(Gigabyte) Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7 in test with Core Ultra 9 285K

Power draw without power limits

We’re kicking off a round of Z890 motherboard tests loaded with the most powerful CPU for the LGA 1851 platform – the Core Ultra 9 285K. We’re doing this with Gigabyte – the Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7 from the mid-range, or the upper mid-range, if you like… There will be competing models in a similar category later on, but now to the motherboard, which has undergone many changes from the Z790 Aorus Elite AX of the previous generation.

The tested Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7 motherboard is designed for the new Intel Arrow Lake, or Core Ultra, processors. It is mainly characterized by the new LGA 1851 socket. It appears on motherboards with Intel Z890 chipset for the first time ever.

Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7

Categorically, the Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7 is roughly in the middle of Gigabyte’s product range, when it comes to motherboards for the Intel LGA 1851 platform. There are more expensive models available
(Extreme AI, Master, Pro Ice, …), but also cheaper ones (Gaming X WiFi7, Eagle/WiFi7, UD WiFi6E, …).

The physical format is ATX, i.e. with a PCB measuring 305 × 244 mm. The front side will be discussed in more detail in a bit, as for the back side, we will only note that although the board as such does not have a backplate, the first PCIe ×16 slot is already equipped with one.

A backplate for the PCIe ×16 slot is a bit of a rarity, but one that is specific to several Gigabyte motherboards. Considering heavier and overall larger graphics cards, such an element is justified as long as it protects the slot or its contacts from damage. In transport, where protruding components (such as the graphics card) exert a great deal of leverage on the motherboard, there is a certain danger in combination with shocks and the effects of more significant kinetic energy.

There is also a button to release the latch for the first PCIe ×16 slot, which is useful. This is because it greatly facilitates the removal of an expansion card, which is immediately below a potentially large tower CPU cooler with wide fins. In such conditions, access to the latch directly on the slot is complicated, and the remote button for unlocking the slot makes the work much easier. As is the case here, on the Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7 motherboard. Gigabyte calls this mechanism the PCIe EZ Latch Plus.

In total, the Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7 motherboard has seven expansion slots, into which PCIe lanes are brought out. Four of these are M.2 slots for SSDs, two of which are connected to the processor. One of these M.2 slots – the first – has PCIe 5.0 support and also features a larger cooler. The latter may come in handy when using the highest performance NVMe SSDs, which at maximum sequential transfer performance may need additional cooling by such a cooler. The one from Gigabyte on the Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7 weighs 90 grams and has a profile height of approximately 17 mm.

The second and third M.2 slots are then connected to the south bridge of the Z890 chipset. This is “only” PCIe 4.0 lanes, but always four of them, i.e. the full number. The last M.2 slot also supports SATA SSDs (no longer commonplace) and both SSDs up to an above-standard length of 110 mm. These slots, along with the second slot, use a shared cooler with a large surface area. The latter (as well as the M.2 slots, naturally) is situated between the first and second PCIe ×16 slots. The advantage of such a solution is also in the 80 mm that separates the first from the second PCI Express slots. This prevents the second slot (PCIe ×16) from being blocked even when using thick graphics cards like the GeForce RTX 4090.

The first slot (PCIe ×16) connected to the CPU and supporting the exclusive modern PCIe 5.0 interface is traditionally designed for high-performance graphics cards. The remaining two PCIe slots are also physically in the “×16” format, but electrically have only four PCI Express (4.0) lanes. They are thus suitable for connecting simpler expansion cards with USB controllers, for a network or sound card. There are more options…

In the upper right corner of the motherboard, Gigabyte has grouped the control buttons, which now also includes the Q-Flash button. If you were looking for it on the back panel where it used to be, it’s now in these locations. It’s next to the start and reset buttons. These, brought out separately like this, were not common on this class of motherboards, and you wouldn’t find them on the predecessor of this motherboard either. Nor would you find a segmented POST display. The latter is also new here.

The audio is done using the Realtek ALC1220 adapter, which may be reassuring news for those who aren’t sympathetic to the ALC897. This simpler variant has also appeared on relatively more expensive Gigabyte motherboards in the past, but in this case it’s already built differently, more sensibly? We’ll leave that up to your judgement and experience. We still don’t have a test methodology ready for rigorous testing of audio adapters.

The power delivery (VRM) is 19-phase (with 16 Vcore phases), cooled by a 470-gram heatsink made up of two aluminum monoliths interwoven with heatpipes. This heatsink mainly sits on the Renesas ISL99380 integrated circuits, which require the most cooling. The maximum current carrying capacity per phase is up to 80 A. However, to achieve high power efficiency (and for the VRM to be coolable at all by the available aluminum heatsink), the load must be fractional, in the lower tens of %. But given the significant oversizing, a processor like the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K can also run smoothly without power limits.

Ethernet connectivity is provided by the Realtek RTL8125 chip with a bandwidth of 2.5 Gbps. For even faster network connectivity, there is a MediaTek MT7925 wireless module with WiFi 7. This is installed vertically, in the slot between the external connectors on the back panel of the motherboard. This placement should also significantly suppress (compared to a situation where the module would be nested deeper into the motherboard) interference to its signal.

Ten USB ports (including one 40-gigabyte Type-C port with Thunderbolt 4 support) are brought out to the rear panel, four of which are 2.0 standard. So, they’re slow, but for connecting peripherals (mouse, keyboard, headphones with microphone, …) they’re fast enough. Regarding the connectors for WiFi antennas, it is worth highlighting the push-pin system that you have encountered in the past, for example on the B650E Aorus Pro X USB4 motherboard. So installing the antennas is quick, no screwing – just snap them on.

