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Firmware, Software and Test System

Firmware

Gigabyte’s Aorus Ultra BIOS is much like the previous generation and matches the Aorus Pro and Master we reviewed previously. It starts in an informational EZ Mode that displays system information with limited functionality. You can enable XMP profiles from here, access Smart Fan 6 for fan control, Q-Flash, or the Advanced Mode.

When working in the Advanced portion of the BIOS, major headers are listed across the top, with sub-headings below. Everything is easy to find, but many common functions for overclocking are located in separate sections, so you have to bounce around a bit compared to other BIOS layouts. I still wish the company would enable page up/down functionality, but the BIOS is easy to read, and it’s not too hard to find what you’re looking for outside of that.

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Gigabyte Z690 Aorus Ultra — (Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

Software

On the software side of things, Gigabyte’s primary tool is the App Center. This application is a central repository for all its applications, some Windows settings, and other third-party software. Simply download the applications you want, install them, and an icon shows up on the screen. We installed @BIOS (BIOS flashing utility), Easy Tune (overclocking/system tweaking), RGB Fusion 2.0 (to control RGB lighting) and last but not least, SIV (for monitoring). The Gigabyte website has many other helpful applications, including USB charging, LAN, and more that aren’t covered here. Overall, I like App Center’s small footprint and found its tools helpful.

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Test System / Comparison Products

As of October 2021, we’ve updated our test system to Windows 11 64-bit OS with all updates applied. We kept the same Asus TUF RTX 3070 video card from our previous testing platforms but updated the driver to version 496.13. Additionally, our game selection was updated, as noted in the table below. We use the latest non-beta motherboard BIOS available to the public unless otherwise noted. The hardware we used is as follows:

Test System Components

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CPU	Intel Core i9-12900K
Memory	Kingston Fury DDR5 5200 CL40 (9KF552C40BBK2-32)
Row 2 - Cell 0	GSkill Trident Z DDR5 5600 CL36 (F5-5600U3636C16GX2-TZ5RK)
GPU	Asus TUF RTX 3070
Cooling	MSI MEG Coreliquid S360
PSU	EVGA Supernova 850W P6
Software	Windows 11 64-bit (21H2, Build 22000.282)
Graphics Driver	NVIDIA Driver 496.13
Sound	Integrated HD audio
Network	Integrated Networking (GbE or 2.5 GbE)

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

Benchmark Settings

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Synthetic Benchmarks and Settings	Row 0 - Cell 1
Procyon	Version 2.0.249 64
Row 2 - Cell 0	Office Suite, Video Editing (Premiere Pro), Photo Editing (Photoshop, Lightroom Classic)
3DMark	Version 2.20.7290 64
Row 4 - Cell 0	Firestrike Extreme and Time Spy Default Presets
Cinebench R23	Version RBBENCHMARK330542
Row 6 - Cell 0	Open GL Benchmark - Single and Multi-threaded
Blender	Version 2.93.1
Row 8 - Cell 0	Full benchmark (all six sub-tests)
Application Tests and Settings	Row 9 - Cell 1
LAME MP3	Version SSE2_2019
Row 11 - Cell 0	Mixed 271MB WAV to mp3: Command: -b 160 --nores (160Kb/s)
HandBrake CLI	Version: 1.2.2
Row 13 - Cell 0	Sintel Open Movie Project: 4.19GB 4K mkv to x264 (light AVX) and x265 (heavy AVX)
Corona 1.4	Version 1.4
Row 15 - Cell 0	Custom benchmark
7-Zip	Version 21.03-beta
Row 17 - Cell 0	Integrated benchmark (Command Line)
Game Tests and Settings	Row 18 - Cell 1
Far Cry 6	Ultra Preset - 1920 x 1080, HD Textures ON
F1 2021	Ultra Preset - 1920 x 1080, HBAO+, RT Med, TAA + 16xAF, Bahrain, fps Counter ON