Gigabyte Launches Three High-End X470 Motherboards

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By Leon Chan
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Gigabyte’s X470 salvo consists of only high-end and enthusiast Aorus motherboards. There are three in total: the Gaming 7, the Gaming 5, and the Ultra Gaming. All three boards have dual M.2 slots, Gigabyte’s most advanced RGB lighting, and premium onboard audio.

X470 Aorus Gaming 7

Starting with the flagship, the X470 Aorus Gaming 7 comes absolutely loaded with RGB. Beyond the usual heatsink, I/O cover, and back-glow lighting accents, the Gaming 7 has RGB-lit DIMM slots and PCIe slots. Fortunately, all that bling is backed up with some pretty over-designed hardware. The Gaming 7’s power circuitry is cooled by one of the biggest motherboard heatsinks we’ve seen in a while. The extreme cooling extends to the M.2 slots, which are both on the front side of the board and are cooled by dedicated heatsinks. As if it just wanted to outdo its competition, Gigabyte used metal reinforcement on all of the Gaming 7’s PCIe x16 slots and even its RAM slots.

As expected, Gigabyte didn’t hold back on the value-add features, either. The Gaming 7 has integrated wireless like some other X470 motherboards, but it uses Intel’s new 1.73Gb/s-capable wireless solution that launched with the Coffee Lake mainstream chipsets. On the audio front, Gigabyte, like Asus, uses a dedicated ESS Technologies DAC chip and a dedicated headphone amplifier for improved sound.

X470 Aorus Gaming 5 and Ultra Gaming

Slightly down the line from the Gaming 7 are the Gaming 5 and Ultra Gaming. In terms of features, both of these are closely related, mainly separated by some bling factor. For starters, they both use the same power circuitry that is a step below the Gaming 7’s. The Gaming 5 loses the RGB-lit RAM slots but keeps the lit PCIe slots, whereas the Ultra Gaming has neither. Both boards lose the dedicated heatsink for the second M.2 slot, and the Ultra Gaming further lacks any integrated wireless solution. The Gaming 5’s integrated wireless is the same as the Gaming 7’s.

Features common to all of Gigabyte’s new X470 motherboards are the capability of full PCIe 3.0 x4 bandwidth on both M.2 slots, the inclusion of front and rear USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A and Type-C ports, and the inclusion of two of Gigabyte’s voltage-stable USB 3.0 ports for long cable runs. All of the motherboards also fully support the Gigabyte RGB Fusion lighting ecosystem, which can use digital and static RGB LEDs. However, Gigabyte’s ecosystem uses different RGB headers from Asus, MSI, and Asrock.

Gigabyte didn’t announce pricing and availability of its new X470 motherboards.

Gigabyte X470 Aorus Gaming 5 WiFi

Gigabyte X470 Aorus Ultra Gaming

Gigabyte X470 Aorus Gaming 7 WiFi

Leon Chan
5 Comments Comment from the forums
  • bigbrave1024
    Absolutely loaded with LEDs?! Most advanced RGB lighting?! Guess you haven't seen the GIGABYTE X299 AORUS Gaming 9? If you was looking for it in an AMD favor, you wouldn't see it, GIGABYTE never made one. My point is, this board is very nice in terms of what we usually see for an AMD version, but nothing compared to what GIGABYTE is capable of providing and it's lacking a lot compared to the Z-series (Intel) GIGABYTE boards.

    All the AIB partners never make AMD products as nice or feature rich as they make for the Intel and Nvidia products.
    Reply
  • Karadjgne
    Honestly, the Ultra gaming is the best looking imho. All that useless bling does is distract from what's really needed to be highlighted, the components. Give me an invisible board anyday, I want the rest of the stuff to stand out. Wonder how long before the on-board wifi is obsolete, just like the onboard wifi on my z77. $15 pcie x1 tp-link is far faster.
    Reply
  • Malik 722
    the vrm cooling heat sinks looks lot more practical than any of the so called heat sinks offered on intel based motherboards.
    Reply
  • Karadjgne
    True. But I wonder if Gigabyte did their homework, fully, this time. I have an MSI Mpower Z77, just like the Giga boards, it has massive, pipe fed heatsinks on the VRM's. You'd think that'd be a bonus. It's honestly not. Here's the dilemma. Massive heatsinks mean that supposedly, you can really push the OC to its limits and not worry about the VRM's cooking. Which means for that high OC, you need the biggest of coolers, NH-D15 type for air or 280mm aio. The aircooler doesn't fit. The heatsinks are so close to the socket, so tall that the heat piping on the under side of those massive aircoolers makes contact with the VRM's heatsinks. You can't seat the cooler. So a mobo built for high, stable OC that won't OC to limits due to lack of cooling.
    So, did Giga do their homework with the more popular brand huge towers and make sure the heatsinks clear? Or is this another mobo slated for aio only high OC.
    Reply
  • plotinusredux
    "full PCIe 3.0 x4 bandwidth on both M.2 slots" Is that accurate? Everything I've seen you get 16x and 4x pcie 3.0 from the cpu, and just pcie 2.0 from the chipset, so where are the 2nd 4x 3.0's coming from?
    Reply