Product on Review: X870 AORUS MASTER
Manufacturer: GIGABYTE
Street Price:
- US: $499.99 excl. Tax
- UK: £479.99 inc. V.A.T.
- AUS: AUD$999 inc. Tax
Introduction
We’re deep into the second post-launch week for AMD’s X870 and X870E-series motherboards and, while most launch models are now available worldwide, some of the primary partners designs are still filtering slowly through regionally. One such model is GIGABYTE’s X870E AORUS MASTER, which will join a diverse lineup of performance-oriented designs in most locations this autumn. Starting with a selection of high performance designs and eventually extending down to mainstream and affordable product segments, the X870/E-series will be a broad top-to-bottom replacement for the X670-series beginning from as low as $200 and reaching the heights of truly premium pricing as we head into 2025.
AMD’s B850 and B840 designs - mainstream and budget chipsets for AM5 motherboards - are scheduled for a later launch and will fully round out the 800-series. Each will down-step the platform’s capabilities, typically through a reduction in available I/O and PCIe Lanes.
The 800-series continues AMD’s commitment to the AM5 platform, offering compatibility not only with ‘Zen 5’ Ryzen 9000-series processors but also 8000-series APUs and ‘Zen 4’ 7000-series chips. AM5 is expected to be a fixture in the market until at least 2027, indicating that these new designs will be compatible with processors launched at least three years from now. That’s in stark contrast to Intel, who will be sunsetting LGA1700 later this month after just two discrete processor architectural generations.
X870E is AMD’s high-end desktop 800-series chipset and it takes cues from its predecessor in featureset and targeted market segments. It utilises a dual-PCH solution for its chipset to layer on additional I/O capabilities compared to the single-controller X870 and B850, and thus is tailored for those who demand more peripheral support and accessible PCI-Express lanes for expansion cards. X870E is the only AMD chipset that can offer the full gamut of I/O support the 800-series has to offer, at least unless AMD choose to reverse course and also offer dual-PCH B850E designs.
The chipset has full PCIe 5.0 support for x16 and x8/x8 modes on the GPU alongside a single PCIe Gen5 x4 M.2 NVMe slot. Additional peripheral support is offered through the chipset’s general purpose PCIe lanes, typically through a plethora of M.2 NVMe storage and additional integrated I/O.
Clear improvements over X670 include baked-in memory support up to DDR5-8200 (OC) (GIGABYTE claim DDR5-8600(OC) support in the first BIOS revisions through additional board updates), two USB4 40 Gbps port as standard rather than optional extras, and a more comprehensive toolkit that augments software-based overclocking.
800-series motherboards are also some of the first to support WiFi 7 networking as standard. This allows combination of multiple 2.4GHz, 5GHz and 6GHz bands into continuous data streams for higher realised bandwidth and better management of IoT environments.
Today we’re reviewing the X870E AORUS MASTER, GIGABYTE’s flagship X870E motherboard and premium tier member of the wider X870E ecosystem. The model is a striking continuation of an AORUS MASTER lineup that are typically the top-end variants of a given chipset, featuring almost every platform improvement they can bring to bear within its footprint.
The design boasts a relatively modest 16+2+2 DigiPhase power delivery system - plenty for CPUs operating within reference spec - and extended heatsink/heatspreader coverage for surface-mounted components. GIGABYTE have spent a little more time refining the aesthetic aspects of the board compared to the X870 AORUS ELITE by adding more integrated lighting and hiding more of the PCB and surface-mounted components behind heatsinks.
In common with a few other manufacturers, GIGABYTE equipped the X870E AORUS MASTER features that improve ease of use during installation and post-purchase system upgrades. They’ve leapt on the ‘EZ’ moniker to denote them, and this model includes Wifi EZ-Plug for antenna installation, EZ Latch to help with GPU/M.2 removal, EZ Match magnetic attachment for headspreaders, and EZ Debug to aid troubleshooting. In this specific aspect it has the most comprehensive selection we’ve seen thus far.
Both WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 5.3 technologies are integrated into this model, but in this instance not Bluetooth 5.4. Audio is provided by Realtek ALC1220 Codec and audiophile grade capacitors with additional support for DTS:X Ultra. GIGABYTE’s proprietary RGB Fusion 2.0 LED lighting system controls the on-board LED illumination and any generated by the five supplementary RGB LED headers.
An additional feature which we believe is currently unique to GIGABYTE is an internal HDMI display-output header dubbed Sensor Panel Link. While its use is flexible, GIGABYTE envision that it would be used by an internal screen (not included) to display real-time sensor readouts.
At $499.99 the X870E AORUS MASTER is firmly in flagship territory without quite straying into the most extravagant ‘halo product’ bracket. Cheaper X870E models shouldn’t be quite so well-appointed but might lean towards niche aspects of desktop computing, particularly hardcore overclocking. To justify its price tag the X870E AORUS MASTER needs to be an exceptional all rounder, which is not exactly a trivial task.
