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Best B550 motherboard for gaming

The best B550 motherboard means picking from the latest pool of AMD motherboards rocking a second-tier chipset, and will become ever more relevant as the next generation AMD Ryzen 4000 CPUs become available towards the end of the year. But what are you missing by opting for a B550 motherboard compared to the top-end X570 AMD gaming motherboards?

Honestly, not a great deal. It’s been a long time coming, however; almost a year after the original 500-series AMD Ryzen motherboard was launched this mainstream chipset has hit the market, bringing PCIe 4.0 support into the more affordable end of the board market. Well, we say ‘more affordable’ but there have been many cases where B550 versions of a manufacturer’s board cost more than the X570 ones.

That’s a symptom of the B550 motherboards lagging behind, with existing X570 boards in the market almost inevitably getting cheaper 12 months post launch, but also because a B550 board can deliver performance pretty much on par.

The main difference between B550 and X570 chipsets is that AMD has replaced the PCIe Gen 4 interface used on the high-end boards, which connects the CPU socket to the platform controller hub (PCH) chip at the heart of the chipset, with a PCIe Gen 3 version for these second-string boards. The Ryzen 3000 CPUs can still offer PCIe 4.0 support itself, delivering 16 high-speed lanes for a GPU and a further four for lightning-fast SSDs, but means the B550 can’t support secondary PCIe 4.0 SSDs or graphics cards.

The tighter bandwidth on offer does hit other sensitive areas, such as USB connectivity, but on the whole doesn’t actually affect gaming performance one jot. And it all means we will have a pair of 500-series chipsets once AMD’s next-gen processors arrive this year to lay siege to our best CPU for gaming list.

1. Asus ROG Strix B550-E Gaming

The best B550 motherboard

Form factor: ATX | Memory support: 4x DIMM, up to 128GB, up to DDR4-4600 | Expansion slots: 2x PCIe 4.0 x16, 1x PCIe 3.0 x4 | Storage: 2x M.2, 6x SATA 6Gbps | Networking: Intel WiFi 6, Intel 2.5Gb ethernet, Bluetooth 5.1 | Rear USB: 3 x USB 3.2 Gen 2, 4 x USB 2.0

Extensive feature set

Build quality

Top-end networking

Sure, the Asus ROG Strix B550-E is the same price as other X570 motherboards, in fact it pretty much matches our favourite of AMD’s top-end boards, the MSI MPG X570 Gaming Pro Carbon. But it’s a premium motherboard, with all the trappings you’d expect from Asus’ Republic of Gamers stable, such as 14+2 power stage, M.2 heatsinks, and pre-installed backplates. You also get Wi-Fi 6 wireless networking as well as Intel 2.5Gb ethernet too. And RGB LEDs, of course.

Performance too is typically good for a high-end Asus board, matching X570 motherboards for gaming performance without issue. That said, of the B550 boards we’ve tested, it’s the far more affordable MSI board that actually comes out top in our straight performance testing. But the Asus can overclock far better, even if it does chew up more raw power from the plug on the whole.

The Asus ROG Strix B550-E Gaming is the whole package then, and right now is our all-round pick for the best B550 motherboard. Though that still feels like a tough recommendation when X570 boards are the same price…

2. MSI MAG B550M Mortar

The best B550 motherboard for pure gaming performance

Form factor: Micro-ATX | Memory support: 4x DIMM, up to 128GB, up to DDR4-4400 | Expansion slots: 1x PCIe 4.0 x16, 1x PCIe 3.0 x4 | Storage: 2x M.2, 6x SATA 6Gbps | Networking: Realtek 2.5Gb ethernet | Rear USB: 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 1, 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2, 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C, 2x USB 2.0

Great stock-clock performance and efficiency

Slick BIOS

Competitive pricing

When it comes to gaming performance above all else then MSI’s micro-ATX MAG B550M Mortar is your best bet for an affordable next-gen Ryzen machine. It comes in around the $160 mark, making it cheaper than a great many X570 and other B500 motherboards on the market right now.

The gaming frame rates of the MSI B550 Mortar put it above the rest of the B550 crew we’ve tested so far, and indeed its straight CPU performance puts it up there with some of the best X570s. That bodes well if you’re looking for an affordable home for your AMD Zen 3 CPU of the future, this B550 has a great chance to ensure it performs to its fullest stock-clocked potential without breaking the bank.

But you will be missing out on extra PCIe 4.0 M.2 and x16 graphics slots if those extras mean a lot to you. You can also opt to ditch wireless networking too, depending on whether you pick the straight Mortar or the more expensive Mortar Wi-Fi version. The 8+2+1 power phase design is arguably a more unwelcome miss, however, as that results in a board that isn’t going to spark any overclocking joy in your heart. But, as an affordable gaming board without OC pretensions, it’s a great shout.

3. ASRock B550 Taichi

The best-looking B550 motherboard

Form factor: ATX | Expansion slots: 2x PCIe 4.0 x16, 1x PCIe 3.0 x4 | Storage: 2x M.2, 8x SATA 6Gbps | Networking: Intel WiFi 6, Intel 2.5Gb ethernet, Bluetooth 5.1 | Rear USB: 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 2, 4 x USB 3.2 Gen 1, 2x USB 2.0

Seriously robust

Great performance

Strong feature set

The geared aesthetic of ASRock’s premium Taichi motherboards makes this the best-looking of all the B550 boards we’ve checked out, though that premium nature does make it also the most expensive. Indeed it’s priced higher than the ASRock X570 Taichi, which makes this a difficult recommendation until the almost inevitable price correction which will surely happen over time.

But it’s got the same sort of specs list as the excellent Asus ROG Strix B550-E, and means you get all the networking niceties, and the gaming performance to put it around the top of the list. It’s also got some overclocking chops too, allowing us to hit 4.2GHz on the Ryzen 3 3100 budget gaming chip.

It’s also incredibly well-built, with a metal structure that makes it one of the most robust B550 motherboards around. But yeah, it’s tough to look at that price, and feel this second-tier chipset is where you want to put your Ryzen money.

Should I buy a B550 or X570 motherboard?

When it comes to straight performance there really isn’t any tangible difference between the top two AMD 500-series motherboard chipsets. The CPU itself is still offering a PCIe 4.0 connection to the main graphics slot and the primary M.2 SSD connection, ensuring all the bandwidth you could need for a standard AMD gaming PC.

