AntonyLeatherputsfiveofthelatestTRX40 Threadripper
motherboardsthroughtheir paces
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LABS TEST
Howwe test
A
MD’s 3rd-gen Threadripper CPUs are the new high-end
desktop performance kings, with excellent performance
in pretty much every area. You also get PCI-E 4 support
and a gargantuan amount of PCI-E lanes with the platform. What’s
more, this time around, motherboard manufacturers have focused
on bolstering cooling and power delivery to cope with the power
requirements of these monstrous CPUs.
As well as looking into these features, we test each motherboard’s
prowess in raw performance. Our test kit includes 32GB of
3466MHZ Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro RAM, a 2TB Samsung 970
Pro SSD and a Corsair 1TB MP600 PCI-E 4 SSD to test the speed
of M.2 ports. We also test M.2 heatsink performance, tapping
into our SSD’s internal temperature sensor to see how well
any M.2 heatsinks perform when running back-to-back runs of
CrystalDiskMark’s entire battery of tests.
We use Windows 10 with the 1903 update installed, plus an Nvidia
GeForce RTX 2070 Super graphics card. Our new motherboard and CPU
cooling rigs also sport Barrow Ropilema test benches and full custom
water-cooling systems, including 240mm radiators and Laing DDC pumps.
We use RightMark’s Audio Analyzer software to measure the
dynamic range, noise level and total harmonic distortion of the on-board
audio. Other tests include our RealBench suite of benchmarks, Far Cry
5, Cinebench R20’s single and multi-threaded tests, and total system
power consumption at both stock and overclocked speeds. Our scores
are based on a weighted calculation, including performance, features
and value, with the overall score being the sum of those three values.Contents
Results graphs / p43
ASRock TRX40 Taichi / p44
Asus ROG Strix TRX40-E Gaming / p46
Gigabyte TRX40 Aorus Master / p48
Gigabyte TRX40 Aorus Xtreme / p50
MSI Creator TRX40 / p52LABS TEST / TRX40 MOTHERBOARDS