Gigabyte Z170-Gaming K3 (LGA1151) Motherboard Review

Introduction Intel's current iteration of enthusiast processors offering impressive overclocking headroom incurs a fairly hefty premium compared to the previous generation especially if you're opting for the i7-6700K. Unfortunately, the retail version of this CPU sporting a 3 year warranty still teeters around the £300 mark, and falls into a similar budget to the 6-core 5820K. The real savings when selecting the Z170 chipset revolve around cheaper motherboards which usually cater towards the gaming demographic with LED illumination, unusual colour schemes and a comprehensive software suite. It's astonishing to see the kind of performance and bundled list of features on products under £100. At this price, there's fierce competition and some manufacturers have struggled to outline the value of H170/B150 alternatives due to the narrow difference to affordable Z170 options. The latest motherboard from Gigabyte targets the mainstream audience utilizing a single discrete graphics card, and overclocked Skylake processor. While it does technically support Crossfire, the lack of x8/x8 functionality might be a deal breaker for users wanting the absolute maximum bandwidth. There's also no support for SLI setups either which may be a contentious issue. To be honest, I don't see this as a huge problem because the motherboard retails for approximately £95 and dual card configurations are fairly niche in today's market. Despite the very low price, Gigabyte has still implemented 32Gb/s M.2 storage, a great audio solution and USB 3.1. From the outset, it seems Gigabyte managed to achieve this excellent specification on a budget by removing SLI support. I'm interested to see the stock performance numbers though compared to high-end solutions and determine the motherboard's credentials. Could this be the best value gaming Z170 motherboard ever released? Let's find out! Specifications Packing and Accessories The Z170-Gaming K3 is packaged in a visually appealing box showcasing the attractive dual tone PCB design. This draws you into the product and evokes a sense of excitement prior to the unboxing process. On the rear, there's a huge description regarding the motherboard's high-speed connectivity, premium audio hardware and networking with traffic prioritization for gaming purposes. This is presented in an easy to understand manner, and the clear pictures do a great job of relaying technical information without bamboozling the end-user. In terms of accessories, the motherboard comes with an I/O shield, user's guide, G Connector, case badge and SATA cables opting for a very stylish metallic look. This is the first time I've seen a color of this ilk but I have to admit it's a nice touch and looks fantastic. The G Connector is really useful when connecting those fiddly front panel connectors and improves the user-experience when building a new system. Other additions include a rather fetching door hanger, drivers disk, and World of Warships content code. A Closer Look Aesthetically speaking, the Gigabyte Z170-Gaming K3 is sublime and I'm really fond of the red stripes which swoop across the PCB. This adds a new dimension to the fairly overdone red and black colour scheme to create a really unique finish. Furthermore, the motherboard is slightly narrower than the traditional ATX format, and manages to house a feature-rich specification without appearing cramped. The end result is very clean and there's loads of room around the CPU socket to install larger coolers, or perform complex cable routing. Rather surprisingly at this price point, the first PCI-E slot features reinforced stainless steel metal shielding which supports heavy graphics cards imparting pressure on the PCI-E connector. There's still some debate about the real world effect of PCI-E shielding, but it does create a more premium feel and a superb visual contrast with the red connector. It's quite telling that the second PCI-E connector doesn't have any shielding suggesting Gigabyte expects the majority of their customers to use a single graphics card solution. Upon closer inspection we can see the PCB actually has a brown hue to it and not a solid shade of black. However, it's only noticeable from close range, and once installed in a chassis, shouldn't resemble anything apart from a black colour. Gigabyte decided to implement a 8-phase power delivery to help with overclocking and stability. On another note, durable, long-lasting capacitors have been deployed to enhance the motherboard's longevity and the CPU socket features 15 micron thick gold plating. Theoretically, this should reduce the chance of corroded pins over time. Another fantastic inclusion is the use of two BIOS chips which provides a failsafe just in case any technical problems arise during an update, or manual overclock. Honestly, given the price, this isn't something I expected and exemplifies the kind of features you can acquire on a Z170 motherboard below £100. In terms of memory, the motherboard supports a maximum capacity of 64GB with overclocked speeds in excess of 3466MHz. Admittedly, most users will simply dial in their module's XMP profile and mainstream products usually stay within the 2400-3200MHz range. Gigabyte has positioned the 24-pin ATX power connector in its optimal position to allow for clean cable management and there's an easily accessible USB 3.0 header. I've always found the front USB cables to be quite cumbersome which means it's important to have this connector near