Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Elite X WiFi 7 Motherboard Review

Gigabyte took the opportunity to refresh its LGA 1700 Z790 series motherboard lineup alongside the launch of the Intel 14th Generation Core Processors. Gigabyte’s refreshed motherboards come with various improvements such as WiFi 7 support, better stability, and quality of life upgrades. One of the refreshed motherboards is the Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Elite X WiFi 7 which will be tested with the new Intel Core i9 14900K.

Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Elite X WiFi 7 – A Closer Look

Not much has changed on the packaging of the Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Elite X WiFi 7 with the exception of the 14th Gen support badge.

Packaging Contents are as follows:

• Manual
• WiFi 7 Antenna
• SATA Cable
• Front Panel Connector
• M.2 Thermal Pad

The Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Elite X WiFi 7 sports a neutral black-grey theme that blends with any PC theme. The Z790 Aorus Elite X has an 8-layer 2x copper PCB coming from the Aorus Elite AX’s 6-layer 2x copper PCB.

VRM configuration has not changed over the predecessor as it still has a 16+1+2 Twin Digital VRM Design. Two 8+* phases operate in a parallel power design.

Memory support has improved to a max of DDR5-8266 from the Z790 Aorus Elite AX’s DDR5-7600.

Gigabyte uses its signature UD Solid Pin Power Connector for its 24pin ATX and 8+8pin EPS power connectors.

The IO has not changed coming from the Aorus Elite AX. Ports selection is what I consider more than enough as it has three USB Type-A 3.2 Gen 1, one USB Type-C, four USB Type-A 2.0, one HDMI port, one DisplayPort, 2.5GbE LAN, and the new WiFi 7 antenna.

There are a total of four M.2 slots on the Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Elite X WiFi 7, three of which share one M.2 heatsink.

Gigabyte brings in a quality-of-life upgrade across its Z790 refresh motherboards with its implementation of M.2 EZ-Latch Click, M.2 EZ-Latch Plus, and PCI-E EZ-Latch. M.2 EZ-Latch Click is a tool-less approach for the M.2 heatsink for easy installation and removal. M.2 EZ-Latch Plus is the brand’s solution for a tool-less SSD installation.

Benchmark Setup and Test Methodology

Gadget Pilipinas’ testing philosophy is to provide detail-oriented results as accurately as possible so that our readers can replicate our tests given that these conditions are met. Different benchmarking apps and sequences are used depending on the tested component or device.

We use CapFrameX 1.7.1 as our primary FPS capture and analysis tool for all our gaming benchmarks. The latest build version of Windows 11 Pro and WHQL-certified drivers are used for our benchmarks. Readings such as temperatures and power draws are recorded using HWINFO64, and other relevant software for cross-checking.

For more info, read our Review and Benchmark methodology article.

3DMark – Firestrike & Timespy

3DMark is the go-to benchmark for gamers because of the ability to share and compare results online.

SuperPI 32M

SuperPI is a single-threaded benchmark application that lets the CPU calculate Pi(π) to the nth digit. In this benchmark, we selected the Pi calculation to 32M, the highest available for the app. 

CINEBENCH 2024 & R23

Maxon’s Cinebench benchmark is one of the most iconic benchmark applications used by reviewers and enthusiasts. The latest Cinebench R23 uses the latest rendering architectures, including Intel’s Embree ray tracing technology and other advanced features from AMD and Intel that allow users to render the same scene on the same hard. 

PROCYON

Procyon benchmark suite is developed by the UL, the same team behind 3DMark and PCMark benchmarks. The UL Procycon video editing benchmark uses Adobe Premiere in a typical video editing workflow. The benchmark starts by importing two video project files with various edits, adjustments, and effects – the second project uses several GPU-accelerated effects. Each project is exported in 1080p with H.264 encoding and again in 4K with HEVC H.265. The reported score is based on the time taken to export all four videos. 

wPrime 1024M

wPrime is a benchmark tool similar to SuperPI, but the former takes on finding prime numbers using Newton’s Method. The benchmark is set to calculate 1024 million prime numbers, and the performance is measured according to calculation time. 

V-RAY 5

V-Ray Benchmark is a stand-alone version of V-Ray developed by Chaos Group. It is designed to test the CPU and GPU by rendering sample scenes at a fixed amount of time. V-Ray is a plug-in mostly utilized by 3D computer graphics software applications mainly for industrial design, product design, architecture, film, and video game production. V-Ray is not limited to 64-threads as it supports multi and mega-threading. 

