BIOSTAR X570GTA Motherboard Review

There's certainly no shortage of great AMD motherboards out there right now. With the rising dominance of the Ryzen CPU, there's never been more choice for AMD customers. BIOSTAR may not be the biggest name here in the UK, however, they've proven before that they can make a competitive board and often very competitive prices. That seems to be the goal of the X570GTA. Now, I'm not sure if they're just lifting that name from Grand Theft Audio, but their latest Racing series motherboard promises to be an attractive option for those on a tighter budget. BIOSTAR X570GTA While it's not the most feature-packed motherboard, it's hardly lacking in features either. It still has the usual X570 chipset with the PCB fan. It also has support for four DIMMs of high-speed DDR4 memory. Plus, with built-in HDMI, PCIe M.2, Gigabit LAN, etc, it's ticking all the right boxes for your typical AMD PC build. What it lacks are the "premium" looks you get on more expensive boards, it's a little more stripped back, but honestly, I'm OK with that if the performance is still there. Oh, and they put so much time into this amazing graphic I found on their website that I just had to include it. I'm serious, I really love that graphic! Features Supports AMD Ryzen APU / Ryzen CPUAMD X570 single chip architectureSupports 4-DIMM DDR4-1866/ 2133/ 2400/ 2667/2933(OC)/ 3200(OC)/ 3600(OC)/ 4000+(OC) up to 128GB maximum capacityUSB 3.1 Gen1PCI-e M.2 4.0 (64Gb/s)HDMI 4K resolution RGB SyncRacing ArmourM.2 Heatsink Specifications For in-depth specifications and hardware support, please visit the official BIOSTAR X570GTA product page here. What BIOSTAR Had to Say "BIOSTAR RACING Gen4 AMD X570GTA is ready to open new world. It offers high-fidelity visuals, high-efficiencies, lightning-fast performance and quick responsiveness to take your design to the next level. It has the coolest features and most innovative technologies to help you get started on your next masterpiece. It’s time to use our powers and come together, power creator is you." - BIOSTAR CPU Support Please keep in mind that Ryzen X570 motherboards only support Ryzen 2nd Gen and 3rd Gen CPUs. Despite being AM4 sockets, they do not currently work with Ryzen 1st Gen processors. Furthermore, for those wanting to use the full PCIe 4.0 functionality, you'll also need to use the latest 3rd Gen CPUs. A Closer Look The BIOSTAR X570GTA is a pretty basic motherboard, and I mean that respectfully. It's not as glamorous as some models on the market, but it looks functional and presentable, and it's priced to reflect that, which is absolutely fine. It has a printed decal on the board, much like previous Racing Series boards from BIOSTAR. Since this is X570, it does need that active chipset cooler. It's an exposed fan with a modest metal heatsink around it; it doesn't look pretty, but it'll do the job just fine. Surrounding the chipset, you'll find four SATA ports towards the bottom of the board and a further two above it. RGB Despite the basic design, there are some premium features here too. The capacitors look to be of good quality for one. Secondly, there's both 5V and 12V LED headers here. There are four DIMM slots for DDR4. They're not armoured or anything fancy like that, but again, perfectly functional. AM4 The AM4 socket is ready for the 3rd Gen of AMD Ryzen CPUs. Of course, it's backwards compatible with previous generations too. There's a good amount of power delivery hardware too, with a modest-sized heatsink to the left of the socket. This should be more than enough to help your Ryzen CPU maintain its boost clocks for longer. I'm not sure it'll be an overclocking beast, but again, that's not really the market for this board. Plus, the CPU only has the single 8-pin header. That's enough power for the biggest Ryzen CPU, but again, not much-overclocking headroom for those wanting extreme performance from the flagships. Speaking of power, this is reassuring to see located behind the rear I/O. M.2 They've not stripped away all the premium features, clearly. There's a single M.2 mount with a pre-fitted M.2 shield/cooler. Plus, the top PCIe 4.0 slot is armoured to support heavier GPUs. There are two full-size lanes and two 1x lane on offer. Even the audio hardware has a few parks, such as these gold audio capacitors and a separate trace on the motherboard to prevent interference. Rear I/O The rear I/O shield is not pre-installed, it's included in the box. However, you will find a good range of USB ports here, with four of them being USB 3.1. There are three audio outputs and Gigabit LAN. Despite having HDMI, they've