Gigabyte X870E Aorus Master

[Combatus]

Dropping into the packed $500 X870 motherboard segment, Gigabyte has a slightly different take on aesthetics, features and performance. With an updated EFI and software, plus refreshingly functional design elements, lets see how this motherboard fares in our testing.

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[Baba]

You compared to it a $200 more expensive Asus Hero. Can you compare it to a $30 cheaper Asus Strix Gaming? I hope your Strix Gaming review is coming up.

This fan stuck on the top of the mobo looks pretty cheezy to say it nicely. It seems like they skimped on R&D. This board won't sell given the competition around it. It should be $100 less to start.

 

[Dahita]

I am appalled by the rise in pricing. It's the first time in my life I see a $500 motherboard. I thought the F4tality one at $300 was a bit much not too long ago. If you add a top end graphic card, you get a $2500 price tag for both. This used to be the cost of an entire high end gig 4 years ago, monitor included!

 

[cal5582]

meh, still only 3 pcie slots. pass. why are am5 boards to limited on pcie, am4 didnt have this problem. you could get genuine creator boards for x570.

 

[_roman_]

Where is the added value for that price point, build quality and overall performance?

I doubt those magnets will justify those prices. I do not want to see any magnets in or close of any of my electronics.

Looks more like a 150€ mainboard. (It's not a well known brand with proper quality in past few years.)

edit: I think 150€ would be a more reasonable price for that particular board. Gigabyte gave me the impression in past few years of very, very low quality for certain products like graphic cards, power supply units and marketing hoax with ~40% surplus performance for x3d chips on certain gigabyte mainboards.

I had two different no name (like gigabyte) small fans in my amazon basket for weeks. Each had similar size and costs less than 2€ with tax.

 

[Space Lynx]

I'd take Taichi Lite over this one personally, better and saves money to boot.

 

[TheLostSwede]

meh, still only 3 pcie slots. pass. why are am5 boards to limited on pcie, am4 didnt have this problem. you could get genuine creator boards for x570.

I'm curious, what do you need so many PCIe slots for? I mean, I use one of my two additional slots for my 10 Gbps card, but I have no need for the second one.
Most people don't seem to use anything beyond the one for the graphics card these days.

Looks more like a 150€ mainboard. (It's not a well known brand with proper quality in past few years.)

Sorry what?

I doubt those magnets will justify those prices. I do not want to see any magnets in or close of any of my electronics.

How strong do you think those tiny magnets are? Also, if you're still using floppy disks, it's time to move on.

 

[Kapone33]

I'm curious, what do you need so many PCIe slots for? I mean, I use one of my two additional slots for my 10 Gbps card, but I have no need for the second one.
Most people don't seem to use anything beyond the one for the graphics card these days.


Sorry what?


How strong do you think those tiny magnets are? Also, if you're still using floppy disks, it's time to move on.

PCIe slots were the mitigating cost of X570 that has inspired people to expect the same. The hubris of X870E is what you are suggesting.We should be happy to get 1 PCIe slot. From the dawn of PCIe it has been about slot availability in terms of MB cost.

 

[TheLostSwede]

PCIe slots were the mitigating cost of X570 that has inspired people to expect the same. The hubris of X870E is what you are suggesting.We should be happy to get 1 PCIe slot. From the dawn of PCIe it has been about slot availability in terms of MB cost.

I'm not suggesting anything, I was asking a question, as I'm curious why people are demanding more than two additional x4 slots. especially as this board has two real x4 slots and not a x1 or a x2 slot disguised as a x4 slot, admittedly all in a x16 physical slot, but I find those better than open-ended x4 slots.
I'm also not sure AMD forcing the ASM4242 to be connected to the CPU was a good idea, since it only needs PCIe 4.0, but maybe there's too much of a bottleneck connecting it to the chipset.

 

[Gmr_Chick]

$500 big ones and they removed the backplate compared to the X670E Master. WTF....

