GIGABYTE AORUS Z490 Motherboard Lineup Leaked, PCIe Gen 4 Readiness Included

[btarunr]

Here are some of the first pictures of GIGABYTE's AORUS Gaming series socket LGA1200 motherboard lineup based on Intel Z490 chipset. The biggest feature with some of these boards is forwards-compatibility for PCI-Express gen 4.0 on 11th generation Core "Rocket Lake" processors. These boards will not run PCIe gen 4.0 with a "Comet Lake" processor in place, but rather feature all the physical and electrical preparation to enable PCIe gen 4.0 when processors with gen 4.0 root-complexes do come out on this socket. These include slots that meet gen 4.0 requirements, gen 4.0-rated re-drivers, lane switches, M.2 NVMe slots, and other PCB-level enhancements to support PCIe gen 4.0 signal integrity.

GIGABYTE's Z490 motherboard lineup is vast, with 14 SKUs, from which 8 are in the coveted AORUS Gaming series. The Z490 Xtreme WaterForce leads the pack, with its included CPU+VRM monoblock, followed by its air-cooled twin, the Z490 Xtreme. The AORUS Z490 Master is next in line, with a firm footing in the enthusiast segment, thanks to its elaborate CPU VRM solutions, and PCB heatsink assembly. This board is closely followed by the AORUS Z490 Ultra, with a similar appearance to Master, but a toned down CPU VRM solution. The AORUS Z490 PRO series sits in the middle of this lineup, with a fairly well-endowed feature set. The AORUS Z490 Elite is where the lineup begins. There are several other models from GIGABYTE's Gaming and Ultra Durable families, listed int he feature-set slide below.



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[R00kie]

yay, real heatsinks for everyone

 

[notb]

Almost no word about H470. :/

 

[dj-electric]

Wondering what people's opinion would be regarding Vision series and its rather {censored} design, which is not too unfamilar to the user base who have sen recent line ups from the likes of Asus.
Maybe its for those of us who prefer things rather geometrically plain.

 

[ARF]

yay, real heatsinks for everyone

Very funny It means power draw of 300-watt+ on the CPU alone + insanely high current values.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Well, these are going to be just are pricey as the MSI boards that the pricing leaked for.

Wondering what people's opinion would be regarding Vision series and its rather {censored} design, which is not too unfamilar to the user base who have sen recent line ups from the likes of Asus.
Maybe its for those of us who prefer things rather geometrically plain.

Vision will replace Designaire.

 

[R00kie]

Very funny It means power draw of 300-watt+ on the CPU alone + insanely high current values.

tell me something I don't already know

 

[dj-electric]

Vision will replace Designaire.

Yeah that's what i understand from its design, but i do feel its rather on the lower end side of specs compared, like how the {censoered} system isn't equal to the equivelant Aorus models like how Designare Z390 was sorta next to Aorus Master in PCB design.
This time it does feel a bit lower end, maybe even sub- Aorus Pro level, somewhere in between Gaming X and Pro i would say. Besides the {censoered} controller they opted to implement, which is a nice touch and not too expensive from the usual stuff. I do hope pricing will justify the design, and be somewhere around 200$ for the G

 

[john_]

I guess Intel fans will start seeing value in PCIe 4.0 support pretty soon.

 

[ARF]

tell me something I don't already know

Not everyone but likely almost no one will buy these. Why did you say for everyone? Sarcasm?

 

[TheLostSwede]

I guess Intel fans will start seeing value in PCIe 4.0 support pretty soon.

Next and last(?) CPU for this socket.

 

[Rahnak]

So some of these boards have all the required components to run PCIe Gen 4, but won't actually run it because Comet Lake CPUs don't support it.. What's the point then, Intel changes socket with every new generation.

 

[notb]

Not everyone but likely almost no one will buy these.

You seriously believe that?

I guess Intel fans will start seeing value in PCIe 4.0 support pretty soon.

Well, some people smile just from having a modern feature in a PC. Others expect some real benefits...
At least adoption on Intel platform will make this a mainstream feature, so we may finally see a proper choice of SSDs.
For now this is limited to a handful of expensive products.

Then again... PCIe 4.0 SSDs are hot and problematic. So most people won't get one anyway.

What we could really benefit from is a SATA successor...
Soon external SSDs will be faster than internal ones.

 

[birdie]

Wow, and no one is mentioning the fact that CML doesn't support PCIE 4 which means this socket will most likely support a completely new generation of Intel CPUs which Intel hasn't done in a decade.

I'm amazed!

