of the LEDs (labeled CPU, Boot, DRAM, or VGA) remains lit, giving you an idea of where the issue may be. Past that is the 24-pin ATX power lead to power the board, a front panel USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) port, and the fastest USB port onboard, the front panel USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 (20 Gbps) Type-C port.

Power delivery consists of 17 total phases, with 14 dedicated to Vcore. Power comes from the EPS connector(s) onto a Renesas RAA229620 PWM controller. After that, it heads onto 14x 60A Intersil ISL99360 SPS MOSFETs. While the 840A total isn’t a lot, it was plenty for our flagship Ryzen 9 7950X processor without issue at stock and while overclocked.

On the bottom half of the board, starting on the left side, we see a fully exposed audio section. You can see the Realtek ALC897 codec and a few capacitors dedicated to sound. This is a budget codec that would be sufficient for most users; audiophiles will want to install their own sound card or speakers with an external DAC.

In the middle of the board are three PCIe slots and three M.2 sockets. The primary graphics slot is at the top and reinforced to prevent shearing from heavy graphics cards. It sources its lanes from the CPU and is the sole PCIe 5.0 x16 slot. The second full-length slot (bottom) also receives lanes from the CPU and runs at PCIe 3.0 x4. Between them is a small x1 slot attached to the chipset that runs up to PCIe 4.0 x1. If you’re still hanging on to multi-GPU solutions, this board does support Crossfire.

Mixed in among the PCIe slots are three M.2 sockets. The top socket (M2_1) under the larger heatsink is your CPU-connected PCIe 5.0 x4 (128 Gbps) socket that fits up to 80mm devices. The second M.2 socket (M2_2) connects via the chipset and runs SATA- and PCIe-based modules up to PCIe 4.0 x4 (64 Gbps). The last socket (M2_3) also connects through the chipset and runs up to PCIe 4.0 x4 (64 Gbps) modules up to 80mm in length. If you’d like to RAID the NVMe storage, the Riptide supports RAID0/1/10 modes. The latter requires an expansion card for support. 

Moving past the RGB-lit chipset heatsink, we run into four SATA ports. The connectors are mounted horizontally (as  is typical), which allows for better cable management. These ports support RAID0/1 if you need more speed or redundancy. You can run all M.2 and SATA storage concurrently without losing bandwidth or access to other ports.

Across the bottom of the board are several exposed headers. You’ll find the usual, including additional USB ports, RGB headers, and power/reset buttons. Below is a complete list from left to right.

• Front panel audio
• 5-pin Thunderbolt AIC header
• 4-pin RGB header
• 3-pin ARGB header
• System Fan header
• (2) USB 2.0 headers
• System fan header
• Clear CMOS jumper
• Speaker header
• System panel header

The rear IO plate on the B650E SPG Riptide, like many others, comes preinstalled to the motherboard. It sports a black background with white labels on the ports and the PG symbol. There are 10 total USB slots on the rear IO which should be plenty for most users. You get two USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) Type-C and Type-A ports, two USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) Type-A ports (these are the Lightning gaming ports using two different controller interfaces), and six USB 2.0 ports. Video outputs consist of one HDMI port. You’ll also find the Wi-Fi antenna connections for the integrated Wi-Fi 6E, a BIOS flashback button, the Realtek Dragon-based 2.5 GbE port, and last but not least, the audio stack consisting of three analog ports.

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Firmware

ASRock’s firmware for B650 keeps the same general format as we saw in the X670E model. The major changes are the updated options/functions for the Zen4-based processors. The PG Riptide uses a black background with red for the PG theme with white text. You start in Easy Mode, which is mostly informative but lets you change a few options (XMP, profiles, boot order, Fan-Tastic Tuning, etc.).

Advanced mode displays headings across the top, with details below. Here you can tweak everything to your heart’s desire, as ASRock includes every option you can think of. Overclocking is easy, with most options on the same page, although some power options are in a different section. It’s a logical layout. The movement is smooth, and it’s easy to read. No significant complaints from us about the ASRock firmware.

Software

For software, ASRock provides several different options. It has the App Shop to install drivers and software, the Nahimic 3 audio control panel, and the PG-skinned A-Tune application that overclocks your system, controls fans, and more. There’s even a pop-up to install drivers when you first boot the system. ASRock’s software provides everything users need to manage and tweak their system.