still included VGA, I haven't seen one of those in a white, that's for damn sure! Finally, the rear of the motherboard has the stock mounting plate. How We Test Here at eTeknix, we endeavour to disclose vital information regarding the benchmarking process so that readers can quantify the results and attempt to replicate them using their hardware. When it comes to our benchmarks in our reviews, the benchmarks are pretty self-explanatory although there are a few exceptions. Remember that your choice of motherboard, the silicon lottery, and other factors can yield different numbers, and there’s always a margin for error when using any software. Therefore, your experience may vary. Testing Your Own System Links are provided below, as well as the settings we use. We encourage you to not just look at how one product compares to any other, but how it compares to your own. If you’re looking to build a new system, you should benchmark your current PC using our benchmarks and settings where possible. You should then look at the percentage improvement from your current hardware to the hardware we tested to give you a ballpark figure of how much an upgrade this will provide you with. Intel Testbenches Z390 Motherboard – Changes Per ReviewCPU – Intel Core i9-9900KRAM – Crucial 32GB (4 x 8GB) 3000 MHzCPU Cooler – Noctua D15SGraphics Card – Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 TiPower Supply – BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 850 WattMain Storage Drive – Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GBChassis – Lian Li T80 Test BenchOperating System – Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit Z370 Motherboard – Changes Per ReviewCPU – Intel Core i7-8700KRAM – Crucial 32GB (4 x 8GB) 3000 MHzCPU Cooler – Noctua D15SGraphics Card – Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 TiPower Supply – BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 850 WattMain Storage Drive – Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GBChassis – Lian Li T80 Test BenchOperating System – Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit X299 Motherboard – Changes Per ReviewCPU – Intel Core i9-7900XRAM – Crucial DDR4 2400MHz Quad-Channel 32GBCPU Cooler – Noctua D15S with dual fansGraphics Card – Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 TiPower Supply – BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 850 WattMain Storage Drive – Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GBChassis – Lian Li T80 Test BenchOperating System – Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit B360 Motherboard – Changes Per ReviewCPU – Intel Core i7-8700KRAM – Crucial 16GB (2 x 8GB) 2666 MHzCPU Cooler – Noctua D15SGraphics Card – Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 TiPower Supply – BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 850 WattMain Storage Drive – Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GBChassis – Lian Li T80 Test BenchOperating System – Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit AMD Testbenches X399 (Threadripper) Motherboard – Changes Per ReviewCPU – Threadripper 1950XRAM – Crucial 32GB (4 x 8GB) 3000 MHzCPU Cooler – Noctua D15SGraphics Card – Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 TiPower Supply – BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 850 WattMain Storage Drive – Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GBChassis – Lian Li T80 Test BenchOperating System – Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit X570 Motherboard – Changes Per ReviewCPU – Ryzen 9 3900XRAM – G.Skill 3400MHz Dual Channel 16GBCPU Cooler – Noctua D15S with dual fansGraphics Card – Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 TiPower Supply – BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 850 WattMain Storage Drive – Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GBChassis – Lian Li T80 Test BenchOperating System – Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit X470 Motherboard – Changes Per ReviewCPU – Ryzen 7 2700XRAM – G.Skill 3400MHz Dual Channel 16GBCPU Cooler – Noctua D15S with dual fansGraphics Card – Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 TiPower Supply – BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 850 WattMain Storage Drive – Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GBChassis – Lian Li T80 Test BenchOperating System – Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit X370 Motherboard – Changes Per ReviewCPU – Ryzen 7 1800XRAM – GeIL DDR4 2977MHz Dual Channel 16GBCPU Cooler – Noctua D15S with dual fansGraphics Card – Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 