Monday, March 15th 2021

GIGABYTE Announces Z590 AORUS Tachyon Motherboard for Extreme Overclocking

GIGABYTE announced the Z590 AORUS Tachyon, a high-end motherboard targeted at enthusiasts seeking out extreme CPU and memory overclocking feats. The board is designed with an optimized layout for open-air test benches. It features a powerful CPU VRM solution that draws power from two 8-pin EPS connectors, and 12 direct VRM phases, each with 100 A DrMOS and full Tantalum capacitor layout. The board features a 1-DIMM-per-channel (1DPC) memory, over just two DDR4 DIMM slots, a memory topology that enables the highest frequencies. The board also comes with physical controls for a number of overclocker-friendly features, such as BIOS profile selection, cold-restart, manual BIOS ROM selection, LN2 optimization, etc.

Expansion slots on the GIGABYTE Z590 AORUS Tachyon include four PCI-Express x16, from which two are Gen 4 (when paired with 11th Gen "Rocket Lake"), and run at either x16/NC or x8/x8; and the other two are Gen 3 x4/x1, wired to the Z590 PCH. Storage connectivity includes three M.2 NVMe slots, from which one is wired to the CPU and is Gen 4 x4 when used with "Rocket Lake," and the others Gen 3 x4. Other connectivity includes a premium onboard audio solution powered by a Realtek ALC1220-VB CODEC, a 2.5 GbE wired network interface powered by an Intel i225-V controller, and an 802.11 ax (Wi-Fi 6E), powered by an Intel AX210 controller. The company didn't reveal pricing.
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19 Comments on GIGABYTE Announces Z590 AORUS Tachyon Motherboard for Extreme Overclocking

#1
Patriot
The name is fitting for the hypothetically fast rocketlake chips.
Posted on Reply
#2
btarunr
Editor & Senior Moderator
PatriotThe name is fitting for the hypothetically fast rocketlake chips.
Underrated comment.
Posted on Reply
#3
tabascosauz
Finally, a SOC-Force/SOC-Force LN2 successor. Awesome.

At least, it would be, if Rocket Lake showed that it had something decent to offer on the memory overclocking side:
- DRAM latency is up
- Core-to-core latency is even worse than Comet Lake and ringbus literally under unparalleled stress, and Comet Lake core-to-core was already slower than Vermeer
- New divider between SA and IMC that desyncs at 3200 on not-i9s (???lmao??? surely Intel can't be forcing this limit on the i7s, surely this'll be changeable in BIOS)

Maybe RKL packs a new IMC that can finally dethrone Renoir as the memory OC champion with the help of a 1:2 system agent divider.

Or maybe it doesn't, and Gigabyte will have wasted its time putting an impressive mem OC board on the wrong platform (B550 Unify-X says hello).

Though, it's entirely possible that Anandtech still doesn't understand how dividers work after 1.5 years of chiplet Ryzen, and ended up running all its 11700K tests at desynced 3200 1:2. Because that would be akin to doing a 5800X "review" with MCLK @ 1600 and FCLK @ 1066.
Posted on Reply
#5
Caring1
Strange PCI-e layout.
Definitely can't use 4 large GPUs
Posted on Reply
#6
randomUser
Looking forward to seeing what Buildzoid has to say about this.
Posted on Reply
#7
AKBrian
Caring1Strange PCI-e layout.
Definitely can't use 4 large GPUs
It's designed for a four slot SLI spacing (2x 3090 via NVLink), one of only a couple non-HEDT boards which allow this (the MSI X570 Godlike is another).
Gigabyte's own RTX 3090 Xtreme is an example of one such mega-chonker of a GPU. They also offer a matching 4-slot bridge.

It's a bit of an XOC product and doesn't really make much sense unless you're building it up with the express intent to drag race it, but for that purpose it should be quite good.
Posted on Reply
#8
billEST
tabascosauzFinally, a SOC-Force/SOC-Force LN2 successor. Awesome.

At least, it would be, if Rocket Lake showed that it had something decent to offer on the memory overclocking side:
- DRAM latency is up
- Core-to-core latency is even worse than Comet Lake and ringbus literally under unparalleled stress, and Comet Lake core-to-core was already slower than Vermeer
- New divider between SA and IMC that desyncs at 3200 on not-i9s (???lmao??? surely Intel can't be forcing this limit on the i7s, surely this'll be changeable in BIOS)

Maybe RKL packs a new IMC that can finally dethrone Renoir as the memory OC champion with the help of a 1:2 system agent divider.

Or maybe it doesn't, and Gigabyte will have wasted its time putting an impressive mem OC board on the wrong platform (B550 Unify-X says hello).