Test System / Comparison Products

We’ve updated our test system to Windows 11 64-bit OS with all updates applied. We kept the same Asus TUF RTX 3070 video card from our previous testing platforms but updated the driver. We also updated to F1 22 for our games and kept Far Cry 6. We use the latest non-beta motherboard BIOS available to the public unless otherwise noted. The hardware we used is as follows:

EVGA supplied our Supernova 850W P6 power supply (appropriately sized and more efficient than the 1.2KW monster we used previously) for our test systems, and G.Skill sent us a DDR5-5600 (F5-5600U3636C16GX2-TZ5RK) memory kit for testing.

Benchmark Settings

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Benchmark Results

Our standard benchmarks and power tests are performed using the CPU’s stock frequencies (including any default boost/turbo), with all power-saving features enabled. We set optimized defaults in the BIOS and the memory by enabling the XMP profile. For this baseline testing, the Windows power scheme is set to Balanced (default), so the PC idles appropriately. 

Synthetic Benchmarks

Synthetics provide a great way to determine how a board runs, as identical settings should produce similar performance results. Turbo boost wattage and advanced memory timings are places where motherboard makers can still optimize for stability or performance, though, and those settings can impact some testing.

For our synthetic testing, the B650E PG Riptide was a bit inconsistent and ran around the average or slightly below in most tests. It did well in the Procyon Office suite and the Photo and Video editing portions and overall, there’s nothing to be worried about here.

Timed Applications

For the timed applications, our board was average to just below average in these tests. The LAME test was right around average, while Corona was one of the slower so far. Handbrake testing showed a middling result overall. There’s nothing to worry about here, either, as the results are within an acceptable range.

3D Games and 3DMark 

Starting with the launch of Zen 4, we’ve updated one of our games, F1 21 to F1 22, while keeping Far Cry 6. We run the games at 1920x1080 resolution using the Ultra preset (details listed above). As the resolution goes up, the CPU tends to have less impact. The goal with these settings is to determine if there are differences in performance at the most commonly used (and CPU/system bound) resolution with settings most people use or strive for (Ultra). We expect the difference between boards in these tests to be minor, with most falling within the margin of error differences. We’ve also added a minimum FPS value, which can affect your gameplay and immersion experience.

Games are a completely different story compared to the CPU tests previously. Here the PG Riptide did well across the board, showing above-average scores in the 3DMark tests and some of the fastest results we’ve seen in Far Cry: 6. If you’re a gamer, it’s right up there with the best we’ve tested so far.

Overclocking

Over the last few CPU generations, overclocking headroom has been shrinking (at least on the AMD side) while the out-of-box potential has increased. For overclockers, this means there’s less fun to have. For the average consumer, you’re getting the most out of the processor without manual tweaking. Our goal in this section is to increase the load on the VRMs and see if they can handle the additional stress. Overclocking AMD CPUs can be done in several ways (all-core or adjust PBO values). But for simplicity’s sake, we just went with an all-core overclock of 5.4 GHz with 1.30V to increase the power output.

Since our approach is to add power through all cores, we simply raised the CPU multiplier to 54x, manually set the voltage to 1.30V, and adjusted LLC to minimize vdroop. AMD states the sweet spot is around DDR5-6000 on the memory side, so we used the Kingston Fury kit, set the AMD EXPO profile, and checked for stability.

Overclocking on the B650E PG Riptide was straightforward, as it is with most boards. We could set our voltage (offset), adjust LLC to mitigate vdroop, and off we went on a 30-minute stable stress test. On the memory side, we dropped our Kingston Fury Beast DDR5-6000 kit into the system, enabled XMP, and tested it without issue (pictured above).

Power Consumption / VRM Temperatures

We used AIDA64’s System Stability Test with Stress CPU, FPU, Cache and Memory enabled for power testing, using the peak power consumption value. The wattage reading is from the wall via a Kill-A-Watt meter to capture the entire PC (minus the monitor). The only variable that changes is the motherboard; all other parts remain the same. Please note we moved to use only the stock power use/VRM temperature charts, as this section aims to ensure the power delivery can handle the chip even when overclocked. Since we’re using less power to get more clocks, those datasets are more novel than useful. We’re also temperature-limited on the processor, so adding more power isn’t possible without increased throttling. 

Idle power consumption on our B650E PG Riptide Wi-Fi and our Ryzen 9 7950X sat around 59W, one of the lower values. Load wattage peaked at 256W, also lower compared to other results. Combined, this averages out to the second most efficient board we’ve tested among X670 and B650-class motherboards.

VRM temperatures on the B650E PG Riptide ran warmer than most boards during stress testing, but are still well within the MOSEFTs limits. The system peaked at just under 60 degrees Celsius while using stock settings, and broke 60 degrees Celcius when overclocked. The VRM cooling solution works well overall.

