ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Extreme

[Blue4130]

you do know that you can put like 2 sata ports per gen3 lane yes? so to offset the bandwidth necessary for a single m.2 you have to like, throw out all your sata ports
as ive said, having one dedicated primary m.2 via cpu lanes and then a few secondary ones via the shared PCH's just fine. no need to blow up the amount of cpu lanes even further, ryzens have 24 and ADL 28, that's more than aplenty.

I guess I am just asking for too much. All I want is something like the qnap TBS-453DX but somewhat upgradable with a bit more kick than a j1900 cpu.

 

[Selaya]

well you can do that already, just buy a board that can do the PEG lanes in x4/x4/x4/x4 mode basically, no need for anything more fancy than the igp if you're doing an NAS or something
also, at that point you'll be bottlenecked by your 10GBASE-T or something, but yea

 

[Ferrum Master]

I want a board upgrade, JUST to get that feature. It's the golden goose that changes ryzen overclocking completely.

Useful only for synthetic benchmarks. Alias don't F* with the kernel governor. In real world scenario it conflicts with thermal and fit based boost policies thus introducing latency. It would suck for gaming.

You know really well, you ensure PBO does work on ASUS boards you have to turn auto or switch off any feature in that tweaker tab, as those ALWAYS do cripple your performance outside synthetics. Put on the Beta Bios, there are more features already in that dreaded tab. None of those work, just write down your timings and other settings down as built in presets are not compatible.

This board should not exist in consumer domain. There are simply not enough PCIe lanes, the added cost for what? For all those features a power user would use but with a big ugly fat asterix, you have to pick your poison, not all of the at once. Most ASUS X570 boards do support bifurcation, you can get a lazy PCIe adapter and slap even 4 drivers there in 16x slot. So it is an unneeded grotesque what we are looking at. ASM2812 adds latency also, so I question the overall peripheral product performance. Witch actually ain't that stellar considering the price. Everything hooked after it can have weird issues. It has always been like that with switches.

Power users needing for multiple lanes will HEDT. This is a halo product swamped with unneeded features, with considerable performance/latency tradeoffs, if you want looks, ask someone to 3D print some shrouds.

10Gbe NIC? For that price where is Intel X550? That Marvell ain't stellar there. Wifi 6E I presume it is AX210, I fail to see it in the review. ASUS WIFI in one place, Intel other is like telling to folks that's a red blue car and it has wheels. It is important for Linux users, if it has some sort of funky devid it means problems.

Same goes for Intel I225-V are those leftover parts with the dreaded B1/B2 revision or the HW fixed B3? There is so much unneeded detail like BIOS screenies... you have that in the manual, everyone can download it. But it seriously lacks more detailed component analysis outside VRM and copypaste audio. It is a motherboard review ain't it? IT should have better naked board pictures, like W1z always does with GPU's. No DoF, past F11 so you can read the markings, it ain't some art exhibition here.

 

[Anoniem]

Awesome review! I do wonder how long that OLED display will last. I've seen burnt-in displays several times from displaying frequency and the likes, which sucks since it is a unique POS. Oh, and don't forget the price tag.

 

[Ibizadr]

The review says it best... this is a product for people with either unlimited funds or treating themselves. My Strix B550-E can handle my 5950X at its peak without complaining, all while providing ample support for everything that I could possibly need. Boards like this only really serve the singular purpose of providing the best for those who demand the best, even if they do not necessarily need or use the features that it can provide.

On the upside, I hope I can find one of these on the cheap once AM4 is getting old and forgotten out there.

My b450 tomahawk max ii it's still capable to push my 5800x to 5.05ghz and ram oc to 3800MHz. But it lack pcie 4.0 x16 and one more nvme for me it's nice since I need to upgrade my storage and a second nvme comes in handy.

