ASRock X570M Pro4 Review

The ASRock X570M Pro4 focusses on style and features while ensuring a Micro-ATX form factor for smaller cases. If you wish to build around AMD’s 3000-series processors, definitely check this out.

Product on Review: ASRock X570M Pro4
Manufacturer: ASRock
Street Price: GBP £179.99 / USD $199.99 / AUS $259.99

ASRock have been quick off the mark with the Ryzen 3000-series launch, throwing out several different models across a variety of form factors. Within todays review we’ll look at the Micro ATX X570M Pro4.

Engineered around the AMD X570 chipset, the Pro4 is ready to accept any of the Ryzen 2nd or 3rd Gen. CPUs, up-to and including the upcoming Ryzen 3950X. With the X570 chipset comes a plethora of next-gen features, one of which is the PCI-E 4.0 standard, offering double the bandwidth of the outgoing specification, but with full backwards compatibility.

Making use of the new PCI-E 4.0 specification are a pair of x16 full-length ports as well as a pair of NVMe M.2 slots for rapid storage solutions.

Other features employed on the Pro4 include an XXL Aluminium alloy heatsink to improve stability by removing heat from the MOSFETs around the CPU, premium 50A power chokes for enhanced voltage delivery to the processor, a 2oz copper PCB for effective temperature reduction with a high-density fibre glass PCB for improved strength and reduced susceptibility to humidity.

The ASRock X570M Pro4 has been designed for power-focussed individuals who tend to keep a smaller system. You don’t receive the full complement of PCI-E ports but otherwise, it aims to provide the same level of performance you’ve come to expect from ASRock.

Priced at £180 in the UK, $200 in the US and $260 in Australia, the X570M Pro4 is certainly on the budget end of the X570 spectrum so lets see how it compares against boards of two or three times that cost.

ASRock on the X570M Pro4:

This motherboard features onboard RGB headers and an addressable RGB header that allow motherboard to be connected to compatible LED devices such as strip, CPU fans, coolers, chassis and so on. Users may also synchronize RGB LED devices across the Polychrome RGB Sync-certified accessories to create their own unique lighting effects.

Technical Specifications

Unique Feature
ASRock USB 3.2 Gen2
– ASRock USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A Port (10 Gb/s)
– ASRock USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C Port (10 Gb/s)
ASRock Super Alloy
– XXL Aluminum Alloy Heatsink
– Premium 50A Power Choke
– Sapphire Black PCB
– High Density Glass Fabric PCB
– 2oz Copper PCB
ASRock Steel Slot Gen4
ASRock Full Coverage M.2 Heatsink
ASRock Hyper M.2 (PCIe Gen4x4 & SATA3)
ASRock POST Status Checker (PSC)
ASRock Full Spike Protection (for all USB, Audio, LAN Ports)
ASRock Live Update & APP Shop

CPU
– Supports AMD AM4 socket Ryzen™ 2000 and 3000 series processors
– Digi Power design
– 10 Power Phase design

Chipset
– AMD X570

Memory
– Dual Channel DDR4 Memory Technology
– 4 x DDR4 DIMM Slots
– AMD Ryzen series CPUs (Matisse) support DDR4 4200(OC) / 4133(OC) / 4000(OC) / 3866(OC) / 3800(OC) / 3733(OC) / 3600(OC) / 3466(OC) / 3200/2933/2667/2400/2133 ECC & non-ECC, un-buffered memory*
– AMD Ryzen series CPUs (Pinnacle Ridge) support DDR4 3466+(OC) / 3200(OC) / 2933/2667/2400/2133 ECC & non-ECC, un-buffered memory*
– AMD Ryzen series CPUs (Picasso) support DDR4 3466+(OC) / 3200(OC) / 2933/2667/2400/2133 non-ECC, un-buffered memory*
– Max. capacity of system memory: 128GB**
– 15μ Gold Contact in DIMM Slots

BIOS
– 256Mb AMI UEFI Legal BIOS with GUI support
– Supports “Plug and Play”
– ACPI 5.1 compliance wake up events
– Supports jumperfree
– SMBIOS 2.3 support
– CPU VCORE, CPU VDDCR_SOC, DRAM, VPPM, PREM VDD_CLDO, PERM VDDCR_SOC, +1.8V, VDDP Voltage Multi-adjustment

