Original Link: https://www.anandtech.com/show/12647/the-gigabyte-x470-gaming-7-wifi-motherboard-review



The GIGABYTE X470 Aorus Gaming 7 Wi-Fi is specifically aimed at gamers looking to make the most of the benefits of AMD’s newest AM4 based chipset, X470. Like most major vendors, GIGABYTE has partitioned its gaming range under the Aorus brand, including waves of RGB enabled components and a more aggressive style than the regular line of products. The Gaming 7 hopes to push Aorus as a brand, retaining the everlasting aesthetics and stylings GIGABYTE offerings have been notable for.

Other AnandTech Ryzen Coverage

The GIGABYTE X470 Aorus Gaming 7 Wi-Fi Overview

The GIGABYTE X470 Aorus Gaming 7 Wi-Fi is a premium offering aimed primarily for gamers with a wide variety of popular features such as RGB backlighting, a large power delivery heatsink, and support for DDR4-3600 right out of the box. The biggest refinement from GIGABYTE from the X370 line-up is a souped-up power delivery heatsink which one would expect from an older generation X38 motherboard such as the ASUS Maximus Formula SE with its large copper direct heat pipe and large stack aluminum fin array. The new heatsink garnered praise during its unveiling at the GIGABYTE booth at CES 2018 the day before AMD's Tech Day where AMD unveiled their 2018 roadmap.

The X470 Gaming 7 currently sits as GIGABYTE's flagship AM4 motherboard and for the price, aims to offer users a premium motherboard, at a reduced cost in comparison to companies such as what ASUS and ASRock charge for their bellwether boards. 

While not a budget board in any sense of the phrase ($240), the selection of controllers highly the potential upturn in cost for the X470 Gaming 7. The single RJ45 LAN port is powered by a standard Intel I211-AT GbE LAN chip, while the onboard audio features the more up-to-date Realtek ALC1220-VB audio codec; in addition to the codec is a single ESS SABRE 9018 DAC for a more defined range of audio and steps up the game on boards just featuring a single codec. While this latest AM4 variant is dolled up with Bluetooth 5 support, the X470 Gaming 7 sports a built-in 2T2R Wi-Fi due to the integration of Intel's new 9260NGW 802.11ac Wi-Fi module with Wave 2 compatibility for the 11ac and 160 MHz wireless signals; Wave 2 compatible devices offer MU-MIMO capability and offers up to 3x the throughput over 802.11ac Wave 1.

One of the main improvements and refinements from X370 to the new X470 chipset is memory compatibility, and the ability to run faster DDR4. This is apparent as the X470 Gaming 7 has support for DDR4 memory up to speeds of DDR4-3600, with a maximum capacity supported over the four DRAM slots of 64 GB; the X470 Gaming 7 Wi-Fi does have support for ECC memory, although only for un-buffered modules.

In regards to storage, the GIGABYTE X470 Gaming 7 Wi-Fi features a total of six SATA 6 GB/s ports which allows users to run RAID 0, 1 and 10 arrays. While the X370 predecessor to this board (GIGABYTE AX370 Gaming K7) did feature a single U.2 port, GIGABYTE has omitted to implement one onto the X470 Gaming 7. Instead, two M.2 slots are present with both offering support for NVMe PCIe x4 and SATA SSDs with both slots featuring their own individual stylish and functional M.2 heat sinks.

 

The biggest win from the performance of the X470 Gaming 7 Wi-Fi came in Handbrake video conversion test where it consistently performed well and even managed to output the best result in the H.264 HQ test out of all the previous AM4 boards on test. Another positive result came in the POST time where cold booting times of under 16 seconds were attainable. On the other hand, the Gaming 7 Wi-Fi didn't deliver the kind of performance that a premium offering should with the result in Total War: WARHAMMER coming in at over 3 frames on average lower than other products we have tested. 

The GIGABYTE X470 Gaming 7 Wi-Fi does stamp its authority on the AM4 market with its old-school styled monolithic power delivery heatsink, uprated (on paper) onboard audio component selection and the inclusion of Intel's newer 9260NGW 802.11ac Wi-Fi Wave 2 capable module. It has everything you would expect from an RGB clad premium offering, perhaps the only neglected area being 10G Ethernet which would of most certainly topped the price up even further than the $240 asking price GIGABYTE has set. The $240 launch pricing also seems rather reasonable all things considered considering the previous flagship AM4 model from GIGABYTE still remains at $210. With audio usually being neglected, GIGABYTE is one of the few vendors who care on flagship models and it shows here with the new Gaming 7.  

What's the Script: X470 vs X370

With the launch of the new Ryzen 2 processors, it has brought about a refresh of sorts on the AM4 (code name 'Promontory') chipset. The socket is still the same (AM4), with AMD upholding its promise to have a long-lasting socket family. The chipset relative connections such as the six SATA 6 Gbps ports and USB 3.1 Gen 2 are still present from the previous generation X370 chipset. One of the primary benefits to these new motherboards is that they are not just backwards, but also forwards compatible. This means that both the first and second generation Ryzen processors will work, providing the relevant and latest firmware is installed onto the 1st generation AM4 motherboards including A320, B350 & X370.