the PCB edge to reduce clutter. On another note, the CPU fan header lends itself beautifully to water cooling setups with a radiator mounted in the roof. In terms of audio hardware, the motherboard utilizes the Realtek ALC1150 codec capable of producing 115dB SNR. Furthermore, the audio chipset is housed on a separate section of the PCB to reduce electromagnetic interference. There's also an EMI shield, integrated rear audio amplifier, premium Chemicon audio capacitors and an illuminated trail. The PCB contains an embedded LED strip which adds some flair to the overall design and outlines the motherboard's model. It's not overly bright either and evokes a rather classy feel. In terms of storage connectivity, there's 6 SATA connectors, two SATA Express 16Gb/s ports, and an M.2 connector able to support speeds up to 32GB/s. It's a little bit strange to see SATA Express given its low adoption rate and I honestly think it's going to be phased out fairly quickly in the near future. The rear I/O includes a PS/2 connector, DVI-D, two USB 3.1 type-A ports, HDMI 1.4, four USB 3.o, RJ45 and 6 audio jacks. Testing & Methodology Before we delve into any testing we would like to take this opportunity to review our test system. All tests are conducted three times and the average taken to use in our charts. Hardware Motherboard varies by review CPU: Intel Core i7 6700k GPU: NVIDIA GTX 980Ti RAM: Crucial Elite 16GB (2x8GB) 2666MHz Cooling: Thermaltake Water 3.0 AIO with Gelid GC-Extreme Case: Lian Li T80 Test Bench Storage Drives: Main storage: Crucial MX200 250GB, Test Devices: SanDisk Extreme Pro 240GB SSD, Plextor 256GB M6e M.2 SSD and Patriot SuperSonic Magnum 256GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive PSU: be quiet! Dark Power Pro 11 850W Operating System: Windows 8.1 64-bit Networking: ASUS RT-AC68U router Software SiSoft Sandra Engineer - available here WPrime - available here Cinebench - available here 3DMark - available here Bioshock Infinite - available here Tomb Raider - available here AIDA 64 Engineer - available here Latencymon - available here Rightmark Audio Analyser - available here LAN Speed Test Lite - available here Passmark - available here Memory For our memory tests, we use the built-in memory benchmarks in AIDA64 Engineer and SiSoft Sandra. For more details on each of the benchmarks please see here and here respectively. Storage To test the storage performance in our motherboard reviews we use AIDA's Disk Benchmark utility built into their AIDA64 Engineer Edition software package and run linear read and write tests. We run each of the benchmark tests on a SATA III, USB 3.0 and M.2 device. For SATA III testing we use a SanDisk Extreme Pro 240GB, for USB 3.0 testing we use the Supersonic Magnum 256 GB USB 3.0 flash drive and for M.2 testing we use Plextor's 256GB M.2 M6e SSD. The drives are always formatted before use. Networking For our networking tests we connect the test system up to our Intel Gigabit-enabled ASUS Rampage IV Extreme X79 motherboard test system through the ASUS RT-AC68U router and run our tests. We opted for this over a direct point-to-point connection because we wanted to simulate real-world performance. For our WiFi tests we do the same except we connect the test system to the ASUS RT-AC68U router via WiFi at a distance of 2 metres from the router. The testing software we use for these are LAN Speed Test Lite and Passmark, available here and here respectively. Lan Speed Test LAN Speed Test was designed from the ground up to be a simple but powerful tool for measuring file transfer, hard drive, USB Drive, and Local Area Network (LAN) speeds (wired & wireless). It does this by building a file in memory, then transfers it both ways (without effects of windows file caching) while keeping track of the time. Download the free Lan Speed Test Lite utility from here. PassMark The PassMark Advanced Network Test (which is part of PerformanceTest) is designed to test the data transfer rate between two computers both of which must be running PerformanceTest. One of the computers must act as the server and will sit waiting for a connection. The other computer acts as a client. It connects to the server machine and sends data to it for the duration of the test. You can download a trial version of PerformanceTest from here. Power Usage To measure power consumption we, use a "killawatt" meter and measure the total system power draw at the wall. We run three different use-case scenarios for 5 minutes and take the average reading. RightMark Audio Analyser (RMAA) RMAA suite is designed for testing quality of analog and digital paths of any audio device. The results are obtained by playing and recording test signals passed through the tested audio path by means of frequency analysis algorithms. A more common mark is also provided for those unfamiliar with measured technical parameters. Available here. We run the RMAA test using a 3.5mm to 3.5mm cable connecting the line out to the line in to test the quality of the motherboard audio codec not any external audio devices. We run the complete playback and recording test at default settings and then get RMAA to interpret the results giving the below outputs. We sync the playback and recording audio devices to the same setting as the test for accurate results. DPC DPC is a Windows tool that analyses the capabilities of a computer system to handle real-time data streams properly. It may help to find the cause for interruptions in real-time audio and video streams, also known as