RROG ANNOUNCES NEW X470 MOTHERBOARDS FOR NEXT-GEN RYZEN PROCESSORS

RROG ANNOUNCES NEW X470 MOTHERBOARDS FOR NEXT-GEN RYZEN PROCESSORS

Articles: MOTHERBOARD

The Republic of Gamers is as OG as PC gaming hardware gets, tracing its origins to 2006 with the original Crosshair motherboard. We also go way back with AMD, whose dual-core Athlon 64 processors fit into that first board’s AM2 socket. So we were thrilled when Ryzen revitalized gaming rigs and enthusiast desktops with multithreaded horsepower and accessible over clocking. Now AMD is poised to ascend again, this time on two fronts. Pinnacle Ridge processors enhance Ryazan’s appeal for hardcore machines with discrete graphics, while Raven Ridge chips bring Radeon GPUs capable of smooth 1080p gaming and 4K HDR video. These CPUs come with an updated X470 chipset, which we’ve used to create an all-new line of matching ROG motherboards.

Our X470 series spans four boards tailored for different builds. The record-setting ROG Crosshair VII Hero and its Wi-Fi twin lead the lineup with a stealthy design for serious over lockers and savvy enthusiasts. Its Strix X470-F Gaming sibling makes ROG enhancements more affordable, while the Strix X470-I Gaming shrinks everything down to Mini-ITX proportions for small-form-factor systems.

Despite their differences, these boards share core features honed over more than a decade of building ROG motherboards for gamers and enthusiasts. Between powerful tuning, intelligent cooling, extensive personalization, and enhanced audio, the new wave of ROG Ryzen motherboards maximize your PC’s potential for gaming and more

Tune your rig the way you want

AMD’s Ryzen revival promises faster performance than the previous generation, and the abundance of models with unlocked multipliers gives you the freedom to push beyond stock speeds. With the right modules, memory can be over clocked up to DDR4-3466 and beyond. Kits up to DDR4-3200 are supported with integrated graphics configurations, where faster RAM has a more direct impact on gaming frame rates.

Hyper Predator

Even with the luxury of unlocked multipliers, CPU over clocking is limited by cooling and the individual characteristics of each chip. With a single click, our 5-Way Optimization utility accounts for both by automatically tuning your fans and testing the limits of your CPU. Its integrated intelligence finds the maximum speed your system can sustain without sacrificing stability, and configurable options allow experts to fine-tune the process to suit their needs.

Auto-tuning is backed by extensive manual tweaking options that, in experienced hands, can wring every last drop of performance from a build. We’ve added a new search shortcut to the UEFI that lets you quickly find and modify specific settings without flipping through pages of menus. Once your setup is dialed in, you can export the profile to share with others, and keep a copy to reload after firmware updates wipe the slate clean. The integrated EZ Flash 3 tool simplifies firmware flashing by automatically downloading and applying the latest update entirely within the UEFI.

Cooler by design

Capable cooling is critical to both reaching and preserving peak performance, especially with Ryzen’s increasingly aggressive XFR clock-scaling algorithm opening the taps when thermal headroom allows, but you can’t just crank all the fans and call it a day. To minimize the accompanying acoustic footprint, airflow should be applied judiciously, only where and when it’s needed.

ROG’s X470 lineup lays the foundation with a collection of cooling headers for liquid and air. At least one header on each board is configured for AIO water coolers, so you can plug in and go without additional steps. Connecting fans is dead easy; all the onboard headers automatically adjust for three-pin DC and four-pin PWM hardware, and the built-in calibration routine runs through each fan’s full RPM range to precisely map its behavior before you adjust the response curve. As you step up to higher-end models, headers are added for the high-amperage pumps and liquid sensors used in lust-worthy loops.

Crosshair VII 

Most system fans respond to changes in the CPU, motherboard, or chassis temperature. You typically have to pick one, which makes it more difficult for the cooling to react appropriately to a diverse range of workloads, particularly gaming and accelerated tasks that heat up the GPU more than other components. But the Fan Xpert 4 engine on all ROG X470 boards lets individual fans respond to the hottest in a group of sensors that includes external thermal probes and the GPU diode on select ASUS and ROG graphics cards.

Face the light or embrace the darkness

The extensive array of tweaking options on our motherboards is born from a desire to give you as much freedom as possible when tuning your PC, and that mindset extends to cosmetic customization. Our X470 family breaks new ground with black-on-black designs that don’t need lighting to turn heads. We realize that some people prefer to keep a lower profile, so we’ve added a UEFI switch that instantly disables RGB illumination, including connected strips. A separate stealth mode goes even further by turning off smaller diagnostic LEDs, with the Crosshair VII Hero enforcing a complete blackout across its entire PCB.