 

[Kapone33]

I'm not suggesting anything, I was asking a question, as I'm curious why people are demanding more than two additional x4 slots. especially as this board has two real x4 slots and not a x1 or a x2 slot disguised as a x4 slot, admittedly all in a x16 physical slot, but I find those better than open-ended x4 slots.
I'm also not sure AMD forcing the ASM4242 to be connected to the CPU was a good idea, since it only needs PCIe 4.0, but maybe there's too much of a bottleneck connecting it to the chipset.

It could be the fact that PCIe slots are way more flexible than M2 and what AMD user asked for USB 4 for external drives when you have 5 M2 slots on the MB already?

 

[Chaitanya]

Missed Cons of castrated PCI slot config and layout compared to previous generation Master boards.

 

[GoldenX]

What are PCIe 1x and 4x expansion slots.

 

[Launcestonian]

I don't know why the reviewer did not upgrade the bios to F4g (Nov 12) with AGESA 1.2.0.2a & used Win 11 24H2 ( the only version one can download now from MS)?, or are they still stuck because AMD says to use 23H2 version of the OS?. There will be noticeable difference in the performance compared to older bios & OS version. If AMD insist on the older version they are not doing themselves any favours here, besides that Gigabyte are not getting the product to enthusiasts with the most up to date OS & firmware.... 24H2 is not the buggy mess some make it out to be, recent updates are continuing to refine it.

8400MT/s is the highest supported speed for 9000 series according to the latest support list, so why the claim for 8600MT/s in the specifications data? reviewing DDR5 boards now with 6000MT/s is so 2023....

I really wish TPU reviews would get their act together & provide proper honest review for the time we live in today & not some reality from the past.

 

[csendesmark]

meh, still only 3 pcie slots. pass. why are am5 boards to limited on pcie, am4 didnt have this problem. you could get genuine creator boards for x570.

It is limited by the CPU and it's PCIe lane number,
Sadly there is no better alternative, if you want more of those you have to pay up and the Threadripper.
R.I.P. money

I am also interested why would you need 3 PCIe connector, I do why I want mine with 3, but still interested.

 

[Ten Shin Han]

The architecture diagram on page 4 shows the 'stupidity' of this mobo, and perhaps other.
The available 24 PCIe 5.0 lanes of from the CPU should be dedicated to most critical functions: [ 1 x GPU PCIe 5.0 x 16 ] ++++ [ 2 x M.2 NVMe Gen5x4 with RAID 0 support ]
because unless you have not noticed, the critical components on which DirectX 12 relies on are : CPU, RAM, GPU, SSD (= M.2 NMVe )
also 2 x M.2 slots are quite enough, no need for 3 or 4 that would turn the PC case into an oven
Everything else should be connected to the chipset, and knowing that audio, wifi & USB (high speed, -C, 4.0, you name it) are de facto integrated in the MOBO, not even sure an extra pcie slot is really necessary
so instead of complexifying the mobo design with irrelevant features, the board design should focus on simplicity & efficiency , in providing enough clearance for optional NVMe heatsink, and in optimizing air flow
This board is bad
Also all the proprietary EZ-whatever stuff is just to force spending money on gigabyte accessories...

 

[TheLostSwede]

I don't know why the reviewer did not upgrade the bios to F4g (Nov 12) with AGESA 1.2.0.2a & used Win 11 24H2 ( the only version one can download now from MS)?, or are they still stuck because AMD says to use 23H2 version of the OS?. There will be noticeable difference in the performance compared to older bios & OS version. If AMD insist on the older version they are not doing themselves any favours here, besides that Gigabyte are not getting the product to enthusiasts with the most up to date OS & firmware.... 24H2 is not the buggy mess some make it out to be, recent updates are continuing to refine it.

8400MT/s is the highest supported speed for 9000 series according to the latest support list, so why the claim for 8600MT/s in the specifications data? reviewing DDR5 boards now with 6000MT/s is so 2023....

