Z790 Aorus Pro X Motherboard Review

When it comes to high-end motherboards, you need look no further than Aorus, the high-end division of Gigabyte, as they only put their best work under their Aorus branding, and while the Z790 Aorus Pro X isn't even the flagship model in the current range, you could be fooled into thinking it was. This motherboard is absolutely packed with exceptional hardware, features and connections that are sure to make it appeal to content creators and gamers wanting to build an extremely high-end system. Z790 Aorus Pro X With a powerful 18+1+2 VRM solution, huge heatsinks surrounding the CPU, and support for all the latest technologies such as DDR5, XMP 3.0, PCIe 5.0, and more, you'll be able to get the best out of the latest processors, graphics cards, storage and memory devices. Plus, with great features such as 5GbE LAN and WiFi 7, you have blisteringly fast networking, and lots of fast connectivity too. Z790 Aorus Pro X Features Supports Intel® Core™ 14th and 13th processors Digital twin 18+1+2 phases VRM solution Dual Channel DDR5：4*DIMMs with XMP 3.0 memory module support PCIe UD Slot X： PCIe 5.0 x16 slot with 10X strength for graphics card EZ-Latch Click：M.2 heatsinks with screwless design EZ-Latch Plus：M.2 slots with quick release design Sensor Panel Link：Onboard video port for hassle-free in-chassis panel setup UC BIOS：User-Centred intuitive UX with Quick Access function Ultra-Fast Storage：5*M.2 slots, including 1* PCIe 5.0 x4 Efficient Overall Thermal：VRM Thermal Armor Advanced & M.2 Thermal Guard XL Fast Networking：5GbE LAN & Wi-Fi 7 with Ultra-high gain antenna Extended Connectivity：HDMI, DP IN, Front & Rear USB-C® 20Gb/s High-Res Audio：ALC1220 & Audiophile Grade Capacitors For in-depth features and specifications, please visit the official Z790 Aorus Pro X product page here. What Gigabyte Aorus Had to Say X marks the 14th generation! Introducing the AORUS Z790 X Gen Motherboards, the most powerful platforms ever built for the Intel® Core™ 14th Gen processors. With the leading performance in DDR5 memory, the upgraded DIY-friendly innovations, and the all-new BIOS redesigned as user-centered, the AORUS Z790 X Gen Motherboards are built to fully unleash the next-gen power. A Closer Look From the moment you take it out of the box, it's easy to tell this is a great motherboard, as it's absolutely crammed with huge heatsinks and reinforcement on all of the major components. That much at least tells us it's going to be both durable and plenty capable of keeping our hardware running as cool as possible to reach its performance potential. Plus, it looks good too, and aesthetics are a big part of PC building these days! The CPU is flanked by three pretty significantly sized heatsinks, with one above and to the left covering the powerful VRM configuration. Each of these large heatsinks is robust, milled from a single piece of aluminium and has four times the surface area of previous models. On the lower half of the motherboard, you've got a heck of a lot of metal here too, with a towering heatsink on the primary M.2 slot, and a single giant heatsink on the lower half-covering additional M.2 slots, as well as the main chipset. It's easy to open too, with a single screw on the left, and two pegs on the left holding it in place. At the top of the motherboard, there are two reinforced 8-pin CPU connectors. The motherboard uses all premium quality chokes and capacitors throughout its design. There are four DIMM slots, supporting DDR5 with support for 8266 MT/s (OC), XMP Booster, DDR5 Auto Booster, and a wave of quality features such as shielded memory routing, isolated traces, and 8-layer PCB, and back drilling technology, so it's all pretty rigid. The motherboard supports Front USB 20 Gb/s, THunderbolt Add-in, and Sensor Panel Link. There are four SATA 6 GB/s ports located near the bottom. In addition to the primary PCIe 5.0 x16 slot, there are two more x16 slots, one at PCIe 4.0 and the other at PCIe 3.0. This motherboard comes with the ever-popular Realtek ALC1220-VB Codec, with support for up to 7.1 audio and some really nice quality audio capacitors. Around the back, the white PCB is largely grey on the back, which looks pretty funky, even if you'll rarely see this side of it. The rear I/O is decent too, with plenty of USB ports, including a Type-C 20 Gb/s, 5GbE LAN, and the latest WiFi 7 technology. With the board stripped down, you can see that white/cream-coloured PCB in all its glory, and aside from the audio capacitors, it sticks pretty strictly to a monochrome theme. The VRM consists of a Digital Twin design with 18+1+2 phases and the CPU is actually run in parallel with a 9+9 phases parallel power design. The heatsinks cover a lot of this motherboard, but with them removed you can see the M.2 slot at the top, and three more below