Best motherboards for AMD Ryzen 9 3900X in 2023
The AMD Ryzen 9 3900X is a powerful processor, but it can hit its full potential only with a good motherboard. As such, we rounded up some of the best motherboards for the AMD Ryzen 9 3900X.
ASUS ROG Strix X570-E motherboard
Premium X570
The X570 chipset replaced the last-gen X470 and is now the go-to chipset for the Ryzen 9 3900X. X570 motherboards also bring additional benefits like PCIe 4.0 support and Wi-Fi 6. This ASUS board has Gen 4 M.2 slots capable of unidirectional transfer speeds up to 64GB/s and plenty of RGB lighting options to boot.
Gigabyte A520 AORUS Elite motherboard
Affordable pick
While not quite as advanced as our top pick, the A520 AORUS Elite from Gigabyte is still worth considering for your Ryzen 9 3900X. It doesn’t come with PCIe 4.0 support, but it does come with a decent VRM setup, M. 2 slot, and will work perfectly fine with your Ryzen 3000 Series CPU. You’ll also save some money left for other components.
ASRock B550M Steel Legend motherboard
Budget B550
The B550 chipset is a little less advanced than the X570 sibling, but it’s still worth considering for a new build. This board from ASRock supports Ryzen 3000 Series CPUs and provides enough features for the 3900X, including a 14-phase power delivery design for stable overclocking.
ASUS Prime X570-P motherboard
Entry X570
This ASUS board is one that would suit someone who wants the latest chipset features on a more basic platform. It’s got a lot going for it, too, with metal heatsinks for the VRMs and other high-quality components. Major differences between the X570-P and our top recommended X570-E is the lack of SLI support, no 2.5Gb LAN, and different ports on the rear I/O.
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Our recommendations here will work flawlessly with the AMD Ryzen 9 3900X CPU. If you want to enjoy the best of what X570 has to offer, the ASUS ROG Strix X570-E is an excellent motherboard for most PC owners, even providing room for stable overclocking.
X570 is the latest chipset from AMD to support Ryzen 3000 Series processors, and there are numerous options if you don’t fancy our top pick. Another excellent example is the ASUS Prime X570-P, rocking PCIe 4.0 support, high-quality components, and a great BIOS.
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Rich Edmonds was formerly a Senior Editor of PC hardware at Windows Central, covering everything related to PC components and NAS. He’s been involved in technology for more than a decade and knows a thing or two about the magic inside a PC chassis. You can follow him on Twitter at @RichEdmonds.
Upgrading to a Ryzen 3900X CPU on the X470 Platform
The Ryzen 3900X CPU has been out since July 2019 and getting your hands on one that wasn’t overpriced was a challenge. I waited it out for inventory to pick back up and finally got my hands on one of these beauties. The Ryzen 9 3900X is the first consumer CPU to have a 12 core 24 thread count. In easy to understand terms, it’s wicked fast. With a price point of $499 USD, the price per performance is a tremendous value. Adding into the mix that the CPU runs on the AM4 platform, the chip will fit in most of the AMD boards available.
Hello everyone! Jim here from Skjool’s Tech Talk, back with another video on the new-ish Ryzen 3900X processor. There have been a great number of videos on the Ryzen 3900X since launch and in this video, I’m not doing the full upgrade that most channels have done. going to x570 boards with specific RAM, CPU coolers, and M.2 hard drives. This video is what most of us will be looking to do. A straight upgrade from the current processor in our PC’s.
Check out the video on how to upgrade your CPU and some tests ran against the current CPU in my PC, the Ryzen 2700X.
Upgrading X470 board with the Ryzen 3900X
A few things I want to add. If you are currently on the Ryzen platform, make sure you update the bios to your motherboard. There have been instances where the new CPU will not boot up. If you are doing a new build, grab the bios for the board you are buying from the manufacturer’s website. This will save you a few headaches.
Hopefully, you got some value from the video! I try to give you the best information to make a purchasing decision. If you have any questions or comments, you can leave them here, on Lords of Gaming Twitter account, my Twitter account (@skoolstechtalk), or over on my YouTube channel. I make my best effort to answer all the questions. If I don’t know the answer, I’ll find someone that does and get right back to you!
Get caught up on what is happening in the tech world, by checking out our tech news by clicking here! Make sure to come back daily for up to the minute gaming and tech information!
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Jim A
Blogger, content creator on YouTube, occasional streamer and an overall tech junkie.
