Review Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Dark Hero Review: Crosshair Goes Stealth for Zen3

[Admin]

The new Crosshair VIII Dark Hero brings out-of-the-box Ryzen 5000 support, a stealthy black theme, improved 90A VRMs, 12 USB ports, eight SATA ports and no more chipset fan for $399.

Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Dark Hero Review: Crosshair Goes Stealth for Zen3 : Read more

 

[ezst036]

Wish they'd make it as an mATX.

 

[thesandman00]

Both m.2 slots are PCIe 4.0. Also, how do you do a review of this board and not at the very least touch on the biggest OC feature? You've completely neglected to talk about the Dynamic OC switching feature. 👎👎👎
For those that don't know, it allows you to utilize both the single core gains of having PBO enabled, and also allows you to run an all core OC when your workload can benefit from it, switching based on a user defined amp level.

 

[NuclearMessiah]

I'd like to see this benchmarked against its predecessor, since the normal Hero VIII with bios update is compatible with the 5000 chips I'd be curious to see just how much of an OC gain you get from the new 90A parts.

 

[BaRoMeTrIc]

Feel like we could eiminate some of those extra 10gbps usb ports and go with a 10gbe instead of 2.5. It's at a point where that should be a standard feature on top tier boards.

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

Remember the days when $200 was expensive for an AMD motherboard?


Also, hate the article didn't compare it against the Crosshair VIII Hero and the Gigabyte AORUS Master, both of which are priced at $360.

 

[PapaCrazy]

Only other x570 boards without a fan are extremely expensive. Although $400 is getting up there too. Last Asus mobo cost me $200. But it also had about half the VRM and features.

 

[Conahl]

Remember the days when $200 was expensive for an AMD motherboard?

those days are gone, AMD isnt the value option any more, they are ( arguably )the performance leader

Only other x570 boards without a fan are extremely expensive.

so ? i have an Strix x570 E gaming, and i have never heard the chipset fan, even after putting a strip of paper in to so i could see if it actually when on, and so far, i dont think it has.

 

[PapaCrazy]

so ? i have an Strix x570 E gaming, and i have never heard the chipset fan, even after putting a strip of paper in to so i could see if it actually when on, and so far, i dont think it has.

So Id rather have a passive heat sink and not have to think about it. I’ve gone to great lengths to use quiet components otherwise. Nor do I fancy scouring odd fan sizes with strange mounting points on EBay in 5 years. Ive had these fans on mobos in the past. Even if these are worlds better - quieter and more reliable - I want nothing in my screaming new PCI 4.0 beast to remind of the 90s.

 

[Conahl]

if the fan very rarely even spins, then it should out last the board itself. ive done my best to keep my own comp quiet, for the most part, the 2 fans on my NH-D15 are louder then any of the other fans in my case, and they run at 100% all the time. but to each his own i guess.

 

[saunupe1911]

Both m.2 slots are PCIe 4.0. Also, how do you do a review of this board and not at the very least touch on the biggest OC feature? You've completely neglected to talk about the Dynamic OC switching feature. 👎👎👎
For those that don't know, it allows you to utilize both the single core gains of having PBO enabled, and also allows you to run an all core OC when your workload can benefit from it, switching based on a user defined amp level.

I had no idea this feature existed. I'm a X570 Aorus Master owner and just got buyers regret because I was hoping this feature would come to all 5000 Motherboard similar to SMT. I've spent a lot of time tweaking the Curve Optimizer to achieve the highest all core clock combined with single threaded performance. I've basically given up and lot PBO do it's thing but my 5900X can achieve 4.7 all core clock stable but PBO will only let hit about 4.44 while allowing max single core clocks.

 

[Soul_keeper]

This is an impressive design for overclockers, but I still suspect the gigabyte design in the master and extreme is more efficient.
I'd like to see a review that pits them head to head looking at the total wall power usage.

"two power stages in parallel for each channel, which doubles the current-carrying capacity without using a doubler."
versus 16 or 14 direct stages in the gigabyte extreme and master respectively.
I think the gigabyte design is pulling like 5-10% less watts from the wall under load when compared to the lesser boards using doublers.

 

[thesandman00]

I had no idea this feature existed. I'm a X570 Aorus Master owner and just got buyers regret because I was hoping this feature would come to all 5000 Motherboard similar to SMT. I've spent a lot of time tweaking the Curve Optimizer to achieve the highest all core clock combined with single threaded performance. I've basically given up and lot PBO do it's thing but my 5900X can achieve 4.7 all core clock stable but PBO will only let hit about 4.44 while allowing max single core clocks.

