excuse me for my lack of understanding, but if i used this board and had planned on using rtx 4070 ti super and a m.2 gen 5 ssd. would my graphics card performance suffer?
Yes, if you have your Gen 5 SSD installed in the first M.2 slot, the bandwidth of your graphics card slot will be halved and your RTX 4070 Ti SUPER will operate at PCIe 4.0 x8 link speeds instead, thereby impacting your graphics card's performance. I'd recommend just getting a Gen 4 SSD and installing it in the second M.2 slot to avoid this lane bifurcation issue!
Actually I do think AMD has its fair share of high-end boards too, though if you're referring to AMD boards with the latest features such as WIFI 7 and 5 Gbit Ethernet (which are available with Intel's latest Z790 Refresh boards), then that's where AMD's line-up is a little lacking - this is simply because the current line-up of AM5 boards launched more than a year ago already!
Is there any way to bypass the loss in performance with nvmes gen 5 with gpu pcie gen 5 for example Rtx 4080? Is there any motherboard capable of this?
You won't be able to avoid this issue with Intel Z790 motherboards given that this whole lane sharing thing is due to chipset limitations - the other alternative would be to buy into the AMD ecosystem instead, with a Ryzen 7000 series processor and at least a B650E or X670E motherboard, which serve up native PCIe Gen 5 support for a graphics card and M.2 drive concurrently!
@@ALKtech so with Intel i9 14900k I can’t run m.2 pcie 5 native and with amd ryzen 7000 I can? This limitation is only for gen 5 ? I can run gen 4 without limiting the lane to the gpu?
@@YGadgETech with this Z790 board, you'll still have to ensure that you install a Gen 4 M.2 drive from the second slot onwards - as long as you have a M.2 drive installed in the first slot, regardless of whether it's a Gen 5 or Gen 4 M.2 drive, it'll still share PCIe lanes with your GPU. If you'd like to avoid this issue altogether, going down the AMD route with at least a B650E or X670E motherboard will be the best option for now, as the B650E and X670E chipsets have dedicated Gen 5 PCIe lanes for a M.2 drive!
@@YGadgETech yup. If you ain't in a rush, Intel SHOULD release it's next gen platform sometime in the later part of 2024 that will likely include native PCIe Gen 5 support for M.2 drives..
Looking at the block diagram of the motherboard manual (page 5), it appears that the Sensor Link USB Type-C port is driven by the processor, meaning to say you'd likely need to have a processor with integrated graphics (i.e non-F CPUs) for this feature to work. Hope this helps!
Recently I've found myself more and more surprised by mainboards still coming with SATA cables. PCIe SSDs have become so common and cost the same as SATA ones that I don't think most people would need those included cables. In my mind, either you use an NVMe SSD or you have an old SATA SSD that you take from an old build and have cables from there. Anyway, this is a really beautiful mainboard. I like that white/silver PCIe slot at the top. I just wish the other ones also were white. The one that is white is going to be covered by the graphics card most of the time anyway.
I agree, I haven't handled a SATA SSD in ages, unless it's say, a much older build that I'm upgrading for a friend or something. Still, doesn't hurt to have spare SATA cables on hand for sure!
The PCI limitations have nothing to do with the board, that is due to the architecture, all motherboards have that limitation, not just this one. Next gen may be different but currently no motherboards support full x16 on both slots simultaneously, not that it really matters as neither of them max out the 16 lanes anyway. Your graphics card may at most see a 3% slow down and that is only in very limited situations. So its not fair to take points off for this board not doing 16 lanes on both slots when that's the case with all motherboards.
Yup - valid points indeed especially since the Z790 chipset was never designed to have full simultaneous PCIe Gen 5 support for both the graphics card and M.2 slot without taking a performance hit from lane sharing, unless of course you go down the AMD route with its B650E or X670E chipsets, which offer native PCIe Gen 5 lanes for a graphics card and M.2 drive. My two cents - I'd rather have Z790 board manufacturers just go with PCIe Gen 4 support for all M.2 slots, and "full-fledged" PCIe Gen 5 support for the primary PCIe x16 slot for a graphics card without any of the lane bifurcation that we tend to see in higher-end Z790 boards, which may catch some end-users unaware.
@@ALKtech Kind of wish I would have known before I invested in the Crucial T705 4TB, but my build is supposed to be future-proof. Swapping a motheroard out down the line is totally possible.
@@PatrickWood ugh. Just curious, which slot do you have your T705 installed on? The Gen 5 M.2 slot or one of the Gen 4 M.2 slots? Just further reinforces my take that board manufacturers should have just stuck with offering vanilla PCIe 5.0 support for a graphics card, and just good ol' PCIe 4.0 support for M.2 drives for their higher-end Intel Z790 board offerings...
@@ALKtech I haven't started my build yet. I am still renovated my space for it as we speak. Currently redoing floors. Then assemble my IKEA stack. Then assemble computer. Then build shed. Then make garage home for old computer.