And there are B550 motherboards, such as the Asus ROG and ASRock Taichi boards above, which offer the sort of power componentry to deliver overclocking performance too. AMD has also confirmed that both B550 and X570 will support the next generation of Ryzen CPUs.

Where they really differ, however, is in the extended feature set. While those two premium B550 boards do have an impressive feature list, the B550 chipset means that bandwidth-sensitive connections on the motherboard will be behind the top range of boards, thanks to the connection between the PCH on the chipset and the CPU using PCIe Gen3 as opposed to the complete Gen 4 solution across the X570s.

In general the B550 motherboards are also rather expensive at the moment, with the ASRock B550 Taichi being the most obvious example. It’s actually around the same price as the ASRock X570 Taichi, which is arguably the better board, or at least the more fully featured.

There are cheaper B550 boards out there, such as the ASRock B550 HDV, but then you really are losing out on luxuries like decent power phase design, and potentially then overall performance. That might just be a cut too far if you’re aiming for an affordable home for your next AMD Ryzen CPU purchase.

Your best bet is to keep in mind what features really mean the most to you. Do you need wireless networking, will you be overclocking, and how many Gen 4 SSDs are you likely to drop into your new AMD PC? If the answers are no, no, and one, then a B550 will be a good shout. Just make sure the one you pick doesn’t have a similarly specced, similarly priced X570 twin lurking around.

Intel Unveils 3rd Gen Ice Lake-SP Xeon CPU Family: 10nm+ Sunny Cove Cores, New Instructions, 28 Core Chip Showcased

Intel has unveiled the details of its next-generation Xeon CPU family codenamed Ice Lake-SP at HotChips 32. Coming later this year, Ice Lake-SP CPUs are going to host a range of new features such as a brand new chip architecture, improved I/O, and an enhanced software stack powering Intel’s first 10nm server lineup.

Intel Ice Lake-SP ‘Next-Gen Xeon’ CPUs Detailed – Feature 10nm+ Sunny Cove Cores & Advanced Capabilities

The Intel Ice Lake-SP is officially launching later this year on the Whitley platform. The platform will scale to single and dual-socket servers. In its presentation, Intel unveiled a 28 core Ice Lake-SP CPU as an example to demonstrate the enhanced capabilities that Ice Lake-SP offers over Cascade Lake-SP.

Intel has not confirmed if the 28 core CPU they showcased is the highest core count that will be available with the Ice Lake-SP family or if there would be higher core count variants. Earlier rumors do point to higher core counts so this 28 core die could just be used for comparison with the top of the stack 2nd Gen Xeon CPUs available today.

Intel Ice Lake-SP ‘Next-Gen CPU’ CPU Architecture

Coming to the details, Intel mentions that its Ice Lake-SP CPUs are fabricated on the 10nm+ process and not the 10nm++ process which is utilized by the Tiger Lake CPUs which launch next month. The Ice Lake-SP family will make use of the Sunny Cove cores which deliver up to 18% IPC increase over the Skylake architecture which all 14nm Xeon CPUs utilize.

The Sunny Cove architecture, in general, adds a range of improvements over Cascade Lake or the enhanced Skylake cores such as:

Improved Front end: higher capacity and improved branch predictor

Wider and deeper machine: wider allocation and execution resources + larger structures

Enhancements in TLBs, single-thread execution, prefetching

Server enhancements – larger Mid-level Cache (L2) + second FMA

Intel also adds in a range of new SIMD instructions exclusive to the Sunny Cove server processors that are mainly meant to increase performance in Cryptography and compression/decompression workloads. That along with enhanced software and algorithmic support will allow Intel gains of up to 8X per core over Cascade Lake.

Intel Ice Lake-SP ‘Next-Gen CPU’ 28 Core Die & Whitley Platform Detailed

Looking at the block diagram of the Ice Lake-SP 28 core CPU, the chip offers a new interconnect in the form of an enhanced Mesh Fabric which runs through all of the 28 CPU cores. The Ice Lake-SP die features two 4-channel memory controllers whereas the Cascade Lake-SP die offered two tri-channel memory controllers.

The Intel Ice Lake-SP processors also feature four PCIe Gen 4 controllers, each offers 16 Gen 4 lanes for a total of 64 lanes on the 28 core die. The Cascade Lake-SP chips offered hexa-channel memory support while Ice Lake-SP will offer octa-channel memory support on the Whitley platform at launch. The platform will be able to support up to DDR4-3200 MHz memory (16 DIMM per socket with 2nd Gen persistent memory support.

Intel is also adding a range of latency and coherence optimizations to Ice Lake-SP chips. But you can see that the memory bandwidth-latency gets a big jump with the 8-channel memory interface and the higher DIMM speeds.

Intel Ice Lake-SP ‘Next-Gen CPU’ New Interconnect Infrastructure

In addition to the standard Mesh interconnect, Intel has further expanded its interconnect design for Ice Lake-SP Xeon CPUs. The new control fabric and data fabric do connect with the cores and different controllers of the chip but also manage the data flower and power control for the chips themselves. These new interconnects will deliver even lower latency and faster clock updates than 3rd Gen Cooper Lake-SP chips. For example, the core frequency transition takes 12us and the mesh frequency transition takes 20us on Cascade Lake-SP chips. Ice Lake-SP in comparison takes less than 1us and 7us, respectively.

The less frequency drain means higher efficiency over Cascade Lake. Ice Lake-SP will also improve upon the AVX frequency since not all AVX-512 workloads consume higher power. This also isn’t specific to just AVX-512. Even AVX-256 instructions on Ice Lake-SP will deliver better frequencies profile over Cascade Lake CPUs.

Some of the major upgrades that 10nm will deliver include:

2.7x density scaling vs 14nm

Self-aligned Quad-Patterning

Contact Over Active Gate

Cobalt Interconnect (M0, M1)

1st Gen Foveros 3D Stacking

2nd Gen EMIB

The Intel Ice Lake-SP lineup would be directly competing against AMD’s enhanced 7nm based EPYC Milan lineup which will feature the brand new 7nm Zen 3 core architecture which is confirmed to be one of AMD’s biggest architectural upgrade since the original Zen core. Expect to see more Intel & NVIDIA based servers in the coming months.

