With new CPUs and a new socket also come new chipsets and motherboards. The launch chipset to go alongside of the new Intel Core Ultra CPUs is Z890 which follows the same making scheme that Intel has used in the past. I am surprised though that it didn’t change alongside of the new CPU naming scheme. To start things off, the first board to come in was the Gigabyte Z890 Aorus Pro Ice. Gigabyte is launching 17 models in total with four of those being the Ice model like we have here which have a white theme. Some of those have a matching non-Ice model as well but the Z890 Aorus Pro Ice doesn’t. Today I’m going to dive in and see what kind of features they have included with this board and run it through our test suite as well. So without wasting any more time, let’s get to it!

Product Name: Gigabyte Z890 Aorus Pro Ice

Review Sample Provided by: Gigabyte

Written by: Wes Compton

Amazon Affiliate Link: HERE

 

Specifications

CPU

LGA1851 socket: Support for Intel® Core™ Ultra Processors

L3 cache varies with CPU

* Please refer to "CPU Support List" for more information.

Chipset

Intel® Z890 Express Chipset

Memory

Support for DDR5 9500(O.C) / 9466(O.C) / 9333(O.C) / 9200(O.C)/ 9066(O.C) / 8933(O.C) /8800(O.C) /8600(O.C) / 8400(O.C) /8266(O.C) / 8200(O.C) / 8000(O.C) / 7950(O.C) / 7900(O.C) / 7800(O.C) / 7600(O.C.) / 7400(O.C.) / 7200(O.C.) / 7000(O.C.) / 6800(O.C.) / 6600(O.C.) / 6400 / 6200 / 6000 / 5800 / 5600MT/s memory modules.

4 x DDR5 DIMM sockets supporting up to 256 GB (64 GB single DIMM capacity) of system memory

Dual channel memory architecture

Support for ECC Un-buffered DIMM 1Rx8/2Rx8 memory modules (operate in non-ECC mode)

Support for non-ECC Un-buffered DIMM 1Rx8/2Rx8/1Rx16 memory modules

Support for Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) memory modules

Support CUDIMM memory module

(The CPU and memory configuration may affect the supported memory types, data rate (speed), and number of DRAM modules, please refer to "Memory Support List" for more information.)

Onboard Graphics

Integrated Graphics Processor-Intel® HD Graphics support:

- 2 x Intel® Thunderbolt™ 4 connectors (USB4® USB Type-C® ports), supporting DisplayPort and Thunderbolt™ video outputs

When a Thunderbolt™ monitor is installed, the maximum resolution supported is 5120x2880@60 Hz with 24 bpp (single display output).

When a USB4® USB Type-C® monitor is installed, the maximum resolution supported is 3840x2160@240 Hz (single display output).

* Because of the limited I/O resources of the PC architecture, the number of Thunderbolt™ devices that can be used is dependent on the number of the PCI Express devices being installed. (Refer to Chapter 2-6, "Back Panel Connectors," for more information.)

* Support for DisplayPort 1.4 version and HDCP 2.3

 

- 1 x front HDMI port, supporting a maximum resolution of 1920x1080@30 Hz

* Support for HDMI 1.4 version.

 

(Graphics specifications may vary depending on CPU support.)

Support for up to triple-display at the same time

Audio

Realtek® ALC1220 CODEC

* The back panel line out jack supports DSD audio.

 

High Definition Audio

2/4/5.1/7.1-channel

* You can change the functionality of an audio jack using the audio software. To configure 7.1-channel audio, access the audio software for audio settings.

 

Support for S/PDIF Out

LAN

Realtek® 5GbE LAN chip (5 Gbps/2.5 Gbps/1 Gbps/100 Mbps)

Wireless Communication module

Intel® Wi-Fi 7 BE200

- 802.11a, b, g, n, ac, ax, be, supporting 2.4/5/6 GHz carrier frequency bands

- BLUETOOTH 5.4

- Support for 11be 320MHz wireless standard

(Actual data rate may vary depending on environment and equipment.)

* Wi-Fi 7 features require Windows 11 SV3 to function properly. (There is no support driver for Windows 10.)

 

** Wi-Fi 7 channels on 6 GHz band availability depends on individual country's regulations.

Expansion Slots

CPU:

- 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, supporting PCIe 5.0 and running at x16 (PCIEX16)

* The PCIEX16 slot can only support a graphics card or an NVMe SSD. If only one graphics card is to be installed, be sure to install it in the PCIEX16 slot.

