ASUS ProArt X870E-Creator Wi-Fi

[Caring1]

Proart branded ruler in the box.

For measuring E-peen I suppose.

 

[Makaveli]

$300-350 bucks for 64GB of memory? Yikes...

Yes 64GB of DDR5 6000 CL30 cost $300 CAD or 204.99 USD

 

[Tek-Check]

Yes 64GB of DDR5 6000 CL30 cost $300 CAD or 204.99 USD

Ah... CAD is a different story.

 

[R0H1T]

It's great but not half a "grand" great

 

[Dichy]

« Only one PCIe Gen 5 M.2 port that doesn't steal bandwidth » is there any motherboard from any brand that offer the possibility of dual gen 5 m2 in combination with a full featured PCIE gen 5 x16 lanes ?

I would like to know the answer as well ;-)

 

[danc]

I like to see more done in the overclocking section.
Have good bin that can run 2200-2233 FCLK and tests on every review boards. A board with good VMISC setup will help in stabilising the FCLK.

 

[Tek-Check]

« Only one PCIe Gen 5 M.2 port that doesn't steal bandwidth » is there any motherboard from any brand that offer the possibility of dual gen 5 m2 in combination with a full featured PCIE gen 5 x16 lanes ?

As USB4 controller is linked to Gen5 x4 PHY in the CPU, I doubt there are such boards. There is at least one board that I am aware of that allows switching off USB4 in BIOS and therefore access to second NVMe drive in x4 mode from the CPU. With USB4 on, M.2_2 works in Gen5 x2 mode, which is decent.

https://download-2.msi.com/archive/mnu_exe/mb/MEGX870EGODLIKE_English.pdf

However, "stealling" bandwidth is largely blown out of proportion. It's a non-issue even if GPU is connected as Gen4 x8. There's no significant impact on performance. On 4090, it was measured as 1-2%, so practically nothing.

A great thing about bifurcation of Gen5 x16 slot into x8/x4/x4 in this very board is actually gaining additional Gen5 storage and the second PCIe x4 slot for yet another AIC that can also be storage. So, this board has used all available resources on X870E platform, plus very useful division of lanes. There's literally nothing to complain about here.

 

[freeagent]

So, this board has used all available resources on X870E platform, plus very useful division of lanes. There's literally nothing to complain about here.

I was into the X870E-E, but if you used the second x8 slot then you lost an M.2 port and USB header. Just like the X670E-E.. I think..

 

[_roman_]

I'm not sure if I agree with PCIE 4.0 x 8 lanes are enough for graphic cards. I assumed a pcie 4.0 card was used.

 

[blinnbanir]

There is no X870 board that supports that configuration. Just like when X570 vs X470 gimped in PCIe lanes. The only decently priced board that would support that. The GPU would still run at X8 is the As Rock X870E Taichi. You also get 6 SATA ports though. Some X670E boards are much more flexible in terms of PCIe support as USB 4.0 needs just as many lanes as the chipset. We are at the same point as before where if you want more you get Threadripper but there is no 1900X that costs less than the 1700X like before.

 

[Tek-Check]

I was into the X870E-E, but if you used the second x8 slot then you lost an M.2 port and USB header. Just like the X670E-E.. I think..

No. X870E has improved lane configuration sharing over X760E. Check out the specs of both boards.
- X670E supports x8/x8 bifurcation only, whereas X870E has more advanced PCIe switch for x8/x4/x4, which enables another M.2 storage
- X670E has third PCIe x4 slot on the chipset that shares lanes with M.2_3, whereas on X870E, this slot has dedicated x4 lanes and M.2 also its x4 lanes

ProArt X670E-CREATOR WIFI - Specifications｜Motherboards｜ASUS United Kingdom

Built for creators, ProArt X670E-Creator WiFi features 16+2 power stages (70A), PCIe® 5.0, DDR5 support, USB4®, 10 Gb & 2.5 Gb LAN, WiFi 6E and four M.2 slots

www.asus.com

ProArt X870E-CREATOR WIFI - Tech Specs｜Motherboards｜ASUS Global

Built for creators, ProArt X870E-Creator WiFi features ASUS AI technologies, PCIe® 5.0, DDR5 slots, dual USB4®, 10 Gb & 2.5 Gb LAN, WiFi 7 and four M.2 slots

www.asus.com

 

[freeagent]

There is no X870 board that supports that configuration.