Testing Ryzen 5, Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 9 on boards based on AMD X470 and X570 chipsets
The release of Ryzen 3000 processors last summer put the AM4 platform in a somewhat strange state. On the one hand, the company does not get tired of repeating that these processors are also compatible with old motherboards, including those developed before the very first Ryzen appeared (unless, of course, the manufacturers of those motherboards take care of new firmware). On the other hand, one of the key elements of the updated platform in AMD is called support for PCIe 4.0. But it will not be on old boards in principle — even for slots (as a rule, these are PCIe x16 and one M.2) connected to the processor. You can fully enjoy the innovations only by using the new motherboards based on the X570 — and these are the ones recommended by the manufacturer for testing new processors. One problem: they are too expensive. From a Ryzen 9 Buyer’s Perspectivethat’s nothing, but the inexpensive Ryzen 5s were also very successful, which themselves are cheaper than most X570-based boards. Yes, and the new line of Ryzen 3 is already “four cores, eight threads”, as well as the updated Intel Core i3, and after all, some three years ago, this formula could only be obtained in the form of expensive (relatively) Core i7. But the Ryzen 3 3100’s MSRP is only $99, and the X570 boards only start at $200, which means they’ll never fit together in a real system. Even the latest B550, designed to solve this problem, will still be expensive for younger Ryzen. nine0003
So the old boards remain. AMD’s policy towards them is simple: models based on the B450 and X470 chipsets were required to receive firmware updates, while the A320, B350 and X370 were at the discretion of the manufacturer. This division is understandable: the first generation of Ryzen was still more economical than even the second, which was also taken into account in motherboards. A320 is generally an outstanding case: a budget chipset from the end of 2016 (recall that the first version of the AM4 platform was designed for Bristol Ridge APUs — there were several months left before Ryzen), simple and very cheap motherboards . .. And suddenly there is someone who wants to put Ryzen 9 there3950X 🙂 It is clear that intelligent power management, etc., will help programmers in this case, but solving the problem so that the processor in this situation does not just start up, but lives happily ever after, is not so easy. With models based on the B450 and X470, the situation is much simpler.
But something will have to be abandoned. In particular, support for PCIe 4.0 disappears completely. Evil tongues of see AMD’s insidious plan in that: they say, this is how the company «forces» buyers to buy expensive X570. Actually, nonsense. For AMD, PCIe 4.0 is a serious competitive advantage, which makes no sense to give up unnecessarily. And it is impossible to force the buyer to spend more money than he was going to: he simply may not have it. That is why there is compatibility — but it did not work out with full. Worse, not that the «processor» lines work in this case as PCIe 3.0, but that the chipset lines in all «old» models are PCIe 2. 0 at all. So, for example, you can put one fast SSD, but the second one can only seriously limit the bus. Things are not going smoothly for Intel either, since the interface with the chipset has limited bandwidth, so two SSDs cannot work at full speed at the same time either. But at the same time it is not necessary in practice, but in turn — every will give all the best to a maximum of , which with old chipsets for AM4 will not work in principle. In fairness, this is also not too necessary, especially when it comes to savings (and there are no other reasons for choosing «old» boards).
In addition to PCIe, USB support is also limited. There are only 1-2 USB3 Gen2 ports in old chipsets, and 4 processor ports in this case will also turn into Gen1: like Gen2, they still work exclusively on the X570. The total 12 high-speed ports are still somewhat overkill, so usually only 3-5 are available — but not 1-2! nine0003
But you can do it — again, given that the buyer of a budget system is unlikely to have a pack of top-end USB devices. Some have not yet figured out what to do with the good old Gen1 (more than 10 years ago appeared under the name USB 3.0). And they need only one SSD — and it is quite possible that SATA. And the video card supports only PCIe 3.0, and its replacement is not planned in the near future — and even if it is planned, then there is confidence that it is in the in the near future interface will not become a bottleneck anyway. In a word, cuts in the periphery do not frighten. As for the main part of the platform, they are not. The processors work, the memory is exactly the same and in the same modes. Hence, the performance should be identical. Or not? Than to think about it — it’s easier to take it and check it out. What are we going to do today.
