The latest motherboard to grace our test bench is the GIGABYTE Z690 Aorus Master, which hails from its Aorus gaming series and sits just one step below its Aorus Xtreme models. Some of its most notable features include 10 Gigabit Ethernet and Wi-FI 6E networking, USB 3.2 G2x2 connectivity, as well as plenty of storage capacity consisting of five M.2 slots and six SATA ports. The Aorus Z690 Master also boasts support for DDR5-6400 memory and an impressive 20-phase power delivery designed for overclockers looking to squeeze out extra performance. Does the GIGABYTE Z690 Aorus have enough about it to justify the $470 price tag? We aim to find out in our latest Z690 motherboard review.

Across GIGABYTE's many different series of motherboards for Z690, including the Aorus for enthusiasts and gaming, the Gaming series for gamers on a tighter budget, the Aero for content creators, and the UD (Ultra Durable) series for the entry-level. GIGABYTE, in general, has a good degree of separation for its product ranges, which makes it easier for consumers to distinguish between each of its models from the pretty large stack of Z690 models it has. Each of its different series occupies a different price point and comes equipped with a varying level of features.

GIGABYTE Z690 Aorus Master Overview

Focusing on the GIGABYTE Z690 Aorus Master motherboard, it's the most premium of the company's Z690 models, save its flagship Xtreme series duo, the Z690 Aorus Xtreme, and the water block inclusive Z690 Aorus Xtreme WaterForce. As the Master series is a premium model, it's equipped with an equally premium-looking aesthetic, with waves of black heatsinks covering the all-black PCB, as well as multiple areas of integrated RGB LED lighting. It has a typical Aorus theme throughout, which hasn't changed all that much over the last couple of years.

The GIGABYTE Z690 Aorus Master has lots to offer users looking for a high-end Z690 motherboard, including support for the latest DDR5 memory. This includes speeds of up to DDR5-6400 supported out of the box, including 128GB across four memory slots. Storage support is also equally impressive, with support for up to five M.2 slots (four PCIe 4.0 x4 and one PCIe 3.0 x4), as well as six SATA ports that are capable of installing RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 arrays. Despite its premium design, GIGABYTE includes just one full-length PCIe 5.0 x16 slot, with two full-length PCIe 3.0 x4 slots, instead of offering the capability for PCIe 5.0 x8/x8.

GIGABYTE also uses the Z690 chipset's native support in other ways, including support for two USB 3.2 G2x2 Type-C ports (one rear panel, one header), as well as a total of eleven USB ports on the rear panel (two Type-C, nine Type-A) which is perfect for users with lots of USB devices. Also featured is a quality networking array, including a single 10 Gigabit Ethernet controller, along with an Intel Wi-Fi 6E CNVI that supports both the 6 GHz band and BT 5.2 devices. The onboard audio solution also consists of a premium Realtek HD audio codec and ESS DAC chip, and a single DisplayPort 1.2 video output for users planning to use Intel's integrated Xe Iris graphics.

Designed with performance in mind, GIGABYTE advertises a large 20-phase power delivery split into a 19-phase direct design for the CPU with 105 A power stages and a single-phase 70 A power stage designated for the SoC. This is more than enough for overclocking Alder Lake to its limits, with the Aorus Master being designed to offer enthusiast-level performance combined with its Aorus 'gaming' features.

The GIGABYTE Z690 Aorus Master undergoing our VRM thermal testing

Quickly analyzing the raw performance of the GIGABYTE Z690 Aorus Master, it showed its competitiveness against other Z690 models in all three of our primary testing areas, including system, compute, and gaming performance. In our overclock testing, the Z690 Aorus Master displayed true character with very tight VDroop control on the CPU VCore voltage at full-load, and it was equally impressive in our VRM thermal testing.

The GIGABYTE Z690 Aorus Master has an MSRP of $470, and at the time of writing, it is available at Newegg for this price. As it stands, there's some competition at the price point, including the ASRock Z690 PG Veloctia ($470), the ASUS ROG Strix Z690-E Gaming WIFI ($470), and the MSI MEG Z690 Unify ($490), with each of them all deserving of merit in their own way. The advantage that GIGABYTE has over the models above is that it includes 10 GbE, which is a feature that's typically reserved for the (very expensive) flagship Z690 boards. With its impressive array of features, capability, and premium design, the GIGABYTE Z690 Aorus Master ticks many boxes for under $500, but can it walk the walk? That's the biggest question that we intend on answering in this review.

Read on for our extended analysis.

Visual Inspection

Back in 2017, GIGABYTE debuted its Aorus gaming series, which by all accounts was to segment its gaming-focused products much like ASUS does with its Republic of Gamers series and MSI's Gaming branding. Over the years, the overall design and aesthetic have mutated, and GIGABYTE's Aorus range of motherboards encapsulates its most premium models.

