The Intel Z590 Motherboard Overview: 50+ Motherboards Detailed
by Gavin Bonshor on January 19, 2021 10:15 AM ESTGIGABYTE Z590 Aorus Elite & Elite AX
Representing the mid-range of Intel's Z590 chipset is the GIGABYTE Z590 Aorus Elite, and the Wi-Fi 6 enabled Z590 Aorus Elite AX. Aside from the Intel Wi-Fi 6 CNVi, both models are identical in design and aesthetics, with an advertised 12+1 phase power delivery, with support for 128 GB of DDR4-5000 on an ATX PCB. The design follows a simple black and silver color scheme, with RGB LEDs built into the Aorus logo at the bottom of the chipset heatsink.
The GIGABYTE Z590 Aorus Elite and Elite AX include two full-length PCIe slots, the top one supporting up to PCIe 4.0 x16, while the bottom slot is locked to PCIe 3.0 x4, with one PCIe 3.0 x1 slot also present. For storage, the Elite pairing includes two M.2 slots, one PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slot with a heatsink, and a second slot supporting both PCIe 3.0 x4, and SATA drives. GIGABYTE also includes six SATA ports with support for RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 arrays for more conventional storage devices. A total of four memory slots located in the top right-hand corner allow for up to DDR4-5000, with a combined total capacity of up to 128 GB.
The GIGABYTE Z590 Aorus Elite (top) and Z590 Aorus Elite AX (bottom) rear panels
Both the GIGABYTE Z590 Aorus Elite and Elite AX models include one USB 3.2 G2x2 Type-C, five USB 3.2 G2 Type-A, and four USB 2.0 ports, with a single DisplayPort 1.2 video output. A Realtek ALC1220-VB HD audio codec powers five 3.5 mm audio jacks and S/PDIF optical output, while GIGABYTE includes a Realtek RTL8125 2.5 GbE controller. On the Z590 Aorus Elite AX, GIGABYTE uses an Intel AX201 Wi-Fi 6 CNVi with support for BT 5.1 devices. The middle red bottom USB port, with what says BIOS next to it, would be the BIOS flashing port.
At the time of writing, GIGABYTE hasn't shared any details on its Z590 models' pricing.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
88 Comments
View All Comments
Duncan Macdonald - Tuesday, January 19, 2021 - link
Why so many motherboards for a product (Rocket Lake) that is outclassed before it is even available by the Zen 3 processors from AMD.Oxford Guy - Tuesday, January 19, 2021 - link
Mindshare. Intel still means better FPS to some gamers. I also hear AMD’s CPUs are hard to get, except for the 5800x which some believe is overpriced. My local MicroCenter was out of all but that one. I just checked and it has exactly 1 in stock. That’s it for the entire line.Deicidium369 - Wednesday, January 20, 2021 - link
LOL - except it isn't - Zen 3 is nothing but more and more cache to cheese the synthetic benchmarks and impress the rubes. When you actually get a 5900X and a 5950X as I have you start to realize, that like the 6900XT - all AMD smoke and mirrors and little substance.Rocket Lake will wreck Zen 3 - and all the fanboyism won't change that - and one big plus for Rocket Lake is that it will be available in volume while TSMC scraps to get supplies - and Apple has priority - then AMD for the consoles - and whatever small crumbs that are left go to the AMD PC products. New microarch vs cache masquerading as a CPU - easy Intel win.
eva02langley - Wednesday, January 20, 2021 - link
LMAO ROXXORMYBOXXORJust look at how stupid it sounds... you sound like this.
1. ES of Rocket Lake are showing REGRESSION in performances even in games.
2. It passes from 10 cores to 8 cores.
3. The prices are still the same... way overpriced compared to AMD...
4. AMD is looking like it will retain the performances crown in ST and MT performances.
Spunjji - Wednesday, January 20, 2021 - link
"Rocket Lake will wreck Zen 3"Mate, Intel's own leaked benches are already disproving that. You're bending language so hard here that apparently a maximum 5% performance advantage in cherry-picked games at 1080p = "wrecked", and that's at nearly 1/2 the performance per watt.
It's amusing to see how literally all of the Intel shills across multiple sites have switched to banging on about stock levels. Do you have a secret site where you coordinate this, or do you just copy each other naturally? 🤣
Makaveli - Wednesday, January 20, 2021 - link
lol man this thread is pulling out all the weirdo's tonight.We got that guy stuck in 2008 and intel fan boys...
Oxford Guy - Friday, January 22, 2021 - link
Thanks for spamming the topic with your insipid arrogance.gsuburban - Wednesday, April 14, 2021 - link
Lots of folks are looking for the 4th gen NVMe speeds. Also, they are getting more USB 3 and USB C ports that many of the newer cases come with located up front. Also, for those that don't need a video card, the 11th gen CPU's, the upper level ones, support HDMI 2.0 vs. HDMI 1.4 and have a different graphics chip, the UHD750. Other than these, there are not many other benefits however, cost wise at this time, its the same cost to spend on last years hardware so it seems more reasonable to buy this years hardware for the same price. It wouldn't be much value to take a 3 year old system and upgrade to this years hardware as the gains are not worth the cost.Oxford Guy - Tuesday, January 19, 2021 - link
Does running a display via Thunderbolt add latency?croc - Tuesday, January 19, 2021 - link
The issue I see here is that Intel's first foray into PCIe 4.0 seems designed to meet, not exceed AMD's efforts. If you are behind the competition, then just meeting their specs is not the way to get ahead. Then there is Rocket Lake's max core count. Max of eight, due to the backporting of the 10nm Sunny Cove cores onto the 14nm litho. OK, AMD's 16 cores may be a bit overkill (for gaming) given the lack of PCIe lanes on their AM4 socket, but Intel is replacing a CPU that topped out at 10 cores with a CPU only allowing eight...Can't wait for the return of Gelsinger's return. I predict a large ship turning around at speed. Watch out for bow waves....