Gigabyte’s Aorus Grasp motherboards have historically impressed me. They’re very a lot high-end choices, however aren’t priced anyplace close to the highest tier Extremes and Godlikes of the Asus and MSIs of the motherboard world. You continue to get a whole lot of options in your cash, however while you soar over $500, diminishing returns actually units in.
Rather a lot was written concerning the soar in motherboard pricing this technology, although as a second technology LGA 1700 platform, Z790 wasn’t as badly affected because the all new AMD X670/E boards have been again after they launched. The Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Grasp at $499 / £524 / AU$1,029 is much from what you’d name an reasonably priced board, however in comparison with a number of the boards costing properly over that worth it is a formidable competitor.
The Z790 Aorus Grasp seems to be an evolution of the Z690 Grasp with a couple of aesthetic tweaks, redesigned heatsinks, and assist for as much as DDR5-8000 reminiscence. The Z690 Grasp turned a superb board after it obtained some welcome BIOS updates, and it means the Z790 model could battle to justify its larger worth over the now discounted Z690 model.
The Z790 Aorus Grasp is an prolonged ATX motherboard, so some consideration must be taken to make sure it matches in your case. It’s much less of an element than it as soon as was, thanks in no small half to the gigantism of contemporary graphics playing cards just like the RTX 4090 (opens in new tab). Gigabyte has gone for black and grey theme with only a contact of RGB atop the I/O protect. The look is one which blends kind and performance properly.
Z790 Aorus Grasp specs
Socket: Intel LGA1700
CPU compatibility: Intel twelfth & thirteenth Gen desktop processors
Kind issue: E-ATX
Reminiscence assist: DDR5-8000 (OC), As much as 128GB
Storage: 5x M.2, 4x SATA
USB: As much as 3x USB 3.2 Gen2x2, 7x USB 3.2 Gen 2, 9x USB 3.1 Gen 1, 4x USB 2.0
Show: 2x DP 1.2
Networking: Marvell AQtion 10G LAN, Killer Wi-Fi 6E
Audio: Realtek ALC1220-VB
Worth: $499 (opens in new tab)/ £524 (opens in new tab) / AU$1,029 (opens in new tab)
A tour across the board reveals some attention-grabbing issues. The PCIe slot format is clearly constructed with triple and quad slot GPUs in thoughts. The first slot shares its PCIe 5.0 lanes with the first M.2 slot.
The Aorus Grasp is one among a rising variety of boards which have a PCIe launch swap or latch. Because the common PCIe latch could be troublesome to entry with GPUs which have a backplate, this characteristic is a godsend, even when just for the few that swap GPUs loads (like us reviewers!).
The Z790 Aorus Grasp is one more Gigabyte providing with a properly engineered cooling meeting. Whereas different producers have tended in direction of blocky metallic warmth sinks that lack floor space, Gigabyte continues to make use of old fashioned conventional finned heatsinks. Our easy check with a limiteless energy 13900K resulted in a peak VRM temperature of simply 57 levels. Excellent!
The opposite heatsink worthy of focus is the huge main M.2 heatsink. With PCIe 5.0 drives anticipated to generate a whole lot of warmth, this sort of cooling potential may be very welcome. However do not take it without any consideration. Heatsinks can and do soak up warmth from adjoining graphics playing cards so you may nonetheless want to make sure you have good case airflow.
The board will settle for as much as 5 M.2 drives. Apart from the first slot, they assist as much as PCIe 4.0. There are simply 4 SATA ports. They’re changing into much less and fewer vital however nonetheless, six could be good at this degree, if not eight.
Different attention-grabbing options embody a so-called Multi-key button which could be programmed by the person to toggle the RGB on or off, boot to BIOS or enter a BIOS secure mode with out dropping your settings.
Regardless of not being awash with blazing RGB, the Z790 Aorus Grasp consists of two ARGB headers and two RGB headers. Plus, there are a minimum of ten fan and pump headers, a USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 entrance panel header and energy and reset buttons. Not dangerous in any respect.
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The VRM of the board is an actual spotlight, as you’d count on from a board that’s anticipated to energy overclocked 13900K’s. A 20+1+2 section VRM with 105A levels will fortunately present juice for ln2 overclockers. Aside from the out and out overclocking boards just like the Aorus Tachyon or Asus Apex, it’s going to be laborious to seek out one thing that beats the VRM of the Z790 Aorus Grasp.