 

[Assimilator]

@ir_cow Page 3, "Board Layout": the rear panel IO port layout at the end of the page is incorrect; "HDMI™ port" should be "2 x DisplayPort IN ports for Thunderbolt™ 4" as per https://rog.asus.com/motherboards/rog-crosshair/rog-crosshair-viii-extreme-model/spec

 

[kapone32]

well ryzens only ever have 24 lanes, and seeing as you cannot conjure them out of thin air aftermarket or something, you'll have to either wire all of your m.2s to the PCH (bottleneckcity inc) or do something like this ...

and honestly, as long as your GPU's PCIe 4.0 capable, running it in x8 basically costs you nothing performance wise anyways so who cares. x16 is only useful for stuff like the 2080Ti that are not PCIe 4.0 capable

The X570S Ace Max

Appreciate the look out! I must have mixed up Maximus with Crosshair in my head.

You will run into similar problems with the M.2 sockets. "PCI_E4, M2_3, M2_4 and SATA5~8 share the same bandwidth." Three of the of M.2 get the bandwidth from the PCH. I'm not sure how its split up based on the manual specs. I'm guessing one is Gen3? Also the USB-C is 20 Gbps (USB 3.2 Gen 2x2). Another one of those (*) "The PCIe x1 slot and onboard Wi-Fi module share the same bandwidth, you can not use both of them simultaneously,"

The MSI ACE MAX is certainly a good MB contender. It still not cheap either. I still believe that it will come down to personal preference. You can get the same OC with the B550 Unify-X I use for memory reviews. If that's all you care about, get the cheapest MB you can find. I recommend it! This is ASUS top offer, just like MSI, Gigabyte and ASRock have one. All expensive and offer similar levels of premium features.

I understand your opinion but I had a special use case for exactly this board. I have 2 2TB SATA drives that I run in RAID 0. I have another SSD for mass storage. I was an X399 user so I have many M2s but the performance of the 5000 series made me jump to the AM4 (and cost of TRX40). This board came with an adapter so I have 2 M2s in that. Then last year I got a WD AN 1500 1TB. It has a controller on it that allows Windows to see the card (even in a x2 slot). I was using the Asus X570 Strix-E and getting 2000 Mb/s with that card. Then the other day I had a massive failure of my EK block. so I was looking for a board and saw this. What I enjoy is that the 3rd slot is wired at x8 and is PCIe 4. That means that even though the chipset is X4. I still get 5 GB/s sequential read speeds. I know it is limited by the chipset but the beauty is that I don't need the SATA ports, the adapter card is connected to the CPU and I have all the storage I need for my PC. I can even add an M2 to the 2nd M2 slot and be happy. That board is $300 cheaper than this Asus and has a better VRM and rear I/O. Also the WD AN 1500 has a Marvell controller and I used 2 Adata SX8200 2 TBs (from my X399) for that drive to become a 4TB monster.

Useful only for synthetic benchmarks. Alias don't F* with the kernel governor. In real world scenario it conflicts with thermal and fit based boost policies thus introducing latency. It would suck for gaming.

You know really well, you ensure PBO does work on ASUS boards you have to turn auto or switch off any feature in that tweaker tab, as those ALWAYS do cripple your performance outside synthetics. Put on the Beta Bios, there are more features already in that dreaded tab. None of those work, just write down your timings and other settings down as built in presets are not compatible.

This board should not exist in consumer domain. There are simply not enough PCIe lanes, the added cost for what? For all those features a power user would use but with a big ugly fat asterix, you have to pick your poison, not all of the at once. Most ASUS X570 boards do support bifurcation, you can get a lazy PCIe adapter and slap even 4 drivers there in 16x slot. So it is an unneeded grotesque what we are looking at. ASM2812 adds latency also, so I question the overall peripheral product performance. Witch actually ain't that stellar considering the price. Everything hooked after it can have weird issues. It has always been like that with switches.

Power users needing for multiple lanes will HEDT. This is a halo product swamped with unneeded features, with considerable performance/latency tradeoffs, if you want looks, ask someone to 3D print some shrouds.