Graphics
– Integrated AMD Radeon™ Vega Series Graphics in Ryzen Series APU*
– DirectX 12, Pixel Shader 5.0
– Shared memory default 2GB. Max Shared memory supports up to 16GB.**
– Dual graphics output: support HDMI and DisplayPort 1.2 ports by independent display controllers
– Supports HDMI 2.0 with max. resolution up to 4K x 2K (4096×2160) @ 60Hz
– Supports DisplayPort 1.2 with max. resolution up to 4K x 2K (4096×2160) @ 60Hz
– Supports Auto Lip Sync, Deep Color (12bpc), xvYCC and HBR (High Bit Rate Audio) with HDMI 2.0 Ports (Compliant HDMI monitor is required)
– Supports HDR (High Dynamic Range) with HDMI 2.0
– Supports HDCP 2.2 with HDMI 2.0 and DisplayPort 1.2 Ports
– Supports 4K Ultra HD (UHD) playback with HDMI 2.0 and DisplayPort 1.2 Ports
– Supports Microsoft® PlayReady

Audio
– 7.1 CH HD Audio with Content Protection (Realtek ALC1200 Audio Codec)
– Premium Blu-ray Audio support
– Supports Surge Protection
– ELNA Audio Caps
– PCB Isolate Shielding
– Individual PCB Layers for R/L Audio Channel

LAN
– Gigabit LAN 10/100/1000 Mb/s
– Giga PHY Intel® I211AT
– Supports Wake-On-LAN
– Supports Lightning/ESD Protection
– Supports Energy Efficient Ethernet 802.3az
– Supports PXE

Slots
AMD Ryzen series CPUs (Matisse)
– 2 x PCI Express 4.0 x16 Slots (PCIE1/PCIE3: single at x16 (PCIE1); dual at x16 (PCIE1) / x4 (PCIE3))*
AMD Ryzen series CPUs (Pinnacle Ridge)
– 2 x PCI Express 3.0 x16 Slots (PCIE1/PCIE3: single at x16 (PCIE1); dual at x16 (PCIE1) / x4 (PCIE3))*
AMD Ryzen series CPUs (Picasso)
– 2 x PCI Express 3.0 x16 Slots (PCIE1/PCIE3: single at x8 (PCIE1); dual at x8 (PCIE1) / x4 (PCIE3))*

– 1 x PCI Express 4.0 x1 Slot
– Supports AMD Quad CrossFireX™ and CrossFireX™
– 1 x M.2 Socket (Key E), supports type 2230 WiFi/BT module
– 15μ Gold Contact in VGA PCIe Slot (PCIE1)

*Supports NVMe SSD as boot disks

Storage
– 8 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s Connectors, support RAID (RAID 0, RAID 1 and RAID 10), NCQ, AHCI and Hot Plug
– 1 x Hyper M.2 Socket (M2_1), supports M Key type 2242/2260/2280 M.2 PCI Express module up to Gen4x4 (64 Gb/s) (with Matisse) or Gen3x4 (32 Gb/s) (with Pinnacle Ridge and Picasso)*
– 1 x Hyper M.2 Socket (M2_2), supports M Key type 2230/2242/2260/2280 M.2 SATA3 6.0 Gb/s module and M.2 PCI Express module up to Gen4x4 (64 Gb/s) (with Matisse) or Gen3x4 (32 Gb/s) (with Pinnacle Ridge and Picasso)*