The audio connector selection is more modest, there are only two 3.5 mm ones – line in and line out, which are complemented by an S/PDIF optical output. Although 8-channel (7.1) speaker arrays are supported, you won’t get anywhere with analogue. However, such options are not even normally required by users and that’s also why the audio connectivity is implemented as it is.

There is only ARGB lighting within the small Aorus logo on the VRM cooler cover. Gigabyte has cut back significantly in this regard and its motherboards already light up significantly less than in the past, where there were LEDs even between the DIMM slots, for example.

We also have the individual elements of the Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7 motherboard on the visual materials that we made for technical high schools for teaching purposes as part of the HWCooling Techtour conferences. You can find them in the picture below. The text on them is localized into Slovak only.

Please note: The article continues in the following chapters.

We’re kicking off a round of Z890 motherboard tests loaded with the most powerful CPU for the LGA 1851 platform – the Core Ultra 9 285K. We’re doing this with Gigabyte – the Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7 from the mid-range, or the upper mid-range, if you like… There will be competing models in a similar category later on, but now to the motherboard, which has undergone many changes from the Z790 Aorus Elite AX of the previous generation.

What it looks like in the BIOS

The splash screen, or “Easy Mode” user interface, is logically well divided into several blocks. In addition to basic CPU and RAM information, the information panel also tells you the BIOS version (in our case F10d, i.e. the latest build with microcode 0x113 at the time of testing). The diagnostics is dynamic and the monitoring also includes the current CPU or memory temperatures.

It is also possible to activate the memory profile (EXPO) from this environment and then to access BIOS update (Q-Flash button) or detailed fan management (Smart Fan 6) via quick options. The way to more advanced settings is via the F7 key.

The Tweaker tab is key in terms of setting up the processor in advanced mode. The first choice right away is Gigabyte Perfdrive with preset profiles that you can change with respect to other global settings. Only Intel Default Setting has three levels within these profiles (BaseLine, Performance, and Extreme) with different power limits.

We set the power limits manually for testing purposes. Firstly, with respect to the unlimited possibilities (with PL1 and PL2 generously to “4096 W”), where especially the temperature limits interfere with the result. Only those, according to the available cooling power, mainly shape the multi-threaded performance, because of which powerful Intel processors achieve very high power consumption. For a lower-power setup, we set PL2 to 250 W according to the specifications for the Core Ultra 9 285K processor, with which we test. The PL1 is at TDP level (125 W) with the Tau timeout also applied. Its timing out can be seen well in the bar charts with the power consumption curve in Cinebench R23.

The memory profile can also be activated in the advanced settings, where, unlike EZ Mode, more detailed options are available. One of them is memory controller bandwidth management. With relatively faster test modules, the motherboard “automatically” presets the Gear 2.

You can also change the ReSizable BAR activity in the Settings tab, where there’s the notable option of PCIe Bifurcation. These settings are useful when you need to split PCIe lanes from a PCI Express slot to support different devices. For example, when a graphics card also has an M.2 SSD slot that needs to be “decoupled”. We also addressed this in our tests of the Asus Dual RTX 4060 Ti SSD.

Smart Fan 6 is the pride of Gigabyte motherboards. The fan adjustment options are really detailed. Each of the six headers is customizable.

You can set the speed curves in different levels, where in Silent the PWM duty cycle will be the lowest and the operation the quietest, on the other hand the Full Speed mode is with 100% PWM duty cycle regardless of the temperature. In between these extremes is then Normal mode, or you can customize the curves yourself according to your own ideas of “how things should work”. You can do this by drag and drop technique using the points plotted on the 2D graph or alternatively by entering specific values (temperatures and PWM duty cycle) in the table below the graph. It’s an option that, for some users who don’t prefer a mouse (and chasing an overly sensitive cursor), may increase the comfort of the setup.

There are several temperature points in connection to the headers for the PWM duty cycle to depend on. For example, on the VRM temperature, or from the location that monitors the temperature at the PCIe ×16 slot (or is it directly in the slot?). There are a number of options to choose from… The traditional choice based on CPU temperature is only one of the options.

We’re kicking off a round of Z890 motherboard tests loaded with the most powerful CPU for the LGA 1851 platform – the Core Ultra 9 285K. We’re doing this with Gigabyte – the Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7 from the mid-range, or the upper mid-range, if you like… There will be competing models in a similar category later on, but now to the motherboard, which has undergone many changes from the Z790 Aorus Elite AX of the previous generation.

Herné testy…

The vast majority of tests is based on the methodology for processors and graphics cards. The choice of games is narrower with motherboards, but for this purpose there is no need for more of them. The processor we use is the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K or Core Ultra 7 265K (with the MSI MAG Z890 Tomahawk WiFi), then Core i9-13900K or on AMD platforms it’s the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X and then on older boards it’s the Ryzen 9 7950X. These processors highlight both the strengths and weaknesses of any motherboard well. In the past we have tested with two processors, including a cheaper, more low-power model, but we don’t do that anymore. The hypothesis that more expensive motherboards might give an “advantage” to cheaper processors in performance has not been confirmed, so it’s rather pointless.

We’ve selected five titles from games we’re testing in two resolutions. There are significantly fewer games than in the CPU or graphics card tests, but these are just enough for the motherboard tests. Few people consider performance in a particular game when choosing a motherboard. But an indicative overview of which motherboard shapes gaming performance in what way (compared to another motherboard) is necessary. To avoid significant discrepancies over time, we’ve reached for relatively older titles that no longer receive significant updates.

