There are only very few motherboards currently available for Ryzen Threadripper processors. ASRock is the company with most AMD X399 motherboards and they only have three available. Still, ASRock took a more daring approach with their designs and also released the one and only mATX motherboard for Ryzen Threadripper. In this review we will be having a look at their currently best AMD X399 motherboard, the Fatal1ty X399 Professional Gaming.

The ASRock X399 Professional Gaming, as the name suggests, is a motherboard that is being marketed towards advanced gamers. Although the Ryzen Threadripper (currently) is not an appealing processor for casual gaming, when a gamer also wants to be concurrently downloading, chatting, and transcoding a video in the background while streaming a game online, the many cores of the Threadripper start making sense. The X399 Professional Gaming is ASRock's most featured-packed motherboard, with a very impressive list of specifications. However, with a price tag of $440, the X399 Professional Gaming also is one of the most expensive Ryzen Threadripper motherboards available. We will be seeing if that cost is justified in this review.

AnandTech's AMD Ryzen Threadripper and X399 Motherboard Coverage

• The AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X and 1920X Review: CPUs on Steroids
• An AMD Threadripper X399 Motherboard Overview
• Analyzing Threadripper Thermals: Big Base Cooling Wins
   
• The GIGABYTE X399 DESIGNARE EX Motherboard Review
   
• AMD Reveals Threadripper 2 : Up to 32 Cores, 250W, X399 Refresh
• GIGABYTE’s X399 Aorus Extreme: The Threadripper 2 Halo Motherboard
• MSI's New Threadripper 2 Motherboard on Steroids: X399 Creation
• New EKWB Threadripper X399 Monoblocks for GIGABYTE and MSI

ASRock Fatal1ty X399 Professional Gaming Overview

The ASRock X399 Professional Gaming is a motherboard that has been designed to entice advanced gamers. Even the nickname of the former well-known former esports player, Johnathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel, appears along with the motherboard's name to help with the marketing of the motherboard. However, after having a closer look at the motherboard and its specifications, it feels as if the X399 Professional Gaming is having an identity crisis, which isn't necessary a bad thing. 

The design of the X399 Professional Gaming is not in any way extravagant, as one would expect from a top-tier motherboard that is almost exclusively targeting gamers. On the contrary, the aesthetic design is subtle, yet elegant, focused on simple geometric shapes. Onboard RGB lighting is present but is limited around the chipset's heatsink, with headers for additional LED strips. We also spotted very high-quality components, such as the Nichicon solid-state capacitors that account for every single capacitor on this motherboard.

In terms of connectivity, the ASRock X399 Professional Gaming supports up to three M.2 PCIe ×4 drives, one U.2 PCIe ×4 drive, and eight SATA drives. Each of the M.2 sockets have four PCIe lanes with no sharing between them and/or with other devices, except for one of the M.2 slots to be switched with the U.2 port. Using the U.2 connector will disable one of the M.2 ports entirely. It is not possible for two devices to be installed with shared lanes.

A look at the rear panel of the motherboard reveals that the ASRock X399 Professional Gaming has three network interface controllers (NICs), plus the Wi-Fi 802.11ac/Bluetooth 4.2 module. Two of the NICs are typical gigabit chips from Intel (211AT) but the third is an Aquantia 10GBASE-T chip, the AQC107. This level of network connectivity is needless for a gaming motherboard and none of the used chipsets are designed exclusively for gaming, it should be noted. The use of three NICs is one of this motherboard's unique features but, on the other hand, this approach does not make much sense for a gaming motherboard. A gaming-specific NIC such as a Killer E2500 would make the motherboard more appealing to gamers, whereas the more expensive Aquantia 10G chip primarily serves other users.

The second feature that stands out is the 11-phase (8+3) power design with a fully digital PWM controller and separated CPU connectors. We will examine the circuitry in more detail in the following pages of this review. The sound chipset is provided by Realtek and is the ALC1220. It supports the Sound Blaster Cinema 3 software and ASRock is using Nichicon's golden audio-specific capacitors to drive the physically isolated audio channels. The motherboard also has a USB 3.1 Gen 2 controller that provides one Type-A and one Type-C port.

We are unsure why ASRock decided to focus their marketing efforts on just gamers with this motherboard. Overall, it feels as if the designer was initially trying to create a reliable and fully-featured motherboard that would be an appealing product for practically every advanced user, not just gamers.

Visual Inspection

Even though the ASRock X399 Professional Gaming is targeted to gamers, its design is not as extravagant as we expected it to be. Perhaps the only thing that stands out in terms of aesthetics are the sharp, futuristic heatsinks. The two heatsinks that cool the processor's VRM circuitry are connected with a heatpipe but there is no extra fan for active cooling. The designer used black color for the PCB and plastics, and preserved the natural color of metal for all metallic parts, creating a nice visual antithesis. RGB lighting is present but limited to the area surrounding the chipset's heatsink, with headers for adding external 12V RGB LED strips. Note that this motherboard does not support RGBW or digital RGBW/UV LED products.

