GIGABYTE X670E and X670 AORUS Motherboard Lineup Detailed

GIGABYTE today showed off its upcoming AMD X670E and X670 chipset-based Socket AM5 motherboard lineup for the Ryzen 7000-series “Zen 4” desktop processors due to launch in September. Given AMD’s push for PCI-Express Gen 5 connectivity beyond just the PEG slot, the new X670E chipset, with multiple Gen 5 M.2 slots, covers the upper end of the GIGABYTE AORUS motherboard series, with the X670E AORUS Xtreme and the X670E AORUS Master. The lower-end of the lineup is based on the X670, with the AORUS Pro and AORUS Elite tiers.

Both the X670E and X670 offer at least one PCI-Express 5.0 x16 slot (which can be further split into two x8 Gen 5 slots); and at least one PCI-Express 5.0 x4 M.2 NVMe slot wired to the AM5 processor. The X670E is differentiated in having an additional Gen 5 M.2 slot that is wired to the SoC, besides downstream Gen 5 PCIe connectivity from the chipset. The AORUS Xtreme leads the pack with a monstrous 18-phase VRM that uses 105 A DrMOS, an 8-layer PCB, four Gen 5 M.2 slots, the highest-grade onboard audio with ESS-made headphones DAC, AQuantia 10 GbE, WiFi 6E, and a plethora of overclocker-friendly features.

The X670E AORUS Master is the second-best from the GIGABYTE stable, with a 16-phase VRM that uses the same 105 A DrMOS as the AORUS Xtreme, two Gen 5 M.2 slots instead of four on the AORUS Xtreme; 2.5 GbE instead of 10 GbE, and a purely Realtek ALC1220-based onboard audio solution. A step down from here, and you get the X670 AORUS Pro AX, with its 6-layer PCB, a 16-phase VRM that uses 90 A DrMOS, a single Gen 5 M.2 slot wired to the SoC, 2.5 GbE and WiFi 6E; but a based ALC897-based onboard audio. The most affordable board of the lot is the X670 AORUS Elite AX, with its 16-phase VRM that uses 70 A power stages, a similar expansion slot loadout to the AORUS Pro AX, and interestingly, an AMD-MediaTek made WiFi 6E solution (the others in the series use an Intel AX210. The finer specs follow.