Bottom Line

Priced at $239.99, the B650E PG Riptide Wi-Fi is a well-equipped and neutral-themed option in the higher end of the budget AMD space. You get the Riptide’s distinctive black and purple theme with RGBs, a PCIe 5.0 slot and M.2 socket, integrated Wi-Fi 6E and Killer Network-based LAN, ample (though not abundant) storage options, and some of the best performance we’ve seen in gaming. It does use a dated audio codec, and we’d love to see the EZ Latch on the M.2 sockets, even at this budget price point, but these small qualms won’t be a deal-breaker for most.

There is plenty of competition around this price point, with each major board partner offering a B650E board around this price. MSI has the Pro B650-P Wi-Fi ($219.99), Gigabyte a B650 Aorus Elite AX ($219.99), and Asus the TUF Gaming B650-Plus Wi-Fi ($229.99). MSI’s board falls a bit short with M.2 count (two versus three on the rest) but is the only board of this group with six SATA ports and a 20 Gbps Type-C port on the rear IO. The best audio solution of the group sits with the Asus (Realtek ALC1200). Only the ASRock and Gigabyte boards have your back if your build requires integrated RGB lighting. Outside of these differences, it comes down to price and appearance among the combatants.

Ultimately, the B650E PG Riptide is a capable and typically equipped motherboard that fits in with most build themes. Aside from the budget audio codec, it gives you access to all the platform offers. In short, this is one of the more well-rounded and capable solutions in the sub-$250 space. However, the Gigabyte board is similarly equipped and costs $10 less.

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When Intel presented its lineup of Arc A-series graphics cards for desktops last year, the company announced four graphics cards: the Arc A770, Arc A750, Arc A580, and Arc A380. But for an unknown reason, the Arc A580, based on a cut-down ACM-G10 GPU, has never made it to market. But someone with access to an alleged Arc A580 graphics card has not only tested it in GFXBench 5.0 (via @Komachi_Ensaka) but also uploaded its performance numbers to the database. As with any unofficial benchmarks, take the numbers with a grain of salt. 

The alleged Intel Arc A580 was tested in GFXBench 5.0 with a Vulkan-based renderer. The results look odd compared to Intel's Arc A770, as the unreleased device is massively behind. This could be due to any number of things, like immature drivers for an unreleased product, certain hardware or software problems, or the results could be fake. However, at least the device outperforms Intel's Arc A380 by a noticeable margin. 

It should be noted that GFXBench — a cross-platform graphics benchmark designed to test everything from smartphones to high-end gaming desktops — is not the best way to determine the performance of desktop PC hardware, both because it does not test advanced capabilities of modern GPUs, like real-time ray tracing, and because it cannot push high-end graphics cards to their limits. 

Intel's Arc A580 graphics card was meant to use the ACM-G10 graphics processor with only 3072 stream processors enabled and equipped with 8GB of memory. The product would sit below Intel's Arc A770 (4096 SPs) and Arc A750 (3584 SPs) and serve as the company's cheapest solution for gamers. Since Intel planned to use severely cut-down ACM-G10 GPUs for the product, it would probably be able to supply a boatload of such graphics cards, but for some reason, it decided not to launch it. That's possibly because the higher-end A770 and A750 can barely compete against midrange offerings from AMD and Nvidia.

It is hard to guess whether the publication of the benchmark is meant to show that Intel still plans to proceed with its launch, offering an ultra-cheap solution for gamers, or that someone is just playing with a pre-production sample. Of course, we also cannot exclude the possibility that the results are just simply fake.

AMD has launched the company's Zen 4 lineup, offering us some of the best CPUs on the market. That doesn't mean that motherboard vendors have brushed off older processors. ASRock will launch the company's first all-white motherboard as the B550M Pro SE for Zen 3 and prior chips.

The B550M Pro SE isn't ASRock's first white motherboard. The company has distinctive models from the Aqua, Taichi Carrara, and Steel Legend series. However, those are typically black motherboards with white armor, whereas the upcoming B550M Pro SE is a true white motherboard from the PCB up. Interestingly, ASRock would rather launch the brand's first white motherboard with an older chipset instead of one of the newer AMD 600-series chipsets. If we had to make an educated guess, ASRock probably just refreshed one of its existing B550 motherboards along the lines of the B550M Pro4 or something to give it a new white theme.

The B550M Pro SE is a micro-ATX motherboard carrying the AM4 socket and B550 chipset. Although the AMD 500-series chipset supports Zen 3 and older processors, it won't handle all of them due to the capacity limitation of the BIOS chip. Nonetheless, we expect the B550M Pro SE to support at least the Ryzen 3000 (Matisse) and Ryzen 5000 (Vermeer) series from AMD's mainstream desktop lineup and the Ryzen 3000G (Picasso), Ryzen 4000G (Renoir), and Ryzen 5000G (Cezanne) series from the APU side.