One of the most notable improvements from X470 over X370 comes through the optimization for faster memory. Whereas B350/X370 had a number of memory compatibility problems at launch, which were mostly fixed by a wave of firmware updates, official support was still capped out at DDR4-3200. An improvement has been made this time around with the Zen microarchitecture moving to a new 12nm manufacturing process, but for more, you can check out our Ryzen 2000-series review. Even with the GIGABYTE X470 Gaming 7 Wi-Fi, memory with speeds of up to DDR4-3600 is supported out of the box with Ryzen's 2nd generation processors which do show that AMD has learned from their previous mistakes at launch in working with manufacturers to allay launch issues surrounding memory compatibility. 

The other major enrichment on the X470 platform isn't exactly new, but the new X470 chipset has support for the new StoreMI software which is essentially a rebrand of the Enmotus Fuzedrive storage acceleration software. Potential uses for this would be to boost already in use mechanical storage through caching, or taking all aspects of storage and memory such as an SSD (NVMe or SATA) and DRAM, and combining them all together into one location. The benefit of this is quicker access to the key and critical files stored, with the software optimizing where things should go. More about StoreMI and how it operates can be found here at this link.

For an added bonus, the newer X470 chipset also draws less power (4.8W) than the old chipset (6.8W) at load.

Overclocking with a Ryzen 7 1700

With the introduction of a new chipset, especially in relation to specific Intel chipsets, overclocking parameters and how overclocking is done usually changes somewhat; usually minor, but sometimes on a wider scale. The good news with the release of the new X470 chipset is that nothing is different whatsoever in relation to AM4 overclocking. Everything from voltages, to the multiplier, all the way to overclocking the base clock, is all the same as far as Ryzen processors go.

Our particular AMD Ryzen 1700 eight-core processor sample certainly can’t be considered as ‘good’ when it comes to overclocking headroom, but it is capable of 3.90 GHz at 1.375 V on even the most basic of compatible motherboards. This is fully stabled under Prime95 as well as OCCT and as it has been apparent, squeezing out small reductions in used voltage has been possible on boards using better power deliveries and components. An overclock of 3.90 GHz is easily achievable on all but the worst Ryzen silicon.

With only the CPU core ratio (x39 multiplier) and CPU Vcore voltage manually set to 1.375 V, the system booted into Windows 10 without issue and was stable throughout stress testing and within POV-Ray. With 1.375 V set within the BIOS, CPU-Z read out a CPU core voltage of 1.385 V while under maximum load.

 

Overclocking Results

Referencing back to the Biostar X370GTN review, our Ryzen 7 1700 CPU does have a limitation between 3.9 GHz and 4.0 GHz; at least on the boards we have tested thus far. This is down to silicon lottery and a combination of a sharp ramp of voltage to temperature is present when moving up each different step, especially above 3.70 GHz.

While an overclock of 4.0 GHz was manageable with our pretty average Ryzen 7 1700 ($299) processor, the proof is in the pudding that going from 3.90 GHz to 4.0 GHz provides good performance, although at the cost of thermals and overall power consumption.



Visual Inspection

The GIGABYTE X470 Aorus Gaming 7 Wi-Fi has a pretty stacked PCB with a host of onboard controllers and liberal aesthetical choices which don’t just look good, but also has plenty of use too. The most notable visual element to the Gaming 7 is a large copper direct pipe cooling-based heat sink with a stack of aluminum fins cooling the power delivery. This is a massive improvement on the solution used on the previous range of X370 boards from GIGABYTE and should go a long way.

The PCB is black while the heat sinks have a gunmetal grey and black contrasting covering. The accent LED strip featured on the right-hand side of the board by the 24-pin ATX power connector can be replaced, although you will need a 3D printer to do this and the maker files themselves can be downloaded here.

There is a clear statement of intent that GIGABYTE has equipped this board for users demanding premium components. The inclusion of a Realtek ALC1220-VB audio codec (which GIGABYTE claims to improve 3.5mm microphone input quality) along with the enhancement of the front panel input, as well as a complimenting ESS Technology SABRE ES9018Q2C 32-bit 8-channel audio DAC further enhances the overall audio quality on offer.  The audio area features a wave of Nichicon gold audio capacitors and a single precision audio stream TXC oscillator chip.

The X470 Gaming 7 Wi-Fi includes improvements in stylings over previous X370 models including a wave of RGB lighting featured across the board, as well as room for additional LED strips thanks to a two RGBW LED strip headers. A further pair of LED strip headers is also present as well as power select jumpers depending on the type of LED strip being used. With the Aorus RGB Fusion software, users can customize multiple zones across the board including the rear panel cover, the RAM slots, the two full-length PCIe x16 slots and even the Aorus logo on the chipset heat sink.

On the rear of the X470 Gaming 7 Wi-Fi, GIGABYTE has included a backplate which covers the rear end of the rear panel and power delivery heat sink area. While there is no actual thermal benefit to this, the plate simply acts as extra reinforcement and for classier visuals.

