ASUS TUF Gaming X870-Pro WiFi7 W NEO Review - Tuffed up

TweakTown Rating: 91%

Our Verdict

Strong connectivity options, good value for money, and an attractive design make this ASUS a great option for users looking to build a high-spec PC without spending huge money.

Pros

• Lots of fast USB ports
• USB PD (30W)
• Good VRM and dual PCIe 5.0 M.2
• Refined and visually appealing BIOS
• External clock generator

Cons

• M.2 and USB4 lane sharing
• 160MHz WiFi 7 only

Should you buy it?

AvoidConsiderShortlistBuy

Buy at Amazon for $349.99 USD

Also at Newegg $349.99 USD

Buy at Amazon for $499.99 CAD

Also at Newegg $511.56 CAD

Buy at Amazon for £651.96

Buy at PC Case Gear for $489

Also at Amazon

Introduction, Specifications, and Pricing

We're well into the lifecycle of AMD's 800-series chipsets, but it's not yet time to turn our attention to Zen 6 and the presumably named 900-series motherboards. There's plenty of life in the X870 chipset yet, especially given that generational features like DDR6, PCIe 6.0, and USB5 are years away from consumer-level release.

It's nearly two years since the release of the X870 and X870E chipsets, and in that time, features such as USB4 and 5G LAN have fallen in price to levels where they can be integrated into cheaper boards, and so a refresh like the ASUS TUF Gaming X870-Pro WiFi7 NEO really does make a lot of sense. We have the white/silver version in for review; a black option is available, too.

Feature-wise, the X870-Pro NEO offers a strong feature set for its price. It's got very good connectivity options, including 5G LAN, WiFi 7, dual USB4, dual PCIe 5.0 M.2 slots, a 64MB BIOS ROM, and DIY-friendly features. It also has an external clock generator that isolates the CPU base clock from memory, PCIe, and the Infinity Fabric, allowing for finely tuned overclocks. Its white/silver design will appeal to buyers looking for a light-themed build. White builds just look so clean and fresh.

The X870-Pro NEO supports AMD AM5 Ryzen 7000, 8000, and 9000 series CPUs. It supports up to 256GB of memory at 9600 MT/s+. It comes with a range of ease-of-use features, including a toolless primary M.2 heatsink, a PCIe quick-release mechanism, and a Wi-Fi EZ-plug.

The board is currently available for $349. It's definitely not a board you'd call cheap, but it's well below the price of the cheapest ROG Strix boards, and it's a good option for buyers looking for a light-coloured ASUS board with strong connectivity options.

Packaging, Accessories, and Overview

Packaging and Accessories

31

Best Deals: ASUS TUF Gaming X870-Pro WiFi7 W NEO Motherboard

Prices last scanned 8 hours and 17 minutes ago

Today 7 days ago 30 days ago Buy

$349.99 USD

-

-

BuyBuy at Amazon

$349.99 USD

-

-

BuyBuy at Newegg

$499.99 CAD

-

-

BuyBuy at Amazon

$511.56 CAD

-

-

BuyBuy at Newegg

£651.96

-

-

BuyBuy at Amazon

$489

-

-

BuyBuy at PC Case Gear

Check Price

-

-

CheckCheck Price at Amazon

The X870-Pro NEO's box matches the board's theme. It's also got a sticker with a link to ASUS's cloud storage platform.

31

The rear of the box is jammed with all of the board's key specifications, features, and compliance logos. ASUS could hardly include anything else.

31

The board comes with a fairly typical set of accessories. Here we see the well-made WiFi antenna, some M.2 spacer pads, and two SATA cables.

31

Next up is a quick-start guide, some stickers, and more information on ASUS's WebStorage platform.

Motherboard Overview

31

The X870-Pro NEO has a fairly busy design, with silk-screening and branding across the VRM and chipset heatsinks. Perhaps ASUS could have done something more with the secondary M.2 heatsink, though in fairness, it would usually be covered by a graphics card anyway. There's a small RGB area adjacent to the chipset heatsink, and you also get three ARGB headers on the board. The board would look really good in a white case with matching components, and white boards are naturally better suited to different RGB color schemes.