If you would like a number of USB ports, the Grasp might be the board for you. There are 14 on the again panel alone. These embody two 3.2 Gen 2×2 Sort-C and a Gen 1 Sort-C. Becoming a member of these are seven Gen 2 and 4 Gen 1 ports. That is a robust complement, however notice that you do not get Thunderbolt 4 or USB 4. They actually would have been welcome however in equity to Gigabyte, they’re one of many few options that makers use to justify the price of the halo tier motherboards. USB 4 will ultimately be as ubiquitous as USB 3.0 is as we speak. In fact it is perhaps known as USB 4.7 Gen 4×4 or another ridiculous identify, however I digress.
The Grasp consists of 10G Lan and Killer Wi-Fi 6E. We like to see 10G and hope it trickles right down to cheaper boards sooner or later. The board consists of ALC1220-VB audio which appears like final gen, although it’s a robust implementation with Gigabyte’s dependable alternative of elements, together with an ESS ES9118 DAC.
System Efficiency
Gaming Efficiency
As I say in most motherboard critiques, utilizing benchmarks to guage a motherboard is not all that related except there’s some actual underlying subject that stands out. A p.c or two right here or there or margin of error variations do not imply a lot in the true world.
The Z790 platform is mature, and with energy and turbo settings as shut as its potential to set between boards, the outcomes are usually shut. Nonetheless , the Aorus Grasp carried out properly, notably underneath multithreaded masses. Add to {that a} very cool and powerful VRM and also you get the sensation this can be a board that will not have an issue being thrashed with heavy masses. It is no slouch at gaming both.
Take a look at rig
CPU: Intel Core i9 13900K
Graphics: Zotac GeForce RTX 3080 Ti AMP Holo
RAM: 2x 16GB G.Ability Trident Z5 DDR5-6000 C36
Storage: 2TB Seagate FireCuda 530
Cooling: Cooler Grasp PL360 Flux 360mm AIO
PSU: Corsair AX1000
The BIOS of the Z790 Aorus Grasp is just miles forward of my first impressions previous to the twelfth Gen launch when DDR5-6000 struggled to run. I reviewed a set of G.Ability DDR5-7200 (opens in new tab) on the Z790 Aorus Grasp and it ran flawlessly. In truth I used to be capable of boot at 7600MHz with only a bump of reminiscence voltage and loosening CAS latency by one step, however past that required unhealthy quantities of IMC voltage. I desire my CPUs to remain alive for a bit longer thanks!
For those who’re planning to overclock a Ok-series CPU, you may want one of the best cooling you may get your palms on. With a VRM of this spec and cooling to match, your CPU cooling will hit its restrict properly earlier than the board breaks a sweat.
The Z790 Aorus Grasp is a extremely aggressive and premium Z790 choice at a great worth. Its underlying design is superb certainly. The VRM and cooling are high shelf, its simple DDR5-7000 assist is a spotlight and the inclusion of 10G LAN plus a great deal of USB ports is welcome.
The VRM and cooling are high shelf, its simple DDR5-7000 assist is a spotlight and the inclusion of 10G LAN plus a great deal of USB ports is welcome.
For those who’re after USB 4 or Thunderbolt you may must look elsewhere and using a final gen ALC1220 raises an eyebrow. Whereas the core spec remains to be good, the formidable Z690 Aorus Grasp remains to be available on the market. It may be discovered for considerably cheaper and other than the PCIe 5.0 M.2 slot and assist for quick reminiscence, they’re fairly related.
Notably, the Z790 Aorus Grasp is a few $130 cheaper than the Asus Z790 Hero, and cheaper once more than the MSI Z790 Ace nevertheless it’s about the identical as ASRock’s Z790 Taichi. All are robust choices and which one you select could come right down to what options enchantment to you probably the most. That 10G LAN of the Aorus Grasp would be the clincher for a lot of, whereas others will not use LAN in any respect, preferring a bit little bit of future proofing with USB 4.
However ultimately, the Z790 Aorus Grasp is a robust board and except you want a selected characteristic that’s unique to flagship boards, it doesn’t disappoint.