ASRock advertises the X399 Professional Gaming as having an 11-phase design. Actually, the motherboard has an 8-phase VRM circuit that uses the International Rectifier (Infineon) IR35201 digital controller, plus another 3-phase VRM circuit for the SoC. There is nothing irregular here, with ASRock going with a by-the-book approach and installing IR3555 MOSFET drivers (rated at 60A each) and 60A inductors.  The IR35201 is a digital controller by International Rectifier that evenly distributes the load across the eight phases at all times, greatly improving the longevity of the components. The power circuitry is more powerful than that of less costly motherboards, potentially allowing for higher overclocks and, perhaps, compatibility with future versions of the Ryzen Threadripper processor.

 

The audio circuitry is interesting. It sports a Realtek ALC 1220 chipset as its core and an additional Texas Instruments NE5532 amplifier for the headphones. The main chipset is rated for a maximum rated sound-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 120dB. To help achieve that performance figure, ASRock physically isolated the right/left channel audio channels on individual layers and is using Nichicon audio-specific capacitors. The sound circuitry supports the Creative Sound Blaster Cinema 3 Software.

The layout of the ASRock X399 Professional Gaming generally is good but there are some questionable design choices. As expected, most of the internal headers have been placed across the bottom edge of the motherboard. From left to right, there are two front panel audio headers, one standard and one vertical, a COM port header, a header for a 12V RGB strip, a standard 4-pin fan header, a TPM header, an extra power LED/system speaker header, two headers for USB 2.0 ports, a small CMOS reset switch, a debugging LCD, one USB 3.1 Gen 1 header, two gold-colored power/reset buttons, and the system switch/LED header. There is a second USB 3.1 Gen 1 header to the right of the motherboard, right next to the ATX 24-pin power connector.

Oddly, ASRock installed a 6-pin PCIe connector on the lower right edge of the motherboard that serves as an additional power source. The use of an extra power connector is not strange on AMD X399 motherboards that support quad SLI but the choice of this particular connector is, as it would force users who want to use four graphics cards to use an adaptor on Molex connectors because mosts PSU will top out at eight PCIe connectors.

Eight SATA connectors can be seen to the lower right side of the motherboard, all facing rightwards. A U.2 PCIe ×4 connector is present right above the SATA connectors. The ASRock X399 Professional Gaming also has three M.2 PCIe ×4 slots and all three support drives up to 80 mm long - there are no slots that support 110 mm long drives on the ASRock X399 Professional Gaming. One of the slots supports the currently rare ultra-short 32 mm M.2 devices. Unlike with other manufacturers, none of the M.2 slots has any heatsinks. No PCI lanes are being shared between the three M.2 slots, meaning that they can all run at ×4 simultaneously. However, the U.2 slot shares its lanes with the third M.2 slot and will disable this slot entirely should a U.2 device is installed.

Another odd design choice, as shown below, is the placement of the CPU's EPS power connectors. The 8-pin and 4 pin 12V CPU connectors are placed at the top right and top left side of the motherboard respectively. ASRock advertises this as an advantage, as it creates a wider trace for the CPU's VRMs. The concept is technically sound from an engineering point of view but it also could create compatibility problems because several PSUs have both CPU 12V connectors on a single cable, meaning that an extension would be necessary to reach the second connector on the motherboard. A thicker copper layer would certainly produce better results but, since ASRock is already using a 2oz copper PCB, a thicker copper layer would greatly increase the motherboard's manufacturing cost. Another odd design choice is the placement of two fan headers between the CPU's socket and the first PCIe slot, where they will be practically inaccessible after a CPU heatsink and a graphics card are installed.

USB connectors dominate the rear panel of the ASRock X399 Professional Gaming. Starting from the top of the motherboard, we can see a small BIOS "flashback" switch, two USB 3.1 Gen 1 connectors and a PS/2 combo connector, two wireless antenna connectors, two USB 3.1 Gen 1 connectors, five gold-plated 3.5 mm audio jacks and one optical SPDIF connector, two USB 3.1 Gen 1 connectors and the red Aquantia 10Gbps NIC, another two USB 3.1 Gen 1 connectors and the first I211-AT NIC, and, finally, the two USB 3.1 Gen 2 10 Gbps connectors (one Type-A and one Type-C) and the second I211-AT NIC.