 

[notb]

Wow, and no one is mentioning the fact that CML doesn't support PCIE 4 which means this socket will most likely support a completely new generation of Intel CPUs which Intel hasn't done in a decade.

It's in the second sentence of the news piece: Comet Lake and Rocket Lake.
Also, most (all?) recent sockets have supported 2 generations of CPUs. I'm not sure what you're talking about...

 

[birdie]

It's in the second sentence of the news piece: Comet Lake and Rocket Lake.
Also, most (all?) recent sockets have supported 2 generations of CPUs. I'm not sure what you're talking about...

Ever heard of Intel's tick-tock? They supported two similar generations of CPUs on the same socket, e.g. Sandy Bridge/Ivy Bridge, then it was Haswell/Haswell Refresh, then SkyLake/Kaby Lake, then Coffee Lake/Coffee Lake Refresh. Never they've allowed to run two very different gen architecture CPUs on the same socket.

 

[Object55]

If only it wasn't for that ugly pigeon stamped across all the boards. The better the board the bigger the pigeon. Yuck

 

[dj-electric]

Ever heard of Intel's tick-tock? They supported two similar generations of CPUs on the same socket, e.g. Sandy Bridge/Ivy Bridge, then it was Haswell/Haswell Refresh, then SkyLake/Kaby Lake, then Coffee Lake/Coffee Lake Refresh. Never they've allowed to run two very different gen CPUs on the same socket.

Your Broadwell 14nm 5th gen slipped. Here, i picked it up for you

 

[birdie]

Your Broadwell 14nm 5th gen slipped. Here, i picked it up for you

Broadwell was never released in any decent qualities. It was more a test run rather than a complete launch. Also, it was never released as a LGA package, only as a BGA. In short, I haven't omitted or forgotten anything.

 

[dj-electric]

Broadwell was never released in any decent qualities. It was more a test run rather than a complete launch. Also, it was never released as a LGA package, only as a BGA. In short, I haven't omitted or forgotten anything.

My i7 5775C LGA CPU finds this text very offensive.
Intel has supported 2 very different architechtures on the same socket, and LGA1200 will move into a less dramatic change, but sure a decent one next year with RKL-S for these

 

[R00kie]

Broadwell was never released in any decent qualities. It was more a test run rather than a complete launch. Also, it was never released as a LGA package, only as a BGA. In short, I haven't omitted or forgotten anything.

i7 5775c and i5 5675C would like to disagree with you.

 

[birdie]

My i7 5775C LGA CPU finds this text very offensive.
Intel has supported 2 very different architechtures on the same socket, and LGA1200 will move into a less dramatic change, but sure a decent one next year with RKL-S for these

Again, Broadwell was never released in any decent qualities. I'm glad you bought it but that doesn't negate the fact this whole CPU family was nothing but a test run.

 

[notb]

Ever heard of Intel's tick-tock? They supported two similar generations of CPUs on the same socket, e.g. Sandy Bridge/Ivy Bridge, then it was Haswell/Haswell Refresh, then SkyLake/Kaby Lake, then Coffee Lake/Coffee Lake Refresh. Never they've allowed to run two very different gen CPUs on the same socket.

You said "new generation", not "new architecture".

Earlier architectures were carefully planned, so it made sense to launch them on new sockets.
Rocket Lake is a forced backport of Tiger Lake onto 14nm. So they just don't care. They'll make it work on the existing socket.

 

[BlackSpider318]

I guess they starting to realize that more and more people will jump to AMD wagon if they popping out expensive motherboards each year and you have to upgrade time after time.

 

[TheLostSwede]

So some of these boards have all the required components to run PCIe Gen 4, but won't actually run it because Comet Lake CPUs don't support it.. What's the point then, Intel changes socket with every new generation.

See the post above yours, the next CPU for this socket will support PCIe 4.0 for the CPU lanes.

Then again... PCIe 4.0 SSDs are hot and problematic. So most people won't get one anyway.

First generation hardware, where the controller is a "hacked" together piece of silicon with a PCIe 4.0 bus jerry rigged to a current gen controller and made on an older node. No surprise there that it runs hot. New controllers won't be any hotter than PCIe 3.0 controllers.

Ever heard of Intel's tick-tock? They supported two similar generations of CPUs on the same socket, e.g. Sandy Bridge/Ivy Bridge, then it was Haswell/Haswell Refresh, then SkyLake/Kaby Lake, then Coffee Lake/Coffee Lake Refresh. Never they've allowed to run two very different gen CPUs on the same socket.

Rocket Lake will be supported on these boards.

If only it wasn't for that ugly pigeon stamped across all the boards. The better the board the bigger the pigeon. Yuck

It's an Eagle...