The USB header complement is excellent, offering a range of options to suit your case. The board provides up to six USB 2.0 ports, two USB 5Gbps ports, and a single Type-C 20Gbps port. The Type-C port supports 30W fast charging, which is always welcome for connecting and charging all manner of wireless devices. Six USB 2.0 ports may seem excessive, but they're useful for connecting internal devices like an AIO cooler.

The X870-Pro NEO features a range of DIY-friendly features, including a toolless primary M.2 heatsink with a Q-latch locking mechanism, PCIe quick-release, and one-click WiFi antenna. The secondary M.2 heatsink is still a screw-in affair, but I don't mind seeing that, as screwed-on heatsinks can provide a more even connection with the attached thermal pad, which can reduce temperatures. It's a bit fiddlier though.

Other key headers and connectors include support for eight fan headers along with a thermistor header. A power button or debug LED would be nice, but you can't have everything on a $350 board. Interestingly, it has a COM port header for those looking for a board to use with legacy devices.

Like most 800 series refresh boards, the X870-Pro NEO includes a 64MB BIOS ROM. That means the board won't have issues supporting future processor generations. With the current AI boom cannibalizing PC component supply, there's every chance AM5 and, particularly, DDR5 memory will remain on the market for many years to come, much as AM4 still is nearly 10 years after its launch.

31

Four DIMM slots support up to DDR5-9600+ speeds with an 8000 series APU. ASUS claims its NitroPath memory technology delivers up to 400 MT/s faster speeds with these optimizations. With Zen 6 rumored to include a new I/O die and CUDIMM support, there's every chance the X870-Pro NEO will be able to hit DDR5-10000 with a simple EXPO setting. One shudders at the potential price of such a kit, though.

It's always worth mentioning that for Zen 5, AMD recommends memory in the 6000-6400 MT/s range in 1:1 mode for the best balance of speed, latency, and compatibility.

31

The board offers two PCIe x16 slots. The primary slot supports PCIe 5.0 x16, while the other supports PCIe 4.0 at up to x4 electrically. Note that ASUS opted for a single X870 chipset instead of the dual X870E, which means there are some lane-sharing compromises when this slot is used concurrently with the M.2_4 slot. When both are occupied, each runs at PCIe 4.0 x2.

The X870-Pro NEO supports up to four M.2 SSDs, with two supporting PCIe 5.0 and two supporting PCIe 4.0. The primary slot supports PCIe 5.0 x4 drives and is cooled by a dedicated heatsink with a well-designed toolless mechanism. The other three slots are cooled by a single large plate.

The compromise here concerns the sharing of lanes between the second PCIe 5.0 M.2 slot and the USB4 ports. The M.2_2 slot runs at x2 mode by default. You can switch it to X4 mode in the BIOS, but this will disable the USB4 ports. When the M.2_2 slot is unused, the USB4 ports run at their full PCIe 4.0 x4 speed.

The four M.2 slots are joined by two SATA ports.

31

The M.2 heatsinks are quite bland in appearance, something I don't often say! The primary heatsink has a little less surface area than some competitors, but it still produces a good result and keeps the SSD temperature at 57 degrees. As always, good case airflow is a must if you plan to thrash an SSD for extended periods.

31

The X870-Pro NEO features a solid 16+2+1-phase VRM with 80A stages. It's not the most powerful VRM we've come across, but given Ryzen 9 chips are not extreme power guzzlers, it is more than sufficient. Unless future Zen chips come with a shocking increase in power consumption (bearing in mind such chips need to run on A and B series boards too), it's safe to say the X870-Pro NEO is well placed to handle the demands of next-generation chips.

I was impressed by the cooling performance of the TUF X870-Pro NEO. The VRM heatsinks provide a lot of surface area, with deep channels and an area that extends to the rear I/O, which usually sits immediately adjacent to a rear case fan. Though not the best performing board in our VRM test, it's only a few degrees behind, which is pretty much negligible in the real world.

31

The rear I/O of the X870-Pro NEO is particularly notable for its high-speed USB port complement. It starts with dual USB4 Type-C ports, both of which support DP 1.4a. There's also an HDMI 2.1 port, which gives you triple-monitor support without a GPU. The USB4 ports are joined by three 10Gbps ports, four 5Gbps ports, and a single USB 2.0 port. One extra USB 2.0 port would make sense, as two could be used for a keyboard and mouse. 10 ports in total are a good amount.