Monochromatic foundations let you add colors and effects via varying degrees of Aura Sync. Our onboard RGB lighting diffuses the harsh glare of naked LEDs to generate a softer, more even glow. For the rest of your rig, all ROG X470 motherboards can power both standard RGB strips and next-level addressable lighting devices. Addressable RGB hardware exposes control over individual LEDs, enabling advanced effects and interactions that are impossible to replicate with traditional strips.

More than just for motherboards, Aura Sync coordinates illumination across a growing ecosystem of compatible components covering every aspect of your setup, from internal parts and external peripherals to a separate Terminal control box that can light up your desk and the surrounding area. Aura software supplies a full palette of colors to match your mood, along with both cosmetic and functional effects. It’s joined by an expanding Aura SDK that opens up the lighting to developers who want to control it with their own applications, like AIDA64 and Cooler Master’s MasterPlus+.

Solid specs for gaming and more

Heavy graphics cards are a hallmark of gaming rigs, so the PCIe x16 slots connected to the CPU have reinforced metal walls and more secure anchoring to the board. This SafeSlot treatment strengthens the slot in all directions, helping to protect your investment against physical damage from rough handling during shipping, inadvertent bumps traveling to LAN parties, and clumsy graphics card installations.

Ryzen CPUs reserve four PCI Express 3.0 lanes for an NVMe SSD, and the X470 chipset adds two more for an additional drive. Although the double-barreled link has lower peak throughput than its quad-lane counterpart, maximum bandwidth is still over 3X higher than a 6Gbps SATA interface. Our X470 motherboards all have dual M.2 slots, so you can equip a primary drive for your OS and frequently used games and applications, plus a secondary one to serve as a scratch disk or house the inevitable spill-over from your Steam library. When it’s time to start over, the integrated secure erase tool can wipe both SATA and NVMe drives from right in the UEFI.

USB 3.1 Gen 2 connectivity built into the chipset pushes peak theoretical throughput to 10Gbps for external storage and next-gen devices. Our X470 boards tap into that controller for least two ports at the rear, and the ATX models also include an internal header for chassis with turbocharged USB ports up front.

Intel Gigabit Ethernet supplies reliable wired networking for serious gaming and fast file transfers. Onboard wireless is available on the Crosshair VII Hero (Wi-Fi) and Strix X470-I Gaming, adding convenience without giving up too much speed. The dual-band 802.11ac solution spreads signals over a 2x2 antenna to improve performance, and MU-MIMO supplies an extra kick when paired with a compatible routers like the ROG Rapture.

Downsize without compromise on the ROG Strix X470-I Gaming

Despite diminutive Mini-ITX dimensions, the smallest member of our X470 lineup delivers the full ROG experience for gaming rigs and HTPCs with discrete or integrated graphics. That’s an impressive achievement when so much of what defines the Republic of Gamers involves adding functionality that inevitably takes up space. But we’re also known for thinking outside the box, and the Strix X470-I Gamingtadds real estate with a unique M.2 Audio Combo Card that combines storage and sound above the board.

Elevating the audio circuitry above the PCB minimizes lateral signal interference that can distort sound. The surface gained allows us to shield the SupremeFX codec and deploy dual op-amps with impedance sensing for headphones. Color-coded lighting is also embedded into the rear ports to create a functional RGB glow that makes it easier to connect audio jacks in dimly lit gaming dens and home theaters.

M.2 drives slot into the audio card and are covered by an SSD heatsink that’s especially important given the limited airflow of typical small-form-factor systems. The secondary M.2 slot beneath the main PCB is also handy for bite-sized builds, since it allows an additional drive to be connected without any cable clutter. Like on the Crosshair VII Hero, both M.2s can tap into four lanes of PCIe 3.0 from the CPU, but the secondary one shares bandwidth with the primary x16 slot.

Serious gamers can drop a discrete graphics card into the full-sized PCI Express x16 slot, but that’s unnecessary if you’re running integrated graphics. The board’s HDMI 2.0b is natively supported by the Radeon GPU embedded in Raven Ridge processors. The integrated GPU can drive 4K resolution up to 60Hz with HDR, which is perfect for viewing Ultra HD content on a big-screen TV. While Raven Ridge graphics aren’t powerful enough to run the latest games at that resolution, recent titles reach playable frame rates at 1080p, giving the Strix X470-I respectable performance for a PC gaming console.

The last thing you want behind your home theater is another cable, so the board integrates 802.11ac Wi-Fi for clutter-free connectivity. The dual-band solution uses a 2x2 antenna to accelerate wireless speeds and can push performance further on networks that tap into its MU-MIMO support.