The Best AMD X670E Motherboards: 22 Board Roundup, VRM Thermal Test

[Steve]

For months we've been gathering as many AMD X670 motherboards as we could to test their VRM performance and see if they can all handle the Ryzen 9 7950X without any kind of thermal throttling.

Permalink to review.

https://www.techspot.com/bestof/amd-x670-motherboards/

 

[dangh]

And... best mITX ones?

 

[m3tavision]

Great article & some good quality boards there.

I have had the Asus X670E Hero for two months now and my CPU cooler & XTX arrived yesterday. I can not wait to build this system.

 

[Irata]

Thanks for your test. It‘s good to see that all do well in the VRM department, then again at those prices anything else would have been outrageous.

 

[poohbear]

Was considering an AM5 platform, but with Intel's 12th Gen Z690 motherboards going for so cheap last year I couldn't justify the price. Ended up going with a heavily discounted Z690 Gigabyte Aorus Master for $270 vs the same brand & model for $500 on AMD's Z670E platform. No regrets, and have it equipped with a 13700kf @ 6ghz. Will put the $230 savings towards a nice graphics card.

 

[Manoa]

Connectivity is terable on all this mobos you get 3 PCI-e slots at most, it's either use the on-board garbage or get out

 

[Avro Arrow]

ASRock is the clear winner here and I think that they owe this, at least in part, to Steve Walton because Steve had the cojones to call them out over some of their previous models' terrible thermal performance. If that hadn't happened, they might not have improved to the degree that they have while still offering more value for money than their competitors.

I think that for 99% of people, the obvious choice is the ASRock X670E PG Lightning. It's the LEAST expensive X670 motherboard and it's an X670E. Yes, that's right, all the X670 non-E motherboards from other companies cost more than the X670E PG Lightning. Now, I don't know just how much of a difference having a PCI-Express v5.0 slot would have but in this case, ASRock is essentially paying consumers to take it for free.

Its thermal performance is "middle of the pack" but it's in the middle of a pack of motherboards whose thermals are ALL terrific. I think that ASRock has an ace in the hole here and there's no question that it's the one that I'd buy if I were in the market for an AM5 board.

Fortunately for me, I'm not in the market for an AM5 board and won't be for years to come.

 

[Avro Arrow]

And... best mITX ones?

"There's also the $460 Asus ROG Strix X670E-I Gaming, but that's an ITX board, and it's the only X670E ITX board you will find, so if you want an ITX board with AMD's flagship chipset then it goes without saying, you'd buy this one."
The ASUS ROG Strix X670E-I Gaming is the best by default as it's the only one in existence. By the same token, it's also the worst X670E mini-ITX board on the market.

 

[Biostud]

The obvious choice is to wait for the B650 round up, as the B650 has enough connectivity for most users, and buying an X670 board is just a waste of money fo these users.

 

[cldmstrsn]

I just picked up the Strix X670E-F with a 7700X and so far its one of the best mobos Ive had. Definitely recommend it.

 

[Dr Roboto]

Minor typo in article.
"For example, the Gigabyte X670E Aorus Elite AX ran at just 57c and at $290 shares the same price tag as the Asus Prime X670-P WiFi which ran at a very satisfactory 66c"

You meant to type Gigabyte X670 not X670E.

 

[Dr Roboto]

Nice overview, but I think it would be helpful if there was some additional information/guidance on the following:
1) VRMs
a) How many VRM stages is "good enough" vs "nice to have" vs "need for overclocking"?
b) How many VRM Amps is "good enough" vs "nice to have" vs "need for overclocking"?
c) Should I pick a VRM with more stages but lower Amps?
2) Is it really worth getting the E series for PCIe Gen 5.0? Is 4.0 a limiting factor for GPUs?

Thanks

 

[Neutronman]

Ridiculous cost for budget boards $300 or less. When did $300 become entry level board... What are the motherboard companies thinking?

 

[Ceres]

"Alternatively, there's the MSI X670E Carbon which costs even more at $480 and the main reason for spending more on this board is to receive PCIe 5.0 support for the primary and secondary PCIe x16 slots, along with the primary and secondary M.2 slots. Of course, when using both of these devices the bandwidth is halved, which isn't an issue if using PCIe 5.0 hardware, but it's a bit of a problem for PCIe 4.0 devices."

A question here, you're talking about when you have 2 graphics cards in 2 pcie5 slots or 2 nvme drives in the 2 pcie5 slots. In the case where 1 graphics card and 1 nvme drive are installed (in the primary or secondary slots), they will both retain their bandwidth, right?