The power delivery features a 10+2 phase design with ten International Rectifier IR3553 40A drivers dedicated to the CPU with a further two IR3556 60A drivers dedicated to the SoC; an IR3599 doubler is present to enable frequency switching which halves the load placed on the individual drivers thus increasing longevity. Controlling the power delivery is a single IR35201 multi-phase controller which is only capable of operating a total of eight phases, which is why a doubler is necessary on this particular board. It’s an apparent trade-off in providing a more competent and cost-effective power delivery, especially on a flagship model if overclocking is a priority when it comes to making a purchasing decision. While the power delivery is one of the better power deliveries I have seen so far on an AM4 socketed motherboard, it’s further enhanced by a ‘better’ than average cooling heat sink consisting of a direct copper heat pipe with a large array of aluminum fins which was an essential must for a board wanting to push their components to the limit, as well as appeal to the wider audience of enthusiasts.

The storage options on offer include six SATA 6 Gbps and a pairing of PCIe x4 (top PCIe 3.0 x4 and bottom slot PCIe 2.0 x4) M.2 slots. The top M.2 slot is located just below the primary PCIe 3.0 x16 slot with support for drives up to a maximum of 22110 (22 mm x 110 mm) in size, while the second slot is prohibited to drives of 2280 (22 mm x 80 mm). Both of these slots feature Aorus M.2 Thermal Guard which is a thin M.2 sized sheet of metal with ridged edging designed to catch passive air from cooling; they both also feature thermal pads to aid with heat dissipation.

The previous X370 board at the top of GIGABYTE/Aorus X370 range, the AX370 Gaming K7, did feature a single U.2 port, but for some reason, the X470 Gaming 7 Wi-Fi hasn’t received the same treatment. It’s apparent that GIGABYTE has implemented dual PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 slots capable of supporting the fastest of M.2 drives in RAID in favor of the costlier U.2 route; the U.2 drives dwarf M.2 in terms of $/GB and it’s one of the reasons M.2 is the more widely accepted and used choice over U.2 because of this. 

The GIGABYTE X470 Aorus Gaming 7 Wi-Fi hosts a total of four memory slots that allows for a maximum of 64 GB in capacity across four RAM slots with memory of speeds up to DDR4-3600 supported out of the box; the memory operates in dual channel mode. Like with the PCIe slots, the memory features metal reinforcement with integrated RGB LEDs for a more vibrant appearance when configured. ECC DDR4 unbuffered memory is also officially supported on this board.

Right next to the memory slots is a Debug LED with a pairing of switches. Directly situated next to the LED debugger is a BIOS switch as the X470 Gaming 7 Wi-Fi features dual BIOS; a main BIOS chip and secondary chip used as a backup. The second switch allows users to select between single BIOS mode and dual BIOS mode. 

The GIGABYTE X470 Gaming 7 Wi-Fi does have a lot of bells and whistles, but it also features plenty of sustenance in connectivity, especially in regards to USB. The rear panel plays host to a total of ten USB ports in total with the fastest available coming two USB 3.1 10 Gbps ports; a single USB 3.1 10 Gbps Type-A is present alongside a single USB 3.1 10 Gbps Type-C this is due to an ASMedia ASM1143 controller. An additional six USB 3.1 5 Gbps Type-A ports and two USB 2.0 ports make up the remaining ports on the back, although an additional four USB 3.1 5 Gbps and four USB 2.0 can be made available thanks to internal headers.

The X470 Gaming 7 Wi-Fi isn’t targeted towards users looking to build around one of the Ryzen APUs as no VGA outputs are present. The five 3.5mm and optical S/PDIF output for the onboard audio is powered by a Realtek ALC1220-VB codec, with a single ESS SABRE 9018 DAC, and a quintuple of gold Nichicon audio capacitors. There is no visible PCB separation and the ALC1220-VB codec has no specific isolation or shielding present which is a little disappointing as a board regarded to be one of the top offerings on a new chipset from a vendor would most likely feature at least one of the aforementioned aspects.

Finishing off the rear panel is a power/reset button, a clear CMOS button, two antenna ports for the built-in 2T2R Intel 9260NGW 802.11ac Wi-Fi Wave 2 module and a single Intel I-211AT controlled Gigabit LAN port.

In the Box

Everything required to get the X470 Gaming 7 Wi-Fi going is inside the box, including four SATA cables and a single RGB (RGBW) LED strip extension; great for installing an RGB strip in a large case or in a hard to reach areas. Also notable is a 2-way SLI bridge for multi NVIDIA pixel rendering cataclysmal gaming machines and two M.2 screws, as well as stand-offs to make use of the dual NVME PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 slots.

We get the following:

  • Driver Disk
  • Wireless Module Driver Disc
  • User Manual
  • Rear I/O Plate
  • Set of GIGABYTE Aorus Stickers
  • Four SATA cables
  • Quick Installation Guide
  • 2T2R 802.11ac Wi-Fi Antenna
  • Two Velcro Cable Ties
  • Two M.2 installation screws
  • Two M.2 installation stand-offs
  • One 2-way SLI Bridge
  • One Digital LED strip adapter
  • One RGB (RGBW) LED Strip Extension Cable
  • One G-Connector
  • Two Thermistor Cables


BIOS

While the GIGABYTE BIOS across the AM4 range of motherboards is basic in appearance, the simple to use and easy to navigate menus make it one of the most user-friendly, without all of the glamour and flash of some other vendors UEFI offerings. The majority of the BIOS features white text on a black background with deep orange graphical surrounds. With the chosen option being selected via keyboard arrow keys or with a mouse, the selection is highlighted in yellow making it easy to see.