When you install the mobo and turn on your computer. You will be asked to install the aorus software. That software will tell you what version you have installed
You can check the bottom left hand corner of the board where the front panel audio header is (pictured at 8:58 of this video) - Gigabyte prints the board revision number there!
Yup. Unfortunate that the Z790 never came with dedicated PCIe Gen 5 lanes for a M.2 drive...but then again Intel never intended to have the Z790 stick around for this long, so it's a stopgap kinda thing till Intel's next-gen platform hits the shelves.
I got this MB. When i installed Windows the wifi did not work, but after i downloaded the driver from gigabytes website it worked. its so new Microsoft does not have the driver for it only manufacturer.
@@ALKtech I installed the driver for my 1.0 board, then tried the other one just in case I was wrong... :( I don't use wifi so it's OK, I am glad bluetooth works on the same module, that's the main thing.... It's just that theres always quirks and workarounds with building. Gigabyte have asked me to take a photo of the module on the motherboard.
@@michalwalks I see, Revision 1.0 comes with the MediaTek module and if you've already tried the MediaTek drivers on Gigabyte's website...it could be that you've got a faulty WIFI module! At least you don't use WIFI for your internet connectivity...
The slot will run at PCIe 4.0 x8 instead though, since the current gen of graphics cards are all PCIe Gen 4 . There will be some loss in performance, though perhaps not by that big a percentage margin.
Check out the written article version of this motherboard overview here: www.alktech.co/articles/review-gigabyte-z790-aorus-pro-x-lga1700-motherboard
Thanks for taking the time to make this very detailed review. Exactly what I was looking for.
Thank you very much! The best review of this mainboard ever (I watched all other of this board at youtube - yours is best)! Thumb up. TOP!!
excuse me for my lack of understanding, but if i used this board and had planned on using rtx 4070 ti super and a m.2 gen 5 ssd. would my graphics card performance suffer?
Yes, if you have your Gen 5 SSD installed in the first M.2 slot, the bandwidth of your graphics card slot will be halved and your RTX 4070 Ti SUPER will operate at PCIe 4.0 x8 link speeds instead, thereby impacting your graphics card's performance. I'd recommend just getting a Gen 4 SSD and installing it in the second M.2 slot to avoid this lane bifurcation issue!
Thank you for posting this video 🎉. You have a new subscriber. Keep up the great 👍 work.
Thanks for letting us know about the PCIe lanes!
That's all motherboards not just this one.
Thank you so much that was an amazing video
why has Intel much much more high end boards to buy?
Actually I do think AMD has its fair share of high-end boards too, though if you're referring to AMD boards with the latest features such as WIFI 7 and 5 Gbit Ethernet (which are available with Intel's latest Z790 Refresh boards), then that's where AMD's line-up is a little lacking - this is simply because the current line-up of AM5 boards launched more than a year ago already!
Very nicely explained all features
So if i use 4.0 ssd the graphics card will work properly and if i use 5.0 it will not 🥴 braaaah
To avoid any of the lane bifurcation issues, just make sure to avoid using the first M.2 slot for your SSD!
👍@@ALKtech
Is there any way to bypass the loss in performance with nvmes gen 5 with gpu pcie gen 5 for example Rtx 4080? Is there any motherboard capable of this?
You won't be able to avoid this issue with Intel Z790 motherboards given that this whole lane sharing thing is due to chipset limitations - the other alternative would be to buy into the AMD ecosystem instead, with a Ryzen 7000 series processor and at least a B650E or X670E motherboard, which serve up native PCIe Gen 5 support for a graphics card and M.2 drive concurrently!
@@ALKtech so with Intel i9 14900k I can’t run m.2 pcie 5 native and with amd ryzen 7000 I can? This limitation is only for gen 5 ? I can run gen 4 without limiting the lane to the gpu?
@@YGadgETech with this Z790 board, you'll still have to ensure that you install a Gen 4 M.2 drive from the second slot onwards - as long as you have a M.2 drive installed in the first slot, regardless of whether it's a Gen 5 or Gen 4 M.2 drive, it'll still share PCIe lanes with your GPU. If you'd like to avoid this issue altogether, going down the AMD route with at least a B650E or X670E motherboard will be the best option for now, as the B650E and X670E chipsets have dedicated Gen 5 PCIe lanes for a M.2 drive!
@@ALKtech that’s a shame that only amd gave us a solution for now
@@YGadgETech yup. If you ain't in a rush, Intel SHOULD release it's next gen platform sometime in the later part of 2024 that will likely include native PCIe Gen 5 support for M.2 drives..
Thanks for this overview. Do you know if the Sensor Link port works if you use an F sku CPU like an i7-13700KF?
Looking at the block diagram of the motherboard manual (page 5), it appears that the Sensor Link USB Type-C port is driven by the processor, meaning to say you'd likely need to have a processor with integrated graphics (i.e non-F CPUs) for this feature to work. Hope this helps!
thank you for this in-depth review
Many thanks - glad that you found the video useful!