10Gbe NIC? For that price where is Intel X550? That Marvell ain't stellar there. Wifi 6E I presume it is AX210, I fail to see it in the review. ASUS WIFI in one place, Intel other is like telling to folks that's a red blue car and it has wheels. It is important for Linux users, if it has some sort of funky devid it means problems.

Same goes for Intel I225-V are those leftover parts with the dreaded B1/B2 revision or the HW fixed B3? There is so much unneeded detail like BIOS screenies... you have that in the manual, everyone can download it. But it seriously lacks more detailed component analysis outside VRM and copypaste audio. It is a motherboard review ain't it? IT should have better naked board pictures, like W1z always does with GPU's. No DoF, past F11 so you can read the markings, it ain't some art exhibition here.

I should post my video on the headache of Epic that is mitigated by NVME.

 

[ir_cow]

This is an AMAZINGLY detailed review, covering a lot of bases. awesomely done. I'll add in some questions as i go

1. What NVME drive was used to test the USB storage speeds on page 7?
Should a 10Gb enclosure do faster, or is this a limit of the AMD platform with USB transfer speeds?


2. no Zen 3 CPU is
but also - no mention or testing of the rare and super useful Dynamic OC switcher - letting you pick a static all core base clock, with PBO working for boost on top?
(With my 5800x, that would be me have a 'base' of 4.6GHz at 1.2V, with turbo doing low thread count boosting all the way to 5.05GHz - the best of both PBO and static clocks in one setup)

I want a board upgrade, JUST to get that feature. It's the golden goose that changes ryzen overclocking completely.

1: Samsung 980 Pro was used. With some protocol overhead, 850~ MB/s is about right for USB 3.2 (Gen 2x1) that is 10 Gbps. 900 MB/s peak could be a fluke, or those are actually the ones using CPU lanes instead of PCH. Going by the datasheet all the Type-A ports are Gen 2x1 (10 Gbps). Only the Thunderbolt 4 is up to 40 Gbps. The real limit at that point is the enclosure.

I haven't been able to find true USB4/T4 enclosures. They are all rebranded T3 ones that maxes out around 25 Gbps. If ANYONE knows of one that is TRULY 40 Gbps, LMK. They all say it in the branding specs, but if you look up user review, all fall well short of that "rating". This is due to using a last-gen chip that is for T3. Just because the protocols work, does not mean it will reach 40 Gbps.

2: Unfortunately not this time. Mainly because I actually collected the data back in October 2021. I popped in a 5800X for the memory section, and reached 4.65Ghz All-Core for a quick OC. Still limited to 1.35v~. I know the PBO goes to 1.5v for its peak, but I don't think that's safe for 24/7 use. I'm old school ` if it doesn't pass Prime95, it isn't stable.

I have never used the Dynamic OC switcher personally. I know about it, but I always OC for worst case all-core with my desired voltage out of habit. I'll admit it is a bit of laziness on my part. At the time I recently took over from Nate and was just getting my feet wet at TPU. If I were to re-do it today and didn't come in at the end of the AM4 life-cycle, I would be testing everything with a 5950X from the get-go. New benchmarks, video card, etc....

Great video here about it for others to watch.

As for this mobo yeah well it looks nice an all but certainly not 800 clams nice and is Teamed the new buzzword for doubled now

Teamed (Parallel), Doublers are Direct Phases are all different in the voltage spikes and transient response. It isn't a "buzzword" per say. der8auer had a good vide on this using an oscilloscope. I can't find it anymore sadly. I'm sure it exist and maybe it wasn't his channel, but he was the speaker.

But it seriously lacks more detailed component analysis outside VRM and copypaste audio. It is a motherboard review ain't it? IT should have better naked board pictures, like W1z always does with GPU's. No DoF, past F11 so you can read the markings, it ain't some art exhibition here.

Ouch.... Please PM me for high rez photos. I shoot at 40MP. Its dropped down to 1000width and under 300KB~ for the web. Your Feedback is noted. What components would you like more details amount in future reviews?