The GIGABYTE UEFI BIOS used on the X470 Aorus Gaming 7 Wi-Fi features two different modes, an easy mode which is targeted at novice users looking to make minor changes, whilst still giving access to key information such as system information. This includes vital information such as the defined boot sequence of installed storage devices, memory and CPU clock frequency speeds and even temperature and CPU core voltage.

Pressing F2 with a single key press will alternate between the Easy Mode and the more advanced section of the BIOS. The main sub-menus such as M.I.T (motherboard intelligent tweaker), System and power go from left to right across the top of the GUI panel. The rest of the subsections within each submenu is arranged in a top to bottom order. Pressing the ALT key once brings up a small panel on the right-hand side which gives relative information based on which particular menu or selection is highlighted.

The M.I.T section is where the key overclocking options are found such as voltage control, frequency and memory setting selection. Having everything for overclocking in one particular section makes it easier for a user to find the relevant options they are looking for as opposed to having to constantly jump between sub menus after altering the settings of each component.

While the GIGABYTE X470 Gaming 7 Wi-Fi has an option called EZ Overclock Tuner, this doesn’t actually affect CPU core frequency like other vendors one-click overclocking functions. Instead, it’s aimed at DRAM with each option offering a different memory strap such as DDR4-3200, DDR4-3333, with the maximum option offering blistering speeds of DDR4-4000 despite official support on the X470 Gaming 7 Wi-Fi being listed as DDR4-3600.

Motherboard vendors now opt towards using 4-pin PWM enabled fan headers as the standard which still works with DC only supported fans without issues, just without the advantage of software control. The BIOS’s of recent times feature their own custom fan control utilities integrated within the BIOS, GIGABYTE call theirs Smart Fan 5. Custom fan profiles can be set depending on the fan installed such as the CPU fan and system headers. This also includes the ability to set a custom fan curve profile-based temperature points against the amount of PWM applied.  

The GIGABYTE UEFI BIOS is very simple to navigate and remained responsive throughout use without all the bells and whistles that other vendors include. Whilst GIGABYTE has included Smart Fan 5 within the BIOS, there’s no sign of any board explorer function which would probably be a step too far graphically for the BIOS itself to accommodate; still it’s a sore miss and for a more novice user, it could be useful for seeing what’s installed when troubleshooting potential issues such as DRAM problems including where a potentially defective stick of memory is physically installed but it’s not showing up in the slot. A visual representation as opposed to reading DIMM 1 or DIMM 2 can save a lot of time.

Software

A wide accompaniment of software is included bundled with the X470 Aorus Gaming 7 Wi-Fi with the most notable being the Aorus App Center, Aorus 3D OSD, Aorus BIOS, the Aorus Easy Tune utility, Aorus Game Boost, and Realtek HD Audio Manager software. To use the bulk of the software provided, Aorus App Center must be installed and this acts as a sort of software control hub.

The Aorus App Center not only consolidates all the pre-installed software earmarked for the GIGABYTE X470 Gaming 7 Wi-Fi, but it offers the ability to do the same with installed third-party software. Not only is having everything together simple and convenient, but the Windows settings panel includes a quick jump to things like power options, Windows Firewall, Networking options as well as things like screen resolution. It resembles the Windows Control Panel with a lot of the same options featured, including a quick and easy pathway to the popular/equally unpopular Windows Update.

It’s a little disappointing that most of the software included from GIGABYTE will only work if this is installed, but it’s not entirely intrusive and as previously stated, it’s more convenient as having a single desktop icon instead of several separate ones might annoy some.

Aorus Easy Tune acts is essentially an overclockers toolkit without the need for entering the BIOS. On offer is a host of customizable settings including memory frequency where an XMP memory profile can be enabled or disabled, CPU frequency and the relative voltage settings and different modes inside the Smart Boost menu which include default, OC, automatic and eco for a more power conscious user. The software itself looks like it’s been rehashed from a previous version as the advanced power menu features no options to select between and the Advanced DDR OC section also offers little in the way of selectable memory altering settings.

The V-Tuner software is reminiscent of a cut-down version of GIGABYTE’s Xtreme Gaming GPU tweaking utility and offers overclocking options including GPU core clock, VRAM clock speed, and even power/temperature target options. Dependent on the graphics card being used and whether or not voltage is unlocked, options to increase or decrease the min/max core voltage is also featured.

For a user looking to add their own aesthetic touch to the X470 Gaming 7 Wi-Fi, RGB Fusion has a wide variety of coma-inducing lighting effects including pulse, static, flash, random and even double flash. Regardless of whatever disco inspired event desired inside a case, or out if a test bench is more preferred, a full RGB color wheel offers a true RGB spectrum to choose from and within the advanced panel, effects and colors can be set individually to each of the lighting zones, or all can be synced together to create a unified look across the board. This includes the built-in RGB LEDs as well as external LED strips which GIGABYTE include two RGBW LED headers as well as two Digital LED strip headers too.