Also, is there a reason why it "isn't an issue if using PCIe 5.0 hardware, but it's a bit of a problem for PCIe 4.0 devices."? Shouldn't it be the other way around?

And lastly, what about the case where you have 1 graphcs card installed, and 1 Samsung 980 pro installed in the primary pcie5 slot, and 1 Samsung 970 evo installed in one of the pcie4 slots on MSI X670E Carbon. They should all retain their full bandwidth, I believe?

 

[Tantor]

Great article.

FYI - The Gigabyte X670 Aorus Elite appears to be the same board as their X670 Gaming X. I downloaded the manuals for both and the io and features seem identical.

Gigabyte even lists a Rev 1.1 version of the Elite, which seems to be unavailable at this time.

 

[Tantor]

Ridiculous cost for budget boards $300 or less. When did $300 become entry level board... What are the motherboard companies thinking?

True. And the $199 Gigabyte X570s Elite motherboard has more usable features than the $280 X670 Elite. Better Audio (ALC1220-VB and vs ALC 892). Also optical S/PDIF Out. Three PCI 16 x 4 slots vs two. The tradeoff is a slightly weaker VRM, lack of USB4 and DDR5.

To be fair, the X670 boards have a lot of new technology that had to be integrated properly.

 

[Burty117]

Connectivity is terable on all this mobos you get 3 PCI-e slots at most, it's either use the on-board garbage or get out

What else are you adding? On my Asus X670E Hero it has two full sized X16 slots and a single X1 slot.
I've got my GPU in the top X16 and my Soundcard in the X1 slot. I guess if I wanted some extra SSD's or a faster NIC I could put that in the second X16 but what else would you use it for?

I'm not here to argue or anything, genuinely intrigued what else you would add that would mean using more than 3 PCI-E Slots.

 

[Draconian]

If you want a USB4 port, your options are limited. Looks like the cheapest board is the $370 ASRock B650E TAICHI AM5 EATX Mainboard which of course uses the B650 chipset.

 

[herpaderp]

Ridiculous cost for budget boards $300 or less. When did $300 become entry level board... What are the motherboard companies thinking?

X670 isn't the the budget chipset in AMD's lineup to begin with, so you set yourself up for failure by using that as your starting point when looking for value.

 

[Mr Majestyk]

The obvious choice is to wait for the B650 round up, as the B650 has enough connectivity for most users, and buying an X670 board is just a waste of money fo these users.

There's even B650E IIRC eventually.

 

[godrilla]

I have the x670e Strix-I with 7700x that got me a all core oc with 1 click ai oc on Noctua D15 at 5.65 ghz fyi. Unfortunately if you want itx you don't have choices. I was lucky to get $50 off $450 with cpu combo and free gskill cl30 32 gig ram kits at 6ghz at microcenter on Black Friday. Even with current price kits nothing beats this price. While the x670e is very expensive the free ram kit worth $200 and $50 off motherboard made it more palatable. If you don't have such discounts its definitely a hard pill to swallow. While gamers are excited about upcoming Zen4 3d cpus I doubt there will be any combos or discounts offered at least initially.
Update great article!*

 

[Biostud]

There's even B650E IIRC eventually.

YES, I meant B650/B650E as a whole group.

 

[Biostud]

I have the x670e Strix-I with 7700x that got me a all core oc with 1 click ai oc on Noctua D15 at 5.65 ghz fyi. Unfortunately if you want itx you don't have choices. I was lucky to get $50 off $450 with cpu combo and free gskill cl30 32 gig ram kits at 6ghz at microcenter on Black Friday. Even with current price kits nothing beats this price. While the x670e is very expensive the free ram kit worth $200 and $50 off motherboard made it more palatable. If you don't have such discounts its definitely a hard pill to swallow. While gamers are excited about upcoming Zen4 3d cpus I doubt there will be any combos or discounts offered at least initially.
Update great article!*

There's really no reason to choose a X670 board over a B650 board for ITX, as the only difference is the number connections, and there is physically very little space on a ITX board for those extra connections.

 

[Benchsalyst]

Despite my comment was erased , I want to reformulate this .
Graz for your 7600X vs 13600 K which was very full and fair contrary to some other ones as Tpu for ex.

 

[m3tavision]

Connectivity is terable on all this mobos you get 3 PCI-e slots at most, it's either use the on-board garbage or get out

?
Your post does not make sense to an average builder/gamer... How many GPUs & Soundcards are you running..?