ASRock X399 Professional Gaming Board Features

The ASRock X399 Professional Gaming is a motherboard designed to entice gamers and sports a host of features, yet some of these features will be of little to no interest to the motherboard's intended target group. For example, the motherboard has three NICs installed, one of them being AQUANTIA's AQC107 10Gbps, plus an Intel 3168NGW 1×1 AC card. Very few gamers will be interested on having three separate NICs but nearly all of them would prefer a single gaming-specific NIC to be present. ASRock's design choices increased the price tag of the X399 Professional Gaming up to $440, making it one of the most expensive AMD X399 motherboards currently available.

ASRock Fatal1ty X399 Professional Gaming
Warranty Period	3 Years
Product Page	Link
Price	Link
Size	ATX
CPU Interface	TR4 / SP3r2
Chipset	AMD X399
Memory Slots (DDR4)	Eight DDR4 Supporting 128GB Quad Channel Up to 3600+ MHz
Video Outputs	N/A
Network Connectivity	1 × AQUANTIA AQC107 10Gbit 2 x Intel I211-V 1 x Intel AC 3168NGW Wi-Fi
Onboard Audio	Realtek ALC1220A
PCIe Slots for Graphics (from CPU)	4 × PCIe 3.0 (×16 / ×8 / ×16 / ×8)
PCIe Slots for Other (from PCH)	1 × PCIe 2.0 (×1)
Onboard SATA	Eight, RAID 0/1/5/10
Onboard SATA Express	None
Onboard M.2	3 × PCIe 3.0 (x4)
Onboard U.2	1 × U.2 Connector (×4)
USB 3.1 Gen 2	1 × Type-C 1 × Type-A
USB 3.1 Gen 1	8 × Type-A Rear Panel 4 ×Type-A via headers
USB 2.0	4 × via headers
Power Connectors	1 x 24-pin ATX 1 x 8-pin CPU 1 x 4-pin CPU
Fan Headers	1 x CPU (4-pin) 1 x Pump/Aux (4-pin) 3 x System (4-pin), one supports liquid-cooling pumps
IO Panel	8 x USB 3.0 (USB 3.1 Gen 1) 1 x USB 3.1 Type-A 1 x USB 3.1 Type-C 2 x Network RJ-45 2 x Antenna connectors 1 x Combo PS/2 5 x 3.5 mm Audio Jacks 1 x Optical SPDIF Out Port

In The Box

We get the following:

• Driver Disk
• Quick Installation Guide
• User's manual
• Case Badge
• Four black SATA cables (two straight, two with a 90° connector)
• SLI/Crossfire bridges
• Wireless antennas
• I/O Shield

The bundle of the ASRock X399 Professional Gaming is relatively poor, taking into consideration the retail price of the motherboard, and the focus on gamers. Inside the box, we found a comprehensive manual and a quick installation guide, only four SATA cables, two simple wireless antennas without extension cords, the I/O shield, and three SLI bridges for two/three/four-way SLI configurations. Aside from the low number of SATA cables and the very basic wireless antennas, there were no cable straps, quick connectors, or any other useful accessories that are typically found accompanying top-tier motherboards.

ASRock X399 Professional Gaming BIOS

By default, the graphical BIOS of the ASRock X399 Professional Gaming is set to the "EZ mode", a single-page interface that includes only basic configuration settings and informative dials. From this page, the user can only switch the boot device priority, change the CPU fan speed settings, configure RAID arrays, and use BIOS flashing tools.

Pressing the F6 button reveals the entirely of the BIOS. The settings are divided under eight main tabs but most can be found under two of them. The first tab, the "Main" tab, is deceptively named and purely informative, without a single adjustable setting.

The “OC Tweaker” tab includes the CPU, RAM, and Voltage settings. By default the BIOS is set to the Auto CPU frequency and voltage mode, temporarily boosting the Ryzen Threadripper 1950X up to 4.0 GHz. Switching any of these settings to manual mode exposes new adjustable options. Unlike other iterations of ASRock motherboards, the BIOS menus here are messy, with all of the options stacked together. For example, the DRAM Timing Configuration submenu lists a host of timing settings all packed together, whereas other ASRock motherboards have this menu divided to “primary”, “secondary”, “third”, “fourth” and “advanced” settings.

The “Advanced” tab includes all of the configuration options for the motherboard’s features and onboard devices. What is of interest here is the AMD CBS submenu that hides the Zen CPU settings, which includes the thermal throttling and Core/Thread settings. A lot of advanced DRAM-related options can be found under the "UMC Common Options" submenu as well. The rest of the submenus hide advanced options that should be of no interest to most users. 

The "Tool" tab is home to the RGB configuration tool, the Instant/Internet BIOS flash tools and the RAID installer tool. The RGB LED configuration is very simple but at least each of the three channels (one for the motherboard's chipset area, one for each LED strip header) can be programmed individually.