Focusing on the current design via one of its most premium models, the GIGABYTE Z690 Aorus Master blends a mixture of RGB-enabled zones, including a large rear panel cover and a large chipset heatsink. It features an ATX-sized PCB that is all-black, with black armor that doubles up and amalgamates the board's M.2 heatsinks into the overall design.

On the lower section of the motherboard are the PCIe slots, of which GIGABYTE includes three. This includes one full-length PCIe 5.0 x16 slot, and two full-length PCIe 3.0 x4 slots. While many users will question the decision as to why GIGABYTE hasn't opted for two PCIe 5.0 slots operating at x16 and x8/x8, the answer comes in the way of storage. There is a total of five M.2 slots nestled underneath the armor, with four of these supporting PCIe 4.0 x4 (one with SATA) and one with support for PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 drives. For conventional SATA devices and storage, GIGABYTE includes six SATA ports capable of supporting Intel RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 arrays.

GIGABYTE includes ten 4-pin headers for cooling, with one for a CPU fan, one for a water pump, and eight for chassis fans. Located in the top right-hand corner are four memory slots, with support for speeds of up to DDR5-6400 and a combined capacity of 128 GB. Next to the memory slots in the top right-hand corner is a small power button with a two-digit LED debugger.

Focusing on the power delivery, the GIGABYTE Z690 Aorus Master has a large 20-phase design that is configured at 19+1. The CPU section includes nineteen Renesas 22010540 105 A power stages that are operating in a direct configuration. There's one Intersil 99390 90 A power stage for SoC, while GIGABYTE also includes two Monolithic PS MP87992 70 A power stages specifically for the VCCAUX. Controlling the power delivery is a premium Renesas RAA229131 20-phase PWM controller operating in a 19+1 configuration. Providing power to the CPU is a pair of 8-pin 12 V ATX CPU power inputs, with the power delivery capable of providing up to 1995 A to the processor.

Keeping the power delivery cool is a large two-part heatsink that is interconnected by a large flat heat pipe. As you can see from the image above, the heatsink is making decent contact with the power delivery components, although one section has notably deeper imprints than the other section.

Looking at the audio solution, the Z690 Aorus Master uses a Realtek ALC1220-VB HD audio codec, with an assisting ESS Sabre ES9118 DAC. The ALC1220-VB is surrounded by five Japanese gold Nichicon audio capacitors, while there are also four red WIMA audio capacitors closer to the ESS Sabre DAC. GIGABYTE also includes a line of PCB separation to keep the audio PCB away from the rest of the board's components.

On the rear panel, there is one USB 3.2 G2x2 Type-C, one USB 3.2 G2 Type-C, five USB 3.2 G2 Type-A, and four USB 3.2 G1 Type-A ports. For networking, GIGABYTE uses a premium Marvel AQtion AQC113C 10 GbE controller, with an Intel AX211 Wi-Fi 6E CNVi offering both wireless and BT 5.2 connectivity. There are also five 3.5 mm audio jacks and S/PDIF optical output powered by a Realtek ALC1220-VB HD audio codec and ESS Sabre ES9118 DAC, with one DisplayPort 1.4 video output and a clear CMOS and Q-Flash button.

What's in the Box

The most notable accessories bundled within the packaging of the Z690 Aorus Master include six SATA cables, an Intel AX211 Wi-Fi 6E antenna, five M.2 installation screws, a front panel G-connector and an instruction manual. Also present is an Aorus branded sticker sheet, an Aorus case badge, two temperature sensor cables, one RGB extension cable, and a noise detection cable.

• User manual
• Installation guide
• G-Connector
• 6 x SATA cables
• 5 x M.2 installation screws
• RGB LED extension cable
• 2 x Temperature sensor cables
• Noise detection cable
• Intel AX211 Wi-Fi 6E antenna
• Aorus sticker sheet
• Aorus case badge

BIOS

The GIGABYTE Z690 Aorus Master is using its typical Aorus themed UEFI BIOS, which we've seen many times over the last few years. The GUI uses orange highlights, with a primarily black background and white text. It uses an orange highlight to depict which option is selected. The GIGABYTE UEFI firmware also has two modes for users to choose between, the 'Easy' mode and the 'Advanced' mode.

Upon entering the firmware for the first time, which can be accessed by pressing either the Del or F2 Key during post, it will revert to the Easy mode. Users can see a basic list of hardware installed within the Easy mode, including information on the processor, memory, and fans installed onto the 4-pin headers. Users can also enable X.M.P 3.0 profiles on supported kits of memory, see basic information on temperatures from different sensors such as CPU and VRMs, and view current CPU VCore voltage.

Users can access the Advanced mode by pressing the F2 Key. The Advanced mode opens up a whole host of settings and customizable options for users to tweak, fine-tune, and overclock their system. All of the board's overclocking settings can be found within the 'Tweaker' menu, with various options for overclocking the CPU, memory, and integrated graphics on supported Alder Lake CPUs.