In a rather bold move, GIGABYTE has decided to opt for their own re-skinned version of Realtek’s HD Audio Manager software to aide and assist with the onboard audio. The software itself offers a pretty comprehensive set of customizable options as well as equalizer profiles specific to whatever is being boomed out including rock, bass, vocal and even treble. It’s even possible to set an environmental profile such as underwater as if Metallica we’re submerged plucking out Orion; providing the electrocution didn’t kill them first! Options for changing the bitrate are as expected, present and accounted for.

Not everybody feels confident in updating the BIOS on a motherboard and personally, I find it gut-wrenching even though it’s perfectly normal and safe to do. For a user not so confident in navigating the BIOS, the Aorus @BIOS software enables users to easily update the BIOS in a very easy manner within Windows. While preference always goes to updating the BIOS through the actual BIOS itself due to the Windows operating system is known to crash from time to time, a corrupted BIOS is an unusable one. The BIOS within the software can be updated via a specific and compatible file which has been pre-downloaded, or it can be left up to the latest version uploaded to GIGABYTE’s cloud server. Preference would be to pre-download from the relevant product page.



GIGABYTE X470 Aorus Gaming 7 Wi-Fi Board Features

The GIGABYTE X470 Aorus Gaming 7 has all the hallmarks of being the best from their current range of X470 boards on paper, especially in regards to specific areas such as onboard audio and storage support. With everything you would expect from a motherboard from a vendor aiming directly towards gamers, the Realtek ALC1220-VB paired alongside a dedicated ESS SABRE DAC adds an element of quality not found on a lot of AM4 socketed offerings. Priced at $240, it is certainly competitive in a growing X470 market. Not to mention B350/X370 aren’t going anywhere either any time soon so there’s going to be more choice than ever.

The Dual NVMe supported M.2 slots and six SATA 6 Gbps top off a relatively feature packed full sized ATX offering with a plethora of RGB LED lighting for the users who care a lot about aesthetics. For gamers not wishing to be tied down to ethernet cables, GIGABYTE has included one of Intel's latest 9260NGW 802.11ac Wi-Fi Wave 2 modules to offer wireless connectivity to a network.

GIGABYTE X470 Aorus Gaming 7 Wi-Fi ATX Motherboard
Warranty Period 3 Years
Product Page Link
Price $240
Size ATX
CPU Interface AM4
Chipset AMD X470
Memory Slots (DDR4) Four DDR4
Supporting 64GB
Dual Channel
Up to DDR4-3600
Video Outputs N/A
Network Connectivity Intel I-211AT Gigabit
Intel 9260NGW 802.11ac Wi-Fi (Wave 2)
Onboard Audio Realtek ALC1220-VB
PCIe Slots for Graphics (from CPU) 1 x PCIe 3.0 (x16)
1 x PCIe 3.0 (x16) - runs at x8
1 x PCIe 3.0 (x4) - shares with M.2
PCIe Slots for Other (from PCH) 2 x PCIe (x1)
Onboard SATA Six, RAID 0/1/10
Onboard M.2 1 x PCIe 3.0 x4/SATA (top slot) - 22110
1 x PCIe 2.0 x4/SATA (bottom slot) - 2280
USB 3.1 (10 Gbps) 1 x Type-A
1 x Type-C
USB 3.0 (5 Gbps) 6 x Rear Panel (Type-A)
4 via Header
USB 2.0 2 x Type-A
4 via Header
Power Connectors 1 x 24-pin ATX
1 x 8-pin CPU
1 x 4-pin CPU
Fan Headers 1 x CPU (4-pin)
7 x System (4-pin)
IO Panel 1 x USB 3.1 Type-A (USB 3.1 Gen 2)
1 x USB 3.1 Type-C (USB 3.1 Gen 2)
6 x USB 3.1 Type-A (USB 3.1 Gen 1)
2 x USB 2.0 Type-A
1 x Network RJ-45
5 x 3.5 mm Audio Jacks
1 x S/PDIF
1 x Power/Reset Button
1 x Clear CMOS Button
2 x MMCX antenna connectors (2T2R)

The most notable exclusion is a U.2 port although considering this is their current flagship AM4 model; for the price of the board and the high-end segment this board is targeting, it wouldn’t have gone amiss, but the reasons for the exclusion remains understandable. Another omission is a PS/2 combo port which means only USB keyboard and mice can be used with the Gaming 7.

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.

Test Setup
Processor AMD Ryzen 7 1700, 65W, $300,
8 Cores, 16 Threads, 3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo)
Motherboard GIGABYTE X470 Aorus Gaming 7 Wi-Fi (BIOS F4c)
Cooling Thermaltake Floe Riing RGB 360
Power Supply Thermaltake Toughpower Grand 1200W Gold PSU
Memory 2x16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4-2400
Video Card ASUS GTX 980 STRIX (1178/1279 Boost)
Hard Drive Crucial MX300 1TB
Case Open Test Bed
Operating System Windows 10 Pro

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.