The H/W Monitor tab is also deceptively named. Most people would expect that it should be a purely informative tab, listing the voltage and temperature sensor readings. However, ASRock included all of the fan control options in here as well. Each of the five headers can be programmed individually. The fan programming interface is very basic but at least the user can tie the speed profile of each fan to any onboard temperature sensor.

The rest of the submenus are simple and without any hidden surprises. The "Security" tab contains the password and Secure Boot settings, and the "Boot" tab all boot-related options, except from the temporary boot override options that can be found under the "Exit" tab.

ASRock X399 Professional Gaming Software

ASRock's DVD comes with a very basic automated installer software. The installer has five tabs, the first of which contains all of the drivers and software for this motherboard's subsystems, plus Google’s Chrome Browser and Toolbar (even though the fifth tab is also dedicated to them). The second tab, the "utilities" tab, includes the software that are not necessary for the proper operation of the motherboard, which are the ASRock RGB LED software and the Sound Blaster Cinema 3 utility. Manuals and guides can be found under the Information tab and, finally, the company’s contact information is all that can be seen under the Contact tab.

The ASRock RGB LED software is simple but very clean and easy to use. All of the options are gathered into a single page, where the user can simply choose a color and a visual effect and apply it to any of the motherboard's three LED zones. LED lighting can also be disabled from here. Unfortunately, there are no options to tie different lighting mode profiles to applications/games. 

ASRock’s F-Stream utility is a software package that allows almost full control of the motherboard’s BIOS options via the OS. In its “OC Tweaker” tab we found most of the settings that are accessible via the BIOS screen, allowing for casual overclockers to experiment with minimal risk, as the settings reset when the system restarts. It is also handy for people who do not want a permanent overclock forced via the BIOS but prefer to boot with stock settings and force an overclock whenever they want or after the OS has booted. The F-Stream software contains the "FAN-Tastic" utility as well, which allows for the graphical programming of fan cooling profiles.

Finally, the Sound Blaster Cinema 3 application offers very limited extra audio control for audiophiles and HTPC enthusiasts. Technically, it can only control the SBX Surround technology setting that enhances the audio surround. It has four preprogrammed profiles, music, film, game, and voice, plus a custom profile that allows the user to program SBX surround as he/she sees fit. Regardless of it including virtually only one tweakable option, the SBX Surround is rather effective, especially in the case of limiting 2.0 and 2.1 speaker configurations. Basic speaker and headphone configuration options are also present, with pre-programmed profiles for Sound BlasterX H3/H5/H7 headphones.

Test Bed and Setup

As per our testing policy, we take a high-end CPU suitable for the motherboard that was released during the socket’s initial launch and equip the system with a suitable amount of memory running at the processor maximum supported frequency. This is also typically run at JEDEC subtimings where possible. It is noted that some users are not keen on this policy, stating that sometimes the maximum supported frequency is quite low, or faster memory is available at a similar price, or that the JEDEC speeds can be prohibitive for performance. While these comments make sense, ultimately very few users apply memory profiles (either XMP or other) as they require interaction with the BIOS, and most users will fall back on JEDEC supported speeds - this includes home users as well as industry who might want to shave off a cent or two from the cost or stay within the margins set by the manufacturer. Where possible, we will extend out testing to include faster memory modules either at the same time as the review or a later date.

Test Setup
Processor	AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X, $800 16 Cores, 32 Threads, 3.4 GHz (4.0 GHz Boost)
Motherboards	ASRock X399 Professional Gaming
Cooling	Noctua NH-U14S TR4-SP3
Power Supply	Corsair AX1200i Platinum PSU
Memory	Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4 DRAM 2666MHz
Memory Settings	XMP @ 2666
Video Cards	ASUS ROG Strix Radeon RX 570
Hard Drive	Crucial MX200 1TB
Case	Open Test Bed
Operating System	Windows 10 Build 1803 64-bit

Readers of our motherboard review section will have noted the trend in modern motherboards to implement a form of MultiCore Enhancement / Acceleration / Turbo (read our report here) on their motherboards. This does several things, including better benchmark results at stock settings (not entirely needed if overclocking is an end-user goal) at the expense of heat and temperature. It also gives in essence an automatic overclock which may be against what the user wants. Our testing methodology is ‘out-of-the-box’, with the stock BIOS installed and XMP enabled, and thus subject to the whims of this feature. It is ultimately up to the motherboard manufacturer to take this risk – and manufacturers taking risks in the setup is something they do on every product (think C-state settings, USB priority, DPC Latency / monitoring priority, overriding memory sub-timings at JEDEC). Processor speed change is part of that risk, and ultimately if no overclocking is planned, some motherboards will affect how fast that shiny new processor goes and can be an important factor in the system build.