*Supports NVMe SSD as boot disks
Supports ASRock U.2 Kit

Connector
– 1 x COM Port Header
– 1 x SPI TPM Header
– 1 x Power LED and Speaker Header
– 1 x AMD Fan LED Header*
– 1 x RGB LED Header**
– 1 x Addressable LED Header***
– 1 x CPU Fan Connector (4-pin)****
– 1 x CPU/Water Pump Fan Connector (4-pin) (Smart Fan Speed Control)*****
– 3 x Chassis/Water Pump Fan Connectors (4-pin) (Smart Fan Speed Control)******
– 1 x 24 pin ATX Power Connector
– 1 x 8 pin 12V Power Connector
– 1 x Front Panel Audio Connector
– 1 x AMD LED Fan USB Header
– 1 x Thunderbolt™ AIC Connector (5-pin) (Supports ASRock Thunderbolt™ 3 AIC Card R2.0 only)
– 2 x USB 2.0 Headers (Support 4 USB 2.0 ports) (Supports ESD Protection)
– 1 x USB 3.2 Gen1 Header (Supports 2 USB 3.2 Gen1 ports) (Supports ESD Protection)

*The AMD Fan LED Header is compatible with a regular RGB LED stripe.
The AMD Fan LED Header supports LED strips of maximum load of 3A (36W) and length up to 2.5M.

**Supports in total up to 12V/3A, 36W LED Strip

***Supports in total up to 5V/3A, 15W LED Strip

****The CPU Fan Connector supports the CPU fan of maximum 1A (12W) fan power.

*****The CPU/Water Pump Fan supports the water cooler fan of maximum 2A (24W) fan power.

******The Chassis/Water Pump Fan supports the water cooler fan of maximum 2A (24W) fan power.
CPU_FAN2/WP, CHA_FAN1/WP, CHA_FAN2/WP and CHA_FAN3/WP can auto detect if 3-pin or 4-pin fan is in use.

Rear Panel I/O
– 3 x Antenna Ports (on I/O Panel Shield)
– 1 x PS/2 Mouse/Keyboard Port
– 1 x HDMI Port
– 1 x DisplayPort 1.2
– 1 x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A Port (10 Gb/s) (ReDriver) (Supports ESD Protection)
– 1 x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C Port (10 Gb/s) (ReDriver) (Supports ESD Protection)
– 6 x USB 3.2 Gen1 Ports (Supports ESD Protection)
– 1 x RJ-45 LAN Port with LED (ACT/LINK LED and SPEED LED)
– HD Audio Jacks: Line in / Front Speaker / Microphone

Software and UEFI
Software
– ASRock Polychrome SYNC
– ASRock XFast LAN
UEFI
– ASRock Full HD UEFI
– ASRock Instant Flash

Support CD
– Drivers, Utilities, AntiVirus Software (Trial Version), Google Chrome Browser and Toolbar

Accessories
– Quick Installation Guide, Support CD, I/O Shield
– 2 x SATA Data Cables
– 3 x Screws for M.2 Sockets
– 1 x Standoff for M.2 Socket

Hardware Monitor
– Temperature Sensing: CPU, CPU/Water Pump, Chassis, Chassis/Water Pump Fans
– Fan Tachometer: CPU, CPU/Water Pump, Chassis, Chassis/Water Pump Fans
– Quiet Fan (Auto adjust chassis fan speed by CPU temperature): CPU, CPU/Water Pump, Chassis, Chassis/Water Pump Fans
– Fan Multi-Speed Control: CPU, CPU/Water Pump, Chassis, Chassis/Water Pump Fans
– Voltage monitoring: +12V, +5V, +3.3V, CPU Vcore, CPU VDDCR_SOC, DRAM, PREM VDDCR_SOC, +1.8V, VDDP

Form Factor
– Micro ATX Form Factor: 9.6-in x 9.6-in, 24.4 cm x 24.4 cm
– Solid Capacitor design
– 2oz Copper PCB

OS
– Microsoft® Windows® 10 64-bit

certifications
– FCC, CE
– ErP/EuP ready (ErP/EuP ready power supply is required)

Packaging & Bundle

The ASRock X570M Pro4 is packaged up nicely in a classy box, the blue and black colour scheme gives a premium feel to the product without the gimmicky ‘gamery-ness’ often applied to motherboard boxes.
The front doesn’t give a great deal away with some small logos along the bottom edge.

The back of the box is really well laid out with a concise specifications list, a clear diagram of the rear IO and several annotated images about the keyboard’s key selling features.

