What we have here today are two motherboards from GIGABYTE, the B460 AORUS PRO AC and the Z490 AORUS ELITE AC, and we’re here to take a look at them.
This one’s quite an enriching experience. A little backstory here - we kinda have been skipping on Intel CPUs lately since we’ve revolved our test bench around AMD’s Ryzen CPUs. After all, whole different platform, whole new setup to build. And that could get expensive in the long run. So then, what we have here today are two motherboards from GIGABYTE, the B460 AORUS PRO AC and the Z490 AORUS ELITE AC, and we’re here to take a look at the former first.
GIGABYTE B460 AORUS PRO AC TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
CPU Support | Support for 10th Generation Intel® Core™ i9 processors/Intel® Core™ i7 processors/Intel® Core™ i5 processors/Intel® Core™ i3 processors/Intel® Pentium® processors/Intel® Celeron® processors in the LGA1200 package |
Memory | 4 x DDR4 DIMM Memory Slot Intel® Core™ i9/i7 processors: Support for DDR4 2933/2666/2400/2133 MHz Intel® Core™ i5/i3/Pentium®/Celeron® processors: Support for DDR4 2666/2400/2133 MHz 4 x DDR4 DIMM sockets supporting up to 128 GB (32 GB single DIMM capacity) of system memory Dual channel memory architecture Support for ECC Un-buffered DIMM 1Rx8/2Rx8 memory modules (operate in non-ECC mode) Support for non-ECC Un-buffered DIMM 1Rx8/2Rx8/1Rx16 memory modules Support for Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) memory modules |
Storage | 1 x M.2 connector (Socket 3, M key, type 2242/2260/2280/22110 SATA and PCIe x4/x2 SSD support) (M2P_SB) 1 x M.2 connector (Socket 3, M key, type 2242/2260/2280/22110 PCIe x4/x2 SSD support) (M2Q_SB) 6 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors Support for SATA RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10 |
Audio Codec | Realtek® ALC1220-VB codec * The back panel line out jack supports DSD audio. |
USB | Chipset+ASMedia® USB 3.2 Gen 2 Controller: 1 x USB Type-C™ port on the back panel, with USB 3.2 Gen 2 support 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port (red) on the back panel Chipset: 6 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports (4 ports on the back panel, 2 ports available through the internal USB header) 4 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports available through the internal USB headers Chipset+USB 2.0 Hub: 2 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports on the back panel |
| Expansion Slots | 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16) 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x4 (PCIEX4) 3 x PCI Express x1 slots |
| Unique Features | Support for APP Center * Available applications in APP Center may vary by motherboard model. Supported functions of each application may also vary depending on motherboard specifications. @BIOS EasyTune Fast Boot Game Boost ON/OFF Charge RGB Fusion Smart Backup System Information Viewer Support for Q-Flash Plus Support for Q-Flash Support for Xpress Install |
Bundled Software | Norton® Internet Security (OEM version) cFosSpeed |
Price | Php8,450 Php15,999 (Intel Core i5 10400F bundle) |
DESIGN
GIGABYTE has really been stepping up its game when it comes to aesthetics. The B460 AORUS PRO AC looks quite dashing in black, and a large heatsink even steps it up a notch. The preinstalled IO panel even adds up to its design, not to mention how much it makes it cleaner.
It's nice to that the rear IO looks great with the preinstalled shield. Anyway, for the B460 AORUS PRO AC you'll be getting four USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports, one USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type A port, one PS/2 port, one USB 3.2 Type-C port, two slots for the antenna, one port each for HDMI and DisplayPort, a 2.5G Ethernet port, and the usual audio ports.
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| Sideways facing SATA ports here |
PERFORMANCE
TEST SYSTEM SETUP
Motherboard | GIGABYTE B460 AORUS PRO AC |
CPU | Intel Core i5 10400 |
GPU | AMD Radeon 5700 XT |
RAM | ZADAK 16GB 26666MHz |
Cooler | Noctua NH-D15 chromax.black |
| Storage | Plextor M9Pe(G) 512GB + WD Green HDD 2TB |
PSU | CORSAIR RM750 |
OS | Windows 10 |
Display | ViewSonic VX2758 1080p 144Hz Monitor |
Cinebench R20 and Cinebech R15
Cinebench is a real-world cross-platform test suite that evaluates your computer's hardware capabilities. Improvements to Cinebench Release 20 reflect the overall advancements to CPU and rendering technology in recent years, providing a more accurate measurement of Cinema 4D's ability to take advantage of multiple CPU cores and modern processor features available to the average user. Best of all: It's free.