The Advanced mode also allows users to customize the chipset-related settings, enable or disable non-critical controllers such as networking and audio, and access various platform and power management settings. By pressing the F6 Key within the firmware, users can access GIGABYTE's Smart Fan 6 utility, where the 4-pin fan headers can be assigned fan profiles or sync fan settings across all of the headers.

Overall, GIGABYTE UEFI firmware is easy to use, it's responsive to our USB keyboard and mouse. It has a large variety of customizable settings for users to sink their teeth into. There are plenty of avenues available to increase overall system performance, including extensive memory tweaking options, as well as plenty of options for overclocking both the P and E-cores on Intel's Alder Lake processors.

Software

When it comes to software, each vendor has its own software suite designed to energize and supplement its hardware offerings. GIGABYTE includes a wide variety of software applications, including its EasyTune software for overclocking within Windows and its System Information Viewer (SIV) utility for monitoring temperatures, voltages, and it also features its Smart Fan 6 automatic fan tuning utility.

As many vendors include with its motherboards, GIGABYTE has its own overclocking utility called EasyTune. The EasyTune software allows users to overclock the processor within Windows, including CPU frequency and allows users to customize primary voltages related to the CPU such as CPU VCore and CPU VCCIN. Users can even change the memory frequency ratio and customize the primary latency timings, although users doing this will need to restart their PC for settings to take effect.

The System Information Viewer (SIV) utility allows users to monitor system temperatures, voltages, and other things such as CPU core frequency. It also includes its Smart Fan 6 automatic fan tuner which optimizes fan speeds based on temperature and fan RPM, as well as the ability for users to create their own fan profile curves. Users can also set temperature and voltage alerts from a variety of integrated sensors throughout the board and various voltages from CPU VCore, CPU VCCIN, and on the 12 V, 5 V, and 3.3 V rails incoming from the power supply.

Other utilities within GIGABYTE's software bundle include its @BIOS utility, which allows users to flash the board's firmware to the latest, either from a file or via GIGABYTE's web server. The Aorus Game Boost is an application that allows users to 'optimize' system processes, while the RGB Fusion 2.0 software allows users to customize the integrated and attached RGB LED strips with various lighting effects and a color wheel.

Overall the software bundle with the GIGABYTE Z690 Aorus Master is befitting of a premium motherboard. As we've highlighted many times over the years, we wish motherboard vendors would bundle audio software as standard and not force users to download them from the Microsoft Store.

Board Features

The GIGABYTE Z690 Aorus Master is a premium E-ATX motherboard that sits just below the flagship Aorus Xtreme and Xtreme WaterForce models. The Aorus series stretches across its mid-range, premium, and flagship models, and in the case of the GIGABYTE Z690 Aorus Master, it is designed to offer a solid feature set by using most of what Alder Lake and the Z690 chipset has to offer. This includes one full-length PCIe 5.0 x16 slot, as well as two full-length PCIe 4.0 slots operating both at x4. 

For storage, GIGABYTE includes five M.2 slots in total, three supporting PCIe 4.0 x4 drives, one with support for PCIe 4.0 x4 and SATA drives, and one with support for PCIe 3.0 x4 drives. In terms of SATA, there are six SATA ports with support for Intel RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 arrays. Focusing on memory support, the Z690 Aorus Master has four slots capable of supporting DDR5-6400 memory with a maximum capacity of 128 GB.

Cooling options are impressive, with room for a combined total of ten 4-pin cooling devices. This includes two dedicated to CPU fans, four doubling up as chassis or water pump headers, and four for chassis fans.

GIGABYTE Z690 Aorus Master Motherboard
Warranty Period	3 Years
Product Page	Link
Price	$470
Size	E-ATX
CPU Interface	LGA1700
Chipset	Intel Z690
Memory Slots (DDR4)	Four DDR5 Supporting 128 GB Dual-Channel Up to DDR5-6400
Video Outputs	1 x DisplayPort 1.4
Network Connectivity	1 x Marvell AQtion AQC113 10 GbE Intel AX211 Wi-Fi 6E
Onboard Audio	Realtek ALC1220-VB ESS Sabre ES9118
PCIe Slots for Graphics (from CPU)	1 x PCIe 5.0 x16
PCIe Slots for Other (from PCH)	2 x PCIe 3.0 (x4/x4)
Onboard SATA	Six, RAID 0/1/5/10 (Z590)
Onboard M.2	3 x PCIe 4.0 x4 1 x PCIe 4.0 x4/SATA 1 x PCIe 3.0 x4
Onboard U.2	N/A
Thunderbolt 4 (40 Gbps)	N/A
USB 3.2 (20 Gbps)	1 x USB Type-C (Rear panel) 1 x USB Type-C (One header)
USB 3.2 (10 Gbps)	5 x USB Type-A (Rear panel) 1 x USB Type-C (Rear panel)
USB 3.1 (5 Gbps)	4 x USB Type-A (Rear panel) 4 x USB Type-A (Two headers)
USB 2.0	4 x USB Type-A (Two headers)
Power Connectors	1 x 24-pin Motherboard 2 x 8-pin CPU
Fan Headers	2 x 4-pin CPU 4 x 4-pin Chassis 4 x 4-pin Chassis/Water pump
IO Panel	2 x Antenna Ports (Intel) 1 x USB 3.2 G2x2 Type-C 1 x USB 3.2 G2 Type-C 5 x USB 3.2 G2 Type-A 4 x USB 3.2 G1 Type-A 1 x RJ45 (Marvell) 1 x DisplayPort 1.4 Output 5 x 3.5 mm Audio jacks (Realtek) 1 x S/PDIF Optical output (Realtek) 1 x Clear CMOS button 1 x Q-Flash BIOS Flashback button