 

Chipset:

- 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, supporting PCIe 4.0 and running at x4 (PCIEX4)

- 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, supporting PCIe 4.0 and running at x1 (PCIEX1)

Storage Interface

CPU:

- 1 x M.2 connector (Socket 3, M key, type 25110/22110/2580/2280 PCIe 5.0 x4/x2 SSD support) (M2A_CPU)

- 1 x M.2 connector (Socket 3, M key, type 22110/2280 PCIe 4.0 x4/x2 SSD support) (M2B_CPU)

Chipset:

- 1 x M.2 connector (Socket 3, M key, type 22110/2280 PCIe 4.0 x4/x2 SSD support) (M2Q_SB)

- 1 x M.2 connector (Socket 3, M key, type 2280 PCIe 4.0 x4/x2 SSD support) (M2P_SB)

- 1 x M.2 connector (Socket 3, M key, type 2280 SATA and PCIe 4.0 x4/x2 SSD support) (M2M_SB)

- 4 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors

RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10 support for NVMe SSD storage devices

RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10 support for SATA storage devices

USB

CPU:

- 2 x Intel® Thunderbolt™ 4 (USB Type-C®) ports on the back panel

*Support up to 40Gbps with Thunderbolt devices

*Support up to 20Gbps with USB4 devices

*Support up to 10Gbps with USB 3.2 devices

 

Chipset:

- 1 x USB Type-C® port with USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 support, available through the internal USB header

- 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports (red) on the back panel

- 6 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports (4 ports on the back panel, 2 ports available through the internal USB header)

 

Chipset+3 USB 2.0 Hubs:

- 8 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports (4 ports on the back panel, 4 ports available through the internal USB headers)

Internal I/O Connectors

1 x 24-pin ATX main power connector

2 x 8-pin ATX 12V power connectors

1 x CPU fan header

1 x CPU fan/water cooling pump header

4 x system fan headers

2 x system fan/water cooling pump headers

3 x addressable RGB Gen2 LED strip headers

1 x RGB LED strip header

5 x M.2 Socket 3 connectors

4 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors

1 x front panel header

1 x front panel audio header

1 x HDMI port (Note)

1 x USB Type-C® header, with USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 support

1 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 header

2 x USB 2.0/1.1 headers

1 x Trusted Platform Module header (For the GC-TPM2.0 SPI/GC-TPM2.0 SPI 2.0/GC-TPM2.0 SPI V2 module only)

1 x Q-Flash Plus button

1 x noise detection header

1 x power button

1 x reset button

1 x reset jumper

1 x Clear CMOS jumper

 

(Note) Actual support may vary by CPU.

Back Panel Connectors

4 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports

2 x antenna connectors (2T2R)

4 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports

2 x Intel® Thunderbolt™ 4 connectors (USB Type-C® ports)

2 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports (red)

1 x RJ-45 port

1 x optical S/PDIF Out connector

2 x audio jacks

I/O Controller

iTE® I/O Controller Chip

H/W Monitoring

Voltage detection

Temperature detection

Fan speed detection

Water cooling flow rate detection

Fan fail warning

Fan speed control

* Whether the fan (pump) speed control function is supported will depend on the fan(pump) you install.

 

Noise detection

BIOS

1 x 256 Mbit flash

Use of licensed AMI UEFI BIOS

PnP 1.0a, DMI 2.7, WfM 2.0, SM BIOS 2.7, ACPI 5.0

Unique Features

Support for GIGABYTE Control Center (GCC)

 

Support for Q-Flash

Support for Q-Flash Plus

Support for Smart Backup

Bundled Software

Norton® Internet Security (OEM version)

LAN bandwidth management software

Operating System

Support for Windows 11 64-bit

Form Factor

ATX Form Factor; 30.5cm x 24.4cm

 


Packaging and Accessories

The Z890 Aorus Pro Ice’s box has a bright white background that matches the Ice theme of the board. The front has black line drawings of the Aorus eagle logo and has Aorus branding in a light grey all across the background. The model name has the largest font and below that they let you know that it is an LGA 1851 socket motherboard, has PCI 5 and DDR5 support. The back of the box has the same bright white background. The back also has a picture of the Z890 Aorus Pro Ice along with four other photos that touch on a few of the board's main features. The back has a basic specification listing along with a line drawing of the rear I/O which combined gives you a good idea of what you are getting if you are shopping in retail.  