3DMark Time Spy
3DMark Time Spy is a DirectX 12 benchmark test for Windows 10 gaming PCs. Time Spy is one of the first DirectX 12 apps to be built the right way from the ground up to fully realize the performance gains that the new API offers. With its Extreme counterpart rendering visuals in 4K. CPU Score and GPU Score are logged separately for more information.
3DMark Firestrike
Fire Strike is a showcase DirectX 11 benchmark for modern gaming PCs. Its ambitious real-time graphics are rendered with detail and complexity far beyond other DirectX 11 benchmarks and games. With Extreme and Ultra versions raising resolution in 25650 x 1440 and 4K.
CPU-Z
CPU-Z is a handy tool that lets users view information regarding their systems from CPU, Cache, Mainboard, Memory, SPD and Graphics. It also features a benchmark tool that tests Single Thread and Multi Thread performance.
Blender Benchmark
The Blender Benchmark Tool runs blender and renders on several production files, and the Open Data portal on blender.org, where the results will be (optionally) uploaded. Our tests will include bmw27, classroom, and fish_cat.
7-Zip
7-Zip is an archiving tool that also comes with a benchmark feature that tests compression and decompression.
Death Stranding
Death Stranding by Kojima Productions is just a marvelous game graphically and narratively. Beautiful stuff, Kojima.
Settings:
Graphics Quality: Very High
Model Detail: Very High
Memory for Streaming: High
Shadow Resolution: High
Ambient Occlusion: On
Screen Space Reflections: On
FidelityFX CAS: On
Anti-Aliasing: TAA
Depth of Field: Off
Motion Blur: Off
The Witcher 3
The Witcher 3 despite its age is
still one of the most demanding titles as it holds up graphically. Our test is
done on Mulbrydale.
Settings:
VSync: Off
FPS: Unlimited
NVIDIA Hairworks: Off
Number of Background Characters:
Ultra
Shadow Quality: Ultra
Terrain Quality: Ultra
Water Quality: Ultra
Grass Density: Ultra
Texture Quality: Ultra
Foliage Visibility Range: Ultra
Detail Level: Ultra
Ambient Occlusion: SSAO
Depth of Field: On
Chromatic Abberation: On
Vignetting: On
Light Shafts: On
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
Shadow of the Tomb Raider is the latest Tomb Raider title from Crystal Dynamics. It features a built-in benchmark tool, which is also available in the demo version so you can try it out for yourself, too. It also features Ray Tracing and DLSS, both of which we're not going to use for parity across the board.
Settings:
API: DirectX 12
Ultra Settings Preset
Min/Max Frame Rate: None/Unlimited
Character Texture Detail: Ultra
Effects Texture Detail: Ultra
Dynamic Shadow Quality: Ultra
World Texture Detail: Ultra
Texture Streaming: Ultra
Capsule Shadow Quality: Ultra
Screen Space Reflections: Ultra
Ambient Occlusion Quality: Ultra
World Level of Detail: Ultra
Tesselation Quality: Ultra
Animation Quality: Best
wPrime
wPrime tests your processor performance by calculating square roots with a recursive call of Newton's method for estimating functions. 1024M and 32M scores are recorded.
Temperature
With our Noctua NH-D15 chromax.black, our temperature tests are done with the system idle in the first 30 minutes after boot up, and afterwards a load test of Prime95 on loop for another 30 minutes.
CONCLUSION
I started out this review trying to think if I can be impartial on the hot AMD vs Intel debate. Going in, it was a tad difficult due to Intel ever so changing with a new socket with every new generation of CPUs that it would make one look elsewhere if you’re shooting for a platform that spells longevity. It’s just hard to settle if you’re planning to upgrade the year after or so and be met with a different socket once again. Totally a bummer. However, there are also those who build a gaming rig and see how long it would take them before a roadblock hits hard, and that doesn’t really come that quick.
To drive the point of value further, B460 PRO AC is much more affordable than its AMD counterpart by a lot. Sure, you’d be missing out on PCIe 4.0, but then again, there’s not much difference in real world GPU usage save for blistering fast storage at this time.
So, where do we go from here? In all honesty, the GIGABYTE AORUS B460 PRO AC Motherboard piques my interest once again in making an Intel build so we can have more things to test on. We also have the AORUS Z490 Elite AC but this one just drives so much value for money compared to that for way less. As I check here there are some listings that bundle it with the Intel Core i5 10400, which makes so much sense for the B460 PRO AC compared to the same CPU on the Z490 Elite that’s a far better solution if you’re looking to just build one for gaming. We go with value as often that it’s hard not to recommend this motherboard, especially if you can drive it further with a sale going on.
COMMENTS