There is plenty of connectivity on the GIGABYTE Z690 Aorus Master, including one USB 3.2 G2x2 Type-C, one USB 3.2 G2 Type-C, five USB 3.2 G2 Type-A, and four USB 3.2 G1 Type-A ports on the rear panel. In terms of front panel USB support, there's one USB 3.2 G2x2 Type-C header (one port), two USB 3.2 G1 Type-A headers (four ports), and two USB 2.0 headers (four ports).

GIGABYTE is using a premium networking array including one Marvell AQtion AQC113 10 GbE controller and an Intel AX211 Wi-Fi 6E CNVi. Onboard audio is also premium with a single Realtek ALC1220-VB HD audio codec that powers five 3.5 mm audio jacks and S/PDIF optical output. This is also assisted by an ESS Sabre ES9118 DAC.

Test Bed

With some of the nuances with Intel's Alder Lake processors including the new P and E-cores, our policy is to see if the system gives an automatic option to increase the power limits of the processor. If it does, we select the liquid cooling option. If it does not, we do not change the defaults.

Test Setup
Processor	Intel Core i9-12900K, 125 W, $589 8P + 8E Cores, 24 Threads 3.2 GHz (5.2 GHz P-Core Turbo)
Motherboard	GIGABYTE Z690 Aorus Master (BIOS F1)
Cooling	ASUS ROG Ryujin II 360mm AIO
Power Supply	Corsair HX850 80Plus Platinum 850 W
Memory	Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB DDR5-4800 CL 14-14-14-34 2T (2 x 16 GB)
Video Card	MSI GTX 1080 (1178/1279 Boost)
Hard Drive	Crucial MX300 1TB
Case	Corsair Crystal 680X
Operating System	Windows 10 Pro 64-bit: Build 21H2

We must also thank the following:

Hardware Providers for CPU and Motherboard Reviews
Sapphire RX 460 Nitro	MSI GTX 1080 Gaming X OC	Crucial MX200 + MX500 SSDs	Corsair AX860i + AX1200i PSUs
G.Skill RipjawsV, SniperX, FlareX	Crucial Ballistix DDR4	Silverstone Coolers	Noctua Coolers

System Performance

Not all motherboards are created equal. On the face of it, they should all perform the same and differ only in the functionality they provide - however, this is not the case. The obvious pointers are power consumption, POST time and latency. This can come down to the manufacturing process and prowess, so these are tested.

For Z690 we are running using Windows 10 64-bit with the 21H2 update.

Power Consumption

Power consumption was tested on the system while in a single MSI GTX 1080 Gaming configuration with a wall meter connected to the power supply. Our power supply has ~75% efficiency > 50W, and 90%+ efficiency at 250W, suitable for both idle and multi-GPU loading. This method of power reading allows us to compare the power management of the UEFI and the board to supply components with power under load, and includes typical PSU losses due to efficiency. These are the real-world values that consumers may expect from a typical system (minus the monitor) using this motherboard.

While this method for power measurement may not be ideal, and you feel these numbers are not representative due to the high wattage power supply being used (we use the same PSU to remain consistent over a series of reviews, and the fact that some boards on our testbed get tested with three or four high powered GPUs), the important point to take away is the relationship between the numbers. These boards are all under the same conditions, and thus the differences between them should be easy to spot.

Non-UEFI POST Time

Different motherboards have different POST sequences before an operating system is initialized. A lot of this is dependent on the board itself, and POST boot time is determined by the controllers on board (and the sequence of how those extras are organized). As part of our testing, we look at the POST Boot Time using a stopwatch. This is the time from pressing the ON button on the computer to when Windows starts loading. (We discount Windows loading as it is highly variable given Windows-specific features.)

DPC Latency

Deferred Procedure Call latency is a way in which Windows handles interrupt servicing. In order to wait for a processor to acknowledge the request, the system will queue all interrupt requests by priority. Critical interrupts will be handled as soon as possible, whereas lesser priority requests such as audio will be further down the line. If the audio device requires data, it will have to wait until the request is processed before the buffer is filled.

If the device drivers of higher priority components in a system are poorly implemented, this can cause delays in request scheduling and process time. This can lead to an empty audio buffer and characteristic audible pauses, pops, and clicks. The DPC latency checker measures how much time is taken processing DPCs from driver invocation. The lower the value will result in better audio transfer at smaller buffer sizes. Results are measured in microseconds.

