The ASRock X570S PG Riptide Motherboard Review: A Wave of PCIe 4.0 Support on A Budget
by Gavin Bonshor on October 22, 2021 9:00 AM ESTConclusion
With many premium X570 and now X570S models on the market, not everyone wants to pay through the nose to benefit from an entire string of PCIe 4.0 support. One of the main benefits of X570 and X570S involves full support for PCIe 4.0, including PCIe slots and all the M.2 storage too. This makes X570/S and a Ryzen 5000 one of the best combinations in terms of future-proofing and features.
I'm making the point that not every motherboard has to cost the earth, and the ASRock X570S PG Riptide slips right into the entry-level category as far as X570 and X570S go. It might still be an expensive board for some, at $185 which used to be the high-end pricing a decade ago! But with a lower than expected price compared to some of the more premium models, the PG Riptide spawns a new series for ASRock based on its already established Phantom Gaming series of models.
Its most prominent features include three full-length PCIe 4.0 slots operating at x16/+4/+2, with three PCIe 4.0 x1 slots. Storage is also varied with two PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slots, the second with support for SATA drives, with six SATA ports capable of running AMD RAID 0, 1, and 10 arrays.
When looking for a motherboard at such an entry-level model as the X570S PG Riptide, certain sacrifices have to be made for it to be cost-effective for the vendors to manufacturer it. This includes the use of an aging Realtek ALC897 HD audio codec. However, ASRock uses a premium Killer E3100G 2.5 GbE controller and offers a Key E M.2 slot for users to add whatever wireless interfaces they wish, such as a Wi-Fi 6 or even one of the newer Wi-Fi 6E controllers.
Connectivity isn't that bad for a sub $200 model such as this, as the ASRock includes one USB 3.2 G2 Type-C, one USB 3.2 G2 Type-A, four USB 3.2 G1 Type-A, and two USB 2.0 ports on the rear panel. Cooling support is also solid, with seven 4-pin headers. Although ASRock is advertising a 10-phase power delivery, it's more like a beefed-up 4+2 phase design - ASRock has tried to keep costs down by using two smart doublers.
Focusing on performance, the X570S PG Riptide does very well considering, as it is competitive with other AM4 models we've tested, including some of the most premium X570 models currently on the market. Our DPC latency testing showed that the Riptide isn't as good as others in audio workloads, but it's certainly good enough compared to others in terms of compute and gaming performance.
The other performance element comes in overclocking, and ASRock displayed some solid grit and determination in terms of VDroop control on the CPU VCore. We tested from 3.8 GHz all-cores all the way to 4.4 GHz all-cores and saw relative increases in POV-Ray performance, heat, and power consumption to boot. With our Ryzen 7 3700X processor, we managed a maximum stable overclock of 4.3 GHz, which is very respectable for an entry-level board, as only one board so far to date has managed to achieve beyond this; impressive.
Testing out the VRM thermal performance also puts the ASRock X570S PG Riptide in good stead, too, with respectable thermals given the power delivery heatsink isn't the most comprehensive we've seen, along with its simplistic yet unsimplistic VRM design at the same time. The temperatures topped out at 63°C from our K-type thermocouple, and the board doesn't feature an integrated VRM sensor to compare with.
Final Thoughts: Solid Value
The ASRock X570S PG Riptide has an MSRP of $185, making it more affordable than some B550 boards currently on the market. The caveat there is similar priced B550 models do include better-integrated audio, and some even include Wi-Fi 6 for a smidgen more. Looking at the PG Riptide for what it is, it's a competitive ATX sized offering with all of the benefits of PCIe 4.0, although users looking to run 2-way NVIDIA SLI won't be able to use this, with a lot of X570 models omitting this level of support; not that multi-GPU setups are commonly used these days anyway.
ASRock has a solid and cost-effective motherboard via the ASRock X570S PG Riptide, and it ticks a lot of boxes in the sub $200 marketplace. We would have liked to have seen a better power delivery and software bundle supplied with the board, but users looking to overclock will appreciate the intuitive and easy-to-use BIOS, and AMD's Ryzen Master overclocking utility does the job better than most vendors overclocking software anyway.
