Custom PC - UK (2019-12)

The added PCB length is partly down to those features,
but also because the new SupremeFX S1220 audio circuitry
is mounted on its side under a metal fascia at the end of the
board. There are only three audio ports on the rear of the
I/O panel though. Meanwhile, the I/O panel features an
integrated shield, which is great news for your fingers during
installation, and is well equipped with USB ports. There are
five USB 3.1 Type-A ports, a pair of USB 3 ports plus a USB
3.1 Type-C port. There’s on-board Wi-Fi too, courtesy of an
Intel AX200 802.11ax controller.

Performance
Apart from a small hiccup in our Handbrake video encoding
test at stock speed, the Impacts’ performance was similar to
other X570 boards we’ve tested. Its total system power
consumption was also exceptionally low under load at just
249W,andwasevenmoreimpressiveonceoverclocked,
drawingjust300Wdespitea 50MHz va t

We managed to hit 4.35GHz across all cores with our

Ryzen 9 3900X, a result that only one other board has

managed, making the Crosshair VIII Impact a superb

overclocker. This tweak saw the system score rise 5 per

cent to 308,658, despite the image editing and multi-

tasking scores taking a small hit due to the core frequencies

being lower than the peak boost frequency. The audio

performance was also excellent, with a dynamic range of

112.7dBA, and we recorded peak read and write speeds of

4982MB/sec and 4242MB/sec respectively using our

PCI-E 4 SSD.

Conclusion

The Crosshair VIII Impact’s price and size mean it’s even

more of a niche product than its predecessors, but if you

canaffordandaccommodateit, theImpactis a stunning

motherboardwithsomeofthebestinnovativedesignwe’ve

en.It doesn’tshyawayfromoverclocking,it keepsits

tspotsincrediblycooland,despiteitssmallsize,it hasa

starrayoffeatures.It’soverkillformostpeople,butif you

veyourheartsetontheRyzen9 3950Xandhaveplenty

ashtospendona miniPC,youwon’tbedisappointed.

ONYLEATHER

BENCHMARKRESULTS

GIMPIMAGEEDITING

0 20k 40k 60k 80k

AsusCrosshairVIIIImpact 65,17666,237

Gigabyte X570 Aorus Master 67,140 67,555

HANDBRAKEH.264VIDEOENCODING

0 250k 500k 750k 1 mil

AsusCrosshairVIIIImpact 788,321 855,064

Gigabyte X570 Aorus Master 835,226 848,107

Stockspeed Overclocked

HEAVYMULTITASKING

0 100k 200k 300k 400k

AsusCrosshairVIIIImpact 290,449301,591

Gigabyte X570 Aorus Master 301,228 306,477

SYSTEMSCORE

0 100k 200k 300k 400k

AsusCrosshairVIIIImpact

Gigabyte X570 Aorus Master 306,884 315,214

295,023 308,658

TOTALSYSTEMPOWERCONSUMPTION

0 100W 200W 300W

AsusCrosshairVIIIImpact

GigabyteX570AorusMaster

101W101W

99W 100W

Stockspeed Overclocked Loweris better

Idle

0 100W 200W 300W

AsusCrosshair VIII Impact

Gigabyte X570 Aorus Master

249W 300W

262W 296W

Load

Stockspeedmin Stockspeedavg

Overclocked min Overclocked avg

1,920x 1,080,Highsettings

FAR CRY 5

0 40 80 120 160

AsusCrosshairVIIIImpact 92fps 120fps

95fps 120fps

Gigabyte X570 Aorus Master 91fps 122fps

96fps 121fps

OVERALLSCORE

87

PERFORMANCE

33 / 35

FEATURES

33 / 35

VALUE

21 / 30

VERDICT

A glorious return to form for Asus in the sub-ATX

enthusiast arena, but the Impact’s price and size

make it a niche product.

CROSSHAIR

+ Excellent

overclocker

+ Exceptional

cooling

+ Loads of features

CROSS HARE

• May not fit in
  some cases


• Very expensive

p 50 MHz vantage over many
other ar.

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ANTO