These are Borderlands 3, F1 2020, Metro Exodus, Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Total War Saga: Troy. With newer games, there might be some performance changes over time (updates) and especially in high resolutions with high details. This is one of the test setups (2160p and Ultra, or the highest visual detail but without ray-tracing graphics) that focuses on comparing performance, for which the bottleneck is the graphics card. In other words, it will be clear from these tests which motherboard can affect the performance of which graphics card to what extent for any reason. In contrast, a setup with Full HD resolution and with graphical details reduced to “High” will also reflect the CPU’s contribution to the final gaming performance.

We use OCAT to record fps, or the times of individual frames, which are then used to calculate fps, and FLAT to analyze the CSV. The developer and author of articles (and videos) for the GPUreport.cz website is behind both.
For the highest accuracy, all runs are repeated three times and average values of average and minimum fps are displayed in the graphs. These multiple repetitions also apply to non-game tests.

… Computing tests, SSD tests, USB ports and network tests

We test application performance in a very similar way to the processor tests. Almost all tests are included, from the easier ones (such as those in a web environment) to those that push the CPU or graphics card to the limit. These are typically tests such as 3D rendering, video encoding (x264, x265, SVT-AV1) or other performance-intensive computing tasks. As with processors or graphics cards, we have a wide range of applications – users editing video (Adobe Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve Studio), graphic effects creators (Adobe Premiere Pro), graphic designers or photographers (Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom, Affinity Photo, AI applications Topaz Labs, …) will find their own in the results, and there are also tests of (de)encryption, (de)compression, numerical calculations, simulations and, of course, tests of memory.

SSD performance tests are also important for motherboards. Therefore we test the maximum sequential read and write speeds on an empty Samsung 980 Pro SSD (1 TB) in the well distributed CrystalDiskMark, in all slots. We approach the USB port tests in the same way. We use a WD Black P50 external SSD to test them. It supports fast USB 3.2 gen. 2×2, so it won’t be a bottleneck for even the fastest USB controllers. We report only one result for each USB standard. This is calculated from the average of all available ports.

We won’t deprive you of network bandwidth tests either. We move large files in both directions within a local network between the motherboard network adapters and the Sonnet Solo10G 10-gigabit PCIe card. This from the aforementioned Samsung 980 Pro SSD to the Patriot Hellfire (480 GB), which is still fast enough to not slow down even the 10 Gb adapter.

The results of all performance tests are averaged over three repeated measurements for high accuracy.

CPU settings…

We primarily test processors without power limits, the way most motherboards have it in factory settings. For tests that have an overlap with power, temperature and CPU clock speed measurements, we also observe the behavior of boards with a power limit according to Intel’s recommendations, where we set PL1 to the TDP level (125 W) while respecting the Tau timeout (56 s). The upper limit of the power supply (PL2/PPT) is set in the BIOS according to the official values. For the Core i9-13900K it is 253 W, for the Core i9-12900K it is 241 W. Aggressive overclocking technologies such as PBO2 (AMD) or MCE (Asus) and similar are not covered in standard motherboard tests.

… and application updates

Tests should also take into account that over time, individual updates may skew performance comparisons. Some applications we use in portable versions that do not update or can be kept on a stable version, but for some this is not the case. Typically games get updated over time, which is natural, and keeping them on old versions out of reality would also be questionable.

In short, just count on the fact that the accuracy of the results you are comparing with each other decreases a bit as time goes on. To make this analysis easier, we’ve listed when each board was tested. You can find this out in the dialog box, where you can find information about the date of testing. This dialog is displayed in the interactive graphs, next to any result bar. Just hover over it.

We’re kicking off a round of Z890 motherboard tests loaded with the most powerful CPU for the LGA 1851 platform – the Core Ultra 9 285K. We’re doing this with Gigabyte – the Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7 from the mid-range, or the upper mid-range, if you like… There will be competing models in a similar category later on, but now to the motherboard, which has undergone many changes from the Z790 Aorus Elite AX of the previous generation.

Methodology: How we measure power draw

In contrast to the Z690/B660 tests, we’ll simplify it a bit and measure only the CPU power draw on the EPS cables. This means that (also for the sake of best possible clarity) we omit the 24-pin measurements. We have already analysed it thoroughly and the power draw on it doesn’t change much across boards. Of the ten boards tested with an Alder Lake processor (Core i9-12900K), the power draw at 12 volts of the 24-pin connector ranges from 37.3–40.4 W (gaming load, graphics card power supply via PCI Express ×16 slot), at 5V (memory, ARGB LEDs and some external controllers) then between 13.9–22.3 W and finally at the weakest, 3.3-volt rail, the power draw of our test setup tends to be 2.2–3.6 W.

On top of the CPU power draw, which also takes into account the efficiency of the power delivery, this adds up to some 53–66 W under gaming/graphics load and only 15–25 W outside of it, with the graphics card idle. We already know all this from older tests, and it will be no different on the new boards, and as the number of measurements increases, reducing measurements that worsen orientation is beneficial. But from the text above, you know how much to add for the total power draw of the motherboard components to the CPU’s majority power draw.

The situation will be a bit different on AMD platforms, for those we will deal with what is the power draw on which branch of the 24-pin, but already in a separate article that will better highlight this topic. In a large comprehensive motherboard test, these measurements disappear, they do not attract enough attention.