Many thanks to...

Thank you to ASUS for providing us with GTX 980 Strix GPUs. At the time of release, the STRIX brand from ASUS was aimed at silent running, or to use the marketing term: '0dB Silent Gaming'. This enables the card to disable the fans when the GPU is dealing with low loads well within temperature specifications. These cards equip the GTX 980 silicon with ASUS' Direct CU II cooler and 10-phase digital VRMs, aimed at high-efficiency conversion. Along with the card, ASUS bundles GPU Tweak software for overclocking and streaming assistance.

The GTX 980 uses NVIDIA's GM204 silicon die, built upon their Maxwell architecture. This die is 5.2 billion transistors for a die size of 298 mm2, built on TMSC's 28nm process. A GTX 980 uses the full GM204 core, with 2048 CUDA Cores and 64 ROPs with a 256-bit memory bus to GDDR5. The official power rating for the GTX 980 is 165W.

The ASUS GTX 980 Strix 4GB (or the full name of STRIX-GTX980-DC2OC-4GD5) runs a reasonable overclock over a reference GTX 980 card, with frequencies in the range of 1178-1279 MHz. The memory runs at stock, in this case 7010 MHz. Video outputs include three DisplayPort connectors, one HDMI 2.0 connector and a DVI-I.

Further Reading: AnandTech's NVIDIA GTX 980 Review

Thank you to Crucial for providing us with MX200/MX300 SSDs. Crucial stepped up to the plate as our benchmark list grows larger with newer benchmarks and titles, and the 1TB units are strong performers. The MX200s are based on Marvell's 88SS9189 controller and using Micron's 16nm 128Gbit MLC flash, these are 7mm high, 2.5-inch drives rated for 100K random read IOPs and 555/500 MB/s sequential read and write speeds. The 1TB models we are using here support TCG Opal 2.0 and IEEE-1667 (eDrive) encryption and have a 320TB rated endurance with a three-year warranty.

Further Reading: AnandTech's Crucial MX200 (250 GB, 500 GB & 1TB) Review

Thank you to Corsair for providing us with Vengeance LPX DDR4 Memory

Corsair kindly sent a set of their Vengeance LPX low profile, high-performance memory. The heatsink is made of pure aluminum to help remove heat from the sticks and has an eight-layer PCB. The heatsink is a low profile design to help fit in spaces where there may not be room for a tall heat spreader; think a SFF case or using a large heatsink.



System Performance

Not all motherboards are created equal. On the face of it, they should all perform the same and differ only in the functionality they provide - however, this is not the case. The obvious pointers are power consumption, but also the ability for the manufacturer to optimize USB speed, audio quality (based on audio codec), POST time and latency. This can come down to manufacturing process and prowess, so these are tested.

Power Consumption

Power consumption was tested on the system while in a single ASUS GTX 980 GPU configuration with a wall meter connected to the Thermaltake 1200W power supply. This power supply has ~75% efficiency > 50W, and 90%+ efficiency at 250W, suitable for both idle and multi-GPU loading. This method of power reading allows us to compare the power management of the UEFI and the board to supply components with power under load, and includes typical PSU losses due to efficiency. These are the real world values that consumers may expect from a typical system (minus the monitor) using this motherboard.

While this method for power measurement may not be ideal, and you feel these numbers are not representative due to the high wattage power supply being used (we use the same PSU to remain consistent over a series of reviews, and the fact that some boards on our test bed get tested with three or four high powered GPUs), the important point to take away is the relationship between the numbers. These boards are all under the same conditions, and thus the differences between them should be easy to spot.

Power Long Idle (w/GTX 980)Power OS Idle (w/GTX 980)Power OCCT (w/GTX 980)

While one of the main benefits of X470 over the previous X370 chipset is a slight reduction in TDP under load, that hasn't been noticeable here as the Gaming 7 Wi-Fi is notable power hungrier than any other AM4 board.

Non-UEFI POST Time

Different motherboards have different POST sequences before an operating system is initialized. A lot of this is dependent on the board itself, and POST boot time is determined by the controllers on board (and the sequence of how those extras are organized). As part of our testing, we look at the POST Boot Time using a stopwatch. This is the time from pressing the ON button on the computer to when Windows starts loading. (We discount Windows loading as it is highly variable given Windows specific features.)

Non UEFI POST Time

Alongside the ASRock X370 Gaming-ITX/ac small form factor motherboard, the GIGABYTE X470 Gaming 7 Wi-Fi makes a good impression on boot times compared to other AM4 motherboards previously tested. There wasn't much difference between stock settings and with all the malleable controllers disabled, somewhat marginal at best. 

Rightmark Audio Analyzer 6.2.5

Rightmark:AA indicates how well the sound system is built and isolated from electrical interference (either internally or externally). For this test we connect the Line Out to the Line In using a short six inch 3.5mm to 3.5mm high-quality jack, turn the OS speaker volume to 100%, and run the Rightmark default test suite at 192 kHz, 24-bit. The OS is tuned to 192 kHz/24-bit input and output, and the Line-In volume is adjusted until we have the best RMAA value in the mini-pretest. We look specifically at the Dynamic Range of the audio codec used on the rear panel of the board.