CPU Performance, Short Form

For our motherboard reviews, we use our short form testing method. These tests usually focus on if a motherboard is using MultiCore Turbo (the feature used to have maximum turbo on at all times, giving a frequency advantage), or if there are slight gains to be had from tweaking the firmware. We put the memory settings at the CPU manufacturers suggested frequency, making it very easy to see which motherboards have MCT enabled by default.

For Z690 we are running using Windows 10 64-bit with the 21H2 update.

Rendering - Blender 2.79b: 3D Creation Suite

A high profile rendering tool, Blender is open-source allowing for massive amounts of configurability, and is used by a number of high-profile animation studios worldwide. The organization recently released a Blender benchmark package, a couple of weeks after we had narrowed our Blender test for our new suite, however their test can take over an hour. For our results, we run one of the sub-tests in that suite through the command line - a standard ‘bmw27’ scene in CPU only mode, and measure the time to complete the render.

Rendering - Crysis CPU Render

One of the most oft used memes in computer gaming is ‘Can It Run Crysis?’. The original 2007 game, built in the Crytek engine by Crytek, was heralded as a computationally complex title for the hardware at the time and several years after, suggesting that a user needed graphics hardware from the future in order to run it. Fast forward over a decade, and the game runs fairly easily on modern GPUs, but we can also apply the same concept to pure CPU rendering – can the CPU render Crysis? Since 64 core processors entered the market, one can dream. We built a benchmark to see whether the hardware can.

For this test, we’re running Crysis’ own GPU benchmark, but in CPU render mode. This is a 2000 frame test, which we run over a series of resolutions from 800x600 up to 1920x1080. For simplicity, we provide the 1080p test here.​

Rendering - Cinebench R23: link

Maxon's real-world and cross-platform Cinebench test suite has been a staple in benchmarking and rendering performance for many years. Its latest installment is the R23 version, which is based on its latest 23 code which uses updated compilers. It acts as a real-world system benchmark that incorporates common tasks and rendering workloads as opposed to less diverse benchmarks which only take measurements based on certain CPU functions. Cinebench R23 can also measure both single-threaded and multi-threaded performance.

Synthetic - GeekBench 5: Link

As a common tool for cross-platform testing between mobile, PC, and Mac, GeekBench is an ultimate exercise in synthetic testing across a range of algorithms looking for peak throughput. Tests include encryption, compression, fast Fourier transform, memory operations, n-body physics, matrix operations, histogram manipulation, and HTML parsing.

Compression – WinRAR 5.90: link

Our WinRAR test from 2013 is updated to the latest version of WinRAR at the start of 2014. We compress a set of 2867 files across 320 folders totaling 1.52 GB in size – 95% of these files are small typical website files, and the rest (90% of the size) are small 30-second 720p videos.

3DPMv2.1 – 3D Movement Algorithm Test: link

3DPM is a self-penned benchmark, taking basic 3D movement algorithms used in Brownian Motion simulations and testing them for speed. High floating point performance, MHz, and IPC win in the single thread version, whereas the multithread version has to handle the threads and loves more cores. For a brief explanation of the platform agnostic coding behind this benchmark, see my forum post here.

NAMD 2.13 (ApoA1): Molecular Dynamics

One frequent request over the years has been for some form of molecular dynamics simulation. Molecular dynamics forms the basis of a lot of computational biology and chemistry when modeling specific molecules, enabling researchers to find low energy configurations or potential active binding sites, especially when looking at larger proteins. We’re using the NAMD software here, or Nanoscale Molecular Dynamics, often cited for its parallel efficiency. Unfortunately the version we’re using is limited to 64 threads on Windows, but we can still use it to analyze our processors. We’re simulating the ApoA1 protein for 10 minutes, and reporting back the ‘nanoseconds per day’ that our processor can simulate. Molecular dynamics is so complex that yes, you can spend a day simply calculating a nanosecond of molecular movement.

Gaming Performance

For Z690 we are running using Windows 10 64-bit with the 21H2 update.

Civilization 6

Originally penned by Sid Meier and his team, the Civilization series of turn-based strategy games are a cult classic, and many an excuse for an all-nighter trying to get Gandhi to declare war on you due to an integer underflow. Truth be told I never actually played the first version, but I have played every edition from the second to the sixth, including the fourth as voiced by the late Leonard Nimoy, and it is a game that is easy to pick up, but hard to master.

Benchmarking Civilization has always been somewhat of an oxymoron – for a turn based strategy game, the frame rate is not necessarily the important thing here and even in the right mood, something as low as 5 frames per second can be enough. With Civilization 6 however, Firaxis went hardcore on visual fidelity, trying to pull you into the game. As a result, Civilization can taxing on graphics and CPUs as we crank up the details, especially in DirectX 12.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider (DX12)

The latest installment of the Tomb Raider franchise does less rising and lurks more in the shadows with Shadow of the Tomb Raider. As expected this action-adventure follows Lara Croft which is the main protagonist of the franchise as she muscles through the Mesoamerican and South American regions looking to stop a Mayan apocalyptic she herself unleashed. Shadow of the Tomb Raider is the direct sequel to the previous Rise of the Tomb Raider and was developed by Eidos Montreal and Crystal Dynamics and was published by Square Enix which hit shelves across multiple platforms in September 2018. This title effectively closes the Lara Croft Origins story and has received critical acclaims upon its release.