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When you get inside, the Z890 Aorus Pro Ice comes wrapped up in a static protective bag, like always. On top of that Gigabyte has a folded-up piece of cardboard on top that keeps the board from moving around and then it sits in another cardboard tray that can be pulled out. Up under that, you have the documentation and accessories. Gigabyte included a universal installation guide and then a Z890-specific guide as well. You also get an ice-themed set of white stickers with different Aorus logos and branding all over them. For accessories, you get a few different cables. Two are thermal sensors that you can attach in other locations in your PC to monitor more than just the motherboard’s sensors. There is also a sound sensor as well that ties in with the lighting controls. You get two SATA cables, one of which has a right-angled connection on one end. Those are bright white to match the board which is great to see. There is a small helper for the front panel connections, you use that to plug all of the hard to plug in front panel connections out in the open where it is easier, then you plug the whole thing into the Z890 Aorus Pro Ice all at once. That helper is white as well. Then there is a fan and mount. They call this the DDR Wind Blade and it mounts to give active cooling to your memory.

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Last up you do also get a wireless antenna. This design is the same as we saw on the X870 Aorus Elite Wifi7 only this time around it is bright white to match the Ice theme of the Z890 Aorus Pro Ice. This antenna has a single connection that you plug in, skipping the old screw-on antenna connections. The antenna itself is a lot more compact than what I have seen from Asus and MSI boards. It doesn’t have too much of a base or a rubber mount at all but it does have magnets inside to stick it to your case.

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Board Layout and Pictures

It’s a little hard to take in some of the visual features on the Z890 Aorus Pro Ice because everything is whited out for the Iced theme other than some of the heatsinks which have a light silver finish that pairs well with the white. The Z890 Aorus Pro Ice has all of the plastic components on the board in white including the CPU socket protector even. Beyond that, it has large heatsinks around the CPU socket that tie in with the rear I/O and heatsinks over the chipset and the board’s FIVE M.2 slots. Those cover up most of the board except for the connections and features all around the outside edge. I was happy with the previous X870 Aorus Elite Wifi7 that I took a look at which had the black and grey finish, but the white looks even better for sure.

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Let’s start by checking out the cooling around the Z890 Aorus Pro Ice and like I mentioned before a good majority of the board is covered up by it all. Up around the new LGA1851 socket, it has heatsinks at the top, left, and bottom of the CPU socket. The top and left heatsinks both serve the same function, cooling the board's VRMs. The Z890 Aorus Pro Ice has a 16+1+2 phase configuration half of those are under the left cooler and the other half are under the top heatsink. They have a heatpipe that ties the two together. The top heatsink has groves on both sides but the groves in the edge away from the CPU socket are deeper giving it an F-like shape and helping with more surface area. The heatsink on the side ties and doubles as the cover over the rear I/O. Looking in at the top they do have two more fins inside, but overall a majority of that space inside isn’t used, and unlike on some of the Asus boards they don’t have a heatsink tucked away inside of there to help cool the NIC.

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Below the CPU socket, you have the first of the M.2 cooler heatsinks and this heatsink cools just one. This is the PCIe 5.0 M.2 slot so dedicated cooling is needed. The heatsink has a raised area on the left side in silver with the additional surface area then on the right, it is flat and has the white finish on it. What I like about it though is the quick disconnect setup which has a metal clip that you spin and release the left side of the heatsink. The right side is latched in so it just lifts up and out. The M.2 mount is similar as well, only plastic to prevent damage to the drive meaning you don’t need any tools to install a drive. Gigabyte had thermal pads on both the top heatsink and below the M.2 drive as well to pull the heat out all over. The bottom heatsink that covers most of the board has a similar mounting setup as well. It has two pins that connect on the right side and then one spin latch on the left holding it all down. This heatsink sits over the four other M.2 drives which are all PCIe 4.0. It is low profile to sit below your video card but does have the Aorus branding on it as well as the eagle logo in white on the silver brushed aluminum finish. On the right side, under it is a second aluminum heatsink that covers the chipset. There aren’t thermal pads between the two but metal-to-metal combined with what should be low temperatures from the chipset shouldn’t be too bad. These four M.2 drives have thermal pads on the top heatsink but there isn’t an underside heatsink or thermal pad on the bottom like the PCIe 5 drive slot has.