Rightmark Audio Analyzer 6.2.5: Dynamic Range

As the results show in RMAA 6.2.5's Dynamic range testing, the newly launched GIGABYTE X470 Gaming 7 Wi-Fi sits at the bottom of Realtek ALC1220 pile, despite being the later ALC1220-VB codec.

DPC Latency

Deferred Procedure Call latency is a way in which Windows handles interrupt servicing. In order to wait for a processor to acknowledge the request, the system will queue all interrupt requests by priority. Critical interrupts will be handled as soon as possible, whereas lesser priority requests such as audio will be further down the line. If the audio device requires data, it will have to wait until the request is processed before the buffer is filled.

If the device drivers of higher priority components in a system are poorly implemented, this can cause delays in request scheduling and process time. This can lead to an empty audio buffer and characteristic audible pauses, pops and clicks. The DPC latency checker measures how much time is taken processing DPCs from driver invocation. The lower the value will result in better audio transfer at smaller buffer sizes. Results are measured in microseconds.

Deferred Procedure Call Latency

None of the manufacturers AM4 offerings tested so far including the X470 Gaming 7 Wi-Fi are optimized for DPC latency, but the Gaming 7 Wi-Fi does put in a very respectable showing.



CPU Performance, Short Form

For our motherboard reviews, we use our short form testing method. These tests usually focus on if a motherboard is using MultiCore Turbo (the feature used to have maximum turbo on at all times, giving a frequency advantage), or if there are slight gains to be had from tweaking the firmware. We put the memory settings at the CPU manufacturers suggested frequency, making it very easy to see which motherboards have MCT enabled by default.

Video Conversion – Handbrake v1.0.2: link

Handbrake is a media conversion tool that was initially designed to help DVD ISOs and Video CDs into more common video formats. For HandBrake, we take two videos and convert them to x264 format in an MP4 container: a 2h20 640x266 DVD rip and a 10min double UHD 3840x4320 animation short. We also take the third video and transcode it to HEVC. Results are given in terms of the frames per second processed, and HandBrake uses as many threads as possible.

Handbrake v0.9.9 H.264: LQHandbrake v0.9.9 H.264: HQHandbrake v0.9.9 H.264: 4K60

Compression – WinRAR 5.4: link

Our WinRAR test from 2013 is updated to the latest version of WinRAR at the start of 2017. We compress a set of 2867 files across 320 folders totaling 1.52 GB in size – 95% of these files are small typical website files, and the rest (90% of the size) are small 30 second 720p videos.

WinRAR 5.0.1 Compression Test

Point Calculations – 3D Movement Algorithm Test v2.1: link

3DPM is a self-penned benchmark, taking basic 3D movement algorithms used in Brownian Motion simulations and testing them for speed. High floating point performance, MHz and IPC wins in the single thread version, whereas the multithread version has to handle the threads and loves more cores. For a brief explanation of the platform agnostic coding behind this benchmark, see my forum post here. We are using the latest version of 3DPM, which has a significant number of tweaks over the original version to avoid issues with cache management and speeding up some of the algorithms.

3DPM: Movement Algorithm Tester (Multi-threaded)

Rendering – POV-Ray 3.7.1b4: link

The Persistence of Vision Ray Tracer, or POV-Ray, is a freeware package for as the name suggests, ray tracing. It is a pure renderer, rather than modeling software, but the latest beta version contains a handy benchmark for stressing all processing threads on a platform. We have been using this test in motherboard reviews to test memory stability at various CPU speeds to good effect – if it passes the test, the IMC in the CPU is stable for a given CPU speed. As a CPU test, it runs for approximately 2-3 minutes on high-end platforms.

POV-Ray 3.7 Render Benchmark (Multi-Threaded)

Synthetic – 7-Zip 9.2: link

As an open source compression tool, 7-Zip is a popular tool for making sets of files easier to handle and transfer. The software offers up its own benchmark, to which we report the result.

7-Zip 9.2 Compress/Decompress Benchmark



Gaming Performance

Ashes of the Singularity

Seen as the holy child of DirectX12, Ashes of the Singularity (AoTS, or just Ashes) has been the first title to actively go explore as many of DirectX12s features as it possibly can. Stardock, the developer behind the Nitrous engine which powers the game, has ensured that the real-time strategy title takes advantage of multiple cores and multiple graphics cards, in as many configurations as possible.

Ashes of The Singularity on ASUS GTX 980 Strix 4GB

Rise Of The Tomb Raider

Rise of the Tomb Raider is a third-person action-adventure game that features similar gameplay found in 2013's Tomb Raider. Players control Lara Croft through various environments, battling enemies, and completing puzzle platforming sections, while using improvised weapons and gadgets in order to progress through the story.

One of the unique aspects of this benchmark is that it’s actually the average of 3 sub-benchmarks that fly through different environments, which keeps the benchmark from being too weighted towards a GPU’s performance characteristics under any one scene.