IBM rolls out newest processor chip, taps Samsung for manufacturing

International Business Machines Corp (IBM.N) announced on Monday a new processor chip for data centers that it says will be able to handle three times the workload of its predecessor.

The IBM-designed Power10 chip will be manufactured by Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (005930.KS) and is meant for use by businesses inside data centers, IBM said.

The chip will use Samsung’s 7-nanometer chip manufacturing process, which is similar to the 7-nanometer technology that Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD.O) uses to have its chips made by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (2330.TW).

Both IBM and AMD use outside chip factories to compete against Intel Corp, the dominant provider of central processor chips in data centers and one of the few players left that both designs and manufactures its own chips.

Intel recently said its next generation of manufacturing technology faces delays, which analysts believe will allow its rivals to gain market share.

IBM has long focused on high-performance computing systems, with three of the world’s top-ten fastest supercomputers using its chips. The company said Monday that the Power10 chip has been designed to be faster at artificial intelligence computing tasks than its predecessor, doing such work up to 20 times faster than its previous generation of chip.

ASRock A520 Motherboards Show Why A520 May Be a Better Option Than B550

Don’t fret if the pricing for B550 motherboards is preventing you from upgrading. VideoCardz received information that ASRock is reportedly preparing up to five different A520 motherboards for budget seekers. According to the publication, A520 motherboards will launch later this month, which differs from DigiTimes’ report of a September launch.

A520 is the entry-level chipset for AMD’s 500-series, and being A-series, CPU overclocking is pretty much off the table. It’s reasonable to expect A520 to arrive without PCIe 4.0 support, although AMD hasn’t officially said otherwise.

VideoCardz revealed two motherboards from ASRock’s upcoming A520 army. The A520M-ITX/ac comes in a mini-ITX form factor, while the A520M Pro4 has a larger microATX footprint.

ASRock A520M-ITX/ac

The A520M-ITX/ac’s resemblance to the existing B550M-ITX/ac is uncanny. If it wasn’t for the model name on the PCB, you could swear you’re looking at the B550M-ITX/ac.

The A520M-ITX/ac appears to feature an eight-phase power delivery subsystem, a configuration that’s commonly found on cheaper B550 motherboards. As expected of the mini-ITX form factor, the motherboard only has two DDR4 memory slots, but memory overclocking should be superb given the shorter traces to the processor.

The motherboard accommodates up to five storage devices. There are four SATA III connectors and a single M.2 slot up front. The A520M-ITX/ac only has one PCIe x16 slot so graphics card selection requires extra consideration.

Connectivity-wise, the A520M-ITX/ac is an identical copy of the B550M-ITX/ac. The rear panel reveals a DisplayPort and HDMI port for displays. Of course, you’ll have to pair the motherboard with an AMD APU to use either output since the normal Ryzen chips don’t come with an iGPU. An Ethernet port and wireless networking are also available for your usage.

The rear panel holds two USB 2.0 ports, one USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port, two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports, one USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C port, one PS/2 combo port and three 3.5mm audio jacks.

The B550M-ITX/ac retails for $129.99, so we expect the A520M-ITX/ac’s price tag to be a lot more friendly on the pockets.

ASRock A520M Pro4

The A520M Pro4 looks a little different to the B550M Pro4. For starters, the A520M Pro4 doesn’t have a fancy white heatsink over the power delivery subsystem. The images don’t uncover its design, however, the B550M Pro4 is equipped with an eight-phase configuration so we can expect the A520 variant to carry the same setup, if not less.

The A520M Pro4 puts four DDR4 memory slots at your disposal. We spot four SATA III ports in total, two less than the B550M Pro4. Nonetheless, the two M.2 slots remain untouched. Unlike the A520M-ITX/ac, the A520M Pro4 lacks wireless connectivity so you’ll be connecting to the Internet through the standard Ethernet port unless you purchase a wireless card.

In terms of expansion, the A520M Pro4 supplies two PCIe x16 slots. It’s only missing the PCIe x1 slot, which is present on the more expensive B550M Pro4.

Similar to the situation with the A520M-ITX/ac and B550M-ITX/ac, the A520M Pro4 has the exact same rear panel as the B550M Pro4. Display outputs consist of one D-sub port, one HDMI port and one DisplayPort output. The diverse mix of USB ports includes one USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port, one USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port, four USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports and two USB 2.0 ports. Lastly, the motherboard has three 3.5mm jacks for connecting audio devices.

The B550M Pro4 sells for $114.99, and the absence of a couple of the features on the A520M Pro4 should allow ASRock to price the motherboard more competitively.

Huawei’s 24-Core 7nm Kunpeng CPU Allegedly Beats Core i9-9900K In Multi-Core Performance

Chinese news outlet IThome received word that Huawei is on the brink if launching the brand’s new desktop PC (internally known as Pangu) for the domestic market. The system utilizes a variant of the company’s Kunpeng 920, which is also known as the Hi1620. The report claims that the Kunpeng 920 3211K’s multi-core performance is slightly better than the Intel Core i9-9900K Coffee Lake processor.

The Kunpeng 920, which is based on Arm’s Neoverse N1 (codename Ares) microarchitecture, boasts core configurations that span from 24 up to 64 cores, running between 2.4 GHz and 3 GHz. TSMC used to produce Kunpeng 920 for Huawei on its 7nm process node before cutting off all ties with Chinese tech giant due to new U.S. regulations.

The Kunpeng 920 3211K in particular has 24 cores that max out at 2.6 GHz. Huawei pairs the processor with 8GB of SO-DIMM memory, a 512GB Samsung SSD and AMD’s Radeon 520 mobile graphics card.

Huawei tailors the Pangu to government and enterprise markets, meaning the system is equipped with China’s homemade Unified Operating System (UOS). User expansion and customization on the Pangu is close to zero. The Kunpeng 920 3211K is soldered to the motherboard and doesn’t support other graphics cards. The UOS is cemented into the PC so you can’t install Windows on it either. We suspect you may be able to upgrade the memory or SSD, but that’s about it.

The purported images of the Pangu show three USB Type-A ports, one USB Type-C port and a single 3.5mm headphone jack in the front of the case. There is also room for an optical drive. The rear of the case holds four USB Type-A ports, one Ethernet port, three 3.5mm audio jacks and a D-Sub port. IThome’s report states that the Pangu comes with a 23.8-inch monitor with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 and 70% NTSC color gamut.

