Review Gigabyte X870E Aorus Master Review: Solid performance, fast M.2, ample USB

[Admin]

Priced at $499.99, the X870E Aorus Master gets a slight facelift, a lot more USB ports (including USB 4.0), and fast storage with three PCIe 5.0 x4 M.2 sockets.

Gigabyte X870E Aorus Master Review: Solid performance, fast M.2, ample USB : Read more

 

[UnforcedERROR]

I'm not sure I'd consider a $499 pricetag "pleasing" but I'll concede that they at least maintained the same price a generation later.

 

[thestryker]

It's an interesting choice to go with 3/4 M.2 off of CPU lanes. Perhaps it's due to the likelihood that the next generation of video cards will be PCIe 5.0 so running the primary slot at x8 won't matter for any card. I think I'd prefer having a second PCIe 5.0 slot than the PCIe 5.0 M.2 just the same though.

 

[PlutoDelic]

It's an interesting choice to go with 3/4 M.2 off of CPU lanes. Perhaps it's due to the likelihood that the next generation of video cards will be PCIe 5.0 so running the primary slot at x8 won't matter for any card. I think I'd prefer having a second PCIe 5.0 slot than the PCIe 5.0 M.2 just the same though.

Honestly, 40 usable lanes and quad-channel support in my opinion should be the new norm.

 

[thestryker]

Honestly, 40 usable lanes and quad-channel support in my opinion should be the new norm.

I think the extra bandwidth from DDR5 has shoved quad channel further away at least from the manufacturers side of things. Better memory controllers and higher performance memory will likely keep the CPUs fed so I doubt this is going to change. The primary beneficiary for client workloads would be integrated graphics and the market for premium there is untested.

As for PCIe while 40 lanes would be great moving DMI to PCIe 5.0 would go a long way. Doubling the chipset bandwidth would allow all the connectivity to go through the chipset which should leave around 28 lanes on current desktop CPUs. I think this would be sufficient for the majority of people with desktop workloads.

 

[DawesLimit]

I'm not sure what's intention for testing the 14900k and 7950X against the 9900X. They are faster, we know that. A better test would have been the 9900X on the older X670E vs the newer X870E MBs.

 

[DrDocumentum]

Confusing test mixing 7950x vs 9900x. More important data here would be a DDR5 6000 Mhz vs 8000 Mhz test to see if the improvements AMD claimed on DRAM speed support translates into tangible performance.

 

[thestryker]

More important data here would be a DDR5 6000 Mhz vs 8000 Mhz test to see if the improvements AMD claimed on DRAM speed support translates into tangible performance.

They stated in the review that their 8000 kit didn't work on this or the other X870E board they reviewed.

 

[shinywaffles]

did you test the ai snatch application that should help with optimizing the ddr5 memory? I have not been able to find it anywhere yet

 

[Hotrod2go]

I'm waiting to see reviews comparing performance both stock & OC between X670E boards & this X870E generation boards before I draw any conclusions on this 'updated' chipset.
Some sources I've seen have suggested better RAM traces on these X870E boards but I'm still to see real world evidence of this.

 

[DawesLimit]

I'm waiting to see reviews comparing performance both stock & OC between X670E boards & this X870E generation boards before I draw any conclusions on this 'updated' chipset.
Some sources I've seen have suggested better RAM traces on these X870E boards but I'm still to see real world evidence of this.

Yeah seems like a missed opportunity to test that scenarios. Then again, maybe AMD prohibit them from doing such comparission?!

 

[Hotrod2go]

Yeah seems like a missed opportunity to test that scenarios. Then again, maybe AMD prohibit them from doing such comparission?!

AMD controls the tech press do they?

 

[waltc3]

Good review! Answered all my questions, and I appreciate the time taken for the screenshots.

The x570 Aorus Master included a backpanel Clear CMOS button, which I found invaluable and have used many, many times since July 2019 with my 3900X. Amazingly, the x670e Aorus Master did not include one, but they wanted $500, anyway, which I did not give them. The 870e seems much more robust and better designed than the x670e, and your article has me steering toward this board.

I'm partial to the Aorus Master because my current x570 Master has been outstanding and mostly trouble free for the last 5+ years of continuous, daily operation, 8-12 hours a day. I think I'll say that the x870e appears to be everything the x670e apparently wasn't. Leaving off the Clear CMOS button on the backplane was a major mistake with the x670e version of the $500 Master!

Often it's the little things that tell you a lot about a product, but I don't call having to open the case and set a CMOS jumper every time I update the bios to be a "little thing"... x870e seems like the best bet for the years ahead. In 2019 I jumped for joy when I saw the backpanel Clear CMOS button! I grew tired of having to open the case, remove my GPU just to set the CMOS jumper. It's a feature that should be standard on all motherboards moving forward, but the lower-priced mboards don't seem to have them! One step forward, two steps back...if you know what mean.