The integrated Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmark is similar to that of the previous game Rise of the Tomb Raider, which we have used in our previous benchmarking suite. The newer Shadow of the Tomb Raider uses DirectX 11 and 12, with this particular title being touted as having one of the best implementations of DirectX 12 of any game released so far.

Strange Brigade (DX12)

Strange Brigade is based in 1903’s Egypt and follows a story which is very similar to that of the Mummy film franchise. This particular third-person shooter is developed by Rebellion Developments which is more widely known for games such as the Sniper Elite and Alien vs Predator series. The game follows the hunt for Seteki the Witch Queen who has arisen once again and the only ‘troop’ who can ultimately stop her. Gameplay is cooperative-centric with a wide variety of different levels and many puzzles which need solving by the British colonial Secret Service agents sent to put an end to her reign of barbaric and brutality.

The game supports both the DirectX 12 and Vulkan APIs and houses its own built-in benchmark which offers various options up for customization including textures, anti-aliasing, reflections, draw distance and even allows users to enable or disable motion blur, ambient occlusion and tessellation among others. AMD has boasted previously that Strange Brigade is part of its Vulkan API implementation offering scalability for AMD multi-graphics card configurations. For our testing, we use the DirectX 12 benchmark.

Overclocking

When it comes to overclocking on Intel's 12th generation processors, Alder Lake has a new yet important variable to consider. This is because not all of its cores are equal. Intel's latest Alder Lake processors feature a hybrid design with P-cores (performance) and E-cores (efficient). Focusing on the Core i9-12900K, it has 8 P-Cores, 8 E-cores, and 24 threads in total. While Hyperthreading isn't a new technology, the hybrid nature of Alder Lake combining two different types of CPU core is. The basic idea is that the P-cores do much of the front-loaded heavy lifting, the grunt work, so to speak, while the E-cores assist in the background with high-threaded workloads with a much lower overall power draw than the P-cores.

Having personally taken some time to investigate overclocking ability with the Core i9-12900K before diving into motherboard reviews, I found that the P-cores offer much more in terms of performance. In contrast, the E-cores don't have as much headroom or scalability as the P-cores. Fundamentally when paired with a Z690 motherboard, both the P-core and E-cores are unlocked. This gives two areas for users to consider when it comes to overclocking.

Another point of note when overclocking with Alder Lake, like with 11th gen and 10th gen, performance out of the box on both sets of cores are squeezed out via turbo, e.g., the P-Core Turbo on the Core i9-12900K is 5.2 GHz, while the E-Core turbo is 3.9 GHz. Make no mistake about it, Alder Lake is power-hungry, even more so from personal experience when overclocking than was the case with 11th gen Rocket Lake. This means adequate power being made available from a reliable and quality power supply is needed, as well as good quality and premium cooling such as AIOs, or even custom water cooling.

Experience with the GIGABYTE Z690 Aorus Master

When it comes to overclocking Intel's Alder Lake processors with the Z690 Aorus Master motherboard, GIGABYTE allows users to overclock the CPU, memory, and integrated graphics. There are extensive options available, with all of these being found within the Tweaker section of the firmware.

The Tweaker section has lots of options for users to customize, including multiple areas to overclock Alder Lake processors. This includes basic options for changing the multiplier on both the P-Cores and the E-Cores, with various offsetting options for heavier AVX workloads, and even options to adjust the base clock frequency and CPU Ring ratio.

It should be noted that on the Z690 Master, GIGABYTE is calling the E-cores ATOM CPU cores, which is technically what they are. There are also plenty of voltage and power options, including various voltages such as CPU VCore, VCCSA, base clock voltage, as well as multiple load-line calibration (LLC) profiles for the power delivery.

In terms of memory overclocking, GIGABYTE allows users to enable X.M.P 3.0 profiles on compatible memory kits, as well as manually set frequency, select between Intel's Gear profiles (2:1, 1:1, etc), as well as alter and set custom memory latencies. GIGABYTE's firmware actually has a large number of memory latencies for users to adjust, including primary, secondary, and tertiary latencies.

Overall GIGABYTE's Aorus firmware has all of the tools required for users to push Alder Lake to its limit and beyond. As previously mentioned, all of the overclocking settings can be found within the Tweaker section, and it has everything that users may or may not need.

Overclocking Methodology

Our overclocking methodology is as follows. We select the automatic overclock options and test for stability with the Intel XTU 2.0 benchmark and Prime95 to simulate high-end workloads. These stability tests aim to catch any immediate causes for memory or CPU errors.