At $185, the ASRock X570S PG Riptide looks an excellent buy for users on a budget without sacrificing PCIe 4.0 support throughout and a 2.5 GbE controller which provides premium wired working for a reasonable price.
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Threska - Sunday, October 24, 2021 - link
Nothing says "canary" as a precursor to the fall of society as the decline of social skills. Soon we all will be communicating in the language of "road-rage".Spunjji - Monday, October 25, 2021 - link
I certainly think education on critical thinking would be of use, but I'm not so sure about fallacies specifically - your example is instructive here, as when lawyers use fallacies, they tend to do so in full knowledge of what they're doing. The target audience are likely to assess the information according to their priors - knowing that they've been presented with a fallacy is unlikely to sway them if they happen to agree with the conclusion.We saw this recently in the UK with a court decision (now overturned) that barred prescribing puberty blockers to trans children on the basis of an assumption that correlation entails causality; whenever this was pointed out people tended to respond by insisting that it was still the right decision for some other (usually unproven or false) reason.
Education on critical thinking is sorely lacking. I didn't get a grounding in subjects like formal logic and epistemology until I studied Philosophy as an undergraduate (I'm in the UK and was educated in a state school, for context).
Oxford Guy - Friday, October 29, 2021 - link
Enough education on fallacies would, hopefully, get them removed from serious discourse. The audience of lawyers is not only the highly-educated. Also, even those with advanced degrees are often only given cursory training in fallacies. The cram-then-forget style of so much of higher education is part of the problem. There is also pressure on all people in a society dominated by fallacies to cave.‘Critical thinking’ should also be reframed as ‘true thinking’ or similar — to remove the false implication that ‘critical’ thinking is special (therefore optional/compartmentalized) rather than the only kind of thinking that yields accurate understanding.
Another massive problem is bad terminology, terminology that so often enables people to avoid the rigor of rationality. When people hear of ‘critical thinking’ they are inclined to believe it’s an academic exercise rather than the way thinking should be approach generally. The embedded word critic also implies combativeness, an excessively-judgmental mentality. Given the strong appeal of conformity (i.e. being ‘chill’), such connotations are counterproductive.
opinali - Saturday, October 23, 2021 - link
The problem with this idea is the economics. If we make the Cartesian product of all CPU models even within a class, all motherboard models, RAM and SSD capacities, plus other variants that exist already (high-end Ethernet or not etc.), that's a truckload of possible SKUs. Unless you pick a one size fits all choice.TheinsanegamerN - Saturday, October 23, 2021 - link
I've got a better idea, what if we made a stqandard that would allow people to put in what they want/need at a price they are comfortable with? Oh hey, we already have that!If you want non upgradeable e-waste, and putting a CPU in a mobo is that hard for you, apple is already available for you. What would soldering everything even gain for you, outside of making everything permanent?
Oxford Guy - Saturday, October 23, 2021 - link
What has been needed for many many years is a change from the ATX form factor to one that cools GPUs efficiently.It has long been utterly ridiculous that the highest-power item in a machine spews its heat back into the case and has tiny fans to cool it.
Threska - Sunday, October 24, 2021 - link
There's change out there. Just not in the market most play in.https://youtu.be/chNM_nntwKU
Spunjji - Monday, October 25, 2021 - link
Yeah, this situation is bizarre. We're long overdue for a substantial change to system form-factor.Calin - Monday, October 25, 2021 - link
Intel introduced BTX 20 or so years ago.There is the ITX, miniITX, MicroATX, all the "small form factors", Intel's "Next Unit of Computing" (NUC), and so on and so forth.
I remember BTX being intended to support better cooling - but for that you have the cases with rotated mainboard, ports on top, multiple chambers (PSU separated from the rest), ...
Not to mention the fact that laptops are taking over desktops (with multiple form factors, from 13" and under laptops to 17.3" gaming rigs or engineering workhorses)...
A system form factor change is taking place...
Oxford Guy - Friday, October 29, 2021 - link
I was aware of BTX but don’t recall that it was mainly about getting GPU waste heat under better control. Perhaps it was. It has been a long time. AMD, Silverstone, Apple have also introduced other form factors. Regardless, the ATX form factor has remained dominant for far far too long.