The included extras with the Pro4 aren’t exactly extravagant but every little helps when reducing a product’s cost. Everything you need is included and that’s what matters. There’s a rear IO shield, three M.2 screws and a standoff, a manual and quick install guide.

Closer Look

With the new X570 chipset, the AM4 socket remains. The X570M Pro4 is compatible with 2nd and 3rd Gen. AMD Ryzen CPUs, but no official support for the 1000-series.
Providing power to the processor is a 10-phase power supply equipped with ASRock’s premium 50A power chokes for up to three times the current saturation for enhanced CPU vCore.

ASRock’s X570M supports up to 128GB of DDR4 at speeds up to 4200MHz across the two memory channels, providing a 3rd Gen. AMD Ryzen processor is installed.
Directly alongside the DIMM slots is the 24-pin motherboard power and a USB 3.0 front header.

So as not to limit system storage, ASRock have equipped the board with six 90° SATA ports and two upright SATA ports directly south of the FCH fan.

Further bolstering the X570M Pro4s storage ability, there’s a pair of M.2 NVMe slots, both capable of supporting 2242, 2260, 2280 and 22110 drives at PCI-E 4.0 speeds on ASRock’s Hyper M.2.
Along with that is a pair of PCI-E x16 slots, with AMD Crossfire support, and a single PCI-E x1 slot.
Not only that, there’s also provisions made to allow the installation of an M.2 2242 WiFi card above the uppermost PCI-E slot.

Moving round to the rear IO, we get the following, going from left to right:
• 1x HDMI
• 1x DisplayPort 1.2
• 1x PS/2 Mouse/Keyboard Port
• 2x USB 3.2 Gen. 1
• 1x USB 3.2 Gen. 2 Type-C
• 1x USB 3.2 Gen. 2 Type-A
• 2x USB 3.2 Gen. 1
• 1x Intel Gigabit LAN
• 2x USB 3.2 Gen. 1
• Line in, Stereo & Microphone ports

Closer Look (Continued)

Under the vented section of the M.2 heatsink is a small 40mm fan, this serves two purposes of helping to cool the attached NVMe SSD and the AMD X570 FCH.

Removing the heatsink via the two small screws, the aluminium piece underneath is relatively simple with a distinct lack of additional surface area that would allow the fan to spin less often, or at a lower RPM.

BIOS

BIOS
ASRock’s UEFI BIOS on the X570M Pro4 isn’t one of the most feature-rich out there, but it’s well laid out and easy to navigate. However, one feature it’s missing is an easy or advanced mode, like most other manufacturers. This often helps novices who are new to the assembly process of building a PC, especially useful if they’re only in the BIOS to enable XMP on their DRAM kit then save and leave.

The landing page gives some very brief details about the system, including the BIOS version installed and which of the four DIMM modules are populated.

Moving onto the OC Tweaker, here you can assign overclock profiles to your AMD CPU, set up your RAM’s XMP profile to ensure you’re getting the performance you paid for, adjust voltages and all kinds of other tweaks.

Within the tools section, there’s an RGB LED feature for the single RGB zone on the motherboard. This can be used if you want to turn them off, or set a specific colour and leave it alone, saving you from having to install software onto your Windows installation.
The Instant Flash for BIOS updates is also located here. If you have a memory stick plugged into any of the USB slots with a compatible BIOS version on it, as soon as you hit the Instant Flash button, it’ll go along and find the update and ask if you wish to begin the installation, very slick!

Finally there’s a Hardware Monitor section, reporting on voltages with a three decimal place accuracy, fan speeds and temperatures are also reported. Handy for checking on the system’s health at a glance.

As a whole, the UEFI BIOS that ASRock have installed onto the motherboard is decent, and matches the X570M Pro4 with an “only what you need” approach.