According to the B550M Pro SE renders (via Hoang Anh Phu), the motherboard seems to feature an eight-phase power delivery subsystem. The motherboard receives power from a standard 24-pin power connector and an 8-pin EPS connector. Four DDR4 memory slots support up to 128GB of memory. The data rate will depend on which Ryzen processor you pair the motherboard with, but it should do over DDR4-4733 with the right chip.

We can observe that the B550M Pro SE has two M.2 slots. Billed as the "Hyper M.2" by ASRock, that slot adheres to the PCIe 4.0 x4 interface and supports up to 80mm long M.2 drives. The secondary M.2 slot, below the chipset, should also support SSDs of the same length but limited to slower speeds. It probably sticks to PCIe 3.0 x2 like many of ASRock's other budget B550 motherboards. As for standard SATA III ports, there are four of them on the B550M Pro SE.

Like other microATX motherboards, the B550M Pro SE only supplies three expansion slots. The primary expansion slot, which features reinforced steel, operates at PCIe 4.0 x16, whereas the secondary expansion slot is limited to PCIe 3.0 x4. Logically, PCIe 4.0 support is only available on Ryzen 3000 and Ryzen 5000 processors, while the supported Ryzen APUs are still on PCIe 3.0. The motherboard also offers a PCIe 3.0 x1 slot for less bandwidth-hungry devices.

Display outputs on the B550M Pro SE include one HDMI 2.1 port and one DisplayPort 1.4 output. You'll need a Ryzen APU to use these ports since pre-Zen 4 chips didn't have integrated graphics. For connectivity, we spot a PS/2 combo port and six USB ports. The angle of the render doesn't reveal the color coding for the USB ports, so we can't say for certain the speed. However, we can see the single Ethernet port and three 3.5mm audio jacks that probably leverage a Realtek audio codec.

ASRock has already registered the B550M Pro SE with the Korea Radio Research Agency (RRA), so it shouldn't be long before we get a comprehensive specification sheet and information on pricing and availability.

Right now at Newegg, you can find the ASRock Challenger Arc A750 graphics card for its lowest price yet. It has a recommended price of $199 but using promo code VGAEXCAA784 at checkout will take the price down to $179. It’s not clear how long the code will be active nor how long the discount to $199 will be made available.

We've been excited to see this graphics card since it was first announced at the Tokyo Game Show late last year. Since its launch, the price has steadily lowered to the notably low price we have today.

The ASRock Challenger Arc A750 graphics card has an ATX form factor, spanning 271mm across and taking up two slots on the rear I/O panel. It has a core clock speed of 2200 MHz and a game clock speed of 2050 MHz. This edition comes with 8GB of GDDR6.

According to ASRock, this card uses DirectX 12 Ultimate as well as OpenGL 4.6. It’s compatible with PCIe 4.0 x16 interfaces and provides three video outputs to take advantage of. The ASRock Challenger Arc A750 has two DisplayPort outputs and one HDMI 2.1 port.

To get a closer look at this deal, visit the ASRock Challenger Arc A750 8GB GPU product page at Newegg for more details and purchase options.

ASRock’s Z790 Steel Legend is a full-size ATX motherboard supporting Intel’s 12th and 13th-generation processors. With a current (at the time of this writing) price of $229.99, it’s an affordable option in the Z790 space. You get an attractive black-with-silver highlights appearance and integrated RGB lighting. Specs-wise, there are plenty of storage options, including five total M.2 sockets and eight SATA ports, fast networking and integrated Wi-Fi 6E, DDR5 support up to DDR5-7200+(OC), the unique eDP port (for internal displays), and a dated budget audio codec. In all, it’s a solid choice in the budget Z790 space.

Specifications-wise, the Steel Legend compares well against the competition regarding hardware. Starting with power delivery, you get 16 phases dedicated to Vcore along SPS-type MOSFETs that easily handle the additional stress of overclocking, copious amounts of storage including five M.2 sockets (one PCIe 5.0), plenty of USB ports on the rear IO, a PCIe 5.0 slot, and a 20 Gbps Type-C port for the front panel. On the performance front, the Steel Legend was around average, depending on the test, though none of the results were worrisome or out of line.

Below, we’ll dig into the details of the board and see if the Steel Legend has what it takes to find its way onto our Best Motherboards list – but ppoiler: it’s a good one! Before we get into our testing and board details, though, we’ll start by listing the specifications from ASRock. 

Specifications: ASRock Z790 Steel Legend