With a swathe of X370 motherboards hitting the market it's time to take a look at the first ROG model from ASUS, the Crosshair VI Hero.
ASUS Crosshair VI Hero AM4 Motherboard Review
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ASUS Crosshair VI Hero AM4 Motherboard Review
- Thread starter tinytomlogan
- Start date
With a swathe of X370 motherboards hitting the market it's time to take a look at the first ROG model from ASUS, the Crosshair VI Hero.
ASUS Crosshair VI Hero AM4 Motherboard Review
NeverBackDown
AMD Enthusiast
Great review as always!
I am really surprised how close the Gigabyte board is. A run for it's money the entire time yet cost much much less. I'd still probably get the Crosshair only because it has endless USB ports and I always seem to run out of those now
I am really surprised how close the Gigabyte board is. A run for it's money the entire time yet cost much much less. I'd still probably get the Crosshair only because it has endless USB ports and I always seem to run out of those now
Great review as always!
I am really surprised how close the Gigabyte board is. A run for it's money the entire time yet cost much much less. I'd still probably get the Crosshair only because it has endless USB ports and I always seem to run out of those now
Buy a USB3 hub.....
NeverBackDown
AMD Enthusiast
I could, but I would rather not have a big hub. Cheaper to just switch out what I need.
Plus for the prices they charge me, I could upgrade from the GB board to the Corsshair for barely more and still end up with more USB ports.
Plus for the prices they charge me, I could upgrade from the GB board to the Corsshair for barely more and still end up with more USB ports.
Sacco Belmonte
New member
I wrote you in Youtube but decided to subscribe here too.
I really like your reviews.
I wonder how 64gb kits behave in general. Almost no reviewer tested that.
Can you try a Corsair LED 64gb kit in the PRIME PRO? That's the board and RAM I'm getting and I do need it as I run a music composition studio and use huge orchestral libraries.
Thank you!
I really like your reviews.
I wonder how 64gb kits behave in general. Almost no reviewer tested that.
Can you try a Corsair LED 64gb kit in the PRIME PRO? That's the board and RAM I'm getting and I do need it as I run a music composition studio and use huge orchestral libraries.
Thank you!
Avet
Active member
Epic review Tom. I have an impression that if you don't limit yourself hard you could talk for hours. 
It is nice to see that you have room for tweaking on this board. Well for the money it is certainly expected.
I am really interested to see (when the whole situation stabilizes around BIOS, and memory compatibility...) how it would perform with, let's say, 4GHz on all cores with high base clock, and higher memory clock. Could you utilize pure grunt of all those cores better that way?
Also i have been reading about Windows 10 bugs with Ryzen that could affect multi thread performance. I hope that resolves itself soon.
Either way a lot of things to experiment on in coming weeks and months, and a perfect board to try things on.
I have an impression that if you don't limit yourself hard you could talk for hours. It is nice to see that you have room for tweaking on this board. Well for the money it is certainly expected.
I am really interested to see (when the whole situation stabilizes around BIOS, and memory compatibility...) how it would perform with, let's say, 4GHz on all cores with high base clock, and higher memory clock. Could you utilize pure grunt of all those cores better that way?
Also i have been reading about Windows 10 bugs with Ryzen that could affect multi thread performance. I hope that resolves itself soon.
Either way a lot of things to experiment on in coming weeks and months, and a perfect board to try things on.
Tom, I created an account to comment here because you said in the youtube video that you'd be more likely to see comments in the forums. In the video you stated (at around 29:30) that bumping up the SOC voltage can help with higher speed memory. Just be advised that Asus has confirmed just a few hours ago that is actually raising the SOC voltage on the stock BIOS that has been bricking C6Hs for some people:
Love your reviews; I recently subscribed on youtube and I look forward to more videos!
I did order the C6H for myself but because of massive stock issues pushing it back another two weeks here I decided to change my order to the Prime x370 Pro instead.
Elmor said:
Love your reviews; I recently subscribed on youtube and I look forward to more videos!
I did order the C6H for myself but because of massive stock issues pushing it back another two weeks here I decided to change my order to the Prime x370 Pro instead.
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BigDaddyKong
Active member
It was less than 45 minutes long. TTL must have the flu
Another great review.
A few questions and wants.
I was finally able to find one in stock today at Newegg. So it will be mid week next week. I have Gskill 3200mhz CAS 14 memory that is on the QVL list. Will I need to go to change the XMP, rather what AMD is calling it to run that speed?
If you set the base clock and multiplier, what does that do to the power saving modes on this board?
Any crossfire testing, and crossfire testing using the M.2 port vs a SATA SSD to check through put? How does the board handle having all PCIE lanes filled and running?
Another great review.
A few questions and wants.
I was finally able to find one in stock today at Newegg. So it will be mid week next week. I have Gskill 3200mhz CAS 14 memory that is on the QVL list. Will I need to go to change the XMP, rather what AMD is calling it to run that speed?
If you set the base clock and multiplier, what does that do to the power saving modes on this board?
Any crossfire testing, and crossfire testing using the M.2 port vs a SATA SSD to check through put? How does the board handle having all PCIE lanes filled and running?
Glad that you have started looking at BCLK and memory speeds.
I have noticed that the 1080p gaming anomalies seem to be due to a PCIe controller bottleneck when there is a high load on both CPU and GPU. It is very easy to see in firestrike results where graphics and physics scores are great but the combined score is terrible if you compare it to a similar Intel rig.