We measure the power draw of the CPU (and its VRM) on the power supply cables, with calibrated Prova 15 current clamps and a calibrated Keysight U1231A multimeter. The clamps measure the electric current, the multimeter measures the electric voltage. In the union of these two electrical quantities, we finally obtain the exact power draw. We measure this in different loads on the CPU. The maximum multithreaded load is represented by Cinebench R23.

Lighter, gaming load by Shadow of the Tomb Raider (1080p@high), single-threaded load by audio encoding (reference encoder 1.3.2, FLAC with bitrate 200 kbps) and idle power draw is measured on the Windows 10 desktop when only basic operating system processes and launchers of some test applications are running in the background.

We’re kicking off a round of Z890 motherboard tests loaded with the most powerful CPU for the LGA 1851 platform – the Core Ultra 9 285K. We’re doing this with Gigabyte – the Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7 from the mid-range, or the upper mid-range, if you like… There will be competing models in a similar category later on, but now to the motherboard, which has undergone many changes from the Z790 Aorus Elite AX of the previous generation.

Methodology: Temperature and clock speed measurements

By far the most critical part in terms of temperatures on the motherboard is the power delivery (VRM) for the CPU. This is where we return to the Fluke Ti125 thermal imager, which produces temperature maps that can be used to locate the average temperature, as well as the hottest point. We record both these values (average and maximum temperature on the Vcore) in graphs, and we will later evaluate the efficiency of the VRM heatsinks based on the maximum one. However, we lack a suitable thermometer for that yet. Of course, the thermovision is implemented without a heatsink, and a thermocouple needs to be installed on the hottest MOSFET to detect the reduction of temperature with a heatsink. This will be added soon.

Thermal imaging always relates to operating with the more powerful of the pair of test processors. With it, the differences and possible limitations or impending risks (for example, even from thermal throttling) become more apparent. In order to have a good view of the VRM, we use an Alphacool Eisbaer Aurora 360 liquid cooler with the fans fixed at full power (12 V) instead of a tower cooler (from the CPU tests). The temperature tests also include CPU temperatures for completeness, and we also test the efficiency of the supplied SSD heatsinks as part of the motherboard tests. These are already included with virtually all better motherboards, and so the question naturally arises whether to use them or replace them with other, more finned ones. We will test these heatsinks on a Samsung 980 Pro SSD during ten minutes of intense load in CrystalDiskMark. Finally, the temperature of the chipset’s southbridge and the cooling efficiency in this direction is noteworthy as well.

All tests are conducted in a wind tunnel, so full system cooling is provided. This consists of three Noctua NF-S12A PWMs@5V (~550 rpm) . Two of which are intake, one is exhaust. But the three fast AIO fans also function as exhaust fans, so there is negative pressure in the case.

The temperature at the entrance to the tunnel is properly controlled and ranges between 21-21.3 °C. Maintaining a constant temperature at all times during testing is important not only for the accuracy of the temperature measurements, but also because a higher or lower ambient temperature also affects the eventual behavior of the processors’ boost. And we also properly monitor and compare the clock speeds, whether under all-core load or even single-threaded tasks. We use the HWiNFO application to record the clock speeds and temperatures of the cores (sampling is set to two seconds).

Maintaining a constant temperature at the intake is necessary not only for a proper comparison of processor temperatures, but especially for objective performance comparisons. The clock speed development, and specially the single core boost, is precisely based on the temperature. Typically in summer, at higher temperatures than is normal in living quarters in winter, processors can be slower.

Temperatures are always read as maximum (both from the VRM thermovision and average, but still from the local maximum values at the end of Cinebench R23). For Intel processors, for each test we read the maximum temperature of the cores, usually all of them. These maxima are then averaged and the result represents the final value in the graph. From the single-threaded workload outputs, we extract only the recorded values from the active cores (there are usually two of these, and they alternate between each other during the test). For AMD processors it is a bit different. They don’t have temperature sensors for each core. In order to make the procedure methodically as similar as possible to the one we apply on Intel processors, we define the average temperature of all cores by the highest value reported by the CPU Tdie (average) sensor. However, for single-core workloads we already use the CPU sensor (Tctl/Tdie), which usually reports a slightly higher value that better corresponds to hotspots of one or two cores. However, these values as well as the values from all internal sensors should be taken with a grain of salt, the accuracy of sensors across CPUs varies.

Clock speed evaluation is more accurate, each core has its own sensor even on AMD processors. However, unlike the temperatures, we write the average values of the clock speeds during the tests in the graphs. We monitor the temperatures and clock speed of the CPU cores in the same tests in which we also measure power draw. Thus, sequentially from the lowest desktop idle load in Windows 10, through audio encoding (single-threaded load), gaming load in Shadow of the Tomb Raider to Cinebench R23.

We’re kicking off a round of Z890 motherboard tests loaded with the most powerful CPU for the LGA 1851 platform – the Core Ultra 9 285K. We’re doing this with Gigabyte – the Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7 from the mid-range, or the upper mid-range, if you like… There will be competing models in a similar category later on, but now to the motherboard, which has undergone many changes from the Z790 Aorus Elite AX of the previous generation.

Test setup

Note: Graphics drivers used at the time of testing: Nvidia GeForce 466.77 and OS Windows 10 build 19045.

We’re kicking off a round of Z890 motherboard tests loaded with the most powerful CPU for the LGA 1851 platform – the Core Ultra 9 285K. We’re doing this with Gigabyte – the Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7 from the mid-range, or the upper mid-range, if you like… There will be competing models in a similar category later on, but now to the motherboard, which has undergone many changes from the Z790 Aorus Elite AX of the previous generation.

