Best Motherboards Cpu Combo for Gaming – There aren’t really any bad choices here (unless maybe the i5). On one hand, the R5 reigns as king of value, while the 3900x dominates in terms of performance. Pair either one with their respective motherboards, watch some tutorials on overclocking, and fit your DIMMs with some high-speed RAM modules, and you’re bound to create a station that’s going to master any software you throw at it.
ROUND UP
1.Gigabyte B450M DS3H
Features
- Supports AMD 3rd Gen Ryzen/ 2nd Gen Ryzen/ 1st Gen Ryzen/ 2nd Gen Ryzen with Radeon Vega Graphics/ 1st Gen Ryzen with Radeon Vega Graphics/ Athlon with Radeon Vega Graphics Processors
- Dual Channel Non-ECC Unbuffered DDR4, 4 DIMMs
- Intel Dual Band 802.11ac WIFI & BT 4.2
- Ultra-Fast PCIe Gen3 x4 M.2 with PCIe NVMe & SATA mode support
- High Quality Audio Capacitors and Audio Noise Guard Design
GIGABYTE motherboards are ready to support the latest AMD Ryzen™ 5000 Series Processors and are backwards compatible with AMD Ryzen™ 4000, 3000, 2000 and 1000 Series Processors.
With a rich list of features on GIGABYTE motherboards such as Ultra Durable™ Armor for PCIe/ memory slots, USB Type-C™ interfaces on select boards, refined audio quality, high speed Ethernet, and the latest standard WIFI design on selected models, GIGABYTE motherboards are perfect for users looking to build the best AMD platform systems.
Our category browser page lets you browse through recent Gigabyte B450M-DS3H reviews, discover new Gigabyte B450M-DS3H products and jump straight to their expert reviews.
2.ASUS AM4 TUF X570-Plus
Features
- AMD AM4 socket: Ready for 2nd and 3rd Gen AMD Ryzen processors to maximize connectivity and speed with up to two M.2 Drives, USB 3.2 Gen2 and AMD StoreMI
- Enhanced power solution: Military-grade TUF components, Pro Cool socket and Digi plus VRM for maximum durability
- Comprehensive Cooling: Active PCH heatsink, VRM heatsink, M.2 heatsink, hybrid fan headers and Fan Xpert
- Next-Gen connectivity: Dual PCIe 4.0 m.2 and USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A/Type-C
- Gaming Networking: Exclusive Realtek L8200A Gigabit Ethernet, Intel 2x2 802.11ac Wi-Fi with MU-MIMO support, Bluetooth 5.0, TUF LANGuard and technology
- Please ensure your BIOS is up to date if installing a compatible Ryzen 5000 series CPU. Visit ASUS site search by motherboard model name, click on “Support” tab, Drivers and Tools, then BIOS and Firmware to download the latest BIOS
Like other X570 motherboards, the Asus TUF Gaming X570-Plus Wi-Fi supports both Ryzen 2000 and Ryzen 3000 series processors. It includes eight SATA ports and four DIMM slots capable of supporting up to 128GB of DDR4 RAM, although curiously, overclocked memory speed support is not listed.
For networking and audio, we find a Realtek L8200A GbE NIC and Realtek ALC S1200A audio codec (albeit an Asus’ tweaked version), which is capable of 7.1 surround and DTS ausio. Below is a complete list of specifications from Asus.
The X570-Plus Wi-Fi handled overclocking our Ryzen 7 3700X without a complaint and performed well in our benchmarks at stock speeds, making it a good base to build a new AMD Ryzen 3000 series system.