A Realtek RTL8126 controller provides a single 5G LAN port. The Realtek RTL8922AE WiFi 7 controller supports 160 MHz connections.

Next are the audio ports, which consist of 3.5mm line-in and line-out ports. S/PDIF is absent, but there's a header on the board if you must have it. These are driven by a Realtek ALC1220P codec.

Finally, there are CMOS clear and BIOS flashback buttons. Also note the large cutout.

UEFI and Test System

UEFI

31

ASUS has overhauled the UEFI design on its NEO motherboards. The EZ Mode page includes almost all the settings a set-and-forget type user will need. It's easy to read and shows important monitoring information, along with links to the fan control settings. Many users will never even need to navigate to the advanced section.

ASUS has introduced a new Essential Mode page that bridges the gap between EZ mode and the more difficult-to-navigate Advanced section. Here, users can access features such as PBO settings, CPU core ratio, and memory frequency. There is space here for simple CPU and DRAM voltage controls, but such settings really do belong in the advanced section, so it's not an issue. The advanced section is where overclockers will feel at home.

ASUS BIOSes are always packed with features and settings. The advanced pages can be a little difficult to navigate for inexperienced users, but that's usually the case for any manufacturer. I like the hardware monitoring section located on the right on all pages.

An extra shoutout has to go to ASUS for its wonderfully designed Q-Fan control page, which offers several automatic options or can be fully customized, even allowing you to set fan curves based on a thermistor sensor.

Test System

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 9950X - Buy from Amazon
• GPU: MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super Ventus 3X - Buy from Amazon
• RAM: G.Skill Trident Z Neo RGB 2x16GB DDR5-6000 CL30 - Buy from Amazon
• Cooler: Cooler Master MasterLiquid PL360 Flux - Buy from Amazon
• OS Storage: Teamgroup T-Force Z540 2TB - Buy from Amazon
• Power Supply: Super Flower Leadex Titanium 850W - Buy from Amazon
• OS: Microsoft Windows 11 Pro - Buy from Amazon

Benchmarks - Rendering and Encoding

Cinebench 2024

Cinebench 2024 is a reliable, widely used benchmark that measures both single- and multi-threaded performance. Note that all our benchmark testing used the latest available Windows updates.

31

A result of 2,299 in the nT test and 141 in the 1T test is strong. It's one of two boards to hit 141 in the 1T test.

Blender

A rendering application like Blender is just one of many reasons a user might consider a high-core-count CPU, such as the Ryzen 9 9950X. We use the Whitelands demo file and record how long it takes to render the image.

31

Though the entire field is covered by only 9 seconds over the course of a test that takes over 7 minutes, it's better to be near the top rather than the bottom.

Handbrake

Handbrake is a simple-to-use video encoding and transcoding application. Here, we convert a 4K movie trailer to 1080p. The results below show the average FPS, where a higher value indicates the task will take less time to complete.

31

It's another strong result for the X870-Pro NEO.

Benchmarks - File Compression and Memory Latency

7Zip

7Zip is a commonly used free file compression and decompression app. It's very sensitive to changes in memory speed and latency, and scales with the number of CPU threads.

31

The X870-Pro NEO doesn't lack performance when it comes to memory.

AIDA64 Memory Latency

Memory latency has been an area where Intel has traditionally held an advantage. Chiplet architectures inevitably add some latency compared to monolithic chips. The real-world benefits aren't that important, though.

31

The dual-DIMM boards have a small edge here, but the X870-Pro NEO isn't far behind.

Benchmarks - 3DMark

3DMark Storage

UL's newest 3DMark SSD Gaming Test is the most comprehensive SSD gaming test ever devised. It is superior to testing against games themselves because, as a trace, it is much more consistent than variations that will occur between runs of the actual game.

31

It's another decent result for the X870-Pro NEO.

3DMark Time Spy Extreme

Time Spy Extreme has lost favor as a graphics benchmark to Speed Way and Steel Nomad, but its CPU test is still a good measure of multi-core performance.

31

The differences in Time Spy Extreme are minor, with only a few hundred points separating them when measured by CPU score.

