Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Master Review

Conclusion

If you’ve come here fresh from our review of the Gigabyte Aorus Elite AX, then you’ll have a clearer understanding of the point we were trying to make. Whereas the Aorus Elite AX was the least motherboard that Gigabyte could get away with under the Aorus brand, the Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Master is an absolute beast.

It looks exactly as gorgeous as we have come to expect from the Aorus brand. Any time a manufacturer introduces a new premium brand it is important that they maintain its exclusivity. Nobody wants a Bugatti city car or two-seater single prop Gulfstream plane. The Aorus brand stamped itself with authority on the market and the Aorus Master represents everything we’ve come to expect from this premium arm in the Gigabyte suite.

Looks are subjective, but wherever you cast your eye across the Aorus Master you see an attention to detail which makes you proud of your choice. The 20+1+2 105A Power Stage is as beefy as they come, and comfortably capable of overclocking even the demanding Core i9-13900K. That is kept cool by the Fins-Array III, a Nanocarbon coated, high fin density, enormous heatsink. On top of that is the Aorus bird of prey logo with RGB lighting, and that is echoed on the M.2 heatsinks with the Aorus logo itself. On the subject of the M.2 slots there are 5, with one full PCIe 5.0 slot for ultrafast NVMe transfer speeds, and four regular ones. All of them have the new Gigabyte EZ-Latch which makes installing them a breeze. A breeze is easy to generate with so many fan headers on the Aorus Master. Connectivity is supreme, with two USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 on the back (along with 12 other USB 3.2 ports) and there is a Gen 2×2 Type-C at the front too. Lastly in the looks department both the DIMM slots, every PCI Express slot and the power connectors are all armoured too. It’s deserving of the Aorus name before we’ve reached the performance.

With those kind of specifications you would expect the Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Master to be a monster on the performance side of things and so it proves. It’s plenty fast with the processor running at stock, although of course these days stock just means letting it overclock itself, and has a meaty enough power stage to easily overclock the demanding Core i9. If you fancy an easy way to overclock then special mention must go to the BIOS which has an easy CPU level up feature that absolutely works, as well choice between a game based CPU with some cores as fast as they can go, or a productivity one where all cores at the same speed. Naturally a serious cooling solution is required, as well as a close eye kept on the voltages, but it is easy to use.

If the Aorus Elite AX made us wonder if Gigabyte have dropped the ball, the Aorus Master shows that they haven’t. It’s a monster, and everything we have come to expect from the Gigabyte Aorus brand. It wins our OC3D Enthusiast Award.

At launch, Gigabyte’s Z790 Aorus Master motherboard is available for £619.99. 

  

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