I really wish TPU reviews would get their act together & provide proper honest review for the time we live in today & not some reality from the past.

Question: Why did you not apply for job as motherboard reviewer here at TPU when it was up for grabs? Since clearly, you're the expert here.

 

[Caring1]

Can someone explain what is meant by EFI here.
"With an updated EFI and software"
In my world it means Electronic Fuel Injection.

 

[_roman_]

What are PCIe 1x and 4x expansion slots.

Let me explain in my words.

there is the pcie express standard. We are not at pcie 5.0. This determines the speed which one pcie lane has.

Mechanically can a long physical expansion slot have 16 pcie lanes. Electrically it can be made 2 or 4 or 8 or 16 (according to the mainboard software and hardware) pcie lanes. The lanes also can be from the type pcie 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 or pcie 5.0

edit: TheLostSwede is of course right. I saw recently a mainboard which had electrically two lanes of pcie express 3 on an expansion slot. I was unprecise

Just because you see on certain mainboard a long physical expansion slot, it can still be theses days sadly pcie 3.0 with 4 lanes. I would have expected 16 lanes with pcie 4.0

Summary: physical slot vs electrical usable pcie express amout of pcie express lanes

--

t is limited by the CPU and it's PCIe lane number,
Sadly there is no better alternative, if you want more of those you have to pay up and the Threadripper.
R.I.P. money

I am also interested why would you need 3 PCIe connector, I do why I want mine with 3, but still interested.

I regret not going with USB and buying the vertical m2 wlan card and the vertical m2 metal casing housing. My mainboard had an unused m2 pcie slot for wlan - without the metal housing and antennas.

The mainboard is the piece of hardware I may keep the longest. I was forced to sell my B550 mainboard because of hardware and software issues. The motivation was to get back some of the money I spend for the mainboard. The newer mainboard has a new warranty period, a longer support period as it's a newer platform, more and better expansion slots and finally to get rid of some of the mainboard progblems. I did not expect that intel fooled me twice with broken software for their WLAN cards on two different mainboards. (A hidden problem I was not aware of at the time of purchase)
It was also very foolish to buy a B550 mainboard at the end of the product life cycle.

I'd like to have an option to plugin some future expansion cards: higher USB port plugin card, harddrive controller, some sort of second graphic card, tv tuner card, whatever, ... oscilloscope measuring card, sound card, ...

 

[TheLostSwede]

Can someone explain what is meant by EFI here.
"With an updated EFI and software"
In my world it means Electronic Fuel Injection.

Unified Extensible Firmware Interface, which is what has replaced the BIOS in modern computers. It happened over a decade ago.

there is the pcie express standard. We are not at pcie 5.0. This determines the speed which one pcie lane has.

Now?

Mechanically can a long physical expansion slot have 16 pcie lanes. Electrically it can be made 2 or 4 or 8 or 16 (according to the mainboard software and hardware) pcie lanes. The lanes also can be from the type pcie 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 or pcie 5.0

There are no physical x2 slots, only x1, x4, x8 and x16.

 

[Caring1]

Unified Extensible Firmware Interface, which is what has replaced the BIOS in modern computers. It happened over a decade ago.

Ok, I know what UEFI is, but that wasn't mentioned.

 

[Wirko]

I'm also not sure AMD forcing the ASM4242 to be connected to the CPU was a good idea, since it only needs PCIe 4.0, but maybe there's too much of a bottleneck connecting it to the chipset.

Now that USB4 is on every new AM5 board, is AMD taking any effort to promote its use? I'd expect that but I don't see it.

Also it's diappointing that they allow no flexibility in connecting the Promontory chips. Each chip on its own PCIe x4 port would enable more possibilities for expansion (even if Gen5 bandwidth would be wasted).