 

[Mussels]

Useful only for synthetic benchmarks. Alias don't F* with the kernel governor. In real world scenario it conflicts with thermal and fit based boost policies thus introducing latency. It would suck for gaming.

It switches based on CPU current, if the current load is low, boost. If the load is high, manual all core.
Software versions of it exist in CTR, that is based on CPU usage % instead
It works and works well, and i really hope and pray AMD adds something like it to AM5 as a stock feature. - i can cut 20C off my temps with manually setting a voltage at 4.6GHz, but that costs me 450Mhz off my boost value so its a tough call

 

[Ferrum Master]

It switches based on CPU current, if the current load is low, boost. If the load is high, manual all core.
Software versions of it exist in CTR, that is based on CPU usage % instead
It works and works well, and i really hope and pray AMD adds something like it to AM5 as a stock feature. - i can cut 20C off my temps with manually setting a voltage at 4.6GHz, but that costs me 450Mhz off my boost value so its a tough call

It does not work well. I supported patreon CTR for few months, then I understood what steaming pile of crap the dev and the software is. It will never work.

Interference with AGESA and kernel causes lower real time performance numbers, stutter, kernel panic. Gaming is worse using your CTR. Dev blames AMD, but the truth lies elsewhere... in greed.

I suppose you haven't really understood how PBO2 really works. Nobody sane does manual voltage also. It ain't old Intel. Your boost does not work because of ASUS way of thinking. If you enable any of those stupid features you disable all the AMD boost algos, you enter year 2010, you cannot have both. If you like to look at fancy clock numbers, but not performance, then let it be.

Just do curve UV -10 best pair, -20, second, rest -30, dont push EDC past 165, TDC 185 and max power does not really matter. If you will you will not boost to your desired levels, add higher max boost clock, like +100. Setting stupid high limits cripples real performance and that is not Cinebench CTR uses and then wets his trousers, how much better the numbers look. Then tailor the curve with stress tests.

Is it so hard? It will act just as you want with those settings you will have high all core with fully functional boost past 5GHz.

Ouch.... Please PM me for high rez photos. I shoot at 40MP. Its dropped down to 1000width and under 300KB~ for the web. Your Feedback is noted. What components would you like more details amount in future reviews?

Just do smaller appertures to have larger focus plane and do pics of all major IC, network should be there for sure.

Also my five cents on the USB speed. It is slower not because of the pcie, but the USB lanes are routed in shit way on the PCB. USB incorporates automatic signal integrity checks and if the traces are made without effort, USB speed will throttle. You cannot have everything, simple as that. A single controller, with short traces to the port will outmatch a crowded and noisy PCB any day.

 

[Sabishii Hito]

Managed to snag one for about $400 USD from a pricing error. Look forward to replacing my Aorus Xtreme and see how it performs.

Brand new?? I saw a couple of open box boards at a local Micro Center for that price, was almost tempted to snag one. Then I remembered I have an X570 Aorus Xtreme that can actually OC RAM.

 

[Camm]

Brand new?? I saw a couple of open box boards at a local Micro Center for that price, was almost tempted to snag one. Then I remembered I have an X570 Aorus Xtreme that can actually OC RAM.

Yep, brand new from Techinn. Took a week to ship, but it shipped. And you aren't wrong, only had the board in for a day so haven't had a chance to play, but couldn't get my 4x32GB sticks to go anywhere close to the Aorus Xtreme's 3800mhz I can achieve. Don't really want to go back to the Aorus though, the thunderbolt support is something really useful for my Wacom 4k tablet.

 

[Tom Sunday]

$800!!!!!! That's frigging insanity!!

Great purchase and recommendation. Would love to buy. But for now like many of us or "the man on the street," I need to reassess my basic finances as to keeping my car running and as gasoline prices here in LA are now at $7.27 per gallon. So keeping my job and freeway commuting is becoming expensive and now prohibits me in even thinking about upgrading any hardware. That ship has sailed! What a mess and where will this end for hard working people like me?