drop-outs. This software is available for download free here. wPrime wPrime is a leading multithreaded benchmark for x86 processors that tests your processor performance by calculating square roots with a recursive call of Newton's method for estimating functions. wPrime is a free utility that is available for download here. Cinebench R15 Cinebench is a widely respected benchmark for testing the performance of x86 CPUs. The program allows you to test single and multi-threaded performance as well as GPU performance by rendering with Open GL. Download here. 3D Mark The new 3DMark includes everything you need to benchmark your hardware. With three all new tests you can bench everything from smartphones and tablets, to notebooks and home PCs, to the latest high-end, multi-GPU gaming desktops. Download here. Tomb Raider In Tomb Raider, the player is confronted with a much younger Lara Croft who is shipwrecked and finds herself stranded on a mysterious island rife with danger, both natural and human. Tomb Raider is a demanding game offering up ultra quality textures, full DirectX 11 support, SSAA, FXAA, MSAA and AMD TressFX technology. Bioshock BioShock Infinite is the third and last game in the BioShock series. It is a first-person shooter video game developed by Irrational Games and published by 2K Games. BioShock Infinite supports dynamic shadows, post-processing, light shafts, ambient occlusion, object level of detail, Diffusion Depth of Detail, FOV adjustment controls and other advanced DirectX 11 features. BIOS and Overclocking Gigabyte's UEFI DualBIOS adopts a simplistic theme with keyboard driven menus to help with navigation and list system variables in a clear manner. When compared to the company's more graphically exuberant theme, it can look a little bland but I actually find it easier to use given the solid background and labelled tabs. On the front page, key information is displayed about your system including Vcore, CPU temperature and BIOS Version. The BIOS has an option to relay a huge number of statistics regarding memory timings, and temperature per CPU core. This can be really handy when performing diagnostics and determining the impact of advanced voltage changes. If you're feeling apprehensive about the overclocking process, there's no need to worry because the BIOS has various profiles to automatically set a specific target frequency. Personally, I always recommend manual overclocking because auto options have the propensity to use too much voltage, but it's a great option for those without experience or have a restricted amount of time. Traditional overclocking is relatively easy and requires you to set the CPU clock ratio. As you can see from the image below, our chip is capable of 4.8GHz, meaning the CPU ratio is increased to 48. This section also allows you to enable XMP and even modify the memory multiplier. Once your target frequency is known, increase the voltage until stable and ensure the temperatures remain within thermal limits. Gigabyte makes this process incredibly straightforward and explains the effect of each setting on the right-hand side. Users with a greater level of technical proficiency can tweak the chipset voltage, power settings and other variables to help with stability. The System Information page lists details about the model name, BIOS version, BIOS ID and user privileges. You can jump to the PC Health Status tab to monitor system voltages, fan speeds, and disable thermal warnings. There's a fantastic Boot priority tab to re-organize the boot order, and ensure your operating system is the primary device. This section provides the settings to modify the SATA controller mode, but it's not really going to be overly useful for the majority of consumers. Nevertheless, it's great to have more advanced functionality to please power users. The Chipset tab allows you to enable or disable the VT-d, Integrated Graphics and Audio Controller. Usually, you shouldn't have to modify these variables, but it's handy to disable the on-board graphics in case any graphical problems arise on boot. Next is the Power Management page containing a number of options to adjust ErP, Power Loading and Platform Power Management. Once again, I would leave all of these on the default values to avoid unusual mishaps when it comes to system behavior. The final page is extremely useful to load/save overclocking profiles, quickly boot from a particular drive and load optimized defaults after a failed overclock. Also notice the Q-Flash utility in the corner to update the BIOS to the latest version via a file or network. Overclocking Overclocking on the Z170-Gaming K3 was effortless and I managed to set the multiplier to 48, while increasing the CPU's core voltage to 1.504V. Please remember, we are using a very proficient all-in-one liquid cooling solution to help with thermal loads, and of course the silicon lottery will impact on your chip's final frequency figure. This result follows with other Z170 motherboards and demonstrates how the level of overclocking headroom is CPU based and doesn't revolve around the motherboard's circuitry by a significant margin. Software Overview Motherboard manufacturers tend to bundle a comprehensive software suite to monitor system performance, adjust LED lighting and perform other essential tasks. Gigabyte neatly lists all the installed applications via the App Centre to quickly access your favourite utilities. This is presented in a really clean manner although for my personal tastes, it does take up a little