Wednesday, October 27th 2021
Most of Gigabyte's Intel Z690 Motherboards Only Features Two Audio Jacks
Although we're going to try and cover all the newly launched Intel Z690 based motherboards more thoroughly before the retail availability date, we had a quick look already on what's on offer and we were struck by something rather odd when it comes to Gigabyte, most of their new boards only have two 3.5 mm audio jacks around the back. This is not limited to their cheaper SKUs, but is found through the entire product stack.
We're not entirely sure what's going on here and will check with Gigabyte once someone is awake that we can talk to about it, but we're fairly certain that this is going to cause a bit of a backlash from their customers. This was actually something we kind of saw in the leaked image of one of the Aero boards, as it didn't look like it had any audio jacks at all, but that wasn't the case. Instead, it seems to have something to do with Gigabyte's move away from the Realtek ALC1220 Intel HD audio based codecs that the company have been using for the past few generations of boards.
We first spotted this on the Z690I Aorus Ultra, a Mini-ITX board and didn't think too much of it, as Mini-ITX boards often have more limited audio ports. However, it turns out that everything from the fairly entry level Z690 Gaming X all the way up to the Z690 Aorus Xtreme has had their ports cut back, although there are models in between that still feature some variant of the ALC1220 audio codec. Most of the boards appear to feature the ALC4080, something we've already seen on some ASUS motherboards, although ASUS offers a full complement of ports on their boards. It should be noted that the ALC408x is a USB audio codec and as such doesn't appear to be Intel HD audio compliant, if it matters.
Some boards only have two 3.5 mm jacks as mentioned, whereas others also have an optical S/PDIF jack, but this can apparently not be used at the same time as the 3.5 mm jack and we're not sure if this requires you to unplug the 3.5 mm jack to use the S/PDIF interface. At least all of these boards sport a front panel audio header, but there are a couple of boards that make this whole change even more confusing. The first one is the Aero G, which in addition to the ALC4080 features an old and quite frankly poor quality ALC897 Intel HD codec for the front panel audio header. We really don't understand why, as this is a huge downgrade even from the ALC1220.
Finally we have the Z690 Aorus Xtreme, which does away with Realtek altogether, in favour of an ESS ES9280AC USB DAC and a pair of ESS ES9080 DAC's on top of that, all of which sits on a daughter card at the rear I/O. However, this board doesn't appear to have any kind of front audio connector. We'd also expect more than a couple of 3.5 mm audio jacks and an optical S/PDIF out with a setup like this, but apparently that's all we get. What's more, the Z690 Aorus Xtreme comes with an additional "ESSential" USB DAC that could be used for front audio, but which seems kind of wasted considering the high-end audio that the board already sports. We really don't follow Gigabyte's logic here and although it's nice to see some better quality audio solutions being used, we have a feeling a lot of people will want more than two audio jacks on their motherboard. We should also mention that none of Gigabyte's competitors offer a similar cut-back on audio jacks.
Source:
Gigabyte
We're not entirely sure what's going on here and will check with Gigabyte once someone is awake that we can talk to about it, but we're fairly certain that this is going to cause a bit of a backlash from their customers. This was actually something we kind of saw in the leaked image of one of the Aero boards, as it didn't look like it had any audio jacks at all, but that wasn't the case. Instead, it seems to have something to do with Gigabyte's move away from the Realtek ALC1220 Intel HD audio based codecs that the company have been using for the past few generations of boards.
74 Comments on Most of Gigabyte's Intel Z690 Motherboards Only Features Two Audio Jacks
Onboard sound should be good for people who don't need high-end sound, but I think it's time to stop trying putting "high-end" audio in motherboards as people who really want it will use external DAC/AMP combo.
More USB ports can be more useful to more people.
www.tomshardware.com/news/gigabyte-stock-drops-chinese-manufacturing-comment
Of course, Tom's HW isn't willing to post the original advert.
www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3133171/taiwans-gigabyte-technology-faces-boycott-china-after-mocking-low
In the end, Gigabyte probably has no real market position in PRC anymore. Expect their quality to continue sliding down without PRC market money to sustain their engineering teams.
I too look for 5.1 or 7.1 analog outputs, just in case I have the space again in the future for a surround gaming system.
Remember the new consoles did away with spdif out and the leader of the XBOX brand even stated they were only saving $1 per unit, but that was enough of a saving to make the decision.
It's clearly not an issue of space on most of the boards.They have a very nice and quite modern factory not too far from the main international airport in Taiwan, so why not use it? They've always made some boards there, plus Japan prefers made in Taiwan and so does the US note. Plus there should be lower duties on made in Taiwan products, so nothing really weird.You can't without a sound card if the speakers only have analogue input.
I did ping someone at Gigabyte about this, but was told to contact TPU's main point of contact there for an official answer. So let's wait and see what that will be.
I personally never had issues with Creative Soundcards and their software, and been using them since the Soundblaster 16 days from the 90s. Which probably means i've never used Onboard... like ever.
I do miss their press events though, as they were usually really good...
'OK, spare some expence...'
Personally I consider low quality onboard audio a waste of space, just like Wi-Fi on a desktop board. USB ports are infinitely more useful.
2. They still have at least two models, possibly more, as I didn't check all of them, that have the full compliment of audio jacks. Also, some base models have a reduced set of three jacks for mic, headphones and line out.
3. People have different needs, as not everyone can connect their PC to a router with a cable.
Same with Wi-Fi. I'm renting, and my router is at the opposite end of the flat as my PC, so good onboard Wi-Fi is a must.You replied faster. :D
Yes, of course people have different needs, that's why corporations decided that enough people want Wi-Fi to waste space on it. Hence why I have to rip this junk out, sell it on eBay recouping a few pennies but have to use USB hubs.I use miniITX boards since they came to the market and exclusively so since LGA1156. I'd much prefer a second or third m.2 socket than crappy audio which can't even come close to an old Maya U5 I got several years ago.
My point is: getting rid of Wi-Fi and TRRS ports frees enough space for several USB ports, far more than you would need for decent audio and Wi-Fi
If you are using iTX i understand where you are coming from re the Wi-Fi, i don't need a full size board so am using Matx.
My X-Fi didn't have a 64-bit drivers for a whole year. I had to use onboard audio, and as weeks turned into months without a driver I gave up on it altogether and sold the X-Fi. I was not shocked to see that the eventual beta driver was a shitshow of epic proportions anyway and glad I bailed on Creative when I did.