3DMark

We use 3DMark Professional for our tests and from the tests, Night Raid (DirectX 12), Fire Strike (DirectX 11) and Time Spy (DirectX 12). In the graphs you will find the CPU sub-scores, the combined scores, as well as the graphics scores. From this you can see to what extent a given CPU is limiting the graphics card.

We’re kicking off a round of Z890 motherboard tests loaded with the most powerful CPU for the LGA 1851 platform – the Core Ultra 9 285K. We’re doing this with Gigabyte – the Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7 from the mid-range, or the upper mid-range, if you like… There will be competing models in a similar category later on, but now to the motherboard, which has undergone many changes from the Z790 Aorus Elite AX of the previous generation.

Borderlands 3

Test environment: resolution 1920 × 1080 px; graphics settings preset High; API DirectX 12; extra settings Anti-Aliasing: None; test scene: built-in benchmark.

Test environment: resolution 3840 × 2160 px; graphics settings preset Ultra; API DirectX 12; no extra settings; test scene: built-in benchmark.

We’re kicking off a round of Z890 motherboard tests loaded with the most powerful CPU for the LGA 1851 platform – the Core Ultra 9 285K. We’re doing this with Gigabyte – the Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7 from the mid-range, or the upper mid-range, if you like… There will be competing models in a similar category later on, but now to the motherboard, which has undergone many changes from the Z790 Aorus Elite AX of the previous generation.

F1 2020

Test environment: resolution 1920 × 1080 px; graphics settings preset High; API DirectX 12; extra settings Anti-Aliasing: off, Skidmarks Blending: off; test scene: built-in benchmark (Australia, Clear/Dry, Cycle).

Test environment: resolution 3840 × 2160 px; graphics settings preset Ultra High; API DirectX 12; extra settings Anti-Aliasing: TAA, Skidmarks Blending: off; test scene: built-in benchmark (Australia, Clear/Dry, Cycle).

We’re kicking off a round of Z890 motherboard tests loaded with the most powerful CPU for the LGA 1851 platform – the Core Ultra 9 285K. We’re doing this with Gigabyte – the Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7 from the mid-range, or the upper mid-range, if you like… There will be competing models in a similar category later on, but now to the motherboard, which has undergone many changes from the Z790 Aorus Elite AX of the previous generation.

Metro Exodus

Test environment: resolution 1920 × 1080 px; graphics settings preset High; API DirectX 12; no extra settings; test scene: built-in benchmark.

Test environment: resolution 3840 × 2160 px; graphics settings preset Extreme; API DirectX 12; no extra settings; test scene: built-in benchmark.

We’re kicking off a round of Z890 motherboard tests loaded with the most powerful CPU for the LGA 1851 platform – the Core Ultra 9 285K. We’re doing this with Gigabyte – the Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7 from the mid-range, or the upper mid-range, if you like… There will be competing models in a similar category later on, but now to the motherboard, which has undergone many changes from the Z790 Aorus Elite AX of the previous generation.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

Test environment: resolution 1920 × 1080 px; graphics settings preset High; API DirectX 12; extra settings Anti-Aliasing: off; test scene: built-in benchmark.

Test environment: resolution 3840 × 2160 px; graphics settings preset Highest; API DirectX 12; extra settings Anti-Aliasing: TAA; test scene: built-in benchmark.

We’re kicking off a round of Z890 motherboard tests loaded with the most powerful CPU for the LGA 1851 platform – the Core Ultra 9 285K. We’re doing this with Gigabyte – the Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7 from the mid-range, or the upper mid-range, if you like… There will be competing models in a similar category later on, but now to the motherboard, which has undergone many changes from the Z790 Aorus Elite AX of the previous generation.
We’re kicking off a round of Z890 motherboard tests loaded with the most powerful CPU for the LGA 1851 platform – the Core Ultra 9 285K. We’re doing this with Gigabyte – the Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7 from the mid-range, or the upper mid-range, if you like… There will be competing models in a similar category later on, but now to the motherboard, which has undergone many changes from the Z790 Aorus Elite AX of the previous generation.

Total War Saga: Troy

Test environment: resolution 1920 × 1080 px; graphics settings preset High; API DirectX 11; no extra settings; test scene: built-in benchmark.

Test environment: resolution 3840 × 2160 px; graphics settings preset Ultra; API DirectX 11; no extra settings; test scene: built-in benchmark.

We’re kicking off a round of Z890 motherboard tests loaded with the most powerful CPU for the LGA 1851 platform – the Core Ultra 9 285K. We’re doing this with Gigabyte – the Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7 from the mid-range, or the upper mid-range, if you like… There will be competing models in a similar category later on, but now to the motherboard, which has undergone many changes from the Z790 Aorus Elite AX of the previous generation.

Geekbench

We’re kicking off a round of Z890 motherboard tests loaded with the most powerful CPU for the LGA 1851 platform – the Core Ultra 9 285K. We’re doing this with Gigabyte – the Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7 from the mid-range, or the upper mid-range, if you like… There will be competing models in a similar category later on, but now to the motherboard, which has undergone many changes from the Z790 Aorus Elite AX of the previous generation.

Speedometer (2.0) and Octane (2.0)

Test environment: To ensure that results are not affected by web browser updates over time, we use a portable version of Google Chrome (91.0.472.101), a 64-bit build. Hardware GPU acceleration is enabled as well, as it is by default for every user.

Note: The values in the graphs represent the average of the scores obtained in the subtasks, which are grouped according to their nature into seven categories (Core language features, Memory and GC, Strings and arrays, Virtual machine and GC, Loading and Parsing, Bit and Math operations, and Compiler and GC latency).