This one..

ROG STRIX X870E-E GAMING WIFI | Gaming motherboards｜ROG - Republic of Gamers｜ROG Global

 

[CarvedInside]

« Only one PCIe Gen 5 M.2 port that doesn't steal bandwidth » is there any motherboard from any brand that offer the possibility of dual gen 5 m2 in combination with a full featured PCIE gen 5 x16 lanes ?

Look at B850 boards, as some of them do have 2 x m.2 PCIe 5.0 without PCIe lane sharing. Some motherboards manufacturers might not even advertise this correctly. For example, check this review for the GIGABYTE B850 AORUS ELITE.

On the other hand, the motherboards with X870 chipset do not have this, because of AMD's requirement for USB 4.0 inclusion.

 

[efikkan]

It's good to see more people realizing the IO limitations of such boards. The Asus ProArt Creator series are after all intended for "content creators", something I would argue it fails miserably at, not that it's directly Asus' fault, as it's mostly the fault of the platform. But it can certainly lead buyers down a path where they think their premium board will suit their needs, only to realize the limitations a few years down the road, making the platform obsolete long before the CPU. Gamers can probably find a much cheaper board to do a satisfactory job.

With 4 lanes tied up with USB4, you'll basically be left with one fast M.2 and one GPU tied to the CPU, and another x4 gen 4 lanes to the chipset to feed everything else, including 2x M.2s, 4x SATA, NICs, etc. Considering the target customer group for this board probably would want one SSD for the OS, one for work and possibly one for gaming just to start out with, anything but the first will be running at reduced speed.

But at the very least they could have offered 8x SATA ports, which is what the chipset features. Content creators without a server/NAS will probably be using large drives in RAID 1 or 1+0, and expand by adding another set, so those SATA ports will run out quickly.

The best selling point for the board is probably the 10G NIC, a cost which could be offset by buying a different board and adding this later. But there have been a lot of gimmicky overpriced boards lately.

 

[blinnbanir]

This one..

ROG STRIX X870E-E GAMING WIFI | Gaming motherboards｜ROG - Republic of Gamers｜ROG Global

The GPU will still run @x8. I know they have more than 2 but it does not come with a 2nd PCIe slot connected to the CPU. That is what makes the X670E E better in terms of that. With that board you can populate the board with up] to 4 5.0 drives but as I said before X670E does not have USB 4.0 to rob lanes. I spent a lot of time looking at X870E. Even the Carbon has the 2nd PCIe slot @x4. The Godlike might seem like the one but it is so expensive for the sake of USBC.

It's good to see more people realizing the IO limitations of such boards. The Asus ProArt Creator series are after all intended for "content creators", something I would argue it fails miserably at, not that it's directly Asus' fault, as it's mostly the fault of the platform. But it can certainly lead buyers down a path where they think their premium board will suit their needs, only to realize the limitations a few years down the road, making the platform obsolete long before the CPU. Gamers can probably find a much cheaper board to do a satisfactory job.

With 4 lanes tied up with USB4, you'll basically be left with one fast M.2 and one GPU tied to the CPU, and another x4 gen 4 lanes to the chipset to feed everything else, including 2x M.2s, 4x SATA, NICs, etc. Considering the target customer group for this board probably would want one SSD for the OS, one for work and possibly one for gaming just to start out with, anything but the first will be running at reduced speed.

But at the very least they could have offered 8x SATA ports, which is what the chipset features. Content creators without a server/NAS will probably be using large drives in RAID 1 or 1+0, and expand by adding another set, so those SATA ports will run out quickly.

The best selling point for the board is probably the 10G NIC, a cost which could be offset by buying a different board and adding this later. But there have been a lot of gimmicky overpriced boards lately.

This is why I went with the Taichi. 6 SATA ports and only 1 5.0 M2 drive port but who cares when I can have 2 5.0 drives in RAID 0 across the 2nd PCIE slot connected to the CPU. So I get 5.0 Boot and RAID 0 but in truth I have some "cheap" Chinese 4.0 drives that also reach 13000 GB/s sequential. Now I am adding 2 2TB SSDs in RAID 0 for my Epic Game folder.