3.ASUS ROG Strix Z490-E
Features
- Intel LGA 1200 socket: Designed to unleash the maximum performance of 10th Gen Intel Core processors
- Robust Power Solution: 14+2 power stages with ProCool II power connector, high-quality alloy chokes and durable capacitors to provide reliable power even when push the CPU performance to the limit
- Optimized Thermal Design: Except comprehensive heatsink, heatpipe and fan headers, features low-noise AI cooling to balance thermals and acoustics by reducing fan speeds and maintaining a 5 Celsius delta
- High-performance Gaming Networking: On-board Intel WiFi 6 AX201 (802. 11 ax) and Intel 2. 5 Gb Ethernet with ASUS LANGuard
- Best Gaming Connectivity: Supports HDMI 1. 4 and DisplayPort 1. 4 output, and featuring dual M. 2 , front panel USB 3. 2 Gen 2 Type-C connector.Industry-leading Gaming Audio: High fidelity audio with the SupremeFX S1220A codec, DTS Sound Unbound and Sonic Studio III draws you deeper into the game action.Unmatched Personalization: ASUS-exclusive Aura Sync RGB lighting, including RGB headers and Gen 2 addressable headers
The Z490-E Gaming we have for review performed well overall across our testing suite. While it tended to be a bit on the slower side in the Office tests (the performance difference isn’t noticeable), it did well in tests for compression/decompression (7-zip), encoding (LAME) and rendering (Cinebench).
In the end, there are no concerns with the performance of this motherboard in both the stock configuration as well as when your CPU is overclocked. The Z490-E Gaming took our i9-10900K up to 5.2 GHz at 1.35V, with all cores and threads enabled (no AVX offset); we were only limited by CPU temperature. The VRMs proved more than capable to handle Intel’s current mainstream flagship processor.
4.MSI MPG X570
Features
- Supports 2nd and 3rd Gen AMD Ryzen/ Ryzen with Radeon Vega Graphics desktop processors for AM4 socket
- Supports ddr4 memory, up to 4400+(oc) MHz
- Audio boost 4 technology with nahimic 3 software enhancement for immersive experiences
- Frozr heatsink with patented fan design – propeller blade technology and double ball bearings
- Pre-installed IO shielding is grounded and protects the IO ports from potential electrostatic discharge damage from the external environment
The MPG X570 Gaming Plus’s bottom edge is lined with headers for front-panel audio, one (of two) RGB cables, TPM, four (of six) PWM fan headers, serial COM port, two dual-port USB 2.0, one (of two) dual-port USB 3.0, and an Intel-spec front-panel LED/button group.
Above those are a factory (reserved) header, chassis intrusion, PC speaker/buzzer, and one (of two) ARGB headers. The other RGB and ARGB headers are located near the board’s upper-front corner.
Capable of supporting either PCIe/NVMe or SATA interfaced drives, the second M.2 header is to the left of the PCH fan.
5.ASRock B450
Features
- CPU: Socket AM4, Digi Power design, 6 Power Phase design, Supports 105W Water Cooling (Pinnacle Ridge); Supports 95W Water Cooling (Summit Ridge); Supports 65W Water Cooling (Raven Ridge)
- Chipset: AMD Promontory B450. OS - Microsoft Windows 10 64-bit
- Slots: 6x PCI-Express 3.0 x16 Slots (one run at x8, three runs at x4, one run at x2), 4x PCI Express 2.0 x1 Slots
- Supports DDR4 3533+ (OC)
- 6 SATA3, 1 Ultra M.2 (PCIe Gen3 x4), 1 M.2 (PCIe Gen3 x2 & SATA3)
ASRock first introduced their Steel Legend motherboards back in January. This new series from ASRock is meant to give users great stability, a boatload of features, and a attractive design, all while keeping the price quite low. These boards feature ASRock’s “Full Spike” ESD protection for the USB, Ethernet, and audio ports, as well as utilize 60A power chokes and Nichicon 12K black capacitors.
The board we are taking a look at today is the B450 Steel Legend which is an the ATX model out of the pair (B450M Steel Legend is M-ATX). As you can guess this board leverages the AMD B450 chipset and besides the features we already mentioned this board makes use of a 6-phase power design, has dual M.2 slots, USB 3.1 gen 2 support, has ASRock’s “Steel Slot” on the PCI-Express x16 slot, and of course you are getting RGB on the board too! With all of these features can you believe this board is just over $100?! Read on as we take a look!
WRAP UP
It seems like the days when Intel reigned supreme in the CPU market are the tales of legend. Competition has been brewing in the PC market for some time now, but 2019 showed us that AMD was not only a worthy adversary for Team Blue, but they can also deliver a killing blow to their rivals in terms of value and raw performance. Now that a little time has passed since the major CPU releases of 2019, we can provide our readers with a confident breakdown of what the best CPU-mobo combos are for productivity and for gaming.