TiPower Supply – BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 850 WattMain Storage Drive – Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GBChassis – Lian Li T80 Test BenchOperating System – Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit B450 Motherboard – Changes Per ReviewCPU – Ryzen 7 2700XRAM – G.Skill 3400MHz Dual Channel 16GBCPU Cooler – Noctua D15S with dual fansGraphics Card – Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 TiPower Supply – BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 850 WattMain Storage Drive – Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GBChassis – Lian Li T80 Test BenchOperating System – Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit Games and Settings Used All games are tested on a 60 Hz display with V-Sync off for all tests. Rise of the Tomb Raider (Steam)DX12 Medium PresetPure Hair OffDeus Ex (Steam)DX12 Medium PresetGhost Recon: Wildlands (Uplay)Medium PresetTurf Effects OffFar Cry Primal (Uplay)Normal Preset Software Used 3DMark Fire Strike (download)FireStrike (1080p) BenchmarkUnigine Superposition (download)1080p Extreme BenchmarkPCMark 10 Professional (download)Express BenchmarkWPrime (download)32M and 1024MPower usage recorded at 1024M 50% complete, thermals recorded at 75% completeCineBench R15 (download)CPU MultiCPU SingleCineBench R20 (download)CPU MultiCPU SingleHandbrake (download)Custom MP4 to MKV 4K conversion (details below)AIDA64 Engineer (download)CPU-Z (download)HWMonitor (download) Handbrake To stress processors to their absolute limit and accurately judge their performance in video editing workloads, we transcode a 7.7GB compilation of gaming footage; this particular file is freely available from here. The captured footage is 22 minutes and 12 seconds long, it has a bit rate of 50.1 Mbps, and it uses the Advanced Video Codec. Additionally, the video runs at a constant 30 frames-per-second and opts for a 3820 x 2140 (4K) resolution. Once loaded into Handbrake, we then transcode the 4K MP4 to an MKV file using the “normal” profile. Other Notes A rest period of 2-5 minutes is observed between each piece of software allowing the system to return to its idle power usage and temperatures. Background services like Windows Update are checked to not be running during the testing period by setting WiFi to Metered Connection. Updates All games, graphics card drivers, BIOS, Windows and everything else is always kept up to date with the latest available. Older benchmarks may not be retested until stated otherwise. However, all hardware will be tested with the best and latest firmware and software available to that hardware at the time of review. As of 1st of May 2018, all hardware was retested on their latest drivers. Anything after this date will again be using their most recent versions available to them. Thanks Thank you to Noctua, Crucial, ASUS, Gigabyte, Lian-Li, be quiet!, OCZ, for providing the hardware that helps makes these tests possible! Synthetic Benchmarks Straight away, the BIOSTAR X570GTA is scoring rather well, not that I doubted it wouldn't be competitive. It scored a decent 24051 in FireStrike, more than enough to be competitive with other X570 motherboards. Honestly, that's pretty much the lesson here, it's competitive. It's not the fastest of any of the X570 motherboards and it's clearly not the slowest. It's pretty average for the chipset, which is rather impressive given it doesn't look half as fancy as some of its rivals. Basically it's fast because it has the mighty 3800X and it's obviously not hindering the performance of AMD's 8-core monster. Scores 3DMark – 24051Unigine – 5792PCMark 10 – 7451WPrime – 2.51/56.501Cinebench R15 – 208/3169Cinebench R20 – 499/7044Handbrake – 79.9 3DMark Firestrike Unigine Superposition PCMark 10 Express WPrime Cinebench R15 CineBench R20 Handbrake MP4 to MKV Conversion 4K Storage Performance BIOSTAR was kind enough to include their new M700 Series Gen3X4 M.2 SSD with this motherboard. So, while it doesn't take full advantage of the PCIe 4.0 technology it was still a pretty swift drive for what's meant to be a pretty affordable solution. Given it was rated to read up to 2000 MB/s and write up to 1600 MB/s it's pretty much right on the money here. We actually got 2082 Mbps read and 1679 MBps write out of it, slightly above the rated specifications. Gaming Performance The gaming performance is about what we could have expected too. It's actually pretty impressive both for X570, but still not quite up there with the Z390 motherboards. However, as we saw from previous X570 reviews, the 3800X we're