Performance – Part 2
3D performance and games
3D tests were performed on the RTX4080 graphics card from Colorful, which, although not the fastest, is still considered a great gaming option on the current market.
All the UL benchmarks perform great and even slightly better than expected. Below are our results, which are close to the error margin compared to the reviewed X870 and X870E motherboards.
The PCIe bandwidth test shows us the typical PCIe 4.0 x16 bandwidth. Nothing unusual to see here.
The latest UL 3D benchmarks give us slightly better results than in our previous ASRock motherboard reviews.
UL benchmarks are mainly known for the 3DMark series, which has been a market standard for years. The new tests provide support for the latest graphics card technologies. However, they’re not games, and users often wish to know the results of their favorite titles. Since covering all games is impossible, some selected at 4K and ultra settings are below.
All the games give us results that are very close to what we could see on previously reviewed ASRock X870 and X870E motherboards. There are no stability issues during extended 3D tests, and we didn’t hear any noises from the motherboard during load changes, confirming the motherboard is well-designed.
Overclocking
The Ryzen 9 7950X is not the best chip for overclocking, but it still runs without issues at 5400MHz at all cores, which is an above-average result. The same maximum frequency could be set on the most expensive X870E motherboards, so the X870 NOVA is clearly a good option for overclockers who always want more.
We can find all the settings we need in the BIOS for CPU and RAM overclocking. The only downside is a problem with a 6400MT/s at a 1:1 ratio, which may be related to our review sample or an early BIOS version. The tested motherboard was shipped just after the premiere.
As in all ASRock motherboards, we have the whole list of AMD overclocking options in a separate tab, in addition to ASRock options. However, less advanced users may pick one of the easy-to-set PBO profiles prepared by ASRock for various power limits.
In short, if you count on overclocking, the X870 NOVA for sure won’t limit you.