 

[TheLostSwede]

Now that USB4 is on every new AM5 board, is AMD taking any effort to promote its use? I'd expect that but I don't see it.

I can't say I have seen it, no.

Also it's diappointing that they allow no flexibility in connecting the Promontory chips. Each chip on its own PCIe x4 port would enable more possibilities for expansion (even if Gen5 bandwidth would be wasted).

Apparently it was tested and offered little to no real world benefit.

Ok, I know what UEFI is, but that wasn't mentioned.

Remove the U and you have EFI, technically only Apple used it in consumer devices, but apparently Intel and HP used it with Itanium as well.
UEFI is just the more commonly used form of EFI.

 

[Ten Shin Han]

Actually,

MAG X870 TOMAHAWK WIFI​

https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/MAG-X870-TOMAHAWK-WIFI/Specification

almost got it right :

==========================
3x PCI-E x16 slot
PCI_E1 Gen PCIe 5.0 supports up to x16 (From CPU)

PCI_E2 Gen PCIe 3.0 supports up to x1 (From Chipset) ( I don't care)
PCI_E3 Gen PCIe 4.0 supports up to x4 (From Chipset) ( I don't care)

PCI_E1 slot
• Supports PCIe 5.0 x16 (For Ryzen™ 9000/ 7000 Series processors)
• Supports PCIe 4.0 x8 (For Ryzen™ 8700/ 8600/ 8400 Series processors)
• Supports PCIe 4.0 x4 (For Ryzen™ 8500/ 8300 Series processor)

==========================

4x M.2
M.2_1 Source (From CPU) supports up to PCIe 5.0 x4 , supports 22110/2280 devices
M.2_2 Source (From CPU) supports up to PCIe 5.0 x4 , supports 2280/2260 devices
( M.2_1 & M.2_2 configured as RAID 0 volume)

M.2_3 Source (From Chipset) supports up to PCIe 4.0 x2 , supports 2280/2260 devices ( I don't care)
M.2_4 Source (From Chipset) supports up to PCIe 4.0 x4 , supports 2280/2260 devices ( I don't care)

4x SATA 6G (why not ? can still make a secondary 4 x SATA SSD RAID 0 volume if absolutely necessary)

M2_1 & M2_2 slots
• Supports up to PCIe 5.0 x4 (For Ryzen™ 9000/ 7000 Series processors)
• Supports up to PCIe 4.0 x4 (For Ryzen™ 8000 Series processors)

* The M2_2 slot will be unavailable when using Ryzen™ 8500/ 8300 Series processors.
** USB 40Gbps Type-C ports on the back panel and M2_2 slot share PCIe 5.0 x4 bandwidth. Both run at PCIe 5.0 x2 when a device is installed in the M2_2 slot. You can switch M2_2 to PCIe 5.0 x4 in the BIOS, but this will disable the USB 40Gbps Type-C ports (fair enough, I don't care about USB 40 Gbps)
*** PCI_E3 slot will run at x2 speed when installing device in the M2_3 slot. You can switch PCI_E3 slot to x4 in the BIOS, but this will disable the M2_3 slot.
**** Please refer to the manual for M.2 SSD heatsink restrictions

===============================

Wi-Fi 7
The Wireless module is pre-installed in the M.2 (Key-E) slot (cool ! so I guess it is upgradable ?)
Supports MU-MIMO TX/RX, 2.4GHz/ 5GHz/ 6GHz* (320MHz) up to 5.8Gbps
Supports 802.11 a/ b/ g/ n/ ac/ ax/ be

Supports Bluetooth® 5.4**, MLO, 4KQAM

=================================

Now all I wish for is this configuration on a Micro ATX mobo (that should fit, see below) and I can do my upgrade.

et voilà !

 

[GoldenX]

Let me explain in my words.

Sorry, forgot to add the /s
We're in a new age of Applefying motherboards. You don't need expansion slots, take this useless massive heatsink instead, and don't look at the price.