I’ve always been impressed with Gigabyte’s Aorus Master motherboards. They’re very high-end products, but they’re not priced anywhere near Asus or MSI’s top-of-the-line Extreme or Godlike of the motherboard world.You still get a lot of features for your money, but Above $500, profits really start to decline.
Much has been written about the skyrocketing prices of this generation of motherboards, but as a second-generation LGA 1700 platform, the Z790 is so revived when all new AMD X670/E boards are launched. At $499 / £524 / AU$1,029, the Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Master is far from an affordable board, but compared to some of the boards well above that price point, it’s a formidable Competitor.
The Z790 Aorus Master appears to be an evolution of the Z690 Master with some aesthetic tweaks, a redesigned heatsink and support for up to DDR5-8000 memory. The Z690 Master is a great board after receiving some welcome BIOS updates. This means the Z790 version may struggle to justify its higher price tag than his currently discounted Z690 version.
Since the Z790 Aorus Master is an extended ATX motherboard, some consideration should be given to ensure it fits in the case. Thanks to the sheer size of modern graphics cards like the RTX 4090, it’s no longer as important as it used to be. (opens in new tab)Gigabyte has moved to a black and gray theme with just a touch of RGB on top of the I/O shield. The look is a perfect fusion of form and function.
Z790 Aorus Master Specs
socket: Intel LGA1700
CPU compatibility: Intel 12th and 13th Generation Desktop Processors
Form factor: E-ATX
Memory support: DDR5-8000 (OC), up to 128GB
Storage: 5x M.2, 4x SATA
USB: Up to 3x USB 3.2 Gen2x2, 7x USB 3.2 Gen 2, 9x USB 3.1 Gen 1, 4x USB 2.0
screen: 2x DP 1.2
networking: Marvell AQtion 10G LAN, Killer Wi-Fi 6E
audio: Realtek ALC1220-VB
price: $499 (opens in new tab)/ £524 (opens in new tab) / AUD 1,029 (opens in new tab)
Going around the board reveals some interesting things. The PCIe slot layout is clearly built with triple and quad slot GPUs in mind. The primary slot shares a PCIe 5.0 lane with the primary M.2 slot.
Aorus Master is one of a growing number of boards with PCIe release switches or latches. GPUs with backplates can have difficulty accessing regular PCIe latches, so this feature is a godsend for the few users (like our reviewer!) who switch GPUs frequently.
The Z790 Aorus Master is another Gigabyte product with a well-designed cooling assembly. While other manufacturers tend to use solid metal heatsinks with no surface area, Gigabyte continues to use traditional finned heatsinks. In a quick test with unlimited power 13900K, the VRM peaked at just 57 degrees. Outstanding!
Another heatsink worth noting is the massive primary M.2 heatsink. PCIe 5.0 drives are expected to generate a lot of heat, so this kind of cooling is welcome. But don’t take it for granted. Heatsinks can absorb heat from adjacent graphics cards, so the case should be well ventilated.
The board accepts up to 5 M.2 drives. Non-primary slots support up to PCIe 4.0. It only has 4 SATA ports. They’re becoming less and less important, but still 6 if not 8 is enough at this level.
Other interesting features include a so-called multi-key button that allows the user to program to toggle RGB on/off, boot BIOS or enter BIOS Safe Mode without losing settings.
The Z790 Aorus Master isn’t flooded with blazing RGB, but it does include two ARGB headers and two RGB headers. Additionally, there are at least 10 fan and pump headers, a USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 front panel header, power and reset buttons. Not bad, not at all.
image 1 of 7
The board’s VRM is a real highlight, as you’d expect from a board expected to power an overclocked 13900K. A 20+1+2 phase VRM with a 105A stage will happily give ln2 overclockers some juice. Barring in-depth overclocking boards like the Aorus Tachyon and Asus Apex, you’d be hard-pressed to find anything that beats his VRM on the Z790 Aorus Master.
If you need lots of USB ports, Master is the board for you. There are 14 on the rear panel alone. These include two 3.2 Gen 2×2 Type-C and a Gen 1 Type-C. In addition to these, there are 7 Gen 2 ports and 4 Gen 1 ports. While this is a powerful complement, please note that Thunderbolt 4 and USB 4 are not offered. They were certainly welcome, but to be fair to Gigabyte, they’re one of the few features manufacturers use to justify the cost of the halo tier. motherboard. USB 4 will eventually be as pervasive as USB 3.0 is today. Of course, it could be called USB 4.7 Gen 4×4 or some other silly name, but digression.
Master includes 10G Lan and Killer Wi-Fi 6E. We love seeing 10G and hope it seeps into cheaper boards in the future. However, it is a powerful implementation with a selection of Gigabyte’s reliable components, including the ESS ES9118 DAC.
system performance
game performance
As most motherboard reviews say, using benchmarks to evaluate a motherboard isn’t all that important unless there’s an underlying problem that stands out. A difference of 1-2 percent here and there, or a margin of error, doesn’t mean much in the real world.
The Z790 platform is maturing and the power and turbo settings are set as close as possible between boards, so the results are generally close. Still, the Aorus Master performed well, especially under multi-threaded loads. Add to that his VRM, which is very cool and powerful, and it feels like this is a board that can handle being thrashed under heavy load. The game is no slouch either.
test equipment
CPU: Intel Core i9 13900K
graphic: Zotac GeForce RTX 3080 Ti AMP Holo
sheep: 2x 16GB G.Skill Trident Z5 DDR5-6000 C36
Storage: 2TB Seagate FireCuda 530
cooling: Cooler Master PL360 Flux 360mm AIO
Power supply unit: Corsair AX1000
The Z790 Aorus Master’s BIOS is much better than my first impressions before the 12th Gen launch, which struggled to run DDR5-6000. I reviewed the set of G.Skill DDR5-7200 (opens in new tab) Worked fine on my Z790 Aorus Master. In fact, just increasing the memory voltage and relaxing the CAS latency by one step allowed him to boot at 7600MHz, but more than that would have required an insane amount of his IMC voltage. Thanks, I prefer to keep my CPU running a bit longer!
If you’re planning on overclocking your K-series CPU, you want the best cooling you can get. With his VRM of this spec and proper cooling, the CPU cooling hits its limit before the board starts sweating.
The Z790 Aorus Master is a competitive and affordable premium Z790 option. The underlying design is indeed very good. VRM and cooling are top shelf. Its easy DDR5-7000 support is a highlight, and the inclusion of 10G LAN and plenty of USB ports are welcome.
VRM and cooling are top shelf. Its easy DDR5-7000 support is a highlight, and the inclusion of 10G LAN and plenty of USB ports are welcome.
If you’re looking for USB 4 or Thunderbolt, you’ll need to look elsewhere, and the use of the last-gen ALC1220 is frowned upon. Aside from the PCIe 5.0 M.2 slot and support for high-speed memory, you can find them for quite a bit cheaper, but they are very similar.
In particular, the Z790 Aorus Master is about $130 cheaper than the Asus Z790 Hero, cheaper than the MSI Z790 Ace, but about the same as ASRock’s Z790 Taichi. Aorus Master’s 10G LAN will be the deciding factor for many, but some people don’t use LAN at all, while others prefer a bit of future-proofing with USB 4. .
But all in all, the Z790 Aorus Master is a strong board and won’t disappoint unless you want specific features exclusive to the flagship board.