The Ryzen on chip PCIe controller, like the memory controller resides in the "data Fabric" that is clocked at 1/2 the frequency of the memory frequency so I am assuming that 3333Mhz memory helps.
Did you find that relative to the graphics and physics scores, the CH6 combined score was better than the other boards you have tested?
I have come across a similar behavior with an i7-2600 and GTX1070 on an Asus Z68 using BCLK to run at 4440Mhz.
Similar to this situation, Graphics and physics scores were great but the combined was pretty bad and it took me ages to find the solution. I discovered that increasing VCCIO from 1.05 to 1.1180v improved the combined workload imbalance and increased vram overclock headroom. I also discovered that the CPU PLL voltage, as you increased it a step at a time would adjust the balance between the Graphics and and physics scores. I settled on 1.818V as it provided the best balance in performance and really improved the combined scores.
Other gaming frame rates at 1080 went up in line with the combined FS scores.
Looking at Ryzen on the CH6 this may be the solution to the "gaming" problem that has been observed to date. The SOC voltage, that you mentioned in relation to memory overclocking stability, is the direct equivalent to the Intel VCCIO voltage I think. You also have a CPU PLL voltage adjustment available.
Could you take a look at the effect that CPU PLL voltages above the 1.8v default have on the CPU+GPU load performance? Firestrike results looking at the combined score relative to the Graphics and Physics scores worked well for me in tuning the voltages and increasing gaming performance on the sandy i7. Maybe the same trick can work here?
I have noticed that the 1080p gaming anomalies seem to be due to a PCIe controller bottleneck when there is a high load on both CPU and GPU. It is very easy to see in firestrike results where graphics and physics scores are great but the combined score is terrible if you compare it to a similar Intel rig.
The Ryzen on chip PCIe controller, like the memory controller resides in the "data Fabric" that is clocked at 1/2 the frequency of the memory frequency so I am assuming that 3333Mhz memory helps.
Did you find that relative to the graphics and physics scores, the CH6 combined score was better than the other boards you have tested?
I have come across a similar behavior with an i7-2600 and GTX1070 on an Asus Z68 using BCLK to run at 4440Mhz.
Similar to this situation, Graphics and physics scores were great but the combined was pretty bad and it took me ages to find the solution. I discovered that increasing VCCIO from 1.05 to 1.1180v improved the combined workload imbalance and increased vram overclock headroom. I also discovered that the CPU PLL voltage, as you increased it a step at a time would adjust the balance between the Graphics and and physics scores. I settled on 1.818V as it provided the best balance in performance and really improved the combined scores.
Other gaming frame rates at 1080 went up in line with the combined FS scores.
Looking at Ryzen on the CH6 this may be the solution to the "gaming" problem that has been observed to date. The SOC voltage, that you mentioned in relation to memory overclocking stability, is the direct equivalent to the Intel VCCIO voltage I think. You also have a CPU PLL voltage adjustment available.
Could you take a look at the effect that CPU PLL voltages above the 1.8v default have on the CPU+GPU load performance? Firestrike results looking at the combined score relative to the Graphics and Physics scores worked well for me in tuning the voltages and increasing gaming performance on the sandy i7. Maybe the same trick can work here?
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Dicehunter
Resident Newb
Great review !
Friend of mine just ordered this and the 1800X, Upgrading from an 8320 and Sabertooth 990FX
Friend of mine just ordered this and the 1800X, Upgrading from an 8320 and Sabertooth 990FX
Tommy my lad, that's a great review. But I think a water cooling specific video would help the "wet masses". I've seen NO ONE do a decent breakdown of all these new water temp / flow sensors on the new Ryzen boards. You could be the first! Make it an hour long too, since there is no time limit on gaining valuable insight like this.
Great job as always Guv!
Great job as always Guv!
Dragon_Orb
New member
Thanks for another great review. It'll certainly be interesting to see how it develops as the BIOS and platform continues to mature.
Hi tom, great review, now this isnt an idea for you todo right here and right now. But would you consider doing a water cooling how to with this mb using new techniques like hard tubing, how pumps connects to boards, best ideas for flow meter and themal probe placement togo alongside your how to overclock video that your going todo.
BigDaddyKong
Active member
https://twitter.com/ASUS_ROGUK/status/840904207683182592
Is this a mid production change, or just general advertising for the board? They bill the tweet as a redesign.
Is this a mid production change, or just general advertising for the board? They bill the tweet as a redesign.
Looks like they have started using the same Heat sync that is on the Crosshair on their z270 hero as well. I dont think the original Z270 heatsync has the little cut out in the corner to let the light through
Tolemac
Active member
AlienALX
Well-known member
Looking at the ROG hero it seems there is only one set of phases. If you look at the power connector at the top of the board you will see it only has one 8 pin.
If you then look at the audio circuitry on the Z270 you will see six small Nichicon gold capacitors. There are far more on the Crosshair.
The power phases on the Z270 will need to be tiny compared to the Crosshair. The Z270 is a board made to run at the very most four cores and four HT threads. That's it. The Crosshair needs a metric ton of phases to handle CPUs double that (so 8 cores 16 threads) this means you need bigger phases and more of them.
The only similarities between the boards is the "hero" name. I don't know why Asus did that. You should be comparing the CHVI to the Rampage or something as high end as that.
I guarantee if this was an Intel board it would cost far more. Intel charge quite a large socket tax, chipset price etc.
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