 

[ypsylon]

It's beyond stupid that both Intel and AMD persist with this cut down version of 'consumer' boards. Would it hurt them to give extra x8 PCIe CPU lanes?

Board is nicely clean and sleek without RGB rubbish. Nice for gaming rig. On the other hand. What as a creator you can actually do with it (saying serious earning money not just occasional this and that)? Except Photoshop camera photography work everything else I can think of needs tones of resources (e.g. music, 3D rendering, code compile, local AI shit), which this board doesn't provide. Storage is extremely limited, lack of PCIe connectivity is crippling. It would be frankly more interesting if all of those M.2s were replaced by MCIO, then you can at least use serious NVMe (7.68TBs+).

Even 'bottom of the barrel' TRX50 for a bit more $ blows this out of the water if you want to seriously work.

 

[danc]

something like Epyc 9115 and AsRock SP6 server board cost about the same as 9950x3d and high X870e board now.

 

[efikkan]

This is why I went with the Taichi. 6 SATA ports and only 1 5.0 M2 drive port but who cares when I can have 2 5.0 drives in RAID 0 across the 2nd PCIE slot connected to the CPU. So I get 5.0 Boot and RAID 0 but in truth I have some "cheap" Chinese 4.0 drives that also reach 13000 GB/s sequential. Now I am adding 2 2TB SSDs in RAID 0 for my Epic Game folder.

So you run your 7900XT in x8 mode then, that a sacrifice most wouldn't do for some burst speed from some cheap SSDs.

It's beyond stupid that both Intel and AMD persist with this cut down version of 'consumer' boards. Would it hurt them to give extra x8 PCIe CPU lanes?

It's frustrating for sure, but this is why we had the HEDT segment in the past. The closest we have is high-end workstations, and it would be much wiser to lower the entry for these (cut down boards and lower core models) than to keep expanding mainstream, because it will never be enough until we reach like 4-channel memory and 48+ CPU lanes anyways.

Storage is extremely limited, lack of PCIe connectivity is crippling. It would be frankly more interesting if all of those M.2s were replaced by MCIO, then you can at least use serious NVMe (7.68TBs+).

Or even better, just PCIe slots that you can turn into anything you want, and is much cheaper than M.2 slots with a metal blob on top.
Someone into heavy media work would probably want a proper high-end SSD too, which are usually M.2 22110, U.2, U.3, PCIe x8, etc. There are few quite interesting ones from Solidigm and Kioxia just to mention a few, which would leave consumer SSDs in the dust, and are far better options than running crappy SSDs in RAID 0.

Even 'bottom of the barrel' TRX50 for a bit more $ blows this out of the water if you want to seriously work.

I agree, and throw Xeon W into the mix too, which is even cheaper.

 

[Tek-Check]

It's good to see more people realizing the IO limitations of such boards. The Asus ProArt Creator series are after all intended for "content creators", something I would argue it fails miserably at, not that it's directly Asus' fault, as it's mostly the fault of the platform. But it can certainly lead buyers down a path where they think their premium board will suit their needs, only to realize the limitations a few years down the road, making the platform obsolete long before the CPU.

A bit of drama there, a storm in a cup of tea... Owners can use this board for at least 5-7 years, which is plenty, without any serious issues. And then move onto AM6 or other platform if they wish to. Nothing is going to be obsolete "a few years down the road". Pure nonsense claim.

With 4 lanes tied up with USB4, you'll basically be left with one fast M.2 and one GPU tied to the CPU, and another x4 gen 4 lanes to the chipset to feed everything else, including 2x M.2s, 4x SATA, NICs, etc. Considering the target customer group for this board probably would want one SSD for the OS, one for work and possibly one for gaming just to start out with, anything but the first will be running at reduced speed.

