Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Formula
Pure power and a monstrous I/O
When AMD launched its third-gen Ryzen processors, they represented a massive change. Keen to cement the success of its first and second-gen chips, and taking advantage of its Zen 2 architecture, AMD pushed both core count and singlecore IPC in its new processors to the max. But in a frantic attempt to stymie Intel’s long-held advantage and stop the competition having time to formulate a counter-attack, the release of the Ryzen 3000 series hasn’t been as smooth as AMD would have liked. With turbo speeds struggling to hit their advertised marks, and manual overclocking being null and void in most cases, there are some tricky problems at the heart of AMD’s product stack that it is still addressing.
For price and performance, the chips are still impeccable, but they’re not without fault. Fortunately, AMD’s saving grace comes in the form of PBO and PB2: Precision Boost Overdrive and Precision Boost 2. Easy to confuse, these two technologies are very different from one another. PBO controls how long the processor stays at its advertised boost frequency during heavy load, depending on four main metrics: PPT (Package
Power Tracking, the maximum power the motherboard allows over its rails); TDC (Thermal Design Current, the maximum amperage that can be passed through the mobo’s VRMs, dependent on temperature scenarios); EDC (Electrical Design Current, the maximum amperage that can be passed through the mobo’s VRMs during a spike in demand, over a period of time); and the temperature of the processor. With those metrics, when the CPU is under load, PBO adjusts how long the processor remains at its max boost clock across all cores, before reducing voltage and clock speed simultaneously.
PB2 is a far simpler auto-overclock feature that works in tandem with PBO. It looks at the quality of the cores in the chip and the chip’s temperature, then increases the clock speed of one or two cores by up to 200MHz when the load requires single-core performance.
What has any of that got to do with the Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Formula? Well, thanks to PBO and PB2, third-gen Ryzen chips will perform better with stronger VRM solutions and better cooling across the VRM and the processor, and the latest Formulas include support for VRM cooling, thanks to a collaboration project with EKWB to produce a waterblock for the VRMs that works both under air and in a custom loop.
But let’s not beat around the bush— this motherboard is not cheap. At $650, it’s almost $200 more than the Intel equivalent. This is in part due to the design, but the inclusion of PCIe 4.0 across the M.2 slots is expensive to achieve. That said, Asus is certainly not holding back. Apart from the incredible aesthetic appeal, with subtle mirrored styling and intricate RGB, the Formula also features an arsenal of internal connectivity and rear I/O, and a stunning power delivery system. With a 14+2 power-phase design, with each MOSFET capable of handling 60A, backed up by a microfine alloy choke rated at 45A, all supplied by both an eight-pin and a four-pin EPS power, this is a monster.
And it shows. Performance-wise, it makes a mockery of the competition, hammering in 3,174 in Cinebench R15, 75 seconds in Fry Render, and 63.24fps in X264. There’s no doubting how big a deal that VRM solution is. Even so, the reality is, in our testing suite, this is all done at stock. With a liquid-cooled loop chilling those VRMs, it’s likely it will score far higher thanks to PBO and PB2, and that’s where the true brilliance of the Crosshair VIII Formula lies. Despite its vast price, it’s hard to deny the genius behind its design. Whether it’s connectivity, PCIe 4.0, aesthetics, or outright performance, the Formula is king. –Zak Storey
Professional Good value; accessible app; easy to set up.
Confessional Runs hot; no backward compatibility; software is limited.
$ 400, http://elgato.com