Test participants
| AMD Ryzen 5 3600 | AMD Ryzen 5 3600X | AMD Ryzen 7 3800X | AMD Ryzen 9 3900X | AMD Ryzen 9 3950X | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kernel name | Matisse | Matisse | Matisse | Matisse | Matisse |
| Production technology | 7/12 nm | 7/12 nm | 7/12 nm | 7/12 nm | 7/12 nm |
| Core frequency, GHz | 3. |
3.8/4.4 | 3.9/4.5 | 3.8/4.6 | 3.5/4.7 |
| Number of cores/threads | 6/12 | 6/12 | 8/16 | 12/24 | 16/32 |
| L1 cache (total), I/D, KB | 192/192 | 192/192 | 256/256 | 384/384 | 512/512 |
| L2 cache, KB | 6×512 | 6×512 | 8×512 | 12×512 | 16×512 |
| L3 cache, MiB | 32 | 32 | 32 | 64 | 64 |
| RAM | 2×DDR4-3200 | 2×DDR4-3200 | 2×DDR4-3200 | 2×DDR4-3200 | 2×DDR4-3200 |
| TDP, W | 95 | 105 | 105 | 105 | |
| Number of PCIe 4.0 lanes | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 |
| Integrated GPU | no | no | no | no | no |
We took five models — almost the entire «top» with the exception of the Ryzen 7 3700X. In principle, you can add it, since this is one of the most interesting processors in the new line from a practical point of view. But for now, to save time, we will postpone this issue. Ryzen 5 is still the main one — they definitely have an expensive board not in order . And Ryzen 9 — as an extreme case, where all compatibility flaws (if any) will be most visible.
Review of the ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming X motherboard based on the AMD X570
chipset And the main heroes of the test are the boards, of which there will be two. First, as usual, the ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming X is based on the AMD X570 chipset, since all processors have been tested on it before. This is not the most sophisticated option, but all motherboards based on X570 currently belong to the top segment, even if manufacturers have to limit functionality to the B550 level (which everyone was ready for in advance) to save money, which is not the case here. In any case, we have so far used this board for all tests of AMD processors according to the new version of the methodology, so we already have their results paired with it. And there were comments that, they say, we are specially playing along with the new Ryzen line — especially when studying inexpensive Ryzen 5. At the same time, we will check what these legends really are worth. nine0003
Review of Asus TUF X470-Plus Gaming motherboard based on 470 (AMD AM4)
chipset The test results for Asus TUF X470-Plus Gaming will be new. Formally, this is the former top of the line of chipsets — X470. In fact, in the review of the board, we noted that apart from the chipset itself, there is nothing “top-end” in the board — in fact, such models appeared as a temporary solution due to the fact that shipments of the B450 began later than the X470, and the niche of relatively inexpensive full-size boards needed was somehow filled. But today it will suit us well: firstly, it’s just a “non-top”, but not quite budget-friendly components, and secondly, because it was already at hand. Sometimes it was used in tests of processors of the previous generation, so it turned out to simulate the situation with an upgrade of an existing system: for example, Ryzen 5 2600 (or even Ryzen 5 1600) was bought, and now there was a desire to change it. There is a board that is formally suitable for modern models, official support for them is up to Ryzen 9. So you can try. It will turn out badly — you can go deeper and not dig. It will turn out well, which means that in the future it will be possible to test the operation of new processors on something older or simpler of the B350 type with a minimum power supply system. But, by the way, it is far from an “enthusiast’s dream” on this board either, since it has only six channels (even without any doublers) on ordinary field devices — according to some urban legends , this cannot work normally even with 8-core Ryzen, not to mention more serious models. nine0003
The rest of the system components were the same and standard for the main testing line: AMD Radeon Vega 56 based graphics card, Silicon Power Velox V85 480 GB SATA SSD, 16 GB DDR4-3200 memory. All this works in the same way on both the old and the new platform. So, again, we return to the idea of upgrading by just replacing the processor — which AMD provides so far.
Test Method
Methodology for testing computer systems of the sample of 2020
The testing methodology is described in detail in a separate article, and the results of all tests are available in a separate table in Microsoft Excel format. Directly in the articles, we use the processed results: normalized with respect to the reference system (Intel Core i5-9600K with 16 GB of memory, AMD Radeon Vega 56 video card and SATA SSD) and grouped by computer application areas. Accordingly, all diagrams related to applications have dimensionless scores — so more is always better. And starting from this year, we are finally transferring game tests to an optional status (the reasons for which are discussed in detail in the description of the test methodology), so that only specialized materials will be available for them. In the main lineup there are only a couple of «processor-dependent» games in low resolution and medium quality — synthetic, of course, but conditions close to reality for testing processors are not suitable, since nothing depends on them in such conditions. nine0003
iXBT Application Benchmark 2020
The speed of video transcoding, as you might expect, depends solely on the performance of the CPU. More precisely, even exclusively from the processor cores themselves — the load on the memory system and other components is relatively small, so it can be ignored. The exact coincidence of the results still did not work out, but the discrepancy by 1-2% in practice is what it is. In general, there is virtually no difference between boards based on different chipsets (even those belonging to slightly different segments). nine0003
As you might expect, 3D rendering is basically the same as «video rendering» — the only thing that matters is the number and «quality» of processor cores. The quality is the same here, but the quantity is different. Moreover, rendering programs utilize it somewhat better, which leads to an increase in the efficiency of older models relative to younger ones. But this has nothing to do with the main topic of today’s testing.