Pricing and the exact release date for the Pangu is unknown. The IThome reader only insinuated that the Pangu will launch soon.

New DDR5 SDRAM standard sees performance boost, dual-channel DIMM

They were two years behind schedule but the industry group overseeing memory technology development and standardization has finally announced the officials specs for the new DDR5 SDRAM standard.

The JEDEC Solid State Technology Association said I’m a report issued Tuesday the new memory specifications will provide developers with twice the performance power and lower power consumption.

Among the key improvements will be a quadrupling of maximum die density, up to 64 gigabytes from 16 gigabytes under the old standard. Each DIMM can handle two 32-bit memory channels instead of only a single 64-bit channel. Since each bank operates independently of each other, the burst length can be doubled and greater efficiency can be achieved. That means, for instance, DDR5 SDRAM can perform two 64-byte operations in the same time it takes DDR4 SDRAM to perform just one operation.

Also improving power consumption demands will be an integrated voltage regulator. Such regulators previously were situated on motherboards. The new spec allows manufacturers to incorporate as many regulators as necessary to accommodate the number of DIMMs on end systems. This should reduce the cost and simplify the design of motherboards. With each DIMM providing its own voltage regulation, JEDEC refers to this approach as “pay as you go.”

Yet to be determined is how much improvement in power efficiency will be achieved with the slightly lower power consumption, 1.1 volts, compared with 1.2 volts for DDR4. The DDR4 specs had improved upon earlier numbers by 0.3 volts, 1.2 volts compared with 1.5 volts for DDR3.

As far as maximum data rates, DDR5 will handle 6.4 Gbps, doubling the DDR4 standard, although the first modules to reach market will be capped at 4.8 Gbps.

“With the publication of JEDEC’s DDR5 standard, we are entering a new era of DDR performance and capabilities,” said Intel’s Carolyn Duran, a vice president of the Data Platforms Group. “DDR5 marks a great leap forward in memory capability, for the first time delivering a 50 percent bandwidth jump at the onset of a new technology to meet the demands of AI and high performance compute.”

The first consumer products with DDR5 specs are expected to roll off assembly lines some time in 2021.

JEDEC, composed of representatives from 300 member companies, said it recognizes the growing performance demands of intensive cloud and enterprise data center applications.

The efforts of the group “have resulted in a standard that addresses all aspects of the industry, including system requirements, manufacturing processes, circuit design, and simulation tools and test, greatly enhancing developers’ abilities to innovate and advance a wide range of technological applications,” said Desi Rhoden, chairman of the JC-42 Memory Committee and executive vice president of Montage Technology.

“With several new performance, reliability and power saving modes implemented in its design, DDR5 is ready to support and enable next-generation technologies,” he said.

Frank Ross, senior member of Technical Staff at Micron and a member of the JEDEC Board of Directors, said, “The DDR5 standard offers the industry a critical advancement in main memory performance to enable the next-generation of computing required to turn data into insight across cloud, enterprise, networking, high-performance computing and artificial intelligence applications.”

Intel Core i9-10850K 10 Core Unlocked Desktop CPU Listed Online For Around $450 US, Up To 5.2 GHz Clocks

Intel will soon be adding a new CPU to its 10th Gen Desktop Family known as the Core i9-10850K. The CPU was first spotted earlier this month within a leaked entry but it has now been listed over Digital Storm’s official webpage, confirming that the chip is headed to retail soon.

Intel’s 10 Core, Core i9-10850K CPU Might Explain Why The Core i9-10900K Has A Global Shortage

In our previous post, the specifications we had listed came from a leak within the Geekbench data-base. The latest leak comes from Digital Storm (via Momomo_US) where the chip can now be found listed under the system configurator webpage which not only mentions the chip but also confirms the specifications and expected pricing of the Core i9-10850K CPU itself.

Intel Core i9-10850K CPU Specifications

It looks like the specifications reported earlier were correct and the Core i9-10850K will indeed be configured similar to the Core i9-10900K except featuring a 100 MHz lower clock speed for both base and boost frequencies.

Summing up the specs, the Intel Core i9-10850K CPU will feature 10 cores and 20 threads. The final clock speeds for the chip will be configured at 3.60 GHz base (3.7 GHz on the Core i9-10900K) & 5.2 GHz boost (5.3 GHz on the Core i9-10900K). The CPU retains 20 MB of L3 & a total of 2.5 MB L2 cache. There’s no TDP mentioned for this specific part but considering that the rest of the unlocked chips come with a 125W (PL1) profile, we can expect the same from the Core i9-10850K.

In addition to the specs, the configurator also provides the expected pricing of the Core i9-10850K. When configured with the Core i7-10700K, the Core i9-10850K configuration will be $73 US more expensive. Considering that OEMs buy the chip in bulk and get slightly lower prices than what the retail MSRPs are set at, the Core i9-10850K would end up around $450 US which is $100 US than the official MSRP listing of the Core i9-10900K which retails for $549 US.

At the same time, we aren’t sure whether the Core i9-10850K will be exclusive to the OEM channel or will hit retail shelves but the chip might explain the shortages behind the Core i9-10900K. The i9 10900K is the highest binned chip in the 10th Gen family, supporting clocks of up to 5.3 GHz on 10 cores. The CPU is also widely unavailable and short at major retail outlets. Regardless of how much mature the 14nm process is by now, a chip like Core i9-10900K is hard to produce and the shortage might be an issue with yields of the Core i9-10900K SKU. This might’ve led Intel to offer the Core i9-10850K with a slightly lower bin at a reduced price point.

Even at the time of writing this post, the i9-10900K is not available on Digital Storm with expected availability suggested around October of this year. The Core i9-10850K with just a 100 MHz down clock will offer more or less the same amount of performance, making it a better 10 core gaming chip than the Core i9-10900K in price to performance ratio.

The Core i9-10850K will still have to compete against AMD’s Ryzen 9 3900X which doesn’t face any availability issues and has a retail price under to $400 US while offering more cores, threads, and better multi-threading performance. We already saw how the chip performs against the Ryzen 9 3900X and the Core i9-10900K in the previous post but we will keep you posted if we get to see more benchmarks.

