Thursday, October 19th 2023
Gigabyte Adds the X670E AORUS Pro X to its AMD Motherboard Lineup, has Internal HDMI Port
Yesterday Gigabyte revealed a pair of AMD B650 motherboards in white/silver and today the company has added an entirely new X670E model using the same colour scheme. X670E AORUS Pro X doesn't have an equivalent black SKU and it's the first Pro model using the AMD X670 chipset, although the overall PCB appears to be based on the X670 AORUS Elite AX, with some interesting additions. The obvious changes include a PCIe 5.0 x16 slot, courtesy of the X670E AORUS Pro X using the E version of the chipset and this also means dual PCIe 5.0 NVMe M.2 slots, as well as a pair of PCIe 4.0 ones.
For some reason, Gigabyte also changed the 2.5 Gbps Ethernet chip from Realtek to Intel, but the specific model isn't mentioned. WiFi will apparently be via a Qualcomm QCNCM865 module, or an MTK/AMD MT7927/RZ738 module, both options supporting 320 MHz wide WiFi 7 channels and Bluetooth 5.3. Gigabyte has also thrown in three extra fan headers, as well as headers for external temperature sensors. However, the one really peculiar feature that has been added to the X670E AORUS Pro X is an internal HDMI port. The internal port appears to be limited to 1080p30 and it's intended for use with a smaller display mounted in windowed cases for diagnostics data and we believe this was a feature ASRock was first with if memory serves. Gigabyte calls this feature Sensor panel Link, but it's unclear if Gigabyte will offer suitable displays or not. There's no word on pricing or an availability date.
Sources:
Gigabyte, via @momomo_us on X/Twitter
For some reason, Gigabyte also changed the 2.5 Gbps Ethernet chip from Realtek to Intel, but the specific model isn't mentioned. WiFi will apparently be via a Qualcomm QCNCM865 module, or an MTK/AMD MT7927/RZ738 module, both options supporting 320 MHz wide WiFi 7 channels and Bluetooth 5.3. Gigabyte has also thrown in three extra fan headers, as well as headers for external temperature sensors. However, the one really peculiar feature that has been added to the X670E AORUS Pro X is an internal HDMI port. The internal port appears to be limited to 1080p30 and it's intended for use with a smaller display mounted in windowed cases for diagnostics data and we believe this was a feature ASRock was first with if memory serves. Gigabyte calls this feature Sensor panel Link, but it's unclear if Gigabyte will offer suitable displays or not. There's no word on pricing or an availability date.
25 Comments on Gigabyte Adds the X670E AORUS Pro X to its AMD Motherboard Lineup, has Internal HDMI Port
I could tell you why, but I'm not really allowed to, but let's call it a management decision.
1) Poor sales or product cannibalization in the line-up
2) Didn’t serve an initial purpose as higher DDR5 frequencies were unattainable upon platform release - not the case with newer agesa
It’s a shame because AM5 is left without a viable board for memory overclocking because both MSI and ASUS also bailed on unify/apex variants; sure the Gene exists but in a compromised form factor, meanwhile ASUS alone has 3 Apex variants for 12-14th Gen. Either way its very disappointing when AMD has been killing it with Zen, vendors have come a long way but platform parity is still lacking.
Side note, the B650E Master, from the limited testing Ive seen on OCN, is better than literally every ASUS board bar the Gene when it comes to memory overclocking. Meanwhile consumers just get a bunch of one off color/theme variants crammed down our throats without any real improvements.
Nothing new, no reason to buy and they all cost stupid money.
Also no debug readout...
Love my Extreme 4.
Now, this is very similar to the X670 Elite and arguably only slightly better, but worse in some aspects. The internal HDMI ist vor video panels, is only HDMI1.4a and can only do 1080p@30Hz.
+ X670E means PCIe5.0 x16 - Gigabyte was the only manufacturer to offer only very few and only highend X670E-boards
+ WiFi 7, which will be easily upfradeable on board with WiFi6
+/- Intel instead of Realtek 2.5GbE - I would normally prefer Intel, but i225/i226 is buggy
- only one M.2 Gen5x4
- both PCIe-slots are Gen3, while the Elite has one Gen4x4
Both are equally bad for offering low end ALC897 and marketing it as "HiFi Audio" in this price range.
Can't use the Intel NIC on my motherboard, revision 1 i225, keeps dropping the connection to my ISP provided router...
Though, it seems the times really changed and manufacturers still use the outdated hype to install inferior chips. Might be huge contract with intel is the reason.
It's not a PCIe slot, but rather a a Key A+E M.2 slot which as you proposed is "rigged" for just WiFi cards. Well, there are some thing things that use the same slot, such as cellular data cards and some other things.
That is unless you have an Intel board, as then you need a CNVi type module.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CNVi
Marvells newest Aquantia NICs AQC113, 114, 114CS and 115C can use either "Gen4x1, Gen3x4, Gen3x2 oder Gen3x1, Gen2x2". I would say the bigger NICs, AQC113 (10GbE) and AQC114 (5GbE, both 12mmx14mm) can chose between the former three connection speeds, while the smaller AQC114CS (5GbE) and AQC115C (2.5GbE, both 7mmx7mm) can chose between the later two connection speeds.
Either way, Gen3x2 or Gen4x1 should suffice for one 10GbE-Port. Because of that, I considered the X670E and B650E Master, which offer one Gen3x4 or Gen4x4 plus one Gen3x2, which is shared with two SATA-Ports, but I chose the Asus Prime X670E-Pro because it was much cheaper and has two Gen4x4.
TB5 and USB4 V2.0 are just around the corner and with 80GBit/s synchronus or 120/40GBit/s asynchronus, what type of connection to the motherboard do you think they will need? Gen4x4 for 80GBit/s, Gen5x4 for 120GBit/s I would say.