But as for working with video at a higher level , then there was no need to chase the number of cores and no. It is not useless, but it is far from being given for free — so if necessary, you can save not only on the board, but even on the processor itself. But the first (unlike the second) has no losses at all, so an unambiguous conclusion suggests itself… The only note is that despite the same discrepancies within the margin of error, they have become more streamlined: «single-chip» processors work a little faster on X470, and two-chip processors on X570. nine0003
In this case, the first ones work in exactly the same way, but the older models differ slightly: 2% difference for 3900X and already 3% for 3950X. However, we repeat, in general, this can be ignored: even if such a difference exists objectively (and with practical measurements of the causes, such deviations may have a wagon and a small bogie), it is insignificant.
The same can’t be said about archivers — quite a weighty 10%. It is clear — where: different work of the memory system. Where could it come from if the memory controller is in the processor, and its mode of operation is the same? We recall that this firmware in the case of AMD AM4 is significantly affected. Suffice it to recall the legends that the memory on Ryzen is chasing badly — which did not arise from scratch: for the first few months it was really difficult to achieve even 3000 MHz. Later, on the same processors, the same memory and the same boards, but with updated firmware, the situation changed instantly and radically. But it also works in the other direction — the performance of processors on boards with 400-series chipsets was «promised» by AMD itself (for the 300-series, the corresponding updates were left to the vendors), but all the «chips» were not. nine0003
However, if this matters only in a small number of specific algorithms, and even there the difference is small, then it can be ignored at all. Since we again return to the situation when the results on the two platforms are practically (up to an error) the same.
When averaging the results for all groups (both “convenient” and “inconvenient” — such as archivers), the picture generally becomes clear and understandable — for Ryzen 5 and 7, on average, the difference between the platforms can be considered absent in principle, and Ryzen 9give a discrepancy of a couple of percent. Which can also be ignored.
Energy consumption and energy efficiency
There are many and different trends in , so let’s deal with them point by point. Firstly (and, perhaps, in the main ones) there is no fundamental difference between the platforms — and there cannot be, since the main consumer of energy is the processor itself. On fresh (and not so — starting with LGA1150) versions of Intel platforms, its contribution can even be «isolated» from the general one, since it is «powered» exclusively from its connector, and software monitoring works fine — which allows you to do without even separate measuring devices, while we are only interested in the power consumption of the processor. Unfortunately, in the framework of AM4, everything is not so — and if necessary, it can “feed” from the main connector, and the sensors show the temperature in Karaganda (which, however, is possible and can be solved with some correction factors — but here they are still for processors AMD is unknown), so it makes no sense to pay attention to the software. All that’s left is the hardware and the measurement of total energy—but that’s exactly what we’re doing. nine0003
And with it — like this: against the background of processor consumption, all other components are usually not very significant. Processors are clearly divided into two classes — with one and two chiplets, and the second increases power consumption by one and a half times (not by two, since, of course, selected grains are used for older models: otherwise even their performance would be in question; especially on old and inexpensive boards). The first ones cannot «demand» too much from the board, so for them the difference between the boards in the high load mode is small. The latter should already adapt a little to the possibilities of power supply and cooling. Fortunately, they can. And it is on these features that the company has always made a significant emphasis. Many people don’t like the reverse side of the coin — it’s very difficult to manually achieve better results than automatics provide, if not it doesn’t work at all, which makes the old folk pastimes in the form of overclocking and downvolting completely meaningless. But for those who have those before did not itch , it got better, of course. Different power consumption limits, which directly affect power consumption (and, by the way, performance) of Intel processors for 10 years now, apparently, do not matter much here. Even without the , the great and terrible Precision Boost Overdrive technology turned out to be a paper tiger.
The third important point is the work with a small load. Which should not be confused with complete downtime — allowing you to use all energy-saving systems. As such, we use simple copying of information or archiving with zero compression, which gives a small (but stable) processor load and almost 100% for the storage system. Including the chipset — the benefit is that the SATA controller is located in it, which is important when using a SATA SSD. And here the difference between the platforms is about 15-20 W — in fact, this is just the difference in the power consumption of X570 and X470. Officially, it should be less, since the X470 TDP is 5W, and the X570 is no more than 15W — but Ryzen 9 is also officialThe 3950X TDP is only 105W. AMD has a good sense of humor, in general, lately. And it’s understandable why motherboards based on X570 with passive chipset cooling are so rare (more precisely, there are practically none). Although at the time of the ona, some Intel X58 with a TDP of 24.1 W managed with a radiator, but here it’s less according to the passport — but is beaten not on the passport, but on the face of . And after all, we did not load the chipset too much with work — we just used a SATA controller, although there are many more interesting blocks in the chipset.