Sleepy Intel Ice Lake Xeons Take Longer to Ramp Up Frequency Than Expected

A recent patch to the Linux kernel (via Phoronix) points to an interesting problem with Intel’s nearly-mythical 10nm+ Ice Lake Xeon processors: The CPUs take longer than expected to return to normal frequencies after exiting certain sleep states, which then impacts performance consistency due to ‘uncertain’ CPU clock rates.

The severity of the issue isn’t clear, but If nothing else, it does show Intel’s that work on the Ice Lake Xeon processors continues, albeit with some challenges. Due to a report that Intel has been hit by another delay to its server programs, we reached out to the company last week to confirm if the schedule still remains on track. The company responded “We remain on track to deliver 10nm Ice Lake to customers in 2H20.”

We’ll see. Back to the issue at hand. Processors fall into various C-States (sleep) to reduce overall power consumption during idle periods. C-States have different degrees of power savings for each core, with the deepest levels of sleep involving stopping core clocks, flushing caches, and reducing voltage to extract the utmost in power savings. Additionally, Package C-States can apply that reduce power and clocks for resources on the CPU package that are shared by all the cores, like fabrics and the uncore.

The deeper the sleep state, the more power each processor can save. However, resuming to full speed from deeper sleep states requires more time than lighter sleep states. According to the report, that process seems to take longer with certain power states for the Ice Lake Xeon processors.

An Intel ‘kernel test robot’ posted the patch and explained the issue. As Phoronix points out, the fix comes from an Intel employee, meaning the company likely encountered the issue in its own testing. The explanation of the issue reads as follows:

“On ICX platform, the CPU frequency will slowly ramp up when woken up from C-states deeper than/equals to C1E. Although this feature does save energy in many cases this might also cause unexpected result. For example, workload might get unstable performance due to the uncertainty of CPU frequency. Besides, the CPU frequency might not be locked to specific level when the CPU utilization is low.

“Thus this patch disables C1E auto-promotion and expose C1E as a separate idle state, so that the C1E and C6 can be disabled via sysfs when necessary.”

To fix the problem, the system can disable the C1E and C6 states entirely, thus preventing the chip from entering into the lower sleep states. The engineer elaborates on the problem further:

“Besides C1 and C1E, the exit latency of C6 was measured by a dedicated tool. However the exit latency (41us) exposed by _CST is much smaller than the one we measured (128us). This is probably due to the _CST uses the exit latency when woken up from PC0+C6, rather than PC6+C6 when C6 was measured. Choose the latter as we need the longest latency in theory.”

Here we see that the problem stems from how the exit latency (the amount of time it takes the CPU to pop back to full speed) is measured, and then exposed to the kernel. ACPI_CST, which communicates the C-States information to the kernel, lists the latency as measured when the processor was in a PC0+C6 state. That means that one or more cores may be in a C6 sleep state, but the rest of the package (fabric and uncore) is still chugging along at full speed (PC0). In this state, it takes the core only 41us to resume normal operation.

However, when the processor enters the PC6+C6 state, the package also powers down (PC6 state) along with the cores, so it takes longer for the processor to regain its full speed. Intel measured the sleep exit latency in these conditions at 128us, so it appears the kernel is merely being given the wrong sleep exit values.

Just to get an idea of how this differs from other Intel processors, we searched around for the typical sleep exit latency for a Skylake-based processor.

We referred back to an interesting bachelor’s thesis [PDF] by Vladislav Govtva from the Metropolia University of Applied Sciences that was published early last year. He measured the sleep exit latency from several different generations of Intel processors, and above we can see his results with an Intel Xeon Platinum 8170M (Skylake).

Govtva measured the maximum wake latency (the same as exit latency) from a C6 state as ~108us, which is 20us faster than the Ice Lake processor. There are likely differing measurement criteria involved here, but a simple comparison of the number yields an 18.5% increase in sleep exit latency.

It appears Intel has “fixed” the problem by allowing the system to disable certain sleep states under certain conditions, but it’s possible this is just a corner case that won’t apply to many types of applications. We’re reaching out to Intel for further clarification, but given that Ice Lake hasn’t been officially released, we don’t expect to learn much.

It will be interesting to see if Intel continues to tune this parameter further as it works through teething pains. Phoronix posits that the patch could make it into the Linux 5.9 cycle that opens next month, but could result in higher power consumption in exchange for more performance.

Best Intel Z490 motherboards

The best Intel Z490 motherboard is a must If you’ve made the decision to jump onto the Intel 10th Gen Comet Lake train and want to get the most out of your new CPU. Intel’s Z490 boards are equipped with the new LGA 1200 socket, and even the more affordable B460 options feature improved connectivity, networking, power delivery components and (take this with a grain of salt) future 11th Gen Rocket Lake compatibility.

So while you need a whole new motherboard platform for Intel’s new chips, there’s a strong chance it will last for a few CPU generations to come. Especially given Intel’s propensity for 14nm silicon… While 10th Generation CPUs may not have shaken the foundations of the tech world, they are the fastest gaming chips around. If your current gaming machine is several years old then upgrading right now will get you a faster system in every way. Faster cores and more of them, faster networking, faster and higher capacity memory, faster storage, and faster USB amongst other things. Upgrading from the 7th, 8th or 9th to 10th generation might not be a big leap, but 2nd to 10th Gen sure is!

The K-series CPUs have 125W TDPs, though the higher core count models will actually pull a lot more power than that. This means even budget Z490 motherboards are built with robust power delivery circuitry. One of the areas the Intel Z490 chipset might be seen as lacking in is official PCIe 4.0 support, something which is present on AMD’s competing X570 platform. Some manufacturers, such as MSI, are claiming PCIe 4.0 support on their Z490 motherboards, even though it is not supported by 10th generation CPUs and hence cannot be validated. Intel won’t confirm any details one way or the other about its future products, so for now PCIe 4.0 support on Z490 seems sketchy at best and shouldn’t factor into a purchase decision at this point in time.

While the specs have improved, we’re still not impressed with the upward trend in pricing. Just a year or so ago we were shocked to see $1,000 high-end desktop motherboards for Threadripper or the X-series chips, but now manufacturers are clearly happy to push the envelope with most of them offering boards getting on for $800 even though Z490 is still a mainstream chipset. We’re not dealing with quad channel memory or a ton of PCIe lanes, but these monstrous ~$800 motherboards have everything else thrown at them. They might seem crazy, but people are buying them… and if you want the best Z490 motherboard experience that’s what you’re aiming for.