Although it is not entirely clear when browsing the BIOS settings, the ASRock Fatal1ty X399 Professional Gaming has a CPU boost feature enabled by default. The motherboard is temporarily pushing the Ryzen Threadripper processor up to about 4000 MHz. Furthermore, the Extreme Memory Profile (X.M.P.) is enabled by default, setting our RAM modules at their advertised speed and timings. 

Users will note that we are using an RX 570 graphics card here, which is not 'the best of the best' for a high-end platform like Threadripper. This was ultimately down to logistics at the time of testing; our gaming tests rarely become more than a checkbox to ensure that no fishy business is going on.

Many thanks to...

We must thank the following companies for kindly providing hardware for our multiple test beds. Some of this hardware is not in this test bed specifically, but is used in other testing.

Thank you to Crucial for providing us with MX200/MX300 SSDs. Crucial stepped up to the plate as our benchmark list grows larger with newer benchmarks and titles, and the 1TB units are strong performers. The MX200s are based on Marvell's 88SS9189 controller and using Micron's 16nm 128Gbit MLC flash, these are 7mm high, 2.5-inch drives rated for 100K random read IOPs and 555/500 MB/s sequential read and write speeds. The 1TB models we are using here support TCG Opal 2.0 and IEEE-1667 (eDrive) encryption and have a 320TB rated endurance with a three-year warranty.

Further Reading: AnandTech's Crucial MX200 (250 GB, 500 GB & 1TB) Review

Thank you to Corsair for providing us with Vengeance LPX DDR4 Memory and an AX1200i Power Supply.

Corsair kindly sent a 4x8GB DDR4 2666 set of their Vengeance LPX low profile, high-performance memory. The heatsink is made of pure aluminum to help remove heat from the sticks and has an eight-layer PCB. The heatsink is a low profile design to help fit in spaces where there may not be room for a tall heat spreader; think a SFF case or using a large heatsink. Timings on this specific set come in at 16-18-18-35. The Vengeance LPX line supports XMP 2.0 profiles for easily setting the speed and timings. It also comes with a limited lifetime warranty.

Further Reading: AnandTech's Memory Frequency Scaling on Intel's Skull Canyon NUC

The AX1200i was the first power supply to offer digital control and management via Corsair's Link system, but under the hood it commands a 1200W rating at 50C with 80 PLUS Platinum certification. This allows for a minimum 89-92% efficiency at 115V and 90-94% at 230V. The AX1200i is completely modular, running the larger 200mm design, with a dual ball bearing 140mm fan to assist high-performance use. The AX1200i is designed to be a workhorse, with up to 8 PCIe connectors for suitable four-way GPU setups. The AX1200i also comes with a Zero RPM mode for the fan, which due to the design allows the fan to be switched off when the power supply is under 30% load.

Further Reading: AnandTech’s Best PC Power Supplies

System Performance

Not all motherboards are created equal. On the face of it, they should all perform the same and differ only in the functionality they provide - however this is not the case. The obvious pointers are power consumption, but also the ability for the manufacturer to optimize USB speed, audio quality (based on audio codec), POST time and latency. This can come down to manufacturing process and prowess, so these are tested.

Power Consumption

Power consumption was tested on the system while in a single ASUS AMD RX 570 GPU configuration with a wall meter connected to the Corsair AX1200i power supply. This power supply is Platinum rated, and as I am on a 230 V supply, leads to ~75% efficiency > 50W, and 90%+ efficiency at 250W, suitable for both idle and multi-GPU loading. This method of power reading allows us to compare the power management of the UEFI and the board to supply components with power under load, and includes typical PSU losses due to efficiency. These are the real-world values that consumers may expect from a typical system (minus the monitor) using this motherboard.

While this method for power measurement may not be ideal, and you feel these numbers are not representative due to the high wattage power supply being used (we use the same PSU to remain consistent over a series of reviews, and the fact that some boards on our test bed get tested with three or four high powered GPUs), the important point to take away is the relationship between the numbers. These boards are all under the same conditions, and thus the differences between them should be easy to spot.

The energy consumption figures of the ASRock X399 Professional Gaming are unsurprising, considering we already knew that the motherboard is using a processor boost/turbo mode by default. Energy consumption varies between 68 Watts while the system is idling and up to 254 Watts when the processor is fully loaded. The huge energy consumption difference is being caused by the overdriving of the already power-hungry Ryzen Threadripper 1950X processor. The power figures are close to those of most AMD X399 motherboards that we have tested to this date.

Non UEFI POST Time

Different motherboards have different POST sequences before an operating system is initialized. A lot of this is dependent on the board itself, and POST boot time is determined by the controllers on board (and the sequence of how those extras are organized). As part of our testing, we look at the POST Boot Time using a stopwatch. This is the time from pressing the ON button on the computer to when Windows starts loading. (We discount Windows loading as it is highly variable given Windows specific features.) 