bit too much screen real estate. The @BIOS tool is an essential addition to view the current BIOS version and update from a downloaded file or server. Gigabyte's USB Blocker allows you to block certain plug and play devices and stops the operating system from recognizing them. The Home Cloud is deployed to share files between smart devices and your computer or create a really secure backup. The Fast Boot feature is pretty self-explanatory and means you can boot into Windows extremely quickly. Another great tool is the Smart Backup which allows you to create a rescue drive, backup essential files or recover your PC from a backup image. The Smart TimeLock can restrict PC access to ensure children or other users aren't spending too much time browsing the internet unsupervised. This next piece of software is used to enable/disable the LED audio path. As you can see the options are rather limited and RGB illumination is selected for higher-end Gigabyte products. The System Information Viewer displays key statistics about the CPU base frequency, its specification, and memory details. It's also possible to tune the fan mode between a number of profiles and create a balance between noise and cooling which suits your system's usage scenario. Gigabyte's EasyTune software automatically gauges overclocking potential and sets a profile based on its findings. Additionally, you can choose between the stock turbo clock, an eco-friendly mode, or overclocked setting. The next tab contains various settings to alter the BCLK, multiplier per core, CPU voltage, VCCIO and more! This is a great set of options for tweakers wanting to maximize the potential of their CPU outside of the BIOS. Additionally, there's a huge array of options to adjust individual memory timings but I wouldn't recommend this unless you're looking to set benchmarking records. CPU & GPU Performance Cinebench The motherboard's stock CPU performance is very good when you take the price point into consideration and it manages to outclass many higher priced options. When overclocked, the Z170-Gaming K3 fares superbly and isn't too far off attaining a top three ranking. This is astonishing and showcases the wonderful price to performance ratio on offer. WPrime In terms of single-threaded compute performance, the motherboard does pretty well and achieves a good calculation time. The overclocked results aren't as competitive but it's nothing to be overly concerned about due to the small margin between various products. SiSoft Sandra In a similar fashion, the motherboard attains a laudable mid-tier result and pushes above its weight rather well. Once overclocked, the Z170-Gaming K3 continues to shine although there is some room for improvement to match the top results. Despite this, it's still a great score and within a respectable margin of mid-table figures. 3DMark Here we can see the motherboard once paired with the GTX 980Ti, performs brilliantly and obtains one of the best 3DMark results so far. Admittedly, this is mostly due to driver improvements from NVIDIA but it's great to see the impeccable performance in 3D tasks. Tomb Raider During the Tomb Raider benchmark, the Z170-Gaming K3 soared into first place and reported fantastic numbers in both 1080P and 1440P testing. Bioshock Infinite However, the results weren't as strong in Bioshock Infinite and we can see a noticeable drop in the overall ranking. Upon further inspection, it's clear the 1080P performance is wonderful and worthy of commendation but the 2560x1440 run fell a little bit behind compared to other options. The gap to these though is minuscule and you have to take that into account when analyzing its gaming credentials. Memory Performance AIDA64 Engineer In terms of memory bandwidth, the motherboard obtains really good results across write, read and copy benchmarks. Once overclocked, the modules' performance is impressive and rivals many higher priced alternatives. SiSoft Sandra Rather surprisingly, the motherboard performs much better in Sandra's memory benchmark and the stock numbers really took me by surprise. Granted, there's very little to choose between each product but I have to commend Gigabyte for this exceptional result. After the overclock was applied, the motherboard fell down the order slightly but it's still a great score emphasizes the price to performance ratio. Combined Latency Test The motherboard's stock memory latency remained fairly low and within an acceptable margin of the top results. Here we can see the overclock helps matters by a substantial margin and makes the motherboard more competitive. Storage Performance Linear Read When it comes to linear read rates, the Z170-Gaming K3 records excellent performance in M.2 testing and easily surpassed many alternative products. The USB 3.0 and SATA results were fairly average though and could be improved. Linear Write At first glance, the motherboard's linear write capabilities look fairly worrying and towards the lower end spectrum. However, it's important to note that the deficit in M.2 testing is very small and a slight increase on another run could bring it into a mid-table ranking. On another note, the SATA performance is very good and the joint best score we've seen. Networking Performance LAN Speed Test Lite The motherboard's Killer E2201 network chip provides a very consistent flow of traffic and reliable experience. This means you shouldn't encounter any lag, sudden bandwidth drops or other networking problems. Passmark Performance Test 8 - Ethernet However, the recorded TCP speed was disappointing and a large chunk behind the majority of other motherboards. On a more positive note, the UDP figures are much more competitive. Passmark Performance Test 8 - CPU Work Load Killer networking solutions utilize software to prioritize network traffic requiring additional CPU usage. This is evidently clear in the data below and the I219V has reduced CPU loads for the most part. 