1. Asus ROG Maximus XII Extreme

The best Z490 motherboard, for the price of a full gaming PC…

Size : E-ATX | Memory support: 4x DIMM, up to 128GB, DDR4-4700 (OC) | Expansion slots: 2x PCIe 3.0 x16 (or x8/x8), 1x PCIe 3.0 x4 | Storage: 2x M.2, 2x M.2 (DIMM.2 board), 8x SATA 6Gbps | Rear USB: 10x USB 3.2, 2x USB 2.0 | Video ports: 2x Thunderbolt 3 ports on extension card (DP1.4) | Network : 1x 10Gb Marvell ethernet, 1x 2.5Gb Intel ethernet, Intel WiFi 6 wireless

OC performance

Stunning bundle

Incredible build quality

I cannot pretend that this makes any sense from a rational standpoint, y’know, one where money actually exists and comes in finite amounts. But if we’re talking about the best Z490 motherboard, for me, this is it. The Asus ROG boards have always been high-end offerings—though there are lower-spec options here in this guide too—but I do feel that MSI has been the enabler. Its Godlike boards have really cemented the idea of the ultra-enthusiast motherboard which cost, if you’ll pardon the redacted expletive, f*** you money. After the arbitrarily priced £777 X570 Godlike, Asus has obviously decided it has carte blanche to charge whatever it likes.

But if you want a features list as long as the Dead Sea Scrolls then you’re going to have to pay for it. What I will say is that features list isn’t just stuffed with makeweight extras, things just stuffed into the package to fill it out and try and justify that price. Everything you get with the Maximus XII Extreme is useful for a super high-end Comet Lake build, from the extra fan controller, DIMM.2 storage expansion, to the Thunderbolt card. But I would like to make special mention of two of my favourite things in the package: the multi-head screwdriver and the braided SATA cables. Mmm.

You also get great performance. On the whole, the MSI Z490 Godlike does just about have the edge in straight speeds, but if I’m buying a Core i9 10900K I want to overclock the hell out of it, and I got a result I would be happy running at consistently from the Asus, where the Godlike just got a little too toasty for my taste at 5.3GHz all-core. Both are great high-end boards, but I’m going to side with the Asus for now.

2. MSI MEG Z490 Godlike

The best Z490 motherboard if you want to sell that other kidney too

Size: E-ATX | Memory support: 4x DIMM, up to 128GB, DDR4-5000 (OC) | Expansion slots: 3x PCIe 3.0 x16 (x16/x0/x4 or x8/x8/x4), 1x PCIe 3.0 x1 | Storage : 3x M.2, 6x SATA 6Gbps, 2x M.2 Xpander-Z | Rear USB: 8x USB 3.2, 2x USB 2.0 | Video ports: 2x Thunderbolt 3 | Network : 1x 10Gb Aquantia, 1x 2.5Gb Realtek LAN, Intel WiFi 6 wireless

Top CPU performance

Great bundle

PCIe 4.0 support. Kinda

The latest MSI Godlike is a fantastic high-end Z490 motherboard. I might still struggle with the naming scheme, and the similarly offensive price tag, but it’s tough to argue with the technology that it offers. The power delivery system is something that’s going to get seriously stretched by the Comet Lake architecture, and with 16 phases and 90A Smart Power Stage the Godlike has been designed to maintain a steady supply no matter what the Core i9 10900K wants to draw through it.

And it does an incredible job with the power you give it too. The performance I got out of the Godlike put it a shade ahead of the Maximus XII Extreme in gaming terms, though only by a couple of frames per second at best, but it did stretch that lead a touch when it came to video encoding. At stock speeds it’s a touch cooler too, though that didn’t translate into the overclocked performance as it peaked at 99°C when running at the 5.3GHz all-core peak I hit with the i9. Still, it wasn’t throttling even so, but I wouldn’t be happy running at that level consistently.

But the Godlike does offer PCIe 4.0 support. In a fashion. Just not with Comet Lake. The M.2 Xpander-Z will support up to PCI 4.0 bandwidth, though there is a sticker on it which adds the caveat that transfer speed might be limited by the chipset and processor. There is the promise of Rocket Lake bringing PCIe 4.0 support to the Intel ecosystem, and the Z490 is supposedly compatible, so there’s a chance a Gen4 NVMe SSD might be able to take advantage down the line.

The overall bundle, build quality, and OC performance have me siding with the ROG board in the head-to-head, but it’s a close run thing, and you could also make a convincing argument for the MSI Godlike being the best Z490 motherboard around.

MSI MPG Z490 Gaming Carbon WiFi

A vaguely affordable Z490 motherboard with competitive performance

More reasonably priced Z490

Still competitive performance

The sparse back panel and missing OLED displays will tell you we’re back into normal motherboard territory again. The rarified air of the ultra-enthusiast pairing at the top of the test might make one giddy, but the Z490 Gaming Carbon will bring us back down to earth without a bump. Sure, you’re never going to get the same level of luxury feature list as you’ll find with either the Godlike or Maximus XII boards, but when it comes to the nuts and bolts of pure performance it’s right up there.

Where it matters, in the gaming performance stakes, there’s practically nothing between any of the Z490 boards we’ve tested, and it’s only ever a little behind when it comes to the actual CPU performance in productivity apps. When it comes to overclocking, however, the MPG Z490 Gaming Carbon WiFi inevitably can’t compare to the big boys with our 10900K running at its peak.

The power componentry and cooling isn’t enough to stop the thirsty CPU from throttling when it’s pushed to its 5.3GHz all-core maximum. But, while that might mean it’s not the board you’d choose for an overclocked i9 machine, that’s a tiny niche of gamers, and for either i5 or i7 CPUs the MSI Gaming Carbon is still a quality home for your Comet Lake CPU.

4. MSI MEG Z490 Ace

MSI’s Z490 ace in the hole.

Subtle looks

Strong VRM design

High-end performance

Another top board from MSI, the Z490 Ace looks great with its subtle gold highlights and metallic elements. It’s good to have the primary M.2 slot above the GPU rather than cooking away underneath it. Other little things like the white post code display, fast booting and excellent fan control makes the Ace a really refined and polished product. Even the M.2 installation is easy, with no need to remove a heap of screws and half of the entire heatsink.