"Reduced speed" is Gen4 in worst case scenario, which is hardly any impediment on modern platforms. This board has enough PCIe flexibility to satisfy almost anyone's needs on a desktop platform. Primary Gen5 x16 slot can run at x8/x4/x4, so:
1. GPU 1 Gen5 x8 - perfectly enough for a few generations of GPUs; this very website measured that 4090 loses 1-2% of performance in Gen4 x8 mode
2. GPU 2 Gen5 x8, or x4 if M.2_2 is in use
3. M.2_1 - Gen5 x4 - attached to CPU
4. M.2_2 - Gen5 x4 - attached to CPU - bifurcated, when in use
5. M.2_3 - Gen4 x4 - attached to chipset
6. M.2_4 - Gen4 x4 - attached to chipset

But at the very least they could have offered 8x SATA ports, which is what the chipset features. Content creators without a server/NAS will probably be using large drives in RAID 1 or 1+0, and expand by adding another set, so those SATA ports will run out quickly.

No reason for peddling more SATA ports in 2025. Four is enough. One can attach four large capacity drives and call it a day. Besides, SATA AIC can be installed if anyone needs more. Content creators should have external storage too, for back-ups, in additon to any RAID in the system. If they don't have external storage, they can buy large capacity drives. Simple. No reason to create artificial issues that can be solved easily.

The best selling point for the board is probably the 10G NIC, a cost which could be offset by buying a different board and adding this later. But there have been a lot of gimmicky overpriced boards lately.

New batches of this board are already ~$120 more expensive, at $599 with Newegg. Once new tariffs kick in, there is no going back to $479. I'd recommend anyone considering this board to buy it now, until the first batch is not sold out. Some Microcenters still have it, but increasingly it's sold out at Microcenters across different states too.

https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16813119688

The diagram shows that Gen5 x16 slots can be bifurcated into x8/x4/x4 and none of Gen4 slots are shared. It's one of best implementations of what AM5 platform provides, utilized to its full extent. One can always nitpick this and that, but ultimately there is nothing significatly wrong with this platform. Literally nothing.

 

[efikkan]

A bit of drama there, a storm in a cup of tea... Owners can use this board for at least 5-7 years, which is plenty, without any serious issues. And then move onto AM6 or other platform if they wish to. Nothing is going to be obsolete "a few years down the road". Pure nonsense claim.

Don't be silly. Users typically want 5-8 years out of a system, and typically users of light "workstations" add storage over time, both SSDs and HDDs.

"Reduced speed" is Gen4 in worst case scenario, which is hardly any impediment on modern platforms.

Nonsense.
2x M.2, 1x x4 PCIe, Wifi, 2.5G Ethernet, 10G Ethernet and a bunch of USB ports all share the same x4 PCIe Gen 4 lanes, which means slower speed as the customer populates more and more of them.

…Content creators should have external storage too, for back-ups, in additon to any RAID in the system. If they don't have external storage, they can buy large capacity drives. Simple. No reason to create artificial issues that can be solved easily.

Backups doesn't reduce the need for storage in the primary storage device (local or server), backups are duplicates.

 

[blinnbanir]

So you run your 7900XT in x8 mode then, that a sacrifice most wouldn't do for some burst speed from some cheap SSDs.

You did not read properly. I would not call 2 Crucial T700s cheap. You are talking about my 4.0 drives that have nothing to do with the CPU but run through the chipset. Now is the a difference in performance going from x16 to x8 that different? Can you even measure it. If that was true every Z790 owner that got a PCie 5.0 drive, lost performance. I have not seen anyone prove that is the case.

Don't be silly. Users typically want 5-8 years out of a system, and typically users of light "workstations" add storage over time, both SSDs and HDDs.


Nonsense.
2x M.2, 1x x4 PCIe, Wifi, 2.5G Ethernet, 10G Ethernet and a bunch of USB ports all share the same x4 PCIe Gen 4 lanes, which means slower speed as the customer populates more and more of them.


Backups doesn't reduce the need for storage in the primary storage device (local or server), backups are duplicates.

So now you are suggesting that because X870E with 2 chipsets loses performance as you populate your board? Do you know how boards are wired? You are suggesting something where the only thing that happens is the ambient temp on your Chipset(s) increases.

 

[Tek-Check]

So you run your 7900XT in x8 mode then, that a sacrifice most wouldn't do for some burst speed from some cheap SSDs.