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. Power Consumption At stock values, the test bench when equipped with the Gigabyte Z170-Gaming K3 consumes 342 watts under extreme load. This is fairly low compared to a large number of previously tested motherboards. On another note, idle wattage is good and makes for a really efficient custom build. When overclocked, the wattage demands increase exponentially and recorded one of the highest power draws thus far. Although the economic impact between these results is very small and not a major factor when building a high-end system. Final Thoughts Pricing Currently, the Gigabyte Z170-Gaming K3 is available from Overclockers UK for £92.60 plus shipping. This is an incredible value proposition when you consider motherboards supporting the budget H170 chipset without official overclocking support hover around the £80-£90 mark. Granted, there are some Z170 alternatives but I highly doubt you're going to find something with a similar set of features with a unique aesthetic. Overview From a visual standpoint, the Z170-Gaming K3 surprised me and I didn't expect it to look this impressive for a budget orientated product. For instance, the gorgeous red stripes swooping across the PCB evokes a premium feel and really sits well with a stylish PC chassis. Furthermore, the illuminated branding and red LED strip towards the PCB's edge adds some vibrancy without appearing too tacky. I'm also fond of the G1 Gaming logo, and stainless steel shielding on the primary PCI-E slot. In an ideal world, I'd prefer the PCB colour to be black instead of dark brown, but it's implemented rather well and difficult to detect unless you're inspecting the motherboard closely. Despite the budget focus, there hasn't been too many cutbacks and Gigabyte still managed to implement a good audio solution based on the Realtek ALC1150 codec. On another note, the motherboard supports ultra-fast M.2 drives and has USB 3.1 Type-A connectivity. This level of versatility is great and provides a large amount of options to connect peripherals and additional storage. Gigabyte also utilized high-quality capacitors, reliable power circuitry, and dual BIOS functionality. Obviously, the lack of SLI support is a major omission and will deter some users from purchasing this product. It's a cost cutting exercise due to licensing and Gigabyte decided this was the best option to reach the sub-£100 price point. Honestly, I don't think this is a terrible move because the mainstream market usually opts for single card solutions. Furthermore, SLI support in modern games has been pretty abysmal and raises questions about the viability of using dual GPU configurations. This could change as DirectX 12 titles scale multiple cards in a more proficient way. Therefore, this omission is bound to divide opinion for the reasons listed above. I personally believe it's acceptable but other users might have a different viewpoint. The BIOS adopts a really simple user-interface which makes navigation a breeze and it's packed full of tweaks to maximize your CPU's potential. Saying that, the theme might be a little bland for some users accustomed to more spectacular BIOS themes. What matters most though is the ability to overclock the CPU, and perform a number of essential system alternations. Thankfully, Gigabyte have crafted an excellent BIOS which caters to beginners while offering enough advanced settings to please experienced overclockers. I do think having the option to select between the stock look and more ostentatious graphical style would be beneficial to consumers. In terms of performance, the motherboard's stock performance is extremely impressive and legitimately rivals products with a much higher asking price. The Z170-Gaming K3 consistently achieved mid-table performance or higher in CPU, memory and other synthetic testing. Additionally, it really shone in M.2 read speed benchmarks, and exhibited great gaming numbers. Evidently, the motherboard is really well suited to gaming applications. When overclocked, the pecking order remained fairly similar but there was some improvement compared to the stock rankings. Honestly, the motherboard pushes well above its weight whether you're running at stock settings or using a very high overclock. Pros Fantastic aesthetic design Good networking Great audio at high bit rates Impressive stock results Intuitive BIOS Subtle LED illumination doesn't feel overly gimmicky Superb price to performance ratio Support for M.2 (32Gb/s) and USB 3.1 Type-A Useful software package Very clean layout Cons 16-bit 44KHz audio performance could be improved Neutral No SLI support but shouldn't impact users looking for a motherboard in this price bracket "The Gigabyte Z170-Gaming K3 is an absolute bargain and brimming with features such as high-speed M.2 connectivity. Its main limitation revolves around the lack of SLI support but this is a concession which makes sense given the target market who overwhelmingly use single card setups." Gigabyte Z170-Gaming K3 (LGA1151) Motherboard Review Thank you Gigabyte for providing us with this sample.