Saturday, January 7th 2023
GIGABYTE Motherboards and Graphics Cards at the 2023 International CES
GIGABYTE displayed their latest motherboards and graphics cards at the 2023 International CES, covering their Socket LGA1700 Intel 700-series chipset; and Socket AM5 AMD 600-series chipset. The Z790 AORUS Tachyon is the company's top-grade LGA1700 motherboard targeting the professional overclocking crowd. The board is designed to chase down CPU and memory overclocking world records, featuring the company's most powerful CPU VRM solution, and a 1 DIMM-per-channel DDR5 memory setup that preferred by overclockers for supporting the highest memory overclocks with the tightest timings. There are several overclocker-friendly features besides the onboard buttons—dual-BIOS ROMs, angled connectors for bench cases, consolidated voltage measurement points, and a feature-packed BIOS setup program.
Over in the AMD side, GIGABYTE's top Socket AM5 motherboard is the X670E AORUS Xtreme, which is a feature-packed motherboard with possibly the strongest CPU VRM solutions in the market for Ryzen 7000 processors, and with the best VRM cooling. In addition to the PCIe Gen 5 M.2 slot wired to the AM5 SoC, you get additional Gen 5 slots that subtract from the x16 PEG slot. The AORUS Xtreme also has the most feature-rich BIOS available among GIGABYTE's AM5 lineup. The B650I AORUS Ultra is a premium Mini-ITX Socket AM5 motherboard based on the AMD B650 chipset. Despite its compact size, it gives you a PCI-Express 4.0 x16 PEG slot, a Gen 5 M.2 slot, and two additional Gen 4 M.2 slots, besides the latest wired- and wireless connectivity. We also snapped the B650 AERO G motherboard targeting creators, and the mainstream B650 AORUS Elite AX.
Among the graphics cards we spotted are the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Gaming OC that we recently reviewed, and the feature-packed GeForce RTX 4070 Ti AORUS Master, which features GIGABYTE's highest factory-OC for this GPU at 2670 MHz GPU Boost (vs. 2610 MHz reference), and a tiny LCD display on the card that either puts out real-time monitoring, or can be made to display anything (eg: clan logo). The AORUS Master cooling solution also debuts GIGABYTE's newest "Bionic Shark" fans, which feature ridges that have "teeth," which can improve axial airflow. There's also the GeForce RTX 4080 AERO OC, a SKU that targets creators that like to game. Lastly, there's a custom-design AMD Radeon RX 7900 series graphics card, the Radeon RX 7900 XTX AORUS Elite.
Over in the AMD side, GIGABYTE's top Socket AM5 motherboard is the X670E AORUS Xtreme, which is a feature-packed motherboard with possibly the strongest CPU VRM solutions in the market for Ryzen 7000 processors, and with the best VRM cooling. In addition to the PCIe Gen 5 M.2 slot wired to the AM5 SoC, you get additional Gen 5 slots that subtract from the x16 PEG slot. The AORUS Xtreme also has the most feature-rich BIOS available among GIGABYTE's AM5 lineup. The B650I AORUS Ultra is a premium Mini-ITX Socket AM5 motherboard based on the AMD B650 chipset. Despite its compact size, it gives you a PCI-Express 4.0 x16 PEG slot, a Gen 5 M.2 slot, and two additional Gen 4 M.2 slots, besides the latest wired- and wireless connectivity. We also snapped the B650 AERO G motherboard targeting creators, and the mainstream B650 AORUS Elite AX.
13 Comments on GIGABYTE Motherboards and Graphics Cards at the 2023 International CES
Logistically it's easy for motherboard manufacturers to simply include things like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and RGB on their premium offerings because creating a bunch of SKUs that eliminate one or more features (Bluetooth but no Wi-Fi and RGB) will end up being a headache for retailers, distributors, and the manufacturers themselves from an inventory management standpoint.
And typically one can disable these features in the BIOS. Same with onboard audio.
Borrowing the famous words of the late Steve Jobs: "Not a big deal."
In the Nineties, discrete sound cards like the Sound Blaster were typical. Then came onboard sound chips with ever increasing support for multi-channel audio.
More recently some motherboard manufacturers are scaling back on onboard audio as interest in multi-channel audio via 3.5mm audio jacks wanes. Gamers these days are using headsets (with USB DACs), many with spatial audio features as well as built-in microphones for voice chat. And wireless headsets also have made lots of gains in popularity.
Digital audio is available from discrete video cards as well as USB connections. Many PC monitors targeted at gamers don't even have built-in speakers.
PC hardware evolve as technology and public tastes change. In most cases, this stuff can all be disabled. Hate "rainbow puke" addressable RGB? Guess what? You can turn it off!
Exactly. Chipsets. Whatever is in between there is the usual tax.