We’re kicking off a round of Z890 motherboard tests loaded with the most powerful CPU for the LGA 1851 platform – the Core Ultra 9 285K. We’re doing this with Gigabyte – the Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7 from the mid-range, or the upper mid-range, if you like… There will be competing models in a similar category later on, but now to the motherboard, which has undergone many changes from the Z790 Aorus Elite AX of the previous generation.

Cinebench R20

Cinebench R23

Blender@Cycles

Test environment: We use well distributed projects BMW (510 tiles) and Classroom (2040 tiles) and the renderer Cycles. Render settings are set to None, with which all the work falls on the CPU.

LuxRender (SPECworkstation 3.1)

We’re kicking off a round of Z890 motherboard tests loaded with the most powerful CPU for the LGA 1851 platform – the Core Ultra 9 285K. We’re doing this with Gigabyte – the Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7 from the mid-range, or the upper mid-range, if you like… There will be competing models in a similar category later on, but now to the motherboard, which has undergone many changes from the Z790 Aorus Elite AX of the previous generation.

Adobe Premiere Pro (PugetBench)

Test environment: PugetBench tests set. We keep the version of the application (Adobe Premiere Pro) at 15.2.

We’re kicking off a round of Z890 motherboard tests loaded with the most powerful CPU for the LGA 1851 platform – the Core Ultra 9 285K. We’re doing this with Gigabyte – the Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7 from the mid-range, or the upper mid-range, if you like… There will be competing models in a similar category later on, but now to the motherboard, which has undergone many changes from the Z790 Aorus Elite AX of the previous generation.

DaVinci Resolve Studio (PugetBench)

Test environment: set of PugetBench tests, test type: standard. App version of DaVinci Resolve Studio is 17.2.1 (build 12).

We’re kicking off a round of Z890 motherboard tests loaded with the most powerful CPU for the LGA 1851 platform – the Core Ultra 9 285K. We’re doing this with Gigabyte – the Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7 from the mid-range, or the upper mid-range, if you like… There will be competing models in a similar category later on, but now to the motherboard, which has undergone many changes from the Z790 Aorus Elite AX of the previous generation.

Visual effects: Adobe After Effects

Test environment: set of PugetBench tests. App version of Adobe After Effects is 18.2.1.

We’re kicking off a round of Z890 motherboard tests loaded with the most powerful CPU for the LGA 1851 platform – the Core Ultra 9 285K. We’re doing this with Gigabyte – the Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7 from the mid-range, or the upper mid-range, if you like… There will be competing models in a similar category later on, but now to the motherboard, which has undergone many changes from the Z790 Aorus Elite AX of the previous generation.

HandBrake

Test environment: For video conversion we’re using a 4K video LG Demo Snowboard with a 43,9 Mb/s bitrate. AVC (x264) and HEVC (x265) profiles are set for high quality and encoder profiles are “slow”. HandBrake version is 1.3.3 (2020061300).

Benchmarky x264 a x265

We’re kicking off a round of Z890 motherboard tests loaded with the most powerful processor for the LGA 1851 platform – the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K. We’re doing this with Gigabyte – the Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7 from the mid-range, or the upper mid-range, if you like… There will be competing models in a similar category later on, but now to the motherboard, which has undergone many changes from the Z790 Aorus Elite AX of the previous generation.

Audio encoding

Test environment: Audio encoding is done using command line encoders, we measure the time it takes for the conversion to finish. The same 42-minute long 16-bit WAV file (stereo) with 44.1 kHz is always used (Love Over Gold by Dire Straits album rip in a single audio file).

Encoder settings are selected to achieve maximum or near maximum compression. The bitrate is relatively high, with the exception of lossless FLAC of about 200 kb/s.

Note: These tests measure single-thread performance.

FLAC: reference encoder 1.3.2, 64-bit build. Launch options: flac.exe -s -8 -m -e -p -f

MP3: encoder lame3.100.1, 64-bit build (Intel 19 Compiler) from RareWares. Launch options: lame.exe -S -V 0 -q 0

AAC: uses Apple QuickTime libraries, invoked through the application from the command line, QAAC 2.72, 64-bit build, Intel 19 Compiler (does not require installation of the whole Apple package). Launch options: qaac64.exe -V 100 -s -q 2

Opus: reference encoder 1.3.1, Launch options: opusenc.exe –comp 10 –quiet –vbr –bitrate 192

We’re kicking off a round of Z890 motherboard tests loaded with the most powerful CPU for the LGA 1851 platform – the Core Ultra 9 285K. We’re doing this with Gigabyte – the Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7 from the mid-range, or the upper mid-range, if you like… There will be competing models in a similar category later on, but now to the motherboard, which has undergone many changes from the Z790 Aorus Elite AX of the previous generation.

Adobe Photoshop (PugetBench)

Test environment: set of PugetBench tests. App version of Adobe Photoshop is 22.4.2.

Affinity Photo (benchmark)

Testing environment: built-in benchmark.

Topaz Labs AI apps

Topaz DeNoise AI, Gigapixel AI and Sharpen AI. These single-purpose applications are used for restoration of low-quality photos. Whether it is high noise (caused by higher ISO), raster level (typically after cropping) or when something needs extra focus. The AI performance is always used.

Test environment: As part of batch editing, 42 photos with a lower resolution of 1920 × 1280 px are processed, with the settings from the images above. DeNoise AI is in version 3.1.2, Gigapixel in 5.5.2 and Sharpen AI in 3.1.2.