For manual overclocks, based on the information gathered from the previous testing, start off at a nominal voltage and CPU multiplier, and the multiplier is increased until the stability tests are failed. The CPU voltage is increased gradually until the stability tests are passed. The process is repeated until the motherboard reduces the multiplier automatically (due to safety protocol) or the CPU temperature reaches a stupidly high level (105ºC+). Our testbed is not in a case, which should push overclocks higher with fresher (cooler) air.

Note: For the purposes of overclocking in our Z690 reviews, we will only be focusing on the P-cores (performance) as these simply scale better. The E-core (efficiency) will subsequently be set at 3.9 GHz throughout the entirety of our Z690 motherboard reviews.

Overclocking Results

Focusing on the overclocking performance when using our Core i9-12900K with the GIGABYTE Z690 Aorus Master, the biggest highlight throughout all of the testing was its tight VDroop control when using the fixed CPU V-Core setting within the firmware. This was the case as we tested each CPU frequency from 4.7 GHz to 5.3 GHz, with a small variation of between 0.03 and 0.06 V on the CPU VCore.

As we went up frequency stepping on the P-cores, we saw sequential increases in performance in the XTU 2.0 benchmark, even at our highest achievable all-core P-core overclock of 5.3 GHz at 1.425 V on the CPU VCore. This is our best overclock to date, and despite it being close to stable at 5.4 GHz at 1.450 V on the P-cores, the amount of heat generated would have made this impossible for us, even with a premium 360 mm AIO such as the ASUS ROG Ryujin II 360 that we are using.

Power Delivery Thermal Analysis

One of the most requested elements of our motherboard reviews revolves around the power delivery and its componentry. Aside from the quality of the components and its capability for overclocking to push out higher clock speeds which in turn improves performance, is the thermal capability of the cooling solutions implemented by manufacturers. While almost always fine for users running processors at default settings, the cooling capability of the VRMs isn't something that users should worry too much about, but for those looking to squeeze out extra performance from the CPU via overclocking, this puts extra pressure on the power delivery and in turn, generates extra heat. This is why more premium models often include heatsinks on its models with better cooling designs, heftier chunks of metal, and in some cases, even with water blocks.

The 20-phase (19+1) power delivery on the GIGABYTE Z690 Aorus Master

Testing Methodology

Our method of testing is if the power delivery and its heatsink are effective at dissipating heat. We do this by running an intensely heavy CPU workload for a prolonged method of time. We apply an overclock, which is deemed safe and at the maximum that the silicon on our testbed processor allows. We then run the Prime95 with AVX2 enabled under a torture test for an hour at the maximum stable overclock we can, which puts insane pressure on the processor. We collect our data via three different methods which include the following:

• Taking a thermal image from a birds-eye view after an hour with a Flir Pro thermal imaging camera
• Securing two probes on to the rear of the PCB, right underneath CPU VCore section of the power delivery for better parity in case a probe reports a faulty reading
• Taking a reading of the VRM temperature from the sensor reading within the HWInfo monitoring application

The reason for using three different methods is that some sensors can read inaccurate temperatures, which can give very erratic results for users looking to gauge whether an overclock is too much pressure for the power delivery handle. With using a probe on the rear, it can also show the efficiency of the power stages and heatsinks as a wide margin between the probe and sensor temperature can show that the heatsink is dissipating heat and that the design is working, or that the internal sensor is massively wrong. To ensure our probe was accurate before testing, I binned 10 and selected the most accurate (within 1c of the actual temperature) for better parity in our testing.

To recreate a real-world testing scenario, the system is built into a conventional desktop chassis which is widely available. This is to show and alleviate issues when testing on open testbeds, which we have done previously, which allows natural airflow to flow over the power delivery heatsinks. It provides a better comparison for the end-user and allows us to mitigate issues where heatsinks have been designed with airflow in mind and those that have not. The idea of a heatsink is to allow effective dissipation of heat and not act as an insulator, with much more focus from consumers over the last couple of years on power delivery componentry and performance than in previous years.

For thermal imaging, we use a Flir One camera to indicate where the heat is generated around the socket area, as some designs use different configurations, and an evenly spread power delivery with good components will usually generate less heat. Manufacturers who use inefficient heatsinks and cheap out on power delivery components should run hotter than those who have invested. Of course, a $700 flagship motherboard is likely to outperform a cheaper $100 model under the same testing conditions, but it is still worth testing to see which vendors are doing things correctly. 

Thermal Analysis Results

We measured 61.1ºC on the hottest part of the CPU socket during our testing

The GIGABYTE Z690 Aorus Master has a large 20-phase power delivery, which is controlled by a Renesas RAA229131 20-channel PWM controller that is operating in a 19+1 configuration. The CPU section includes nineteen Renesas 22010540 105 A power stages, while the SoC is using one Intersil 99390 90 A power stage. Keeping the power delivery cool is a large two-section metal heatsink that is interconnected by a single heat pipe. The heatsinks themselves feature multiple fins designed to direct the passive airflow to aid in heat dissipation.