MSI has knocked it out of the park with the Ace’s strong VRM design. Dual 8-pin power connectors feed a 16+1 phase 90A design that’s cooled by big chunks of heatsink. It’s got a small fan that only spins up when it’s required. There’s also rear mosfet baseplates, which all told means you can overclock to your heart’s content. Does any Z490 motherboard have a genuinely better VRM?

Its excellent finish, well laid out BIOS, feature set, top class VRM design, performance efficiency and capable overclocking means all boxes are ticked, as it should be if you’re going to drop nearly $400 on a motherboard. Ace by name, Ace by nature.

5. Gigabyte Z490 Aorus Master

Gigabyte’s best Z490 motherboard is a luxurious Aorus.

Built to last

Huge number of USB on backplate

Quality audio

The first thing we noticed when taking the Z490 Aorus Master out of its box was its weight. This is a board gives the impression that it’s built to last, and at $390 we’d certainly hope it does! For the money, it’s clear the Master is a lot of motherboard. Interestingly, where some Aorus boards tend to light up like a laser light show, the Master really dials down the RGB with just a little bit of subtle lighting over the rear I/O and the chipset heatsink. The overall look is very understated, modern and mature.

The Master has no less than 10 USB ports on the back panel, which is impressive, although it’s also the only board to have a single LAN port, though it is a quality Intel 2.5G controller. It does have Wi-Fi 6, but if dual LAN is important to you, you’ll have to look elsewhere. We’re usually impressed with Gigabyte’s audio and that’s also the case here, with an ESS Sabre DAC and quality component choices. You also get the fairly standard 6 SATA ports and triple M.2 slots which distinctively feature thermal padding for both sides of the drive. A nice touch. Note that Gigabyte is also touting its PCIe 4.0 support, though as we said in the intro, it’s not something that should factor into a purchase decision.

Perhaps the only drawback, and honestly it’s hard to even call it that when the differences are so small, was that performance tended to trail the pack in many cases. It’s nothing to worry about, but when you’re comparing motherboards that are all genuinely strong contenders, you have to look for some differentiation, and for the Aorus, this is it. Don’t necessarily let that put you off, it’s still a board we’d be proud to own. Heck if it was $50 cheaper, it might have been a winner.

6. ASRock Z490 Taichi

ASRock has moved up to the premium tier.

Great-looking board

Decent overclocker

The Z490 Taichi doesn’t deviate too much from its recent siblings in terms of its looks. I mean, why would you though with its lovely retro, almost analogue theme. It looks terrific. You get a nice splash of RGB lighting too of course.

The Taichi has a beefed up 15-phase VRM system fed by dual 8-pin power connectors designed to cope with the demands of 10th Gen processors. Each choke is rated for 60A, which is less than the 90A the MSI, Asus, and Gigabyte offer. The Taichi incorporates no less than three small fans into the heatsink, though thankfully they are all but silent and couldn’t be heard above the sound of our AIO CPU cooler and pump. When the board is presented with a light load, they don’t spin at all.

Asrock is also touting its PCIe 4.0 readiness, though again that’s jumping the gun a bit with Intel not commenting on future compatibility or support at this time. The performance of the Taichi was interesting. It scored very well in bandwidth sensitive applications, indicating that it sets aggressive memory sub timings. Our DDR4-4000 C16 test required a voltage bump in order to achieve stability too. The board didn’t miss a beat when pushing our 10900K to 5.2GHz on all cores, 5.3 is possible, though the heat from the CPU made it unstable, not exactly a fault of the board.

The ASRock Z490 ticks almost all the boxes. It’s got an intuitive, easy to navigate BIOS and a typically strong Taichi feature set. Its VRM isn’t as strong as the other boards in the test and it’s perhaps a BIOS update away from feeling really polished. Saying that is being tough on it, though; the Taichi is a strong offering.

7. Asus ROG Maximus XII Hero Wi-Fi

Typical ROG refinement for a typically high price

Fantastic Asus BIOS

High build-quality

Good overclocking

It says a lot about Z490 motherboard pricing when the Hero – usually a value offering in the Asus Maximus range – sells for an eye watering $400. When compared to the Maximus XII Extreme though, the Hero feels like a bargain. The Hero comes with a 14+2 phase VRM design with each stage rated for 60A. It’s not inferior so to speak, but the Max XII Extreme, MSI, and Gigabyte boards have a better VRM spec along with dual 8-pin power vs the 8+4 pin of the Hero. There’s a bundled small cooling fan that you should install if you wish to push the board hard.

Asus really goes the extra mile when it comes to BIOS features, though perhaps it can be overwhelming for novice users. If you want to tweak, and then tweak some more, then Asus has you covered. The Hero was effortlessly able to overclock our 10900K to 5.2GHz and our memory to DDR4-4000. Try as we might, 5.3 GHz is a step too far for our cooling. If you’ve got top shelf cooling, then the Hero will handle it. Our memory took exactly one try to get to DDR4-4000 16-16-16 which is a nice performance sweet spot. Don’t forget that Asus offers the Maximus XII Apex if OC is your main game.

We can’t escape from the fact that the Maximus XII Hero is $400. Economic woes notwithstanding, that’s a lot of money, particularly when the equally strong MSI and Gigabyte Z490 motherboards are a bit cheaper. Having said that, Asus rarely missteps with its ROG boards and the company has rightly earned itself a loyal band of followers who will hardly consider another board. If you choose the Hero you get the advantage of impressive 5G networking, excellent build quality and you’ll have a capable and refined motherboard. Its VRM isn’t class leading though, but that really only applies to extreme overclockers. We wish is was a few dollars cheaper but if you do go for the Maximus XII Hero, it will do your system justice.

The Samsung 870 QVO (1TB & 4TB) SSD Review: QLC Refreshed

A year and a half ago, Samsung introduced the first consumer SATA SSDs to use QLC NAND flash memory, squeezing an extra bit into each memory cell, yielding the 860 QVO to join the existing lineup of 860 EVO and PRO. Samsung’s second-generation QLC NAND is now ready, and the 870 QVO is the first 870 model to be launched.

The industry put a lot of effort into preparing for the arrival of QLC NAND: beefing up error correction to compensate for lower write endurance, and tuning cache algorithms on consumer drives to forestall dealing with lower performance after SLC caches run out. But in spite of all the work it took to make QLC SSDs viable, they haven’t made much of a splash and definitely aren’t displacing TLC from the market yet.

