Gigabyte Z490 AORUS Master Motherboard and Intel Core i9-11900K CPU Review

Performance and Benchmarking

For our test rig we paired the card with an Intel i9 11900K (Rocket Lake), Gigabyte Z490 AORUS Master motherboard and 16GB of Aorus RGB DDR4-4800 memory. All tests are conducted using default speeds on CPU, Card, and RAM unless noted otherwise

CPU-Z Info

AIDA64 Info

We would like to thank Futuremark for providing the 3DMark software for use in this testing.

3DMark is arguably the most popular graphics card benchmarking software known to the world. For more than a decade, users have been using the software made by Futuremark to make and break world records and to also test overclocks. The latest version simply known as 3DMark includes several tests for DirectX 9, 10, 11 and 12 hardware. This version also supports cross-platform benchmarking including smartphones and tablets (Android and iOS) this time around. We used the Fire Strike Ultra, and Time Spy benchmarks (all at default settings). I will let the numbers do the talking.

Time Spy

3DMark Time Spy is a new 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 pure DirectX 12 engine, which supports new API features like asynchronous compute, explicit multi-adapter, and multi-threading, Time Spy is the ideal test for benchmarking the latest graphics cards.

Firestrike

Fire Strike is a showcase DirectX 11 benchmark designed for today’s high-performance gaming PCs. It is our most ambitious and technical benchmark ever, featuring real-time graphics rendered with detail and complexity far beyond what is found in other benchmarks and games today.

PCMark 10

PCMark 10 is the latest in our series of industry standard PC benchmarks. Updated for Windows 10 with new and improved workloads, PCMark 10 is also faster and easier to use. PCMark 10 features a comprehensive set of tests that cover the wide variety of tasks performed in the modern workplace. With express, extended, and custom run options to suit your needs, PCMark 10 is the complete PC benchmark for the modern office and an ideal choice for organizations that buy PCs in high volumes.

Unigine 2 – Superposition (1080p Extreme)

Extreme performance and stability test for PC hardware: video card, power supply, cooling system. Check your rig in stock and overclocking modes with real-life load! Also includes interactive experience in a beautiful, detailed environment.

Cinebench

CINEBENCH is a real-world cross platform test suite that evaluates your computer’s performance capabilities. CINEBENCH is based on MAXON’s award-winning animation software Cinema 4D, which is used extensively by studios and production houses worldwide for 3D content creation. MAXON software has been used in blockbuster movies such as Iron Man 3, Oblivion, Life of Pi or Prometheus and many more. CINEBENCH is the perfect tool to compare CPU and graphics performance across various systems and platforms (Windows and OS X).

ATTO Disk Benchmark

ATTO has created a widely-accepted Disk Benchmark freeware software to help measure storage system performance. As one of the top tools utilized in the industry, Disk Benchmark identifies performance in hard drives, solid state drives, RAID arrays as well as the host connection to attached storage. 

CrystalDiskMark

CrystalDiskMark is a disk benchmark software.It measure sequential reads/writes speed,measure random 512KB, 4KB, 4KB (Queue Depth=32) reads/writes speed, select test data (Random, 0Fill, 1Fill), provide theme support and Multi-Language support.

OVERCLOCKING PERFORMANCE

CPU

I was able to hit an easy 5.0Ghz on all cores with ease and the temps were not terrible while running Cinebench20. I will note 5.1 was not stable with 1.4v and half the time it would go into a boot loop.

RAM

This was somewhat of a struggle. I am not really sure whay I wasnt able to reach anything above the speeds below. I tried just about every VCCIO and SA voltages and could never get anything better. I was a little disappointed when XMP in dual channel wouldn’t run. I even tried 4133MHz ram and also never achieved anything over 4000MHz. I am disappointed but the results are satisfactory. If you skim through the supported memory list you will see that the max single memory configurations is 4800MHz and the highest Dual channel configuration is 4000MHz (just a different brand). I will definitely know more if this was a chipset limitation with the 11th gen when I review the Z590. Nothing I tried worked over those speeds.

Benchmarks

The gaming benchmarks were almost negligible when I was overclocked. The CPU score was higher but the over score was not really impacted.

The Cinebench20 score was higher at 5897 vs a 5799 vs stock settings.

Now lets move and see the Conclusion and Verdict!