Rise of The Tomb Raider on ASUS GTX 980 Strix 4GB

Thief

Thief has been a long-standing title in PC gamers hearts since the introduction of the very first iteration which was released back in 1998 (Thief: The Dark Project). Thief as it is simply known rebooted the long-standing series and renowned publisher Square Enix took over the task from where Eidos Interactive left off back in 2004. The game itself utilises the fluid Unreal Engine 3 engine and is known for optimised and improved destructible environments, large crowd simulation and soft body dynamics.

Thief on ASUS GTX 980 Strix 4GB

Total War: WARHAMMER

Not only is the Total War franchise one of the most popular real-time tactical strategy titles of all time, but Sega delve into multiple worlds such as the Roman Empire, Napoleonic era and even Attila the Hun, but more recently they nosedived into the world of Games Workshop via the WARHAMMER series. Developers Creative Assembly have used their latest RTS battle title with the much talked about DirectX 12 API so that this title can benefit from all the associated features that comes with it. The game itself is very CPU intensive and is capable of pushing any top end system to their limits.

Total War: WARHAMMER on ASUS GTX 980 Strix 4GB

In rather a poor showing, the X470 Gaming 7 doesn't seem to be competitive in the gaming tests. Most tests the differences are minimal, however coming bottom in all seems to indicate an issue splitting performance between the CPU and the GPU, perhaps related to how power is distributed.



GIGABYTE X470 Aorus Gaming 7 Wi-Fi Conclusion

The GIGABYTE X470 Aorus Gaming 7 Wi-Fi has a launch list price of $240 at Amazon US which makes it the most expensive GIGABYTE AM4 motherboard on the market. However, it has the current ‘flagship’ status and has cheaper launch pricing compared to the similarly featured ASUS X470 ROG Crosshair VII Hero ($280) and the MSI X470 Gaming M7 AC ($260). In relation to official memory support, the X470 Gaming 7 Wi-Fi actually has support for faster memory on paper with DDR4-3600.

Overall performance while being compared to previously tested AM4 boards (X370/B350) with our Ryzen 7 1700 ($299) was relatively decent in terms of computational benchmarks, as well as within our DPC latency and other system performance tests. The lackluster gaming results brings the overall results down, however the margins are theme.

While the Aorus brand is primarily targeted towards the gaming crowd, there’s certainly enough overall to make this a well-rounded offering catering to enthusiasts and other power users, as well as gamers. The power delivery has a solid design, and the biggest improvement over the first generation of AM4 boards is the large VRM heatsink which seems a bigger and appreciated improvement over the first generation of AM4 boards released; the design has shades of the 'good old days'. When under full load, it easily coped with the loads without any issues whatsoever; a testament to the change implemented from X370 and one which will be welcomed by many.

Another set of welcomed features is dual BIOS which offers redundancy when flashing to a newer revision; blackouts can happen and I have experienced one myself when updated an older board, let’s just say it wasn’t usable and it may/may not have made the scrap pile. The other is dual NVMe capable PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 slots which both include a separate and stylish looking black metal heatsink. I have always gone with a function over style preference when selecting new components but having both is a major win in today’s overcrowded RGB all over everything to sell it market.

The board features a full black PCB and has oodles of RGB LED lighting integrated into various zones across the board, making it one of the most customizable from a lighting perspective thanks to the Aorus RGB Fusion software. This makes the board aesthetically pleasing, but it has to be said that the LEDs are rather overpowering and actually detracts from the overall style; of course, this is down to personal preference.

The X470 Gaming 7 Wi-Fi is made even more appealing by its good range of connectivity and choice of controllers including a total of ten USB ports. The rear panel also has a single Intel I211-AT controlled Gigabit LAN port as well as two gold screw on points to make use of the 2T2R 802.11ac Intel based integrated Wi-Fi. GIGABYTE has put a real focus on Wi-Fi, not just in the name, but by adding an the latest Intel 9260NGW 802.11ac Wi-Fi Wave 2 module capable of supporting speeds of up to 1.73 Gbps. The onboard audio comes via the Realtek ALC 1220-VB codec and an ESS SABRE ES9018Q2C digital to analogue converter to further enhance things from an auditory standpoint.

The GIGABYTE X470 Aorus Gaming 7 Wi-Fi is very alluring for gamers and enthusiasts looking to build a powerful AMD based gaming system around Ryzen based CPUs such as the Ryzen 7 1800X ($350) or brand-new Ryzen 7 2700X ($329) eight core processors. Any fatigue felt through the original Ryzen launch in affiliation to launch woes with memory compatibility has been alleviated by AMD and the vendors thanks to faster memory support out of the box; GIGABYTE showing official support for DDR4-3600 when boards from other vendors show DDR4-3466 on launch day offerings is a big plus in the favor of GIGABYTE/Aorus.

Everything summarized, the X470 Gaming 7 Wi-Fi ticks a vast majority of the boxes in relation to compatibility, connectivity and quality throughout and for $240 at launch, it surely has to make the shortlist for any AMD based single or dual graphics card wielding gaming system.

Other AnandTech Ryzen Coverage

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