Benchmarks - Gaming

Cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunk 2077 is brutal on graphics cards, but when things like ray tracing are removed, it becomes more sensitive to CPU and memory performance differences.

31

It's no surprise that the motherboard makes little difference in graphically limited scenarios.

Horizon Zero Dawn

When using the 'favor performance' preset, Horizon Zero Dawn can achieve high frame rates with powerful graphics cards.

31

It's the top spot for the NEO. Though the differences here are negligible in percentage terms. If you're lucky enough to own an RTX 5090, the margins would be a little larger.

Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition

Metro Exodus received an update that added improved DLSS support, enhanced ray tracing, and variable rate shading, among other features. Still, with a powerful graphics card, it is affected by CPU and memory performance at 1080p, though less so with a card like the RTX 4070 Ti Super.

31

Just four frames per second cover the entire field in this test.

VRM and SSD Temperatures

These tests are performed to show off the differences between each motherboard's cooling assemblies. Each board is subjected to a 20-minute Cinebench loop, while the SSD test records the peak temperature during the lengthy 3DMark Storage test.

31

A peak temperature of 56 degrees is a good result for the X870-Pro NEO. It outperforms a few more expensive boards, though it's not really expected to beat boards with finned heatsinks and much higher surface area.

31

ASUS M.2 heatsinks usually aren't as large as those of some of its competitors, which sometimes include tower-style heatsinks that measure several centimeters in height. With that in mind, 57 degrees isn't a bad result, indicating the heatsink retention mechanism makes good contact with the hot components on the SSD.

Final Thoughts

The ASUS TUF Gaming X870-Pro WiFi 7 W NEO (gosh, that's a clunky name) looks like a new model rather than one with a few aesthetic and cost-saving tweaks. It's hard to see how next-generation motherboards will significantly change the motherboard marketplace. Until technologies such as USB5, PCIe 6.0, or DDR6 memory arrive, next-gen boards probably won't have major specification changes outside of AMD-specific ones, such as CUDIMM support. With that in mind - and with future CPU support guaranteed, buying a board like the X870-Pro NEO is sure to be a safe bet that will last you for many years to come.

You'll surely already know if you want a black or white-themed board. But it's hard to argue with the clean look a white-themed build can offer. The X870-Pro NEO's white-and-silver theme will make it easy to blend into a wide variety of builds. I wouldn't describe it as a beautiful motherboard, but with the right partnering components, it will look great.

AM5 is now a well and truly mature platform, and benchmarking boards usually doesn't reveal much. That said, the board performed well in our benchmarks. That's important if you are building a high-spec system.

I'm also very pleased with what ASUS did with its refreshed UEFI. I now believe it is the best-looking UEFI on the market, and it's functionally excellent too. The addition of the Essential Mode is a great step between the novice-friendly EZ page and the Advanced section.

31

In terms of connectivity and networking, the only notable criticism I have is the lack of 320MHz WiFi 7. Does it matter? Your friendly neighborhood AI suggests the adoption rate of WiFi 7 is under 2% globally. Though that number will only increase. 5G LAN is now expected on upper mid-range boards. The USB complement is also very good, with plenty of high-speed ports for all your devices, and 30W USB PD for the front Type-C header is welcome.

The four M.2 slots - two of which support PCIe 5.0 - mean the X870-Pro NEO is a great option for users frequently shifting around large files. There are some inevitable compromises that come with dual PCIe 5.0 slots and dual USB4 ports on an X870 motherboard, but ASUS obviously felt they were acceptable rather than resorting to charging extra for an X870E variant.

ASUS usually doesn't try to compete on price, but at $349, it's a strong offering with a competitive feature set. Among white offerings, the GIGABYTE AORUS Elite X3D ICE appears to be its closest competitor. At a glance, it lacks USB PD, but has superior cooling. Otherwise, it's similar in spec and price. Your choice may come down to looks.

For $349, the ASUS TUF Gaming X870-Pro WiFi7 W NEO ticks the essential boxes. It performs well, offers good cooling, supports dual PCIe 5.0 SSDs, WiFi 7, 5G LAN, fast memory, and lots of fast USB ports. At this price, it earns our Best Features Award.