Looking for the best AM4 X370 motherboard

[Petosiris]

A new update of the game engine used for Ashes of Singularity shows a 17-31% improvement for Ryzen, depending on game settings and memory speed:

https://www.pcper.com/reviews/Processors/Ashes-Singularity-Gets-Ryzen-Performance-Update

Guru3D reports upto 36% increase with the latest AotS beta:

http://www.guru3d.com/news-story/aots-gets-amd-ryzen-cpu-optimizations-benchmarks.html

Toms Hardware even says Ryzen is now faster than Intels i7-7700K in 1080p!

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-ryzen-game-optimization-aots-escalation,34021.html

Also, firmware updates from AMD coming soon:
(Source: http://www.pcworld.com/article/3186443/computers/amd-preps-for-ryzen-5s-launch-with-a-helpful-am4-motherboard-update.html)

“We have reduced DRAM latency by approximately 6ns. This can result in higher performance for latency-sensitive applications.
We resolved a condition where an unusual FMA3 code sequence could cause a system hang.
We resolved the “overclock sleep bug” where an incorrect CPU frequency could be reported after resuming from S3 sleep.
AMD Ryzen Master no longer requires the High-Precision Event Timer (HPET).”

... and:

“We intend to issue updates to motherboard partners in May that will enable them, on whatever products they choose, to support speeds higher than the current DDR4-3200 limit without refclk [reference clock] adjustments.”

So things are improving!

Edit: spelling.

 

[JuanPC]

read AMD CPU forums...

 

[Petosiris]

read AMD CPU forums...

I do that, from time to time. Anything specific you had in mind?

Edit: Care to elaborate a bit, @JuanPC?

 

[KGA]

Strongly disagree that Asus makes the best AM4 motherboards... high end or not. I would give them the title for 890FX/990FX boards with Gigabyte second, MSI a distant 3rd and all others close to MSI.

Currently the best 2 AM4 boards are the Asrock X370 Fatality Pro Gaming and the Taichi branded motherboards. Not only are they full featured but also have the greatest power phase design available for the extremely heavily threaded Ryzen 7 cpu's. If you are looking for overclocking and DDR4 compatablity the 16 power phase design is what you wish to pursue. You also have to be a bit selective for your DDR4 choices. Samsung chips are proving to be the best choices... such as from Gskill. Stay away from the Intel lovers 'brand of choice' - Corsair. Their DDR4 chips are apparently all Hynix, and have limited OC ability if any at all on the AM4 boards. In fact on the Ryzen they even 'under' perform and must be set at lower speeds than rated just to be used.

Running the fastest DDR4 speeds could be the greater performance boost than the 300mhz or 400mhz CPU overclock that most achieve with such a heavily threaded CPU.

KGA

 

[Petosiris]

Thank you, KGA!

I agree that a 16-phase power design looks rock steady for overclocking.

About memory, I saw* that Adata claims they've tested their own 3200 MHz memory 4 x 8GB = 32 GB in all four banks:
https://twitter.com/ADATATechnology/status/839294184544595968

This is good news and makes me hopeful for the future. However, I'm unfamiliar with Adata memory and want to wait 'til May, when AMD releases their memory patch, so I can see what G.Skill can come up with. Perhaps even 3500 MHz memory will be available for Ryzen motherboards.


* Source: https://community.amd.com/community/gaming/blog/2017/03/14/tips-for-building-a-better-amd-ryzen-system

 

[msroadkill612]

I'll most probably going to buy a graphic card with two GPUs anyway, the RX Vega x2, so it won't be a problem for a long time - if at all.

About motherboards - After more reading online, I see that the BIOSes are immature on most MBs, as is the Ryzen CPU itself to an extent. BIOSes will be updated, regarding temp readings & management, memory support, and XFR handling vs overclocking, but it's more concerning that the CPU is immature when it comes to speed and XFR, so I may just wait until things gets better on the MB front and perhaps also wait for Ryzen 2.

There's also the issue with installing Windows 7 on a MB without a PS/2 connector for KB/Mouse, so I may have to prioritize differently among the candidates because of this.

The concept of a dual gpu discrete card has merit. Let the card worry about inter gpu comms instead of going via the mobo.

in which case, only using 8 of the scarce lanes for gpu may be just as fast for gaming.