Shifting gears to software, the Aorus Engine software is designed to monitor and overclock Gigabyte's video cards. The lightweight application can adjust fan speeds and includes a button for one-touch access to the RGB Fusion 2.0 program for lighting control. It's a useful tool for high-level adjustments, keeping tabs on temperatures and other critical information.
As a part of the Aorus family, the software uses a black and orange theme for the background and sliders. In the middle are controls for the memory and fan speed adjustments as well as the power target (+20%). To the left is an area where user profiles are stored, while in the bottom right corner are buttons for hardware monitor and RGB Fusion and a small 'dummy light' to tell you if the fan is in semi-passive mode (off).
Fan control can be left on auto using the default curve, or you can create a custom curve. There is also a button to switch to manual mode and use the slider. This will set the fan speed at a static value regardless of temperature—you'll want to be careful not to set a static speed that's too low.
The Hardware Monitor pops out on the left and displays real-time information about the graphics card. This includes GPU and memory clocks, temperature, fan speed, power, VRAM use and more. Unlike some of the high-end cards, VRM and memory temperatures are not listed.
Lighting control is handled by Gigabyte's RGB Fusion 2.0 application. This can control any RGB lighting compatible with the RGB Fusion ecosystem. The software allows users to change speed, brightness, and color across six different effects.
MORE: Best Graphics Cards
MORE: Desktop GPU Performance Hierarchy Table
MORE: All Graphics Content