it, with four more below that, as well as a small card connected to power the WiFi 7 connectivity. How We Test We continue to update our testing methods around once per year. As such, we re-test older hardware to reflect changes over time. These can be driver updates, Windows updates, game patches, and more; all of which have an impact on performance figures. Furthermore, we update our test benches to newer and more relevant hardware. This means that our new reviews aren’t always comparable to those of older reviews, so please compare the testing methodology on older reviews should you be trying to compare them with newer ones. Replicate Our Results When it comes to our benchmarks in our reviews, the benchmarks are pretty self-explanatory and are kept as simple as possible, although there are a few exceptions. Remember that your choice of a graphics card, CPU, the silicon lottery, and other factors can yield different numbers, and there’s always a margin for error when using any software. Links are provided below, as well as the settings we use. We encourage you to not just look at how one product compares to any other, but how it compares to your own. If you’re looking to build a new system, you should benchmark your current PC using the benchmarks available to you. You should then look at the percentage improvement from your current hardware to the hardware tested here to give you a ballpark figure of how much of an upgrade this will provide you with. Motherboard Test Systems Test System (AM5) Motherboard Changes Per Review Review Buy Now Processor AMD Ryzen 9 7900X GPU Zotac RTX 3090 Trinity Review Buy Now RAM Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR5 32GB 5200MHz Review Buy Now CPU Cooler NZXT Kraken Z73 RGB Buy Now Power Supply NZXT C1000 Gold Review Buy Now Storage Seagate FIRECUDA 530 1TB Review Buy Now Chassis NZXT H7 Flow Review Buy Now OS Windows 11 Pro Version 21H2 Drivers Graphics: 516.94 Test System (AM4) Motherboard Changes Per Review Buy Now Processor AMD Ryzen 9 5950X GPU Zotac RTX 3090 Trinity Review Buy Now RAM Kingston Fury Renegade DDR4 32GB 3600MHz Review Buy Now CPU Cooler NZXT Kraken Z73 RGB Buy Now Power Supply NZXT C1000 Gold Review Buy Now Storage Seagate FIRECUDA 530 1TB Review Buy Now Chassis NZXT H7 Flow Review Buy Now OS Windows 11 Pro Version 21H2 Drivers Graphics: 516.94 Test System (Z690) Motherboard Changes Per Review Review Buy Now Processor Intel Core i9 12900K GPU Zotac RTX 3090 Trinity Review Buy Now RAM Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR5 32GB 5200MHz Review Buy Now CPU Cooler NZXT Kraken Z73 RGB Buy Now Power Supply NZXT C1000 Gold Review Buy Now Storage Seagate FIRECUDA 530 1TB Review Buy Now Chassis NZXT H7 Flow Review Buy Now OS Windows 11 Pro Version 21H2 Drivers Graphics: 516.94 Test System (Z590) Motherboard Changes Per Review Review Buy Now Processor Intel Core i9 11900K GPU Zotac RTX 3090 Trinity Review Buy Now RAM Kingston Fury Renegade DDR4 32GB 3600MHz Review Buy Now CPU Cooler NZXT Kraken Z73 RGB Buy Now Power Supply NZXT C1000 Gold Review Buy Now Storage Seagate FIRECUDA 530 1TB Review Buy Now Chassis NZXT H7 Flow Review Buy Now OS Windows 11 Pro Version 21H2 Drivers Graphics: 516.94 Additional Hardware ElmorLabs PMD-USB Power Measurement Device With USB (link) Software We use a variety of software from different developers to assist in our testing and to give us the most consistent results possible. Some applications are specifically used for testing, while others are simply used for monitoring and to aid us in making sure that our results are as accurate as possible. Software Used 3DMark FireStrike & TimeSpy (download) AIDA64 (download) CapFrameX 1.6.9 (download) Cinebench R23 (download) CPU-Z (download) HWMonitor (download) PCMark 10 Express (download) Super PI 2.1 WP (download) Gaming To gauge performance levels which are easily reproduced time after time, by both ourselves and our readers, we now stick strictly to games' default profiles. Given how powerful most modern cards are getting, we've begun using more demanding profiles for most games, but will otherwise state on a per-game basis if we use other profiles beyond High, Ultra, Maximum or their respective equivalent at all resolutions. V-Sync is always disabled in our testing, and all FPS caps that can be removed are. We also enable XMP and Resizable bar technology across all platforms to keep things as fair as possible. Games While we test a lot of games, it's not possible to display all of the data on the website or in our videos. Instead, we include access to all of our testing data for our Patreon members (link), where members get a ton of other benefits as well. What we do, however, is display charts for averages across all game titles to give a better picture of performance across all titles tested. Cyberpunk 2077 