Gigabyte Z170-Gaming K3 (LGA1151) Motherboard Review
John Williamson / 9 years ago
Audio Performance
Overall, the motherboard’s audio chipset provides a great listening experience, especially at higher bit rates. The reproduction during 16-bit 44KHz testing wasn’t ideal though and plagued by lackluster noise levels as well disappointing total harmonic distortion + noise, dB(A). That’s not to say the audio at this bit rate is terrible, but some improvements can be made in this field. Thankfully, the audio quality is much better at 16 bit, 96KHz, and 24 bit 96KHz. This is more in tune with what I expected and impressive for a motherboard in the budget market.
16 Bit, 44KHz (DVD Quality)
16 Bit, 96KHz (Studio Quality)
24 Bit, 96KHz (Studio Quality)
DPC Audio Latency Analyser
In terms of latency, the motherboard manages a respectable figure although it’s lagging behind some of the higher end options. Despite this, the rating is way under what I would describe as problematic and pretty good when taking the asking price into account.
