The GIGABYTE Z390 Aorus Master Motherboard Review: Solid, But Not Special

Board Features

The GIGABYTE Z390 Aorus Master is a high-end ATX motherboard targeted at gamers and enthusiasts with a variety of features and controllers. Highly notable features include triple M.2 with all of them supporting NVMe drives and each coming equipped with its own M.2 heatshield. The single LAN port is controlled by an Intel I219-V 1 Gbe PHY and GIGABYTE utilizes the CNVi on the Z390 chipset with an Intel 9560 802.11ac 1.73 Gbps capable Wi-Fi adapter. Users looking for a solid onboard audio solution will appreciate the Realtek ALC1220 HD audio codec with an assisting ESS Sabre 9118 digital to analogue converter. Up to two-way NVIDIA SLI and three-way AMD CrossFire multi-graphics cards configurations can be used on the Z390 Aorus Master due to three full-length PCIe 3.0 ports (x8/x8/ or x8/x8/x4).

On the rear panel, GIGABYTE has equipped the Z390 Aorus Master with four USB 3.1 G2 ports; three Type-A and one Type-C. Also present is two USB 3.1 G1 Type-A ports which double up with GIGABYTE’s DAC-UP 2 technology for audio enthusiasts, as well as four USB 2.0 ports. Users can add an additional USB 3.1 G2 Type-C port, two USB 3.1 G1 Type-A ports and four USB 2.0 ports due to internal headers. GIGABYTE also has support for fast DDR4-4400 memory and supports the 32 GB UDIMMs which means the Z390 Aorus Master can house up to 128 GB of system memory.

Test Bed

As per our testing policy, we take a high-end CPU suitable for the motherboard that was released during the socket’s initial launch, and equip the system with a suitable amount of memory running at the processor maximum supported frequency. This is also typically run at JEDEC subtimings where possible. It is noted that some users are not keen on this policy, stating that sometimes the maximum supported frequency is quite low, or faster memory is available at a similar price, or that the JEDEC speeds can be prohibitive for performance. While these comments make sense, ultimately very few users apply memory profiles (either XMP or other) as they require interaction with the BIOS, and most users will fall back on JEDEC supported speeds - this includes home users as well as industry who might want to shave off a cent or two from the cost or stay within the margins set by the manufacturer. Where possible, we will extend out testing to include faster memory modules either at the same time as the review or a later date.

While we have been able to measure audio performance from previous Z370 motherboards, the task has been made even harder with the roll-out of the Z390 chipset and none of the boards tested so far has played ball. It seems all USB support for Windows 7 is now extinct so until we can find a reliable way of measuring audio performance on Windows 10 or until a workaround can be found, audio testing will have to be done at a later date.

Readers of our motherboard review section will have noted the trend in modern motherboards to implement a form of MultiCore Enhancement / Acceleration / Turbo (read our report here) on their motherboards. This does several things, including better benchmark results at stock settings (not entirely needed if overclocking is an end-user goal) at the expense of heat and temperature. It also gives, in essence, an automatic overclock which may be against what the user wants. Our testing methodology is ‘out-of-the-box’, with the latest public BIOS installed and XMP enabled, and thus subject to the whims of this feature. It is ultimately up to the motherboard manufacturer to take this risk – and manufacturers taking risks in the setup is something they do on every product (think C-state settings, USB priority, DPC Latency / monitoring priority, overriding memory sub-timings at JEDEC). Processor speed change is part of that risk, and ultimately if no overclocking is planned, some motherboards will affect how fast that shiny new processor goes and can be an important factor in the system build.

Hardware Providers for CPU and Motherboard Reviews
Sapphire RX 460 Nitro	MSI GTX 1080 Gaming X OC	Crucial MX200 + MX500 SSDs	Corsair AX860i + AX1200i PSUs
G.Skill RipjawsV, SniperX, FlareX	Crucial Ballistix DDR4	Silverstone Coolers	Silverstone Fans

New Test Suite: Spectre and Meltdown Hardened

Since the start of our Z390 reviews, we are using an updated OS, updated drivers, and updated software. This is in line with our CPU testing updates, which includes Spectre and Meltdown patches. As we are in the process of testing more Z390 boards, that data will be added in future reviews however at this point we only have Z370 on the old testing as a reference.