Horizon Zero Dawn Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 Resolutions 1080p (Full HD) Some tests will also include features such as NVIDIA DLSS and Ray Tracing. However, these will be clearly labelled and may only appear in reviews for graphics cards that support those features. Power Consumption Not being content on simply reading total system power draw at both idle, we now have the ability thanks to the ElmorLabs PMD-USB device that allows us to measure power draw directly through the EPS power connectors. We test at idle, during gaming load, of which we measure drawing a run of Cyberpunk 2077 and during Cinebench R23 at load too. We also use a GW-Instek GPM-8212 power meter to measure the complete system power at the wall to get an idea of how each motherboard compares to one another. VRM Temperatures We take temperature readings after 10 minutes of desktop idle with no background programs running, then take the recorded maximum delivered during the same runs as when we measure power consumption, being during our Cyberpunk 2033 run, and during Cinebench R23 at load too. 3DMark Timespy Extreme Time Spy Extreme is a new 4K DirectX 12 benchmark test, available in 3DMark Advanced and Professional Editions. You don’t need a 4K monitor to run it, but you will need a GPU with at least 4 GB of dedicated memory. With its 4K Ultra HD rendering resolution, Time Spy Extreme is an ideal benchmark test for the latest high-end graphics cards. The CPU test has been redesigned to let processors with 8 or more cores perform to their full potential 3DMark is available on Steam here. This may not be as expensive as the Aorus Z790 Master X, but while the CPU score is lower at 8165 vs 8946 points, the overall score is actually pretty similar. PCMark 10 Express PCMark 10 features a comprehensive set of tests that cover the wide variety of tasks performed in the modern workplace. With a range of performance tests, custom run options, Battery Life Profile, and new Storage benchmarks, PCMark 10 is the complete PC benchmark for the modern office. Available now on Steam. It's even more surprising to see the Pro X topping the charts here, not the more expensive Master X, but again, the performance scores are all pretty close here anyway. Super PI 2.1 WP Super PI is a single-threaded benchmark that calculates pi to a specific number of digits. It uses the Gauss-Legendre algorithm and is a Windows port of a program used by Yasumasa Kanada in 1995 to compute pi to 232 digits Available now on Super PI. In Super Pi, the Pro X gives us one of our best times yet, coming in at just 370.141 seconds. Cinebench R23 Cinebench is a real-world cross-platform test suite that evaluates your computer’s hardware capabilities. Improvements to Cinebench Release 23 reflect the overall advancements to CPU and rendering technology in recent years, providing a more accurate measurement of Cinema 4D’s ability to take advantage of multiple CPU cores and modern processor features available to the average user. Best of all: It’s free. Available now on Maxon. And even in Cinebench, it's absolutely killing it, our second highest score, hitting a very respectable 25980 points. AIDA64 AIDA64 is a system information, diagnostics, and auditing application developed by FinalWire Ltd that runs on Windows, Android, iOS, Windows Phone, Tizen, Chrome OS and Sailfish OS operating systems. It displays detailed information on the components of a computer. Available now on AIDA64. All these motherboards delivered largely similar memory performance, which is good, it means that there are no bottlenecks, but the Pro X did exhibit higher memory latency, but I suspect this is something that will be fixable in a bios update, but at the time of writing, we were using the latest bios. Cyberpunk 2077 Cyberpunk 2077 is an open-world, action-adventure RPG set in the megalopolis of Night City, where you play as a cyberpunk mercenary wrapped up in a do-or-die fight for survival. Improved and featuring all-new free additional content, customize your character and playstyle as you take on jobs, build a reputation, and unlock upgrades. The relationships you forge and the choices you make will shape the story and the world around you. Legends are made here. What will yours be? Available now on Steam. For gaming, the Pro X actually fell on its face a bit with Cyberpunk, hitting just 87 FPS average, the lowest score we've had in this test yet. Horizon Zero Dawn Experience Aloy’s entire legendary quest to unravel the mysteries of a world ruled by deadly Machines. An outcast from her tribe, the young hunter fights to uncover her past, discover her destiny… and stop a catastrophic threat to the future. Unleash devastating, tactical attacks against unique Machines and rival tribes as you explore an open world teeming with wildlife and danger. Horizon Zero Dawn is a multi-award-winning action role-playing game – and this Complete Edition for PC includes the huge expansion The Frozen Wilds, featuring new lands, skills, weapons and Machines. Available now on Steam. It's the same in Horizon Zero Dawn, strangely way behind the competition despite good 1% lows. Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered Developed by Insomniac Games in collaboration with Marvel, and optimized for PC by Nixxes Software, Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered on PC introduces an experienced Peter Parker who’s fighting big crime and iconic villains in Marvel’s New York. At the same time, he’s struggling to balance his chaotic personal life and career while the fate of Marvel’s New York rests upon his shoulders. Available now on Steam. And again in Spider-Man, there's clearly an issue here. Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 The Microsoft Flight Simulator Game of the Year (GOTY) Edition celebrates all the positive feedback, reviews and awards garnered, but it is also a “Thank You” to our fans – new and old – that have made Microsoft Flight Simulator such a phenomenon. Best of all, the Microsoft Flight Simulator Game of the Year Edition will be available as a free update for existing players on PC. Available now on Steam. In Flight Sim, it was lagging behind again, for some reason it's just not getting the GPU up to speed like it should. Boot Time For Boot Time, it's pretty much in the middle, just over 30 seconds, which is fairly decent. The other key areas that are worth focussing on though comes down to VRM temperatures, which can differ wildly depending on the amount, the capacity of the current that can pass through them, and of course how the various heatsinks handle that power, which in turn, creates heat. VRM Temperatures One place is does really well is in the VRM cooling, never exceeding 53c after an hour of stress testing, those VRM heatsinks are doing a fantastic job. Power Consumption It's also one of the most efficient motherboards, using just 347 watts in our testing, just under that of the more expensive Master X. How Much Does It Cost? The Aorus motherboards are rarely "cheap" and the new Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Pro X is no exception at £419.99. However, it's worth pointing out that this is still one of the more affordable high-end Aorus motherboards, with the flagships costing nearer £1000. For those wanting to push their CPU harder, and to get great connectivity, this motherboard certainly has some appeal, but perhaps not so appealing for those building a gaming PC right now. Overview This motherboard did two things that I simply did not expect. First the bad, it just didn't deliver the gaming performance I was expecting, and hey, sometimes that's just the way to cookie crumbles. It's not a bad gaming motherboard, but there are better options for around the same money that are more gaming-focused, and certainly, many of those options reside in the Gigabyte/Aorus product range too. However, when it comes to CPU performance, it's a rocketship, delivering CPU performance that actually beat out the more expensive Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Master X. Given the Master X is nearly £150 more expensive, you would think it would be the fastest of the two, but in fact, a lot of that extra investment goes towards increased I/O capabilities. That being said, the Pro X is hardly lacking, and for many content creators, faster CPU performance is the real winner here. You do still get plenty of connectivity though, and with 5 GbE LAN and WiFi 7, networking is swift and versatile. While the inclusion of front and back panel USB Type-C 20 Gb/s is likely more than enough for most people, if it's not, then you're looking to spend £150+ to get 10 Gb/s LAN and 40 GB/s Type-C on a higher model. In terms of build quality and design, Aorus has done a great job, as this motherboard is heavily reinforced and cooled in all the right areas, meaning it stays cool and stable even under extended heavy loads, making it well-suited for content creation, video editing, and other CPU intensive use cases. However, all that armour and cooling also looks great, with this being a very pretty motherboard, and the lighter white and monochrome aesthetic is sure to look great in lighter-themed builds. Should I Buy One? If you're just looking for a gaming motherboard, this isn't it, but if you want lots of fast storage, blisteringly fast CPU performance, and reliable hardware that can take the punishing workloads of hours of video rendering without overheating, then you're in luck. There's room for improvement here, but when it comes to getting the bang for your buck for the latest connectivity and pushing your CPU to its max, it ticks the right boxes.