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With the heatsink off we get a good look at the M.2 and PCIe slot configuration so we might as well touch on all of that. There are a total of 5 M.2 slots on the Z890 Aorus Pro Ice and three x16 length PCIe slots. The top slot is the only PCIe 5 slot and also the only slot that runs at full x16 bandwidth. This slot is designed with huge metal shielding as well to give it more strength to help hold today's large video cards. The two other slots towards the bottom of the board, while x16 in length have x4 and x1 lanes and are both PCI 4.0. Those run off of the chipset where the top slot ties directly to the CPU. Of the five M.2 slots, like I mentioned before the top slot is the only PCIe 5.0 option. That and the second slot which is PCIe 4.0 both run off of the CPU. The other three all run off of the Z890 chipset. Those are all PCIe 4.0 as well and the last slot also has SATA support as well. Surprisingly none of them don’t work if you are using a specific PCIe slot, but I guess that is also why those bottom PCIe slots are only 1x and 4x lanes. All of the M.2 slots support standard 2280 length drives but three of them support longer drives with the PCIe 5 slot going up to 25110 length M.2 drives.

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Starting in the top left corner, let’s take a look at some of the features around the Z890 Aorus Pro Ice. Most of this area is filled with the CPU socket and the rear I/O but Gigabyte did fit in the two 8-pin CPU power connections up next to the top heatsink. They are both in a nice white to match the board and then next to that there is one 4-pin PWM fan header as well. A lot of boards have been skipping this fan header location and I’m glad to see it here because it is perfect for plugging in a rear fan on most cases.

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While the top right also has the CPU socket as well as the four DDR5 RAM slots filling up a lot of its space, there is still a lot going on in this area. For starters the ram slots are all bright white, often with these white boards we still see these in black or silver. Gigabyte has also shielded the two main slots that you will be using unless you use all four DIMMs. Up above them are two 4-pin PWM fan headers for the CPU and next to that is an addressable RGB lighting header. In the corner itself, they have a white 2-digit display as a status/error code display and with that, you get power, reset, and a third button which is the QF Plus or Q Flash Plus button for flashing the BIOS. Next to the status display, there are small LEDs that let you know what part of the boot you are on and help when you have a boot issue that you need to diagnose. Along the side, the Z890 Aorus Pro Ice has a bright white 24-pin motherboard power connection. Then below that are two more 4-pin PWM fan headers (5 in total so far) and a DB sense header to plug in the included sound sensor. Last up below that is the USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 front panel connection.

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The start of the bottom right quadrant has a large white button that is to the right of the top PCIe slot. This is the release button for the latch to make it easy to remove a large video card. If you haven’t fought with fitting something down in a tight space to push down on the clip, you don’t know just how helpful this is. Everything else on the right edge of the Z890 Aorus Pro Ice is all right-angled connections. You get four white SATA ports and a white legacy USB 3.2 connection. Then Gigabyte has also slipped in an HDMI port which might seem crazy but is a way to output to the small displays that a few new cases have inside. In the bottom right corner, you have the front panel connection which is all labeled. You then have three more 4-pin PWM fan headers (totaling 8 now).  On the far left there are two USB 2.0 headers as well.

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For the bottom left continuing along the bottom edge we have the TPM header. Then there are three RGB headers. Two are addressable RGB giving us a total of 3 and I’m happy to see one legacy regular RGB header here as well. On the far left is the front panel audio connection which is up against the audio chipset which has a white plastic cover over most of it. You can see that they have isolated at least some of that chipset with the PCB gap.

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The rear I/O for the Z890 Aorus Pro Ice comes with the shield pre-installed which is commonplace but still great to see. It is bright white to match the rest of the board and beyond the Aorus branding, each of the connections is labeled as well so you can figure out what is what. On the far right, you have the audio connections. The Z890 Aorus Pro Ice runs the Realtek ALC1220 CODEC and while there are just line out, mic in, and optical connections it does support 2/4*5.1/7.1 channels. Next to that is the dual snap-in connection for the wireless antenna. It uses the Intel Wi-Fi 7 BE200 wireless NIC to get Wifi 7. There is one wired ethernet connection that runs on the Realtek 5GbE. From there everything else is a USB connection. There are two red USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports and below that there are two Type-C connections that support up to Thunderbolt 4. There are four USB 3.2 Gen 1 connections which are all blue and four standard USB 2.0 ports in white. What is missing however is an onboard video output. You can use the two Thunderbolt 4 connections to output to a display if you have a display that supports that. Beyond that, you can use the internal HDMI port.