What is the "sacrifice"? Do you know the measurements from this very website? Have you ever looked at it?

It's frustrating for sure, but this is why we had the HEDT segment in the past. The closest we have is high-end workstations, and it would be much wiser to lower the entry for these (cut down boards and lower core models) than to keep expanding mainstream, because it will never be enough until we reach like 4-channel memory and 48+ CPU lanes anyways.

There is nothing frustrating. If anyone needs more connectivity than current desktop platforms provide, there are both HEDT and workstation platforms. Pretty simple. You want 48+ lanes? Pay for it.

Or even better, just PCIe slots that you can turn into anything you want, and is much cheaper than M.2 slots with a metal blob on top.
Someone into heavy media work would probably want a proper high-end SSD too, which are usually M.2 22110, U.2, U.3, PCIe x8, etc. There are few quite interesting ones from Solidigm and Kioxia just to mention a few, which would leave consumer SSDs in the dust, and are far better options than running crappy SSDs in RAID 0.

Sure. One can buy workstation or server platform and have all those extra benefits. This has nothing to do with desktop platforms.

Don't be silly. Users typically want 5-8 years out of a system, and typically users of light "workstations" add storage over time, both SSDs and HDDs.

Desktop platform is not a light workstation, or whatever you want to call it, and you can never expect it to be one. On a desktop platform, one can add storage by adding capacity. It's pretty simple. Stop complicating it. This board has four M.2 slot, so up to 32TB can be installed, each 8TB, plus more SSDs in PCIe slots. Four HDD drives can be attached, each 20TB, or even 30TB (new Seagate). Plenty. Any serious content creator WILL have external storage. Period.

2x M.2, 1x x4 PCIe, Wifi, 2.5G Ethernet, 10G Ethernet and a bunch of USB ports all share the same x4 PCIe Gen 4 lanes, which means slower speed as the customer populates more and more of them.

No one ever uses all of those at the same time, so it's practically not an issue. Besides, one can strategically install specific storage in specific places, to avoid transfer bottlenecks. Stop making up artificial issues for the sake of it.

Backups doesn't reduce the need for storage in the primary storage device (local or server), backups are duplicates.

Dude, there is nothing you could possibly have against storage options this board provides. It has plenty of options for a desktop platform.

So now you are suggesting that because X870E with 2 chipsets loses performance as you populate your board? Do you know how boards are wired?

He has no real argument to make here. It's all fluffing around.

 

[Chrispy_]

« Only one PCIe Gen 5 M.2 port that doesn't steal bandwidth » is there any motherboard from any brand that offer the possibility of dual gen 5 m2 in combination with a full featured PCIE gen 5 x16 lanes ?

I would like to know the answer as well ;-)

Yep, there are a few that offer 16 graphics lanes and dual PCIe Gen5 M.2 lanes directly to the CPU:

AM5 Motherboards Sheet (X870/X670/B850/B650/B840/A620)

docs.google.com

Check the mouseover notes in column BU and see column CE for caveats on lane bifurcation.

You won't find a concise, clear answer because just about every board on the market uses bifurcation to provide flexibility, which means there's no single answer on what a board is capable of. Everything is "up to" specs, including bifurcation and obviously marketing departments rarely publish the raw, minimum guaranteed lanes specs because lower numbers don't sell motherboards.

Zen4 and Zen5 have up to 28 lanes:

• 16 lanes are always PEG lanes, either 1x16 or 2x8.
• Up to 8 lanes for NVMe storage, these cannot be used for a third graphics card.
• the last four lanes are general purpose for all the other connectivity hanging off the chipset, including further M.2 slots, ethernet, WiFi, and additional USB ports / PCIe slots.

Very few boards will do everything on this chart, and given the shortage of lanes from the CPU, It's not surprising that manufacturers would rather use that option second set of X4 lanes for other things...

 

[Tek-Check]

Very few boards will do everything on this chart

Well said. And this is a board that fully utilizes what the platform offers.

 

[Athlonite]

I would like to know the answer as well ;-)

Short answer is no
Long answer is not on any AM5 motherboard no matter how expensive it is
the only way to get enough PCIe lanes to do it is to buy a Threadripper mobo