The new Samsung 870 QVO SSDs arrive into a market landscape that doesn’t look all that different to what the 860 QVO faced at the end of 2018. Samsung is no longer the only brand selling consumer SATA SSDs with QLC NAND, but it’s not a big club. Most of the other QLC SATA drives are so low-end that the manufacturers won’t commit to using any particular memory inside, and they’re using whatever is cheapest at the moment. Some months, there’s more to be saved by going with a DRAMless controller and TLC NAND that fell off the back of a truck, rather than using Samsung’s strategy of pairing theoretically cheaper QLC NAND with a solid controller.

QLC NAND has had a bit more of an impact in the NVMe SSD market, where a few more brands are experimenting with using QLC to make big drives cheaper, rather than simply making cheap drives even cheaper. That’s the same goal that Samsung had for the 860 QVO and now the 870 QVO: bringing multi-TB SSDs into the mainstream. Samsung’s most visible contribution to that goal will be the introduction of the first 8TB consumer SATA SSD: the 8TB 870 QVO. That model is due to arrive a little bit later in August, and we don’t have a sample yet. Today, we’re looking at the 1TB and 4TB capacities of the 870 QVO.

The Samsung 870 QVO is an incremental update to the 860 QVO. The QLC NAND has been updated from Samsung’s 64-layer V-NAND to their 92-layer V-NAND. For their NVMe product line, this change produced the 970 EVO Plus as a successor to the 970 EVO without even updating the controller, and the 970 PRO didn’t get updated at all. The 870 QVO does bring a controller update, replacing the MJX with the MKX in Samsung’s long line of SATA SSD controllers. Samsung hasn’t disclosed any particular enhancements to their controller or firmware architecture, and we suspect this iteration is a more minor update than the last one. We know that the older MJX controller was already capable of supporting 8TB drive capacities, so that wasn’t the driving force for this controller update.

Samsung continues to provide more detailed performance specifications than any other consumer SSD vendor. The big top-line numbers that everybody reports are hardly worth mentioning for a SATA drive; almost any drive can saturate the 6Gbps interface under ideal conditions, with random or sequential reads or writes at a high enough queue depth. Samsung goes the extra mile to provide specs for performance at queue depth 1, and performance after the SLC cache runs out. Some of those numbers look pretty brutal: sequential write speeds dropping to a mere 80MB/s for the 1TB model, and even random reads are considerably slower when accessing QLC data rather than the SLC cache. But overall, these specs are very similar to the 860 QVO. Random write performance at QD1 appears to have taken a bit of a hit, but everywhere else performance for the 870 QVO is rated to be equal or slightly better than its predecessor.

The 870 QVO product line still starts at 1TB, the minimum size needed to put 8 controller channels to work when using 1024Gbit NAND dies. That smallest capacity model comes with some significant performance deficits relative to the multi-TB models, in much the same fashion as 256GB TLC drives fall behind their larger counterparts, or 512GB capacities for high-performance NVMe SSDs. The most notable limitations of the 1TB 870 QVO are the post-cache write speed of 80 MB/s compared to 160 MB/s, and the cache size that is almost halved. Together that means the 1TB model is more at risk of exhibiting unacceptable performance when the SLC write cache runs out, but at 42GB this model’s cache can still handle more writes than many users perform in an entire day of desktop usage.

Samsung’s warranty for the 870 QVO is 0.3 drive writes per day for 3 years. This is comparable to many low-end consumer TLC drives and a step up from most other consumer QLC drives that are rated for 0.1 to 0.15 DWPD (sometimes over a 5-year warranty period, but that’s still fewer total writes than the 870 QVO is rated for).

Introductory MSRPs for the 870 QVO are reduced from what the 860 QVO debuted at, with $50 off the 2TB and $100 off the 4TB. But that merely puts the 870 QVO’s launch MSRP on par with the current street prices for the 860 QVO. And because it’s Samsung, the pricing isn’t low enough to rule out comparing against mainstream TLC SATA SSDs and entry-level NVMe SSDs, especially for the lower capacities.

In a way, that’s good for this review, because the 870 QVO doesn’t have much direct competition in the form of other large QLC SATA drives. Most of the SSDs that are considerably cheaper than the 860/870 QVOs are DRAMless SSDs, usually TLC but occasionally QLC. The cheapest entry-level NVMe SSDs are all either DRAMless with TLC, or use QLC with a more mainstream controller.

For this review, we are comparing the 870 QVO against the following:

The 870 QVO’s immediate predecessor, the 860 QVO

The ADATA Ultimate SU750 and Patriot P200, two different DRAMless TLC SATA drives. The SU750 uses a Realtek controller and the 2TB P200 used a Maxio controller, both budget options.

The Crucial MX500 and Samsung 860 EVO as mainstream SATA SSDs with TLC NAND. The MX500 has always been one of the most affordable mainstream SATA SSDs from a major brand, and the 860 EVO generally marks the most it makes sense to pay for SATA SSDs—any more, and the money would be better spent on a good NVMe SSD.

The Intel 660p: one of the handful of QLC NVMe SSDs on the market. The 660p is being replaced by the newer 665p but both are still widely available. Even though the 665p is a bit faster, the 660p still has no trouble running circles around SATA drives under the right conditions.

We don’t have any non-Samsung 4TB consumer SSDs to compare against; the Western Digital Blue is pretty much the only other 4TB consumer SATA SSD, and Sabrent’s Phison E12-based Rocket and Rocket Q drives are the current options on the NVMe side. The rest of the 4+ TB SSD options are enterprise drives that lack SLC caching and idle power management and are way more expensive than anything else this review is looking at.

Ultimately, most of the competition against multi-TB SSDs comes from hard drives, the incumbent alternatives for high-capacity drives. Multi-TB hard drives are still vastly cheaper than multi-TB SSDs, but for many consumers the big question posed by drives like the 870 QVO is whether it’s reasonable yet to move all their storage over to solid-state. That doesn’t necessarily require SSDs to match hard drives on a $/GB basis, because there are plenty of advantages to SSDs that are worth paying at least a bit extra for.

Representing the hard drive market, we have a Western Digital WD Red 4TB, the pre-SMR WD40EFRX model. It’s the newest and largest hard drive I have on hand, because my home office has been drowning in SSDs for years. (A nice problem to have.)