Test Setup & Software

BIOS Version Tested: 1.80 – 23/08/2019.
Test Setup

CPU AMD Ryzen 7 3800X
Cooling Noctua NH-U12S-SE-AM4
Motherboard
Memory 16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3000MHz @ 3000MHz @ 15-17-17-38-58
Graphics AMD Radeon RX 480 8GB
Storage Corsair Force LE 480GB
PSU Corsair RM750X 80 Plus Gold Certified PSU

Benchmarks

Cinebench R15 – CPU/OpenGL Score
SiSoftware SANDRA – CPU & Memory benchmarks
POV-RAY – CPU benchmarks
TrueCrypt – CPU benchmarks
AIDA64 – CPU benchmarks & Memory
PCMark 8 – Home Suite & Photoshop
3DMark FireStrike – 3D Benchmark
Games – Rise of the Tomb Raider & Total War: WARHAMMER

Other Software

Temperature Analysis: Aida64 & Ryzen Master
Stress Testing Software: AIDA64 Stability Test
CPU Specification Monitoring: CPU-Z
Performance Monitoring: MSI Afterburner

Benchmarks: Power Consumption

It’s interesting to note the power consumption across all motherboards. Although they are using the X570 chipset, energy results can fluctuate between manufacturers due to the features and specifications that are integrated. First of all, for the idle tests the system is cold booted into Windows and no additional applications are executed – the watts are noted on the external energy monitor we use and then the system is loaded with 3DMark FireStrike – watts are again monitored for the duration of the test and the highest rated wattage result is then noted down. Below are the results of this energy test.

Ray Tracing Performance – POV-Ray 3.7

Persistence of Vision Raytracer’s PovRay is a free and open source 3D animator application with versions for computers with different operating systems.

This product allows users to build their custom 3D worlds with excellent quality despite their computer’s hardware. It has adjustable options for levels of radiance, refraction, and reflection. Calculation time may vary depending on the computer model, but PovRay can adapt to many computer builds, and is supported by the open source community.

AES Encryption Performance – TrueCrypt 7.1a

TrueCrypt is a discontinued source-available freeware utility used for on-the-fly encryption (OTFE). It can create a virtual encrypted disk within a file or encrypt a partition or (under Microsoft Windows except Windows 8 with GPT) the entire storage device (pre-boot authentication).

Processing Features Performance – AIDA64

AIDA64 Product Page

This simple integer benchmark focuses on the branch prediction capabilities and the misprediction penalties of the CPU. It finds the solutions for the classic “Queens problem” on a 10 by 10 sized chessboard. At the same clock speed theoretically the processor with the shorter pipeline and smaller misprediction penalties will attain higher benchmark scores. For example — with HyperThreading disabled — the Intel Northwood core processors get higher scores than the Intel Prescott core based ones due to the 20-step vs 31-step long pipeline. CPU Queen test uses integer MMX, SSE2 and SSSE3 optimizations.

Memory Transfer Performance – AIDA64

AIDA64 Product Page

Memory bandwidth benchmarks (Memory Read, Memory Write, Memory Copy) measure the maximum achiveable memory data transfer bandwidth. The code behind these benchmark methods are written in Assembly and they are extremely optimized for every popular AMD, Intel and VIA processor core variants by utilizing the appropriate x86/x64, x87, MMX, MMX+, 3DNow!, SSE, SSE2, SSE4.1, AVX, and AVX2 instruction set extension.

The Memory Latency benchmark measures the typical delay when the CPU reads data from system memory. Memory latency time means the penalty measured from the issuing of the read command until the data arrives to the integer registers of the CPU.

Processing Power Performance – Cinebench R20

Cinebench is a real-world cross-platform test suite that evaluates your computer’s hardware capabilities. Improvements to Cinebench Release 20 reflect the overall advancements to CPU and rendering technology in recent years, providing a more accurate measurement of Cinema 4D’s ability to take advantage of multiple CPU cores and modern processor features available to the average user.

Bandwidth Performance – SiSoftware SANDRA

SANDRA isn’t always a benchmark that is included in hardware reviews but I believe it shouldn’t be ignored. SANDRA provides a vigorous package that tests your system in a rather large array of benchmarks. There are many aspects of benchmark that can be executed. We will be considering – CPU and memory tests.