We’re kicking off a round of Z890 motherboard tests loaded with the most powerful CPU for the LGA 1851 platform – the Core Ultra 9 285K. We’re doing this with Gigabyte – the Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7 from the mid-range, or the upper mid-range, if you like… There will be competing models in a similar category later on, but now to the motherboard, which has undergone many changes from the Z790 Aorus Elite AX of the previous generation.

WinRAR 6.01

7-Zip 19.00

We’re kicking off a round of Z890 motherboard tests loaded with the most powerful CPU for the LGA 1851 platform – the Core Ultra 9 285K. We’re doing this with Gigabyte – the Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7 from the mid-range, or the upper mid-range, if you like… There will be competing models in a similar category later on, but now to the motherboard, which has undergone many changes from the Z790 Aorus Elite AX of the previous generation.

TrueCrypt 7.1a

Aida64 (AES, SHA3)

We’re kicking off a round of Z890 motherboard tests loaded with the most powerful CPU for the LGA 1851 platform – the Core Ultra 9 285K. We’re doing this with Gigabyte – the Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7 from the mid-range, or the upper mid-range, if you like… There will be competing models in a similar category later on, but now to the motherboard, which has undergone many changes from the Z790 Aorus Elite AX of the previous generation.

Aida64, FPU tests

FSI (SPECworkstation 3.1)

Kirchhoff migration (SPECworkstation 3.1)

Python36 (SPECworkstation 3.1)

SRMP (SPECworkstation 3.1)

Octave (SPECworkstation 3.1)

FFTW (SPECworkstation 3.1)

Convolution (SPECworkstation 3.1)

CalculiX (SPECworkstation 3.1)

We’re kicking off a round of Z890 motherboard tests loaded with the most powerful CPU for the LGA 1851 platform – the Core Ultra 9 285K. We’re doing this with Gigabyte – the Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7 from the mid-range, or the upper mid-range, if you like… There will be competing models in a similar category later on, but now to the motherboard, which has undergone many changes from the Z790 Aorus Elite AX of the previous generation.

RodiniaLifeSci (SPECworkstation 3.1)

WPCcfd (SPECworkstation 3.1)

Poisson (SPECworkstation 3.1)

LAMMPS (SPECworkstation 3.1)

NAMD (SPECworkstation 3.1)

We’re kicking off a round of Z890 motherboard tests loaded with the most powerful CPU for the LGA 1851 platform – the Core Ultra 9 285K. We’re doing this with Gigabyte – the Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7 from the mid-range, or the upper mid-range, if you like… There will be competing models in a similar category later on, but now to the motherboard, which has undergone many changes from the Z790 Aorus Elite AX of the previous generation.

Memory tests…

… and cache tests (L1, L2, L3)

We’re kicking off a round of Z890 motherboard tests loaded with the most powerful CPU for the LGA 1851 platform – the Core Ultra 9 285K. We’re doing this with Gigabyte – the Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7 from the mid-range, or the upper mid-range, if you like… There will be competing models in a similar category later on, but now to the motherboard, which has undergone many changes from the Z790 Aorus Elite AX of the previous generation.

M.2 (SSD) slots speed

We’re kicking off a round of Z890 motherboard tests loaded with the most powerful CPU for the LGA 1851 platform – the Core Ultra 9 285K. We’re doing this with Gigabyte – the Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7 from the mid-range, or the upper mid-range, if you like… There will be competing models in a similar category later on, but now to the motherboard, which has undergone many changes from the Z790 Aorus Elite AX of the previous generation.

USB ports speed

We’re kicking off a round of Z890 motherboard tests loaded with the most powerful CPU for the LGA 1851 platform – the Core Ultra 9 285K. We’re doing this with Gigabyte – the Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7 from the mid-range, or the upper mid-range, if you like… There will be competing models in a similar category later on, but now to the motherboard, which has undergone many changes from the Z790 Aorus Elite AX of the previous generation.

Ethernet speed

We’re kicking off a round of Z890 motherboard tests loaded with the most powerful CPU for the LGA 1851 platform – the Core Ultra 9 285K. We’re doing this with Gigabyte – the Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7 from the mid-range, or the upper mid-range, if you like… There will be competing models in a similar category later on, but now to the motherboard, which has undergone many changes from the Z790 Aorus Elite AX of the previous generation.

Analysis of power draw without power limits

We’re kicking off a round of Z890 motherboard tests loaded with the most powerful CPU for the LGA 1851 platform – the Core Ultra 9 285K. We’re doing this with Gigabyte – the Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7 from the mid-range, or the upper mid-range, if you like… There will be competing models in a similar category later on, but now to the motherboard, which has undergone many changes from the Z790 Aorus Elite AX of the previous generation.

Analysis of power draw with power limits

We’re kicking off a round of Z890 motherboard tests loaded with the most powerful CPU for the LGA 1851 platform – the Core Ultra 9 285K. We’re doing this with Gigabyte – the Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7 from the mid-range, or the upper mid-range, if you like… There will be competing models in a similar category later on, but now to the motherboard, which has undergone many changes from the Z790 Aorus Elite AX of the previous generation.

Achieved CPU clock speed w/o power limits…

… and with power limits

We’re kicking off a round of Z890 motherboard tests loaded with the most powerful CPU for the LGA 1851 platform – the Core Ultra 9 285K. We’re doing this with Gigabyte – the Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7 from the mid-range, or the upper mid-range, if you like… There will be competing models in a similar category later on, but now to the motherboard, which has undergone many changes from the Z790 Aorus Elite AX of the previous generation.

