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Thanks to X3D CPUs like the Ryzen 7 9850X3D , AMD's partners are still pushing out new high-end motherboards, like Asus' latest flagship ROG Crosshair X870E Glacial, which is on our test bench today. This icy white E-ATX motherboard is the pinnacle of Asus' technology on the X870E platform. In typical flagship fashion, the board is covered in heatsinks, magnetic shrouds, and even includes a large 5-inch LCD. You can tell just by looking at it that this board is both impressive and expensive. At $1,199.99, it is costly and right up there with other recently released flagships like the MSI X870E Godlike X and Gigabyte’s X870E Aorus Xtreme X3D AI TOP, both well over $1,000.
I’m not sure where to start regarding features, as there are so many to cover. There’s a whopping seven M.2 sockets between the included Hyper M.2 and DIMM.2 add-in-cards, with three capable of running the full PCIe 5.0 x4 bandwidth (the fourth 5.0 x2). It’s also the only desktop-class board with two 10 GbE ports. On top of that, the Glacial has an incredibly robust 28-phase VRM, a high-end audio solution with integrated DAC/AMP, and loads of other perks, including EZ PC DIY and AI features (for overclocking, cooling, and performance) that aim to pull you in. On top of all the hardware, it looks good too, though some of the bottom shrouds need to be removed to install a graphics card in the top PCIe slot, taking away from the aesthetic.
The ROG Crosshair X870E Glacial performed well across our test suite. Productivity results were in line with other AM5 boards, occasionally surpassing or falling short of the average. While gaming benchmarks like 3DMark were slower, performance in actual games was good, with most differences only notable in synthetic tests. Overall, the board delivers solid performance, looks good, and is fully featured.
Below, we’ll examine the Glacial's performance and other features to determine whether it deserves a spot on our list of the best motherboards . But before we share test results and discuss details, here are the specifications from Asus’ website:
Specifications of the Crosshair X870E Glacial
Swipe to scroll horizontally Socket AM5 (LGA 1718) Chipset X870E Form Factor E-ATX Voltage Regulator 28 Phase (24x 110A MOSFETs for Vcore) Video Ports (2) USB4 Type-C DisplayPort USB Ports (2) USB 4 (40 Gbps) Type-C
(4) USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) Type-C (8) USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) Network Jacks (2) 10 GbE Audio Jacks (2) Analog + SPDIF Legacy Ports/Jacks ✗ Other Ports/Jack ✗ PCIe x16 (2) v5.0 (x16, x8/x8, x8/x4/x4, X4/X4/X4/X4) PCIe x8 ✗ PCIe x4 ✗ PCIe x1 ✗ CrossFire/SLI ✗ DIMM Slots (4) DDR5-9600(OC), 256GB Capacity
8600+MT/s(OC)**/8200+MT/s(OC)*** with Ryzen™ 9000 Series 9600+MT/s(OC)**/9200+MT/s(OC)*** with Ryzen™ 8000 Series 8000+MT/s(OC)**/8000+MT/s(OC)*** with Ryzen™ 7000 Series M.2 Sockets (2) PCIe 5.0 x4 (128 Gbps) / PCIe (up to 110/80mm)
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