Though, it's entirely possible that Anandtech still doesn't understand how dividers work after 1.5 years of chiplet Ryzen, and ended up running all its 11700K tests at desynced 3200 1:2. Because that would be akin to doing a 5800X "review" with MCLK @ 1600 and FCLK @ 1066.
breath !!!! the is more important think in the world !!!!
Posted on Reply
#9
Midland Dog
most retarded slot spacing award goes to

also OC boards suck. last good one was apex on z370. z390 apex was eatx, same as this, makes it pretty useless if u want to run an XOC on ambient
Posted on Reply
#10
Tomorrow
Midland Dogmost retarded slot spacing award goes to

also OC boards suck. last good one was apex on z370. z390 apex was eatx, same as this, makes it pretty useless if u want to run an XOC on ambient
OC boards suck because EATX? What even...what?
Posted on Reply
#11
billEST
TomorrowOC boards suck because EATX? What even...what?
itx works better too

because of distance between cpu and ssd or chipset

and put of lot chips , who complicated perf
Posted on Reply
#12
Tomorrow
Board being EATX does not mean that distance has to be bigger. Look at EVGA's Dark series boards. Those are EATX and yet have two DIMM slots and are some of the best for XOC.
User complaing about how an XOC EATX board wont fit in his case for ambient cooling is sad. That's not the proper usecase for such a board.

Im not gonna buy a Ferrari only to later complain that it has a small trunk for when a go grocery shopping on sundays.
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#13
Minus Infinity
AMD should have branded their entire GPU line up Tachyon, because they were gone before they were released.
Posted on Reply
#14
Midland Dog
TomorrowOC boards suck because EATX? What even...what?
they used to be standard atx and hence usable by hobby overclockers. now the apex wont fit in my rog certified case go figure
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#15
Tomorrow
Midland Dogthey used to be standard atx and hence usable by hobby overclockers. now the apex wont fit in my rog certified case go figure
If you are hobbyist there's no reason to buy Apex, Dark, HOF or Kingpin. These days most boards do just fine when OCed under ambient. Apex and others are for XOC where it sits on a testbench anyways and might as well be dual socket.

Also it's up to the user to check if a board fits in their case.
Posted on Reply
#16
Midland Dog
TomorrowIf you are hobbyist there's no reason to buy Apex, Dark, HOF or Kingpin. These days most boards do just fine when OCed under ambient. Apex and others are for XOC where it sits on a testbench anyways and might as well be dual socket.

Also it's up to the user to check if a board fits in their case.
i want a full featured board with 1dpc so i can run 4ghz+ with CR1. apex used to do that, now it wont fit in my case. u cant get tXP and several other useful timings on even the strix boards, the apex made the most sense to get if u wanted to run an ambient xoc, certainly better value than the other maximus boards. well not anymore
Posted on Reply
#17
The End of my Wits
And nobody makes mention of the severly flawed Realtek ALC1220-VB audio drivers? I haven't heard of one board syncing 100% with it or Microsoft constantly trying to replace the proper drivers (if there are any) with their own, generic drivers and not getting the full package or the Realtek sound manager. Well, have fun with that!
By the way, if anyone HAS discovered the proper, patched or modded drivers PLEASE clue me in- My HTR is insulted :banghead: with the 2.0 feed it's getting via whatever the hell's in there atm.
By the way- my PC is a Gigabyte B450 Aorus Pro Wifi with Windows 10 64-bit 1909 and the Realtek ALC1220-VB codec thru HDMI into an Onkyo TX-SR705 which has pretty much every Dolby up through THX, except Atmos so I'm looking for the most complete mod available. I'd be forever greatful because I had this problem with my previous Asus mobo and an earlier Realtek codec. Stop the madness! ...my madness I mean. Thanks alot- I hope

and sorry if this is the incorrect forum for this
Posted on Reply
#18
Caring1
The End of my WitsAnd nobody makes mention of the severly flawed Realtek ALC1220-VB audio drivers? I haven't heard of one board syncing 100% with it or Microsoft constantly trying to replace the proper drivers (if there are any) with their own, generic drivers and not getting the full package or the Realtek sound manager. Well, have fun with that!
By the way, if anyone HAS discovered the proper, patched or modded drivers PLEASE clue me in- My HTR is insulted :banghead: with the 2.0 feed it's getting via whatever the hell's in there atm.
By the way- my PC is a Gigabyte B450 Aorus Pro Wifi with Windows 10 64-bit 1909 and the Realtek ALC1220-VB codec thru HDMI into an Onkyo TX-SR705 which has pretty much every Dolby up through THX, except Atmos so I'm looking for the most complete mod available. I'd be forever greatful because I had this problem with my previous Asus mobo and an earlier Realtek codec. Stop the madness! ...my madness I mean. Thanks alot- I hope

and sorry if this is the incorrect forum for this
www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/realtek-dch-modded-audio-driver-for-windows-10.250915/
Posted on Reply
#19
The End of my Wits
omg I feel Im so close to getting this working and yaknow- I cant beleive we gotta go thru this crap when Gigabyte and realtek know full well those drivers, etc are flawed- why are you the one having to do it? Thanks from the botton of my heart btw- really.
Now, next thing: are there like step by step instruction on how to do this? I'm an electrician- like commercial electrician and even though I went to computer school it was back in the 80s so we did minimal coding with cobol and assembler so I have to be led around like a wee mentally challenged boy. I hope I'm not being too much trouble here...
Oh, also I do not have any sound blaster stuff just the onboard Realtek Codec ALC1220-VB- at least thats what it said on the box- lol
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