CPU temperature w/o power limits

…and with power limits

We’re kicking off a round of Z890 motherboard tests loaded with the most powerful CPU for the LGA 1851 platform – the Core Ultra 9 285K. We’re doing this with Gigabyte – the Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7 from the mid-range, or the upper mid-range, if you like… There will be competing models in a similar category later on, but now to the motherboard, which has undergone many changes from the Z790 Aorus Elite AX of the previous generation.

VRM temperature w/o power limits…

… and with power limits

We’re kicking off a round of Z890 motherboard tests loaded with the most powerful CPU for the LGA 1851 platform – the Core Ultra 9 285K. We’re doing this with Gigabyte – the Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7 from the mid-range, or the upper mid-range, if you like… There will be competing models in a similar category later on, but now to the motherboard, which has undergone many changes from the Z790 Aorus Elite AX of the previous generation.

SSD temperature

We’re kicking off a round of Z890 motherboard tests loaded with the most powerful CPU for the LGA 1851 platform – the Core Ultra 9 285K. We’re doing this with Gigabyte – the Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7 from the mid-range, or the upper mid-range, if you like… There will be competing models in a similar category later on, but now to the motherboard, which has undergone many changes from the Z790 Aorus Elite AX of the previous generation.

Chipset temperature (south bridge)

We’re kicking off a round of Z890 motherboard tests loaded with the most powerful CPU for the LGA 1851 platform – the Core Ultra 9 285K. We’re doing this with Gigabyte – the Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7 from the mid-range, or the upper mid-range, if you like… There will be competing models in a similar category later on, but now to the motherboard, which has undergone many changes from the Z790 Aorus Elite AX of the previous generation.

Conclusion

With the Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7 motherboard, Gigabyte is looking to strike the right balance between price and what owners of the more powerful Core Ultra 7 and Core Ultra 9 processor classes might expect. The Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7 easily handles even the most powerful processor of the LGA 1851 platform – the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K. At what relative power efficiency remains to be seen when we add competing models for comparison, but based on the VRM temperature we can approve of using it with a processor this powerful already.

The highest VRM surface temperatures did not exceed 72 °C even in conditions without power supply limits. And you still have to keep in mind that we do the VRM temperature tests without heatsinks. With (VRM) heatsinks the temperature will be even lower and the potential for some further overclocking or operating in adverse conditions with higher ambient air temperatures is definitely there. In other words, the Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7 has headroom even for the Core Ultra 9 285K.

The performance tests did not reveal any anomalies or deficiencies worthy of note. Sure, we don’t have too much to compare it to yet (this is the first motherboard tested with the CU9 285K processor), but there’s no indication that the results aren’t performing as expected in any area. Whether in terms of CPU performance or graphics card performance. All is, it seems, within the norm.

Specifications are also confirmed by speed tests of Ethernet or USB ports. Also, these tests show that there are no obvious shortcomings with the Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7. Certainly, we often observe a similar scenario in motherboard tests and we will continue to observe it often. But this is also important – to verify the proper functionality of the basic things that should be fine. And in the case of the Gigabyte board, they certainly are.

Then, of course, we can evaluate the equipment. The latter should be average, which is fitting when reflecting on the price class. So the VRM is robust enough for even the most powerful processors that can be fitted to this motherboard, and then there’s some connectivity. Four M.2 ports, WiFi7, 2.5-gigabit Ethernet, a Realtek ALC1220 audio chip, ten USB ports, and eight internal USB ports (unfortunately without a second 19-pin for USB 3.2 gen. 1, for a full front-panel setup of better-equipped PC cases) somehow matches what can be expected in this price range. It also comes with a relatively poorer SATA port selection. There are only four of them, the same number as the M.2 ports.

Overall, the Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7 motherboard can be mostly praised. The tool-less mechanisms for (de)mounting SSDs and SSD coolers are also handy. And also the remote button to release the latch of the first PCIe ×16 slot. The detailed fan management is also very nice. Whether everything we’ve listed is enough for the editorial award “Smart buy!” remains to be seen (after testing competing motherboards), for now we’ll stick with the provisional “Approved” sticker. Update from December 25, 2025: For the achieved performance and features in ratio to the price, we give the Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7 motherboard the editorial award “Smart buy!“.

English translation and edit by Jozef Dudáš

Some of the tested boards are also available in the Datacomp e-store

Special thanks also to Blackmagic Design (for the license to DaVinci Resolve Studio) and Topaz Labs (for the licenses to DeNoise AI, Gigapixel AI and Sharpen AI)

• Contents
• Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7 in detail
• What it looks like in the BIOS
• Methodology: Performance tests
• Methodology: How we measure power draw
• Methodology: Temperature and clock speed measurements
• Test setup
• 3DMark
• Borderlands 3
• F1 2020
• Metro Exodus
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider
• PCMark and Geekbench
• Web performance
• 3D rendering: Cinebench, Blender, ...
• Video 1/2: Adobe Premiere Pro
• Video 2/2: DaVinci Resolve Studio
• Visual effects: Adobe After Effects
• Video encoding
• Audio encoding
• Photos: Adobe Photoshop, Affinity Photo, ...
• (De)compression
• (De)encryption
• Numerical computing
• Simulations
• Memory and cache tests
• M.2 (SSD) slots speed
• USB ports speed
• Ethernet speed
• Power draw without power limits
• Power draw with power limits
• Achieved CPU clock speed
• CPU temperature
• VRM temperature – thermal imaging of Vcore and SOC
• SSD temperature
• Chipset temperature (south bridge)
• Conclusion