Comparing the GIGABYTE Z690 Aorus Master against boards at a similar price point, it performs well in regard to power delivery thermals. Currently, the Z690 Aorus Master has the coolest power delivery of any Z690 board we've tested so far, and it is something GIGABYTE has been good at on its premium models over the last couple of years. We noted temperatures of 65°C from the integrated VRM sensor, as well as temperatures of 64°C and 66°C from our pair of K-type thermocouples.

Conclusion

In November 2021, Intel launched its flagship overclockable 12th generation processors onto the market along with its premium Z690 chipset. One of the most significant additions to the latest Alder Lake processors includes DDR5/DDR4 memory support. Other features include a new hybrid architecture of P (Golden Cove) and E (Gracemont) cores on its Core i9, i7, and two of its Core i5 processors and native support for PCIe 5.0. Each Intel Alder Lake processor has 16 x PCIe 5.0 lanes from the CPU that operates the top full-length slot on all Z690 motherboards and an additional 4 x PCIe 4.0 lanes assigned to storage devices.

Translating all of that to motherboards, the leading vendors such as GIGABYTE have a lot of PCIe to play with to create a well-rounded and feature-laden solution for users. It is no secret that the Z690 motherboards have broken cost boundaries and not in a good way, with some of the flagship models surpassing the $1500 mark. Still, one that aims to offer users something of a sweet spot for enthusiasts and gamers with a mixture of premium features and gaming-inspired aesthetics is the GIGABYTE Z690 Aorus Master.

Starting with its most prominent features, the GIGABYTE Z690 Aorus Master has a premium networking array, including one Marvell AQtion AQC113 10 GbE controller, with an Intel AX211 Wi-Fi 6E CNVi that offers support for both wireless and BT 5.2 devices. It also includes support for DDR5-6400, with four slots allowing support for up to 128 GB. Regarding PCIe, GIGABYTE has gone with just one full-length PCIe 5.0 x16 slot, with two full-length PCIe 3.0 slots electronically locked down to x4, as well as a myriad of storage options including four PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slots, one PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 slot, and six SATA ports.

Touching on the board's connectivity, the GIGABYTE Z690 Aorus Master has an impressive rear panel selection of input and output. This includes one USB 3.2 G2x2 Type-C port, one USB 3.2 G2 Type-C port, five USB 3.2 G2 Type-A ports, and four USB 3.2 G1 Type-A ports, for a grand total of eleven USB ports. GIGABYTE also includes one front panel USB 3.2 G2x2 Type-C header for users requiring even more Type-C connectivity. The rear panel also has five 3.5 mm audio jacks and one S/PDIF optical output controlled by a Realtek ALC1220-VB HD audio codec and ESS Sabre ES9118 DAC pairing which is quite a premium onboard audio solution.

The GIGABYTE Z690 Aorus has five PCIe M.2 slots (4 x PCIe 4.0 x4 + 1 x PCIe 3.0 x4)

Analyzing the performance of the GIGABYTE Z690 Aorus Master to other boards in a similar price range, it performs competitively in our system tests, with the quickest Non-UEFI POST time of any Z690 model we've tested to date. In regards to computational and gaming performance, the Z690 Aorus Master is again competitive with not much separating it from other models on test; it should be noted that this kind of performance is dependent on the processor, memory, and graphics card, and we saw no anomalies to report during our testing.

In our overclock and power delivery thermal testing, the GIGABYTE Z690 Aorus Master is a serious performer, with very tight VDroop control on the CPU VCore, and it is currently the king in our Z690 VRM thermal testing charts (at the time of writing). We even managed to overclock all of the P-cores on our Core i9-12900K to 5.3 GHz without any issues with a CPU VCore of 1.425 V, although 5.4 GHz was, unfortunately, a stretch too far. Despite this, the Z690 Aorus Master is a solid overclocker. With its large premium 20-phase power delivery operating relatively cool, we have no issues recommending it to enthusiasts looking to push Alder Lake beyond its already impressive 'turbo' clock speeds.

Final Thoughts: A Solid All-Round Performer for Intel's 12th Gen

At the time of writing, the GIGABYTE Z690 Aorus Master can be purchased from Newegg for $470, which is in-line with its MSRP. What makes the Z690 Aorus Master appealing in comparison to the competition at the price point is its inclusion of 10 GbE, which is only typically found on the flagship Z690 models; the ASUS ProArt Z690 Creator WIFI ($480) is the only other outside of the $800+ models to have 10 GbE. 

With its combination of modern and stylish RGB-infused aesthetics lots of premium rear panel connectivity, including 10 GbE and Wi-Fi 6E, the GIGABYTE Z690 Aorus Master is one of the best all-round Z690 models from a price to features and compatibility standpoint. It also has a large 20-phase power delivery, excellent overclocking, and equally impressive VRM thermal performance, making it a solid option for enthusiasts and gamers.