Gigabyte A620M Gaming X Review: Who Needs All the Bells and Whistles?

Affordable and (mostly) capable

By Joe Shields
published
Gigabyte A620M Gaming X
(Image: © Tom's Hardware)

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Firmware

Gigabyte’s A620M Gaminx X uses its Ultra Durable BIOS, with a black and dark yellow theme. The black-on-white/yellow provides a nice contrast and is easy to read. Like most BIOSes, the Gaming X has an informational Easy Mode and an Advanced mode with headers across the top. Navigating the BIOS is eas,y as many frequently used options (including overclocking) are generally on the same page or one level down. My biggest complaint with the BIOS is that page-down doesn’t work in all sections, and you have to type in some values manually or bang on the down arrow to scroll and select a value. Aside from that minor annoyance, it’s a solid BIOS.

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Gigabyte A620M Gaming X
(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

Software

On the software side, Gigabyte’s primary tool is the Gigabyte Control Center. GCC is a one-stop shop for many board-centric functions, including RGB lighting control (RGB Fusion), Fan Control, and performance/overclocking. You can also update and install drivers from within the application too. It’s not as comprehensive as the App Center and some of its applications, but I doubt many will miss it.

ALBM - giga cc1-5

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Gigabyte A620M Gaming X
(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

Test System / Comparison Products

We’ve updated our test system to 64-bit Windows 11, with all updates applied. We kept the same Asus TUF RTX 3070 video card from our previous testing platforms but updated the driver. Additionally, we updated to F1 22 in our games suite and kept Far Cry 6. We use the latest non-beta motherboard BIOS available to the public unless otherwise noted. The hardware we used is as follows:

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Test System Components
CPUAMD Ryzen 9 7950X
MemoryKingston Fury Beast DDR5-6000 CL36 (KF560C36BBEAK2-32)
 GSkill Trident Z DDR5-5600 CL36 (F5-5600U3636C16GX2-TZ5RK)
GPUAsus TUF RTX 3070
CoolingCoolermaster MasterLiquid PL360 Flux
PSUEVGA Supernova 850W P6
SoftwareWindows 11 64-bit (22H2)
Graphics DriverNvidia GeForce Driver 522.25
SoundIntegrated HD audio
NetworkIntegrated Networking (GbE or 2.5 GbE)

(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

EVGA supplied our Supernova 850W P6 power supply (appropriately sized and more efficient than the 1.2KW monster we used previously) for our test systems, and G.Skill sent us a DDR5-5600 (F5-5600U3636C16GX2-TZ5RK) memory kit for testing. 

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Motherboard Testbed Components
(Image credit: EVGA)


Benchmark Settings

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Synthetic Benchmarks and Settings 
ProcyonVersion 2.1.459 64
 Office Suite (Office 365), Video Editing (Premiere Pro 22.6.2.2), Photo Editing (Photoshop 23.5.1, Lightroom Classic 11.5)
3DMarkVersion 2.22.7359 64
 Firestrike Extreme and Time Spy Default Presets
Cinebench R23Version RBBENCHMARK330542
 Open GL Benchmark - Single and Multi-threaded
BlenderVersion 3.3.0
 Full benchmark (all 3 tests)
Application Tests and Settings 
LAME MP3Version SSE2_2019
 Mixed 271MB WAV to mp3: Command: -b 160 --nores (160Kb/s)
HandBrake CLIVersion: 1.2.2
 Sintel Open Movie Project: 4.19GB 4K mkv to x264 (light AVX) and x265 (heavy AVX) 
Corona 1.4Version 1.4
 Custom benchmark
7-ZipVersion 21.03-beta
 Integrated benchmark (Command Line)
Game Tests and Settings 
Far Cry 6Ultra Preset - 1920 x 1080, HD Textures ON
F1 2022Ultra Preset - 1920 x 1080, Ultra High (default) Bahrain (Clear/Dry), FPS Counter ON

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Joe Shields
Joe Shields
Motherboard Reviewer

Joe Shields is a Freelance writer for Tom’s Hardware US. He reviews motherboards.

11 Comments Comment from the forums
  • ravewulf
    At this point, I'm considering waiting until we get a chipset refresh. Just too much I/O being stripped away from even the mid-range boards (which are priced as high-end boards)
    Reply
  • gg83
    With all the features cut out, what makes this a "gaming" motherboard?
    Reply
  • -Fran-
    That backside panel gave me depression for $120. I hope these ODMs and AMD get their stuffs together and get better products out for AM5. At that same price point, almost all of the B550 lineup is a thousand times better vis-a-vis; not even A520.

    Regards.
    Reply
  • Giroro
    I'm surprised AMD allows its partners to put 'X' branding on their A-series motherboards.
    That's a bit misleading.
    Reply
  • ohio_buckeye
    The board prices are getting better but need to get a little closer. I may wait until 8000 series and see where I am.
    Reply
  • sitehostplus
    gg83 said:
    With all the features cut out, what makes this a "gaming" motherboard?
    At under $200, it's gaming for the poverty crowd. And it does well enough at that to satisfy.

    I have a sneaky suspicion AMD is about to roll out some x3d magic for the Ryzen 3 crowd, and that's what this is for.
    Reply
  • sitehostplus
    ohio_buckeye said:
    The board prices are getting better but need to get a little closer. I may wait until 8000 series and see where I am.
    Your money, your choice. 🤗
    Reply
  • Amdlova
    Now I see what amd want with this a620 chipset.
    First can't overclock or do whatever you think you can do.
    Second can't meltdown your cpu and not spectre your soul
    Third you can't use pci5 ssd and fry other things

    Thanks AMD you think in us ..
    Reply
  • lmcnabney
    Article is confusing. Why pay $120 for the A620M Gaming X board when you can spend a whole $5 more for the B650M DS3H and get the second X4 M.2 and 2.5gb ethernet?
    Reply
  • lmcnabney
    sitehostplus said:
    At under $200, it's gaming for the poverty crowd.
    A console is gaming for the the poverty crowd. Or maybe it is for people that realize that you can cut your costs by 75% to get effectively the same performance?
    Reply