The default boot time figures of the ASRock X399 Professional Gaming may appear to be the worst out of the motherboards that we have already tested but, from a practical point of view, the difference between the motherboards is unimportant. Enabling the Fast Boot option shortens the boot time down to 10.5 seconds, reducing the boot time by 4.1 seconds at the expense of initializing most of the motherboard's subsystems and connected devices during boot.

USB Backup

For this benchmark, we transfer a set size of files from the SSD to the USB drive using DiskBench, which monitors the time taken to transfer. The files transferred are a 1.52 GB set of 2867 files across 320 folders – 95% of these files are small typical website files, and the rest (90% of the size) are small 30 second HD videos. In an update to pre-Z87 testing, we also run MaxCPU to load up one of the threads during the test which improves general performance up to 15% by causing all the internal pathways to run at full speed.

Due to the introduction of USB 3.1, as of June 2015 we are adjusting our test to use a dual mSATA USB 3.1 Type-C device which should be capable of saturating both USB 3.0 and USB 3.1 connections. We still use the same data set as before, but now use the new device. Results are shown as seconds taken to complete the data transfer.

At this point we should also note that manufacturers nowadays advertise their motherboards as having "USB 3.1 Gen 1" and "USB 3.1 Gen 2" ports. The USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports are limited to 5 Gbps, which means that they are USB 3.0 ports. USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports are rated for up to 10 Gbps.

The ASRock X399 Professional Gaming shares the exact same USB performance as with all of the AMD X399 motherboards that we have tested to this date. All four motherboards are using the same chipsets for their USB 3.1 Gen 1 and USB 3.1 Gen 2 controllers and, naturally, there are no performance differences here.

DPC Latency

Deferred Procedure Call latency is a way in which Windows handles interrupt servicing. In order to wait for a processor to acknowledge the request, the system will queue all interrupt requests by priority. Critical interrupts will be handled as soon as possible, whereas lesser priority requests such as audio will be further down the line. If the audio device requires data, it will have to wait until the request is processed before the buffer is filled.

If the device drivers of higher priority components in a system are poorly implemented, this can cause delays in request scheduling and process time.  This can lead to an empty audio buffer and characteristic audible pauses, pops, and clicks. The DPC latency checker measures how much time is taken processing DPCs from driver invocation. The lower the value will result in better audio transfer at smaller buffer sizes. Results are measured in microseconds.

As with all of the AMD X399 motherboards that we have tested to this date, the DPC latency of the ASRock X399 Professional Gaming is relatively high, yet not too high. Our highest recorded DPC latency was 310 μs, a figure that is not high enough to cause any performance concerns.

CPU Performance, Short Form

CPU Performance, Short Form

For our motherboard reviews, we use our short form testing method. These tests usually focus on if a motherboard is using MultiCore Turbo (the feature used to have maximum turbo on at all times, giving a frequency advantage), or if there are slight gains to be had from tweaking the firmware. We leave the BIOS settings at default and memory at JEDEC for these tests, making it very easy to see which motherboards have CPU core enhancements enabled by default.

Point Calculations – 3D Movement Algorithm Test v2.1: link

3DPM is a self-penned benchmark, taking basic 3D movement algorithms used in Brownian Motion simulations and testing them for speed. High floating point performance, MHz and IPC wins in the single thread version, whereas the multithread version has to handle the threads and loves more cores. For a brief explanation of the platform agnostic coding behind this benchmark, see my forum post here. We are using the latest version of 3DPM, which has a significant number of tweaks over the original version to avoid issues with cache management and speeding up some of the algorithms.

In this test we can see that the processing power of the ASRock X399 Professional Gaming is aligned with that of most other AMD X399 motherboards that we have tested to this date, even though the processor's frequency and voltage are being boosted by default. It is apparent that ASRock is not the only manufacturer that is overdriving the Ryzen Threadripper 1950X processor - on the contrary, it seems that every manufacturer does.

Rendering - LuxMark v3.1: link

As a synthetic, LuxMark might come across as somewhat arbitrary as a renderer, given that it's mainly used to test GPUs, but it does offer both an OpenCL and a standard C++ mode. In this instance, aside from seeing the comparison in each coding mode for cores and IPC, we also get to see the difference in performance moving from a C++ based code-stack to an OpenCL one with a CPU as the main host.

The performance figures in this test are similar as before, with the performance gap between the ASRock X399 Professional Gaming and the rest of the AMD X399 motherboards being insignificant.

Rendering - Blender 2.78: link

For a render that has been around for what seems like ages, Blender is still a highly popular tool. We managed to wrap up a standard workload into the February 5 nightly build of Blender and measure the time it takes to render the first frame of the scene. Being one of the bigger open source tools out there, it means both AMD and Intel work actively to help improve the codebase, for better or for worse on their own/each other's microarchitecture.

