On The Wings of an Eagle: GIGABYTE's X570 I Aorus Pro WIFI Motherboard Tested
by Gavin Bonshor on March 19, 2020 10:00 AM ESTGIGABYTE X570 I Aorus Pro WIFI Conclusion
The GIGABYTE X570 I Aorus Pro WIFI as it stands is the cheapest of the small form factor options on AMD's X570 chipset. Each of the competition are more expensive, such as $240 for an ASRock (but it comes with Thunderbolt, and $299 for the ASUS ROG model. The ASRock with TB3 puts it as the most unique offering, but GIGABYTE has gone a different route altogether with the X570 I Aorus Pro WIFI.
Targeting itself at the mid-range user, it has plenty to boast about, primarily dual M.2 slots which both support PCIe 4.0 x4 drives. The power delivery is also pretty good, being a scaled down version of the flagship X570 motherboard. Networking is a standard gigabit ethernet and Wi-Fi 6, but there is a variety of USB 3.1 G2 Type-A and Type-C ports available.
Interestingly GIGABYTE has overloaded the X570 I Aorus Pro WIFI with video outputs with two HDMI 2.0, and a single DisplayPort 1.2; perfect for driving up to three displays from a Ryzen APU. All of the other bases are covered with two PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slots present for users to maximise storage performance from Gen4 capable NVMe drives, and four SATA ports with support for RAID 0, 1 and 10 arrays also present. The full-length PCIe 4.0 x16 slot is standard for a small form factor motherboard, and the two memory slots allow support for DDR4-4400 with a maximum capacity of up to 64 GB. If I were to criticize, it would be the lack of a thermal pad for the rear mounted slot. The board also only has two 4-pin fan headers, and even though space is at a premium, we usually like to see at least three.
From a performance perspective, the GIGABYTE won a number of key benchmarks. The biggest win came in our power consumption tests as it consistently sits below the rest of the pack at both idle, and full load. We also saw some CPU throughput wins as well, and a quick POST time as well as good DPC latency numbers. The GIGABYTE X570 I Aorus Pro WIFI has everything needed from a mid-range model, more so from a mini-ITX sized offering, but without breaking the bank due to its very impressive $220 price tag.
Overall for users looking for a solid and consistent motherboard, and especially need to use the onboard graphics output options, the GIGABYTE X570 I Aorus Pro WIFI is a very capable product. With a price tag of just $220, it competes well.
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SSTANIC - Thursday, March 19, 2020 - link
for X670 GIGABYTE could do: 1. lose all video out 2. double USB inputs 3. double fan connectors 4. real fins on VRMs 5. keep the price because noone will buy this for 300$ and maybe 6. who needs WIFI really? 7. another LAN portdanturbo316 - Friday, March 20, 2020 - link
The video out will be worth it with next gen apus, but right now I agree that it's a waste as the 3400g is a weaklingeek2121 - Friday, March 20, 2020 - link
Just because you don’t have a use case for it doesn’t mean others don’t. ITX is a relatively popular form factor. Not everyone is a gamer, and of those who are, some want to use GPU passthrough for gaming on Linux and other virtualization scenarios.Check out cases like the DanPC case or the louqe ghost s1.
jospoortvliet - Sunday, March 22, 2020 - link
I get that but if you want to run a cheap APU why on earth would you buy a x570 motherboard??? I understand using one video out just in case but 3 does seem like a waste for a high en board that people most likely will use with a high end cpu and GPU...spikebike - Thursday, March 19, 2020 - link
Yes another motherboard with a fan. Testing on similar motherboards show there's not much heat to dissipate. Why is there only one very expensive motherboard without a fan? I'm hoping B550 motherboards fix this.Marlin1975 - Thursday, March 19, 2020 - link
The B550 boards will not need a fan as they do not support PCIe 4.0 on the B550 chipset.The B550 looks like it will support PCIe 4.0 from the CPU to video card and M.2 port. But that is all.
InTheMidstOfTheInBeforeCrowd - Friday, March 20, 2020 - link
No. It has to be more. Like the chipset offering PCIe 3.0 lanes. Just the requirement of the motherboard having PCIe 4.0 slots tied to the CPU is not enough. AMD could have done that with the B450 months ago(!) with little hassle. Basically the B550A play.If after so many months, AMD would release a B550 that is merely a rebranded B450 with the added requirement that motherboard manufacturers support the PCIe 4.0 lanes of the CPU (basically the same as the B550A rebrand), then AMD is basically presenting itself to the world as an incompetent and inept clown posse. I don't think they are that dumb, though...
a5cent - Friday, March 20, 2020 - link
Ehm... Wat? B550 will not support PCIe 4.0, but that doesn't mean it's just a rebranding of B450!B450 is PCIe 2.0, not PCIe 3.0. Just supporting PCIe 3.0 is already a huge upgrade in itself. More importantly, B450 has a ridiculously low number of PCIe lanes, forcing motherboard makers to jump through all sorts of performance reducing hoops if they want to support even just a second M.2 drive. B550 is expected to support the same number of lanes as X570, so that too is a very significant upgrade. Lastly, not requiring the chipset to be actively cooled is also an improvement. Sacrificing PCIe 4.0 in order to ditch the fan is a very reasonable trade-off to make, as almost nobody will notice the difference between PCIe 4.0 and 3.0 coming off the chipset anyway.
B450 was hopelessly outdated last year already. It is a bargain bin chipset, as it was itself a rebranding of B350. B550 is not like that at all.
InTheMidstOfTheInBeforeCrowd - Friday, March 20, 2020 - link
Erm ... i never said that B550 will be a rebranded B450. I was saying "If...", addressing the implication made in the comment above mine that B550 will only bring support for the CPU PCIe 4.0 lanes to the table (which essentially is the same as implying that B550 would be merely a rebrand of B450)a5cent - Friday, March 20, 2020 - link
Yeah, sorry, I misread your comment. The comment you responded to is so ridiculous that it didn't register in my brain the way it was written.It seems a lot of people here don't understand that the CHIPSET is a separate thing that has no bearing on the PCIe lanes coming off the CPU. The traces between the CPU and the GPU on B450 motherboards were simply never validated for PCIe 4.0 (resistance, signal reflections, etc), so they deactivated PCIe 4.0 in firmware to protect the motherboard manufacturers from warranty claims. I guess some people's imaginations associated that downgrade to the chipset, which really has nothing to do with it.