using is enough to give even the best Intel has to offer cause for concern. There's nothing record-breaking here, but there's certainly nothing wrong with the performance either. Scores Rise of the Tomb Raider – 201.9Deus Ex – 97.2/129.2Ghost Recon – 106.73/131.2Far Cry – 101/131 Rise of the Tomb Raider Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Ghost Recon Far Cry Overclocking Just like all the other X570 motherboards we've reviewed to date, the X570GTA had no issues hitting 4.4 GHz on all cores. That's a solid overclock and did give some nice improvements to performance. This isn't a true overclocking motherboard though, and it just doesn't have as robust a feature set to push it hard for extended periods in my opinion. It'll get the job done for your typical gamer though, but perhaps not for your round the clock video rendering rig. Scores 3DMark – 24051WPrime – 2.501/55.808Cinebench R15 – 207/3420 Power Consumption How Much Does it Cost? Honestly, I haven't got a clue. I cannot find this motherboard in stock anywhere in the UK or the US. That begs the question, why did they send me a sample, since you can't buy it. At least, you can't where I shop. If you find one, let us know! That being said, we know the high-end X570 GT8 is around £194, but this is basically the budget model. I suspect it would be somewhere under the ASUS PRIME X570-P and the ASROCK X570 Gaming 4, which are £140-170. If it's under £150, it's a good deal, if it's over that, it's OK at best. Update 17/01/2020: I found stock in the UK at £148. This is just on the mark to remain competitive and about where I expected the price to be. Overview BIOSTAR is not the biggest name in the UK or even the US. However, in the Eastern parts of the world, they're a pretty huge name. Just because they're not that big here doesn't mean they aren't important and can't put a good motherboard together. Despite its obviously low-budget approach, the BIOSTAR X570GTA is a solid competitor right now, assuming the price is right and I suspect it will be when stock lands. Build Quality It has been built to a lower budget, and that's pretty clear when you see that it doesn't have armoured DIMM slots, or a built-in rear I/O shield, or built-in RGB lighting on the PCB. Of course, you don't need those things really, but if you do, expect to pay more for them. For a basic board, it does have a half-decent VRM setup, it does have PCIe 4.0 with active cooling, it does have M.2 with shield, and an armoured PCIe lane. So it's not exactly bottom of the barrel here, it has just enough to make it a meaningful release. The VGA port has me scratching my head though, I mean, just how many people are buying this, a Ryzen 3rd Gen and still relying on onboard chipsets for VGA output? I'm seriously asking. I suspect it may be a leftover of a variant of this board that went to the industrial markets, but I could be wrong, but it does have an OEM dressed for the public vibe about it. Performance Well, this is the most impressive thing really. It certainly isn't the slowest X570 board and it certainly isn't the fastest. However, it took our Ryzen 3800X with pride and even managed to thump throughout overclocking tests with no issues. Sure, you can get faster boards, but they'll cost you more and even then, there's not that much in it. For working, gaming, professional use, or unprofessional use, it's really pretty average across the board. That may sound like an insult, but it's really not. The average score is absolutely fine on our performance testing, and the X570GTA didn't go up against anything this affordable either. Added Value There's not a lot extra here, but there are a few things. The inclusion of both RGB and dRGB headers gives you some flexibility for lighting customisation directly from the motherboard. Ignoring the VGA output, it does also have an HDMI, making it great for the new Ryzen G CPUs on systems that don't need a dGPU. Plus, with two full-size PCIe slots, and two 1x PCIe slots, all offering PCIe 4.0 speeds, it does have some good expansion options. Should I Buy One I'm going to hold off on the award this time. If the price is right, it'll be a great motherboard for entry-level Ryzen 3rd Gen builds. Until then, I need to see it in stock in well-known stores before I cast final judgement. If you do find it at a competitive price, however, I have no issues with the performance here, it's a decent board overall despite lacking the visual thrills we're used to seeing. Update 17/01/2020: I found stock in the UK at £148. This is just on the mark to remain competitive and about where I expected the price to be.