Rendering – POV-Ray 3.7.1b4: link

The Persistence of Vision Ray Tracer, or POV-Ray, is a freeware package for as the name suggests, ray tracing. It is a pure renderer, rather than modeling software, but the latest beta version contains a handy benchmark for stressing all processing threads on a platform. We have been using this test in motherboard reviews to test memory stability at various CPU speeds to good effect – if it passes the test, the IMC in the CPU is stable for a given CPU speed. As a CPU test, it runs for approximately 2-3 minutes on high end platforms.

Synthetic – 7-Zip 9.2: link

As an open source compression tool, 7-Zip is a popular tool for making sets of files easier to handle and transfer. The software offers up its own benchmark, to which we report the result.

Neuron Simulation - DigiCortex v1.20: link

The newest benchmark in our suite is DigiCortex, a simulation of biologically plausible neural network circuits, and simulates activity of neurons and synapses. DigiCortex relies heavily on a mix of DRAM speed and computational throughput, indicating that systems which apply memory profiles properly should benefit and those that play fast and loose with overclocking settings might get some extra speed up. Results are taken during the steady state period in a 32k neuron simulation, and represented as a function of the ability to simulate in real time (1.000x equals real-time).

Gaming Performance 

AoTS Escalation

Seen as the holy child of DirectX12, Ashes of the Singularity (AoTS, or just Ashes) has been the first title to actively go explore as many of DirectX12s features as it possibly can. Stardock, the developer behind the Nitrous engine which powers the game, has ensured that the real-time strategy title takes advantage of multiple cores and multiple graphics cards, in as many configurations as possible.

As a real-time strategy title, Ashes is all about responsiveness during both wide open shots but also concentrated battles. With DirectX12 at the helm, the ability to implement more draw calls per second allows the engine to work with substantial unit depth and effects that other RTS titles had to rely on combined draw calls to achieve, making some combined unit structures ultimately very rigid.

Stardock clearly understands the importance of an in-game benchmark, ensuring that such a tool was available and capable from day one, especially with all the additional DX12 features used and being able to characterize how they affected the title for the developer was important. The in-game benchmark performs a four-minute fixed seed battle environment with a variety of shots and outputs a vast amount of data to analyze.

GRID: Autosport

No graphics tests are complete without some input from Codemasters and the EGO engine, which means for this round of testing we point towards GRID: Autosport, the next iteration in the GRID and racing genre. As with our previous racing testing, each update to the engine aims to add in effects, reflections, detail, and realism, with Codemasters making ‘authenticity’ a main focal point for this version. GRID’s benchmark mode is very flexible and, as a result, we created a test race using a shortened version of the Red Bull Ring with twelve cars doing two laps. The car is focus starts last and is quite fast, but usually finishes second or third. For low-end graphics, we test at 1080p medium settings, whereas mid and high-end graphics get the full 1080p maximum. Both the average and minimum frame rates are recorded. 

Overclocking

Experience with ASRock X399 Professional Gaming

One of the prime selling points of the ASRock X399 Professional Gaming is its overclocking potential, with the marketing team heavily focusing on the motherboard's advanced power circuitry and boosted power delivery. Unsurprisingly, there is support for liquid cooling solutions, as an advanced liquid cooler is considered to be the baseline requirement for overclocking a Ryzen Threadripper processor. Still, despite the designer's effort to increase the available trace area by separating the positioning of the CPU 12V power connectors, using a 4-pin second connector may limit some hardcore overclockers, as the current requirements of the Ryzen Threadripper processor increase at an alarming rate when overclocking.

The BIOS of the ASRock X399 Professional Gaming offers a broad enough range of options but is not what we would consider to be overclocking-friendly. The settings are somewhat messily arranged and many are basic, with several advanced overclocking options missing entirely or hidden away into other submenus. Still, the range of the available overclocking options is good and the options should be sufficient for most users.

Methodology

Our standard overclocking methodology is as follows. We select the automatic overclock options and test for stability with PovRay and OCCT to simulate high-end workloads. These stability tests aim to catch any immediate causes for memory or CPU errors.

For manual overclocks, based on the information gathered from previous testing, starts off at a nominal voltage and CPU multiplier, and the multiplier is increased until the stability tests are failed. The CPU voltage is increased gradually until the stability tests are passed, and the process repeated until the motherboard reduces the multiplier automatically (due to safety protocol) or the CPU temperature reaches a stupidly high level (100ºC+). Our test bed is not in a case, which should push overclocks higher with fresher (cooler) air.

