GIGABYTE Z790 Aorus Xtreme Motherboard Review: Flagship Z790 With Impressive VRM Thermals
by Gavin Bonshor on September 5, 2023 9:00 AM ESTGaming Performance
When it comes to testing motherboards, much of the performance between most of the boards tested with the same processor such as the Intel Core i9-13900K, is fairly similar. The main reason we're testing gaming performance in our motherboard reviews is to see if there are any anomalies. There are also occasions on platforms where some vendors will 'overcharge' performance by implementing Multi-Core Enhancement (MCE). This can alter performance far beyond what processor vendors such as AMD and Intel set as their default values.
For Z790 we are running using Windows 11 64-bit with the 22H2 update.
F1 2022: 1080p Ultra Settings
F1 2022: 4K High Settings
Total War: Warhammer 3: 1080p Ultra Settings
Total War: Warhammer 3: 4K High Settings
Focusing on gaming performance, the GIGABYTE Z790 Aorus Xtreme was competitive with other LGA1700 motherboards we've tested.
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duffie - Tuesday, November 21, 2023 - link
Just like most of the articles.PeachNCream - Tuesday, September 5, 2023 - link
At that price, I'm sure there will be several morons that will be proud to display their ignorance by purchasing one.timecop1818 - Wednesday, September 6, 2023 - link
Stopped caring about Gigabyte when they start to include the retarded "Killer" wifi. They can fuck off together with Dell and whoever else sells that shite.Zoolook - Wednesday, September 6, 2023 - link
Who uses Wifi on a desktop with 10Gb, other as an emergency, though I'm with you on the "Killer" wifi feelings in general.Aspernari - Saturday, September 9, 2023 - link
Yeah. Intel Wireless is known to be crap... Wait, no...Killer has been owned by Intel for a few years now.
PeachNCream - Monday, September 11, 2023 - link
The wireless adapters that Killer NICs ultimately use are typically bog standard Intel hardware which is reliable and generally uses decent drivers. That was absolutely not the case before the Intel acquisition, but as you rightfully point out, that isn't a factor.What IS a factor now is the markup for Killer software which is pitched as making your pings lower by giving game packets priority when deciding which to send first. That impacts only the outbound packet traffic and only until it reaches an apathetic home router or your first ISP router where no one gives any priority. So of the potentially hundreds or thousands of miles of cable and dozens of pieces of routing equipment between your PC and a destination, you impact the first 30m or less and only on the outbound side since return trip packets arrive in the order in which they arrive regardless of what a local network adapter might articulate as important. That's the trouble with Killer NICs. There is no actual benefit and no good reason for the branding to continue to exist. At best, its harmless and at worst, the added software layer that processes and pointlessly allocates priority to game traffic is a liability in terms of CPU utilization and added code complexity.
Don't buy into the Ian Cutress baloney. He had a published friendship with ages old Killer personnel and abused his position at Anandtech to boost their products back in 2016. They are not and have never been measurably beneficial to the end user even under Intel's care as they are now.
timecop1818 - Wednesday, September 6, 2023 - link
> As it stands, this is one of the most high-end integrated audio solutions we've seen on a motherboardHmm no mention that ALC4082 is one of those garbage USB audio solutions. I had no idea that was a thing until getting my Asus Z690 mini itx board and finding out that this stuff is indeed trash.
Threska - Wednesday, September 6, 2023 - link
Well it's good enough for beeps and boops, while the real audiophiles are running an external solution via a fiber connection for the purest "0" and "1"'s one can buy.hansmuff - Wednesday, September 6, 2023 - link
That's a very niche audience wanting to have this board, is it not? All that I/O could make for a decent workstation, but then the PCI-E is all messed up just to have those TB connectors. On a workstation I'd want a PCI-E card with 4 or so NVMe SSDs on it and the appropriate throughput.I just find it strange to limit the PCI-E bus for the sake of having all those onboard things. PCI-E lets the user pick what they need and then put it on the bus. All that onboard is great with a real workstation chipset that has endless lanes coming from the CPU, but this....?!??!
Aspernari - Saturday, September 9, 2023 - link
Place the blame on Intel for killing HEDT, and pretty harshly constraining CPU PCIe lanes on desktop/consumer CPUs. Your complaint about onboard components is somewhat moot when there's only a total of 20 CPU lanes to start with, and 16 of those are probably going to a GPU, 4 to an NVMe device, probably through a switch.