X570 Motherboards Showdown: Aorus Pro Wi-Fi vs MSI MAG Tomahawk Wi-Fi vs Asus STRIX-F Gaming

Planning to build a new PC but having a hard time choosing the motherboard?

Then, you’ve come to the right place.

Today, we will be comparing three excellent X570 Motherboards from MSI, Gigabyte, Asus that are feature-rich and offer excellent value for money.

We have the Gigabyte’s X570 Aorus Pro WiFi, Asus’s ROG Strix X570-F Gaming, and MSI’s MAG X570 Tomahawk WiFi. All these motherboards fall in a similar price segment and have very similar specs as well.

Before we jump into the comparison, here’s a look at AMD’s X570 chipset.

AMD X570

The X570 supports up to 36x PCIe 4.0 Lanes and has enough slots for your Dual GPU Setups as well Capture/Sound Cards and all your favorite peripherals. It is the perfect match for every high-end Zen 3 CPU or APU.

Here’s a first look at the motherboards we will be comparing today.

ROG Strix X570-F
MSI X570 Tomahawk
Aorus X570 Pro WiFi
ROG Strix X570-F
MSI X570 Tomahawk
Aorus X570 Pro WiFi
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ROG Strix X570-F
MSI X570 Tomahawk
Aorus X570 Pro WiFi
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All three motherboards have a black PCB, a chipset fan, and a pre-mounted I/O shield. The heatsink design is pretty comparable and all three of them look great.

Here’s a look at the I/O.

Aorus X570 Pro WiFi IO
MSI X570 Tomahawk IO
ROG Strix X570-F IO
Aorus X570 Pro WiFi IO
MSI X570 Tomahawk IO
ROG Strix X570-F IO
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Aorus X570 Pro WiFi IO
MSI X570 Tomahawk IO
ROG Strix X570-F IO
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You wouldn’t find anything too different here except for the fact that Strix X570-F has no USB 2.0 Ports while Tomahawk has 2 and Aorus has 4. Each has one Gigabit LAN Port and one USB Type-C Port (USB 3.1).

The ROG Strix will obviously have no WiFi/Bluetooth antenna slots. You’ll notice that the Aorus Motherboard doesn’t have a BIOS Flashback button in the side I/O since it is present on the front just next to the RAM slots.

    Specification

Here’s a look at the specs of the three motherboards.

X570 AORUS PRO WIFI MAG X570 TOMAHAWK WIFI ROG Strix X570-F Gaming
Form-Factor ATX ATX ATX
Wi-Fi Support Yes, WiFi 6 Yes, WiFi 6 No
Wi-Fi Chip Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200
Bluetooth Support Yes Yes No
Ethernet Ports 1x Intel I211-AT 1x Realtek RTL8125B 1x Intel I211-AT
Ethernet Max Speed 1 Gbps 2.5 Gbps 1 Gbps
DAC Realtek ALC1220 VB Realtek ALC1200 SupremeFX S1220A
USB Type-C Ports 1 (USB 3.1) 1 (USB 3.1) 1 (USB 3.1)
USB 3.1 Type-A Ports 2 3 3
USB 3.0 Type-A Ports 3 2 4
USB 2.0 Ports 4 2 0
SATA 3 Ports 6 8 6
m.2 Slots 2x (PCIe 4 x4 or SATA 3) + (PCIe 4 x4 or SATA 3) 2x (PCIe 4 x4 or SATA 3) + (PCIe 4 x4 or SATA 3) 2x (PCIe 4 x4) + (PCIe 4 x4 or SATA 3)
Our Ratings 8.8/10 9.0/10 8.6/10

Based on the specs, I/O quantity, and quality, I’ve also given the motherboards a rating in the table above.

Both X570 AORUS PRO WIFI and the MAG X570 TOMAHAWK WIFI have the Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200’s chip. Read our article on WiFi-6 to understand all the new features WiFi 6 brings to the table. They both also support Bluetooth. But the ROG Strix X570-F Gaming supports neither.

The Aorus and ROG models have Intel I211-AT Gigabit LAN Card that supports speeds up to 1 Gbps and that should be good enough for the majority of the users.

However, if you have an internet connection that goes past that then you need to look at MSI’s X570 Tomahawk with Realtek RTL8125B. It supports speeds up to 2.5 Gbps.

Aorus X570 Pro WiFi has the Realtek ALC1220-VB Audio Codec while ROG Strix X570-F Gaming has SupremeFX S1220A which is just a fancy name for Realtek ALC1220. Thus, they’re pretty much on par in terms of audio output. MSI lags behind in sound quality with its Realtek ALC1200 Codec which is inferior to the ALC1220.

Overall, MSI Tomahawk has better Specs followed by Gigabyte and then Asus.

You can view the complete specs of each motherboard on their product page linked below:

    Features Compared

In this section, let’s look at some of the features that aren’t essential but enhances the user experience while building, debugging, overclocking, and using the PC.