Image Editing Performance – PCMark 8 Photoshop

PCMark 8 Product Page

Developed in partnership with Benchmark Development Program members Acer, AMD, Condusiv Technologies, Dell, HGST, HP, Intel, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Samsung, SanDisk, Seagate and Western Digital, PCMark 8 is the latest version in FutureMark’s popular series of PC benchmarking tools. Improving on previous releases, PCMark 8 includes new tests using popular applications from Adobe and Microsoft.

Overall System Performance – PCMark 10

PCMark 10 is the latest version in our series of industry standard PC benchmarks. Updated for Windows 10 with new and improved workloads, PCMark 10 is also faster and easier to use.
PCMark 10 features a comprehensive set of tests that cover the wide variety of tasks performed in the modern workplace. With a range of performance tests, custom run options, and the new Battery Life Profile, PCMark 10 is the complete PC benchmark for the modern office.

VR Performance – VRMark

VRMark Product Page

VRMark includes two VR benchmark tests that run on your monitor, no headset required, or on a connected HMD. At the end of each test, you’ll see whether your PC is VR ready, and if not, how far it falls short.

3D Performance – 3DMark

3DMark FireStrike Product Page

Fire Strike is our new showcase DirectX 11 benchmark designed for high-performance gaming PCs. It is our most ambitious and technical benchmark ever, featuring real-time graphics rendered with detail and complexity far beyond what is found in other benchmarks and games today. Fire Strike will only be available in the Windows editions of 3DMark initially.

Gaming Performance – Rise of the Tomb Raider & Total War: WARHAMMER

It’s important for us to perform a number of game benchmarks as well as the synthetic tests because gamers will want to know if there are any significant benefits. So here we have two recent gaming titles.

Conclusion

ASRock are firmly cementing themselves as a top-tier motherboard offering, across the board. A wide variety of form factors are available, with many different budget concerns considered.

The X570M Pro4 has performed exactly as we expected it to, not exactly a performance leader but it’s not lagging behind in any region either. A middle of the road performance, which cannot be knocked considering the price point in which it sits.

Kicking off with the rear I/O, this is reasonably well equipped for such a motherboard, sure it lacks the 7.1 surround sound and there’s only 8 USB ports, of which two are USB 3.2 Gen. 2, but the inclusion of both a DisplayPort and HDMI should make this viable for those who invest into AMD’s lineup of APUs.

Moving onto the motherboard itself, there’s a pair of full-speed PCI-E 4.0 NVMe slots, and eight SATA 3.0 ports which would make this ideal for those who like to keep a lot of data handy. One of the two NVMe slots is actively cooled by the FCH fan which was inaudible during our testing period.

Thanks to a 10-phase power supply with 50A chokes, even the most power-hungry of AMD’s 3rd Gen. lineup should be provided with plenty of juice, allowing you to install the 3950X if you fancied. Our 3800X wasn’t hindered at all by the X570M Pro4 when comparing results to motherboards costing over twice as much, with much more intricate power delivery systems.

Something we’ve seen on a lot of X570 chipset motherboards is built-in WiFi but ASRock, clearly as a cost-saving exercise, have omitted this feature and instead opted for a dedicated M.2 slot. An Intel M.2 WiFi card can be found for around £15/$20/$25 if you require that functionality, so factor that into the total cost accordingly.

Finally, the price. This is where the largest stumbling blocks pokes out its head. AMD have designed their AM4 socket with backwards and forwards compatibility, meaning that an X470 or B450 motherboard will handle your AMD 3000-series processor perfectly fine, providing you don’t mind losing the PCI-E 4.0 specification; speaking about that for a second, there’s very little that actually supports the newest standard at present, and most of that which does would likely perform almost exactly the same on a 3.0 interface. A B450 motherboard such as the ASRock B450M Steel Legend can be found for £100/$100/$140 less if you can handle a small drop in storage capabilities.

One of the cheapest X570 motherboards available with good performance and a reasonable feature set. The only downside is current B450/X470 pricing if you don’t care for PCI-E 4.0.

Pros
+ Decent performance
+ Eight SATA 3.0 ports
+ Two NVMe 4.0 slots
+ One of the cheapest X570 options available
+ Good idle and load power draw

Cons
Rear IO backplate isn’t attached
Pricey compared to B450/X470 options

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