In general, new chipsets are needed — not only inexpensive, but also more economical. nine0003
Or use the old ones — because, as we have already seen, this does not affect performance on average (or almost does not affect it), and energy consumption is at least a little, but lower — therefore, energy efficiency is also higher. From which, of course, it does not follow that you urgently need to rush for a board on an A320 with four-phase power, stick a Ryzen 9 3950X there and hope that automatics will take out . Most likely, everything will work out — but it is difficult to predict how long it will work and how it will work in general in such a skewed situation. That’s what boards 9The mid-range 0005 on B450/X470 will fit Ryzen 5/7, allowing the buyer to save money, not get too upset and spend a little less energy — can be considered an established fact. Especially (as expected) this is true for the younger Ryzen 5, which are economical in themselves, so they don’t need an additional “welding” from a voracious board at all. Yes, and extra costs for the latter, too.
Games
As already mentioned in the description of the methodology, it makes no sense to keep the «classic approach» to testing gaming performance — since video cards have long been determining not only it, but also significantly affect the cost of the system, you need to «dance» exclusively from them. And from the games themselves — too: in modern conditions, fixing a game set for a long time does not make sense, since literally everything can change with the next update. But we carry out a brief test in (albeit) relatively synthetic conditions — using a couple of games in the «processor-dependent» mode. Moreover, games are susceptible to RAM delays — just like archivers. And with the latter (as we have already seen), when comparing boards, not everything goes smoothly. nine0003
And everything happened again. The discrepancy is about 3%, but it is also stable. It is clear that we are talking about the synthetic mode, and the influence of processors (and memory) is manifested only when the video card copes with the load «with a margin». But it shows up. To which it will be possible to add the advantages of using the latest PCIe 4.0 video cards — you should not expect much from it (with the exception of such initially skewed solutions as the Radeon RX 5500XT with 4 GB of video memory — there is little memory, and only 8 PCIe lanes; but potentially 4.0) , however … chicken by grain: there 3%, here 2%, now 5%. Considering that sometimes0005 bloody battles arise due to the difference of 3-5 frames per second — also a good reason to wait for budget chipsets with PCIe 4.0 support, at least from the «processor» controller: where also everything else will work as expected of the «current» version of AM4. The current choice between the «expensive» X570 and the «slow» X470 becomes difficult. More in theory, of course — in practice, «sparing» video modes are interesting only so that there is something to measure in the forums. But in practice, can be brought to its knees by settings even the most powerful video card of our time, even in games two or three years ago — but even with a budget processor (with the exception of some Athlon / Celeron / Pentium), this is skillfully difficult to do.
nine0003
The discrepancy between platforms has increased to 4%. Also not much, but, most importantly, the picture is very stable — you can’t write it off for some random fluctuations. There is even some transition from quantity to quality — the Ryzen 5 3600X on the X570 is at least no slower than the Ryzen 7/9 on the «old» board. From a practical point of view, this, however, is not very significant — as we already know, Vega 56 «copes» with these two games in Full HD and «at maximum speed» (in F1 this is about 120 frames per second), and at medium settings you can use resolutions up to 4K (about 100 FPS), and in such conditions there is already no difference between more or less «decent» processors: force the video card to , both the six-core Core i5 and the “old” Ryzen 5 2600/2600X can already give everything to the full , and sometimes quad-core processors are enough. It is clear that, having the opportunity to comfortably use the maximum quality, no one will reduce it — so the GPU’s capabilities remain the most important. But from the point of view of benchmarking (and here, we repeat, often for 3-5 frames per second, citizens are ready to kill each other, at least virtually) — this is serious. And when comparing systems, it must be taken into account. nine0003
Total
In principle, the main conclusions are simple. First, in the case of AM4, performance depends on the motherboard, which must be taken into account. Secondly, the degree of this dependence is small, so that it can usually be neglected. For example, when assembling a system based on Ryzen 5 or, moreover, Ryzen 3, buying an expensive board is not advisable, but saving on it is fully justified. Yes, and when upgrading the processor, you can limit yourself to only one of them at least up to Ryzen 7 inclusive. And even with a «clean purchase», such processors will cost a good price on X470 or even B450. As for the top Ryzen 9, then we still recommend using a board based on the X570 in this case — or, at least, waiting for the B550 chipset.