Overclock Results

By default, the ASRock X399 Professional Gaming is already temporarily pushing the Ryzen Threadripper 1950X beyond 4.0 GHz. Nevertheless, the boost only lasts for a few seconds and the processor returns to its base 3.4 GHz frequency when the load is persistent. Still, this control method increases the processor's performance noticeably, especially during short processing bursts. On the other hand, the energy consumption of the processor increases significantly as well and that effect is not temporary. With the default BIOS settings, the energy consumption is constantly above 250 Watts with the processor under full load, whereas just manually forcing the default frequency and voltage settings result to a massive 76 Watts consumption drop.

We disabled the Core Performance Boost option during our manual overclocking tests, locking the processor at a given frequency each time. We managed to raise the processor's frequency up to 3.9 GHz without issues but hit a wall at 4.0 GHz, with the system restarting whenever we tried to run a benchmark. Although the processor's cooling requirements at this point are very high and our Noctua cooler is struggling, we managed to have other AMD X399 operating stable at 4.0 GHz. What these motherboards had in common was active cooling for the VRM heatsinks, therefore we believe that the ASRock X399 Professional Gaming actually requires better VRM cooling to handle the >370 Watt power requirements of the processor beyond this point.

Conclusion

ASRock's Fatal1ty X399 Professional Gaming is a motherboard clearly marketed towards advanced, demanding gamers. It is loaded with features, covering the needs of even the most demanding gamer and beyond. The motherboard is principally designed to be the basis of multi-GPU systems, with the design focused on supporting the graphics cards both mechanically and electrically.

Despite the motherboard's "gaming" designation, the ASRock X399 Professional Gaming is not extravagant when it comes to aesthetics. On the contrary, the aesthetic design of the motherboard is very elegant. It is based on simple geometric shapes and the black color of the PCB/plastics creates a subtle but pleasant visual antithesis. Onboard RGB lighting is present but limited around the chipset's heatsink, with headers supporting two additional 12V RGB strips for users who want to add more. The use of metal supports not only enhances the mechanical strength of the PCIe slots but also boosts the aesthetics of the motherboard, making the ASRock X399 Professional Gaming appear more robust.

The layout of the ASRock X399 Professional Gaming is good but there are some design quirks. Separating the CPU power connectors to increase the available trace was a good idea from an engineering point of view but it will also cause compatibility issues with PSUs that have both connectors on a single cable. Furthermore, the use of a PCIe connector to supply additional power to the motherboard when multiple GPUs are installed may also cause compatibility issues because PSUs have a fixed number of PCIe connectors. Other than that, the layout of the ASRock X399 Professional Gaming is clean, with nearly all of the internal headers placed across the bottom edge of the motherboard. The only exception is one of the front USB 3.1 Gen 1 headers that is placed to the right of the motherboard, right beneath the ATX 24-pin power connector. There is no internal USB 3.1 Gen 1/2 Type-C header on the ASRock X399 Professional Gaming because the designer ran out of PCIe lanes - a side effect of having the Aquantia 10Gbps NIC installed.

The odd thing about the ASRock X399 Professional Gaming is the sheer number of features that ASRock installed on the motherboard, which are unnatural for a product so strongly focused on gaming. For example, the installation of dual NICs on a gaming motherboard is generally considering unnecessary, as features like LAN Teaming are not useful for gamers. The ASRock X399 Professional Gaming not only has two Intel Gigabit NICs installed but also a third Aquantia 10 Gbps NIC and a Wi-Fi module. The 10 Gbps NIC is one factor behind the motherboard's high price, yet it is a feature not often used specifically by gamers and overclockers. Gamers would most likely welcome the replacement of all three NICs with just one with proven gaming performance. The use of just one Intel I211-AT NIC for would be sufficient for gamers and should greatly reduce the motherboard's retail price or, at least, would have allowed the designer to install an internal Type-C header. This board very much caters to the Professional over the Gaming in that regard.

In summary, the ASRock X399 Professional Gaming is a very good basis for a multi-GPU gaming system based on AMD's Ryzen Threadripper processor. The quality of the motherboard is excellent and the power circuitry is very strong, while ASRock loaded it with every feature they could think of. There are a few layout quirks that may or may not be important depending on the PSU and how its connectors are organized. The only disadvantage that this motherboard has is the high retail price, which is justified for a motherboard with so many features, yet some gamers may not justify the need of so many features for a gaming-focused system and opt for a lower cost product.

AnandTech's AMD Ryzen Threadripper and X399 Motherboard Coverage

• The AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X and 1920X Review: CPUs on Steroids
• An AMD Threadripper X399 Motherboard Overview
• Analyzing Threadripper Thermals: Big Base Cooling Wins
   
• AMD Reveals Threadripper 2 : Up to 32 Cores, 250W, X399 Refresh
• GIGABYTE’s X399 Aorus Extreme: The Threadripper 2 Halo Motherboard
• New EKWB Threadripper X399 Monoblocks for GIGABYTE and MSI
• GIGABYTE X399 Designare EX Motherboard Review