BLENDER

Blender is a widely used, free, open-source 3D creation suite. It supports the whole 3D pipeline process from modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, and even motion tracking. Blender has become a standard for CPU benchmarks with the BMW27 and Classroom Scene most used. This prompted the company to release Blender Open Data Benchmark in 2018, a benchmark-specific version allowing users to run a preset benchmark and share the results online like 3DMark.

GeekBench 6.2.1

Geekbench is a multi-platform benchmark used to gauge CPU performance and compare them across Windows, Mac, and Mobile. Geekbench 6 is the latest version and doesn’t rely on memory more than the previous Geekbench 4, making it a great tool to measure both single-core and multi-core CPU performance.

AIDA64 EXTREME MEMORY BENCHMARK

AIDA64 is a very popular and powerful monitoring tool, as well as a benchmarking application. AIDA64 is commonly used to stress test CPUs, especially testing if an overclock is stable. We used AIDA64’s Memory Benchmark to measure the data transfer bandwidth of the system memory.

PCMark10

From the same developers of the popular game benchmarking tool 3DMark, PCMark 10 is a benchmarking app for measuring a whole PC’s performance. It covers a wide variety of tests to reflect common tasks performed in a modern workplace. We selected PCMark 10’s extended benchmark and reported both the overall score and Digital Content Creation Score. 

CORONA RENDERER

Corona Renderer is an unbiased photorealistic render available for Autodesk 3Ds Max, Maxon Cinema 4D, and as a stand-alone application. Its popularity, similar to Blender, led Chaos Group to develop a benchmark version of the app which runs using Corona Renderer 1.3. Workstation systems, especially CPUs, can utilize Corona Benchmark as up to 72 threads can be used in the benchmark, making it very suitable for CPUs with various price segments. 

PassMark 10.2

Passmark 10 provides a comprehensive suite of tests that evaluate various aspects of a system’s performance, including CPU, GPU, memory, and disk performance. Its automated testing process makes it accessible and efficient for reviewers to conduct benchmarks and analyze the performance of different systems.

BapCo CROSSMARK

Crossmark is one of the few native cross-platform benchmark tools available for Windows, Android, Linux ChromeOS, iOS, and macOS. It measures overall system performance and system responsiveness using models of real-world applications making it a great comparison point across multiple platforms.

HANDBRAKE

Handbrake is a top-rated open-source video conversion software that is used by professionals, enthusiasts, and even reviewers as a reference point mainly because of its wide variety of media codecs. The rise of streaming and blogging makes video content, both encoding, and transcoding important for these people, regardless of whether they’re seasoned professionals or just starting out. Handbrake also takes advantage of AVX-512 and OpenCL to accelerate certain types of media codecs. Our Handbrake benchmark converts a 500MB MP4 video to H.264 to measure the processor’s performance.

GOOGLE OCTANE 2.0

Google Octane 2.0 is a benchmark that measures a Javascript engine’s performance by running multiple tests representing different use cases of JavaScript applications. While Google Octane is retired and no longer maintained, it is still a good representation of today’s dynamic, interactive web applications. Our Google Octane 2.0 is run on Microsoft’s latest Chromium-based Edge browser. 

Temperatures

The Intel Core i9 14900K behaves similarly across all three motherboards in our test suite with temperatures hovering above the 100°C mark. Surprisingly, the Gigabyte Aorus has the coolest recorded peak VRM temperatures of only 44°C compared to the 50°C peak on competing motherboards.

CONCLUSION 

The Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Elite X WiFi 7 is a well-rounded motherboard packed with robust connectivity with its generous IO ports and M.2 slots and is backed by a robust build quality and solid VRM design. For Php 18,580, you’re getting a decent mid-range Z790 series motherboard that packs in more than what you need without the absurdly high price premium that most Z790 motherboards or “refreshes” are notorious for. So, if you’re looking for a Z790 motherboard to pair with your 13th or 14th Generation i7/i9 K CPU, then the Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Elite X WiFi 7 is a compelling option especially if you’re looking aiming for stability and connectivity.

Grant Soriano

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Grant is a Financial Management graduate from UST. His passion for gadgets and tech crossed him over in the industry where he could apply his knowledge as an enthusiast and in-depth analytic skills as a Finance Major. His passion allows him to earn at the same time help Gadget Pilipinas' readers in making smart, value-based decisions and purchases with his reviews and guides.