Gigabyte Z790 Aero G Motherboard Review

How Much Does It Cost?

The Gigabyte Z790 Aero G (LGA 1700) DDR5 ATX Motherboard is available now from OCUK for £399.95, which is pretty much in line with other similarly equipped motherboards. If you’re just looking for a good gaming motherboard though, the Z790 Aorus Elite AX is the better shout, and about £70 cheaper too. So why pay more for a motherboard that’s not quite as fast? Connectivity!

Overview

The Aero G has a lot to offer when it comes to connectivity, such as the plentiful storage options thanks to its 1 x PCIe 5.0 M.2 and 4 x PCIe 4.0 M.2, which should allow for some fast RAID configurations for content creators. There’s good I/O too, with 10 and 20 Gbps USB Type-C and USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A supported, so external flash drives and portable storage users can quickly load and offload video footage, audio and more when editing.

There’s also VisionLink, which is something I wasn’t equipped to test. It’s basically “just” Type-C DisplayPort, but it can provide video output, data, and power in one, allowing you to run a compatible drawing tablet via a single USB cable, which is actually pretty cool.

What this motherboard lacks in raw processing performance, and admittedly, while it did run a bit slower than similarly priced boards, it’s not by a particularly drastic amount. But I do think it’s odd that it is using more power than most, again, by a small amount, but I can’t figure out where that power is going, as the overall temperatures are low. Perhaps it’s just a BIOS update away from being even better? But one thing I can attest to is stability. Stable voltages and low temperatures make it a very stable motherboard even after hours of stressing it to render, which is something I certainly do like.

Fast WiFi and networking are also present if pretty much expected on all new motherboards now. Plus, there’s the latest ALC1220VB chipset with DSD audio support. So really, there’s just about everything you need for a competent workstation for video rendering and editing work.

Should I Buy One?

It’s tricky to recommend this motherboard, as there’s nothing inherently wrong with it, but Gigabyte themselves make slightly faster and more efficient motherboards for the same or less money, such as the Elite AX, but you have to spend nearly £200 more for the next tier up such as the Z790 Aorus Master before you get similar connectivity, so if you can sacrifice a little performance to get more I/O and storage to fit your needs and you’re really going to use all five M.2 mounts and that VisionLink, then the Aero G is great, but for gamers or less complex content creation systems, the Elite AX is where I would put my money.