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Review: Gigabyte Aorus Z370 Gaming 7

by Tarinder Sandhu on 9 October 2017, 09:00

Tags: Gigabyte (TPE:2376), AORUS

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qadmgr

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Testing Methodology

Comparison Motherboard Configurations

Model
Aorus Z370 Gaming
Asus ROG Strix
Z370-F Gaming
Asus ROG Strix
Z270-F Gaming
Reviewed Price
£270
£190
£150
Firmware Version
F4a
0410
0603
Chipset
Z370
Z270
CPU
Intel Core i7-8700K
Intel Core i7-7700K
CPU Cores / Threads
6 / 12
4 / 8
CPU Base Clock / Turbo
4.8GHz / 4.8GHz
3.7GHz / 4.7GHz
4.2GHz / 4.5GHz
CPU Cache
12MB
8MB
CPU TDP
95W
91W
Memory
G.Skill 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4-3,200
Memory Speed
DDR4-3200
DDR4-2666
DDR4-2400
Memory Timings
16-16-18-36-2T
Graphics
EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 FTW
Graphics Driver
GeForce 376.19
Storage Device(s)
SK hynix Canvas SC300 512GB
Samsung 950 Pro 256GB M.2 256GB
Power Supply
be quiet! Dark Power Pro 10 (1,000W)
Operating System
Windows 10 Home AE (64-bit)

CPU Benchmarks

HEXUS PiFast Our number-crunching benchmark stresses a single core by calculating Pi to 10m places.
Cinebench R15 Using Cinebench's multi-CPU render, this cross-platform benchmark stresses all cores.
Handbrake 0.10.5 Free-to-use video encoder that stresses all CPU cores.

Storage Benchmarks

CrystalDiskMark Popular free-to-use storage benchmark, used to gauge read and write performance via M.2 (256GB Samsung 950 Pro NVMe), SATA (512GB SK hynix Canvas SC300) and USB 3.1 (512GB SK hynix Canvas SC300).

Memory Benchmarks

AIDA64 v5.80.4283 Benchmark that analyses memory bandwidth and latency

Gaming Benchmarks

3DMark Time Spy Graphics test run using the Time Spy default test
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided 2,560x1,440, ultra settings
Hitman 2,560x1,440, ultra settings

Miscellaneous Benchmarks

Power Consumption Noted at idle, while running the HandBrake video-transcoding test and when playing ROTTR.

Notes

We often compare the same chipset-based boards against one another at stock speeds. This doesn't tell us a great deal other than they are working as advertised. Running stock numbers showed the Aorus to be within a per cent or two of the Asus' performance - nothing unexpected there.

Changing things up a bit, we chose to benchmark the Aorus at speeds that we believe will be used by enthusiasts who jump on the Coffee Lake bandwagon. To that end, we overclocked the Core i7-8700K to an all-core 4.8GHz using 1.25V, up from 1.1V default. We also increased the memory speed from DDR4-2666 to DDR4-3200 and voltage to 1.35V, up from 1.2V.

The following graphs show the Aorus performance at these elevated speeds thus more accurately reflecting what you will probably do if you had the same hardware to play with.