What voltage are you running to get to all core 4.7? Also, have you had any cold boot issues with that board? I bought both a master and a dark hero, but ultimately decided on keeping the hero because I was scared of some of the issues I was seeing with the master online. DOcS is a pretty nice feature and works more seamlessly than I expected, but I wish the board had a third m.2 slot.

 

[gymleader]

I don't know much about these PCMark 10 benchmarks and accuracy but surely an anomaly of saying the motherboard performed 50% worse should be looked at?

 

[bujinkanrn]

I'm reviewing the documentation from this board in comparison to its actual layout. It appears that there's an unmarked 9-pin (10-1) header that's perpendicular to the CHA_FAN1 header just below the vertical part of the VRM heatsink. Does anyone know the purpose of this unmarked header? BIOS-related? It can't be a USB 2.0 header b/c the pinout is reversed. I'd like to attach a pic from my phone, but I'm technologically challenged. Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

 

[saunupe1911]

What voltage are you running to get to all core 4.7? Also, have you had any cold boot issues with that board? I bought both a master and a dark hero, but ultimately decided on keeping the hero because I was scared of some of the issues I was seeing with the master online. DOcS is a pretty nice feature and works more seamlessly than I expected, but I wish the board had a third m.2 slot.

Welp decided to play around more with my Curve and finally dialed it in. Effective clocks over 4.5Mhz during Cinebench multithread while single threads hitting 4.9Mhz Effective clocks. Perf clocks maxes out at 5.1Mhz on my fastest cores. This is all with my 4 fastest cores set to Negative 10 and the other set to Negative 35. My Aorus Master has redeemed himself. And yeah that third M.2 slot is clutch. Been playing COD Cold War and temps max out in the mid 60s with no crashes...and that game will definitely let you know if your GPU and CPU isn't stable! No WHEA errors

I got 4.7 all core clock with voltages set to auto but my LLC was set to Normal. LLC Auto keeps the temps down a bit more with any settings. PBO was set to Auto as well. No curve was set. I just let PBO do it's thing
My temps where in the high 80s at 4.7 and and voltage was getting close to 1.5v. Way too much so an all core clock that high didn't feel healthy,

 

[ph00ny]

I'm reviewing the documentation from this board in comparison to its actual layout. It appears that there's an unmarked 9-pin (10-1) header that's perpendicular to the CHA_FAN1 header just below the vertical part of the VRM heatsink. Does anyone know the purpose of this unmarked header? BIOS-related? It can't be a USB 2.0 header b/c the pinout is reversed. I'd like to attach a pic from my phone, but I'm technologically challenged. Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

No idea. It's unlabeled on the board itself

 

[bujinkanrn]

No idea. It's unlabeled on the board itself

I'm gonna make an assumption (the mother of all you-know-whats) that the header is BIOS-related after some Googling. The proximity to the BIOS chip leads me to think it's for on-board flashing. Could be wrong.

 

[Cableaddict]

If only they had given this TB3 header, it would have been a no-brainer for us content creators.
As it is, it's a non-starter.
Sigh.....

 

[Bamda]

Well I had been extremely patient waiting for this MB and I finally got one at Micro Center for $450. I was kind of shocked that I actually got one as I checked on the inventory status late in the day (4:30pm). And on top of that I had a 45 minutes drive to the store, so I was telling myself I won't get one but I have to at least try! LOL

 

[Parvinder_1]

I think ASUS Prime X570-P and MSI B450M PRO are also very good choices. Have anyone have any other recommended boards?

 

[tresnugget]

It's an 8 phase, not a 16 phase. It has dual power stages running in parallel, like the article says, meaning it's still an 8 phase VRM. You can't have an 8 phase pwm controller make 16 phases without doublers. If the power stages were running in a serial configuration with doublers then it would be a 16 phase. Asus does this for better transient response and to save some money on the pwm controller. This is fine on an 8 phase+ but anyone who tried to overclock the same 9900k on an Asus Z390 Hero/Formula/Code with a 4 phase VRM with 8 power stages in parallel and a true 8 phase board, you really take off a lot of OC headroom. I was able to hit 5 ghz all core at 1.28v on the 4 phase with 8 power stages Z390 Code but was able to hit 5.1 at 1.27v with a true 8 phase board.