X570 AORUS PRO WIFI MAG X570 TOMAHAWK WIFI ROG Strix X570-F Gaming
Audio Technologies Smart Headphone Amp MSI Audio Boost DTS Sound Unbound and Sonic Studio III
RGB Sync Technology RGB Fusion 2.0 Mystic Light Aura Sync
Debugging On-Board LEDs On-Board LEDs On-Board LEDs
PCI-E Slot Armor 2 Slots 1 Slot
Pre-Mounted I/O Shield Yes Yes Yes
BIOS Flashback Button Yes Yes Yes
BIOS Chip Qty. 2 1 1
BIOS Reset Only via 2-pin Jumper Only via 2-pin Jumper Only via 2-pin Jumper
Our Ratings 9.3/10 8.8/10 8.5/10

Gigabyte and Asus have superior Audio as I mentioned in the previous section above due to the superior codec. In terms of RGB Sync software, I would rather rate them from being the least bad instead of being the best. I’ve never had a flawless experience with any RGB Sync software and all the brands really need to work on that. But for me, Asus’s Aura Sync had the least issues, followed by Gigabyte and lastly, I’ve had the worst experience with MSI.

Sadly, there are no Debug LEDs or BIOS Reset Buttons in either of the three motherboards. These two features especially the BIOS reset button make it easier to go back to the default settings if the system fails to boot while tuning and overclocking the system.

But the good news is that all three motherboards come with the BIOS flashback button and you won’t have to worry about buying a motherboard that isn’t yet updated with a compatible BIOS for your new AMD processor. All three have pre-mounted I/O shields as well.

The Aorus Pro WiFI has two slots armored PCI-E slots while MSI Tomahawk WiFi has one and ROG Strix-F has none. The Gigabyte motherboard also has Dual BIOS which I find extremely helpful in those rare scenarios when the power goes off during the BIOS update and it can get corrupted.

The Aorus Pro WiFI comfortably wins this segment followed by MSI Tomahawk WiFi and at last, we have the ROG Strix X570-F Gaming.

    Test Setup

It is now time to test the power delivery of these motherboards and whether they are good enough for extreme overclocking. The test will be done for 1 hour and will be repeated thrice and then the average of three results will be considered.

Here’s the configuration I’ll be using for the VRM tests.

  • Open Air Test Bench
  • AMD Ryzen 7 3700x with PBO and Auto OC Enabled
  • 16 GB (8GBx2) G.Skill Trident Z RGB 3600 MHz (F4-3600C18D-16GTZRX)
  • Samsung 970 Evo Plus 500GB as Boot Drive
  • Wraith Prism CPU Cooler
  • Antec EarthWatts Gold Pro 650W PSU

    VRM Test & Overclocking Capabilities

Here’s some info on the VRMs of these motherboards as well as the test result.

X570 AORUS PRO WIFI MAG X570 TOMAHAWK WIFI ROG Strix X570-F Gaming
CPU Power 1x 8-pin + 1x 4-pin 1x 8-pin + 1x 4-pin 1x 8-pin + 1x 4-pin
VRM Phase 6×2 6×2 4
Doubler ISL6617A ISL6617
High-Side FET/Low-Side FET 1x SiC634 50A Power Stage 1x ISL99360 60A Power Stage 3x SiC639 50A Power Stage
PCB Backside Temperature 72° C 64° C 69° C
Notes Can be used for extreme overclocking of any AM4 CPU Can be used for extreme overclocking of any AM4 CPU Can be used for extreme overclocking of any AM4 CPU
Our Ratings 9.0/10 9.4/10 9.2/10

The PCB backside temperature of all three motherboards was well under the normal range and all three of them are good enough to handle extreme overclocking of any AM4 CPU including the 16-core Ryzen 9 5950X and Ryzen 9 3950X.

But when it comes to the best VRMs, the MAG Tomahawk Wi-Fi has the lead followed by ROG Strix X570-F Gaming and at last, we have X570 AORUS PRO WIFI. This difference shouldn’t matter for most people though since the temperatures are well under the safe range for all three boards.

    Verdict

Here are the pros. and cons. of all the three motherboards.

X570 AORUS PRO WIFI
  • Great Audio Quality
  • Dual BIOS
  • Feature Rich
  • RGB Sync Software could have been better
MSI X570 TOMAHAWK WIFI
  • Best VRMs among the three
  • 2.5 Gbps LAN Support
  • Feature Rich
  • Audio Quality could have been better
  • RGB Sync Software could have been better
Asus ROG Strix X570-F Gaming
  • Great Audio Quality
  • Better RGB Sync Technology
  • No Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support

If had to choose one among the three, I would either go with Aorus Pro WiFi or the MSI Tomahawk WiFi. They both are pretty much on par.

If you have an internet connection of over 1 Gbps and already own a DAC/AMP for your Headphones, it would make more sense to choose MSI X570 MAG Tomahawk WiFi.

But for most users, the Aorus X570 Pro WiFi would make the best choice due to being feature-rich and having an excellent audio output.

I’d go with Asus ROG Strix X570-F only if I didn’t care about Wi-Fi, wanted great audio, and the best RGB Sync Software. Otherwise, it is inferior compared to the other two.




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