Recently I've found myself more and more surprised by mainboards still coming with SATA cables. PCIe SSDs have become so common and cost the same as SATA ones that I don't think most people would need those included cables. In my mind, either you use an NVMe SSD or you have an old SATA SSD that you take from an old build and have cables from there.
Anyway, this is a really beautiful mainboard. I like that white/silver PCIe slot at the top. I just wish the other ones also were white. The one that is white is going to be covered by the graphics card most of the time anyway.
I agree, I haven't handled a SATA SSD in ages, unless it's say, a much older build that I'm upgrading for a friend or something. Still, doesn't hurt to have spare SATA cables on hand for sure!
The PCI limitations have nothing to do with the board, that is due to the architecture, all motherboards have that limitation, not just this one. Next gen may be different but currently no motherboards support full x16 on both slots simultaneously, not that it really matters as neither of them max out the 16 lanes anyway. Your graphics card may at most see a 3% slow down and that is only in very limited situations. So its not fair to take points off for this board not doing 16 lanes on both slots when that's the case with all motherboards.
Yup - valid points indeed especially since the Z790 chipset was never designed to have full simultaneous PCIe Gen 5 support for both the graphics card and M.2 slot without taking a performance hit from lane sharing, unless of course you go down the AMD route with its B650E or X670E chipsets, which offer native PCIe Gen 5 lanes for a graphics card and M.2 drive.
My two cents - I'd rather have Z790 board manufacturers just go with PCIe Gen 4 support for all M.2 slots, and "full-fledged" PCIe Gen 5 support for the primary PCIe x16 slot for a graphics card without any of the lane bifurcation that we tend to see in higher-end Z790 boards, which may catch some end-users unaware.
@@ALKtech Kind of wish I would have known before I invested in the Crucial T705 4TB, but my build is supposed to be future-proof. Swapping a motheroard out down the line is totally possible.
@@PatrickWood ugh. Just curious, which slot do you have your T705 installed on? The Gen 5 M.2 slot or one of the Gen 4 M.2 slots? Just further reinforces my take that board manufacturers should have just stuck with offering vanilla PCIe 5.0 support for a graphics card, and just good ol' PCIe 4.0 support for M.2 drives for their higher-end Intel Z790 board offerings...
@@ALKtech I haven't started my build yet. I am still renovated my space for it as we speak. Currently redoing floors. Then assemble my IKEA stack. Then assemble computer. Then build shed. Then make garage home for old computer.
@@ALKtech Will put in pcie5 5.0 slot regardless. Maybe I will upgrade motherboards later. Not a huge deal for now. Just a little disappointing.
Hi, mine is about to be delivered and I'm trying to download the bios. How can I know if my model is rev 1.1 or rev 1.0 to download?
When you install the mobo and turn on your computer. You will be asked to install the aorus software. That software will tell you what version you have installed
You can check the bottom left hand corner of the board where the front panel audio header is (pictured at 8:58 of this video) - Gigabyte prints the board revision number there!
so i guess im not going to even bother with a gen 5 ssd
Yup. Unfortunate that the Z790 never came with dedicated PCIe Gen 5 lanes for a M.2 drive...but then again Intel never intended to have the Z790 stick around for this long, so it's a stopgap kinda thing till Intel's next-gen platform hits the shelves.
Hey. Does your wifi work? My drivers didn't work at all with this...
I got this MB. When i installed Windows the wifi did not work, but after i downloaded the driver from gigabytes website it worked.
its so new Microsoft does not have the driver for it only manufacturer.
Which driver package did you install? There are two versions of this board, one with the Intel WIFI module and another with a MediaTek WIFI module!
@@ALKtech I installed the driver for my 1.0 board, then tried the other one just in case I was wrong... :( I don't use wifi so it's OK, I am glad bluetooth works on the same module, that's the main thing.... It's just that theres always quirks and workarounds with building. Gigabyte have asked me to take a photo of the module on the motherboard.
@@michalwalks I see, Revision 1.0 comes with the MediaTek module and if you've already tried the MediaTek drivers on Gigabyte's website...it could be that you've got a faulty WIFI module! At least you don't use WIFI for your internet connectivity...
Gen 5 8x is the same as Gen 4 16x bandwidth. Your Gen 4 graphics card won't lose performance.
The slot will run at PCIe 4.0 x8 instead though, since the current gen of graphics cards are all PCIe Gen 4 . There will be some loss in performance, though perhaps not by that big a percentage margin.
@ALKtech almost no one will notice the minimal drop in performance, though. We're pulling hairs here.
What happens if you plug a gen 4 SSD in that slot? does it still suffer from the splitting?
Could I put the Gen 4 SSD in one of the other slots for it to run at 16x?@@ALKtech
@@DX6860 yes you can and you should! Simply install the SSD in any of the Gen 4 M.2 slots.