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You would expect to see a bright white bottom when flipping the Z890 Aorus Pro Ice over but surprisingly a majority of the bottom has a darker grey finish and they have some white accents with Aorus branding on it. The bottom does show that the base of the PCIe x16 slot has more support back here to give it more strength. Beyond that, we can see that some of the audio PCB is isolated, but there are three big gaps in it as well so there isn’t full isolation.

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BIOS

Rather than have stacks of pictures I put together a basic video that just goes through and clicks on each menu option in the BIOS so if there is anything you want to check out you can see it and pause when needed. The BIOS for the Z890 Aorus Pro Ice surprised me right away because Gigabyte has it themed out to match the motherboard with a silver/white background across the entire BIOS. It’s a nice touch that brings it all together. The starting landing page is the Easy Mode page. This has your memory and CPU frequencies, voltages, and temperatures all in the middle. Around that you can see details like what CPU you are running, RAM, bios revision, and fan speeds. You can turn on your XMP profiles, Re-Size Bar, and other common options here as well as set Intel’s Baseline, performance, or extreme modes. You can also change your boot order here but it doesn’t click and drag as you would expect, you need to click on it and drag it on the page it opens.

From there I went to the advanced mode. This is what you would normally expect for a BIOS and you start off right in the thick of things with the Tweaker tab. On every page on the right, you can see CPU, Memory, and Voltage information. Then on the left, you can work your way down through the options. When you mouse or arrow over something, down at the bottom you will sometimes get a description of what it is to help. Things with an orange arrow open up a menu and for some things depending on your setting, it will open up more options. For example, an Auto setting will keep things simple but manual mode will open up the manual options below it once you click it. This is a nice way to keep some features hidden away to simplify things but it does mean you will sometimes have things hidden away. The Tweaker page has all of your overclock-specific options. From there up top you have the settings page. This dives into board features and settings. The mouse and keyboard navigation was nice but I did notice here that when you open up some menus the escape button doesn’t take you back, it will exit the entire BIOS so doing keyboard only navigation can get difficult. On top of that when you go into a menu it will add an exit button in the bottom left but there are some menus where that button just doesn’t work at all and you have to click up top to the settings tab and start over.

The system Info tab is what you would normally see when you first enter a BIOS. This has your time settings, BIOS revision, and more. Then next up is the boot menu. You can change boot settings, swap your boot order here, and set up a boot password if you want. Down along the bottom Gigabyte has added two tools. You can open up the Smart Fan 6 menu by clicking the button or pressing F6. This lets you set up all of your fan profiles. You can use some of the default settings or make your own profiles and here you can set details like if you want the fans to stop altogether and what temperature input you want that specific fan to run off of. I only had CPU as an option, but this can be great when it picks up your GPU to set fans near your GPU to worry about it. The other tool is the Q-Flash tool, which is the tool you use to update your BIOS.

 


Test Rig and Procedures

Test System

CPU: Intel Core Ultra 9 285K– Live Pricing

Cooling: Enermax LIQMAXFLO 360mm Liquid CPU Cooler - Live Pricing

Noctua NT-H1 Thermal PasteLive Pricing

  Memory:   Crucial Pro OC 32GB 6400 MHz CP2K16G64C38U5B - Live Pricing

Storage:   Crucial T700 2TB - Live Pricing

Video Card: Nvidia RTX 4090 FELive Pricing

Power Supply: Corsair AX1200Live Pricing

Case: Primochill Wetbench - Live Pricing

OS: Windows 11 Pro 64-bitLive Pricing

   

Motherboard Testing

Passmark Performance Test 11

Overall PCMark score

PCMark 10

PCMark 10 standard test, not the quick or extended versions

3DMark

We run the newer Speed Way benchmark, Time Spy on its regular setting, and Time Spy Extreme.

In Game Tests

Watch Dogs Legion

4K, In-Game Benchmark, Ultra detail

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands Breakpoint

4K, In-Game benchmark, Ultra Detail profile

Far Cry 6

4K, In-Game benchmark, Ultra detail setting

Subsystem Testing

Network Testing

OpenSpeedTest local server

 

 


Performance

When it comes to performance testing, typically motherboard to motherboard we aren’t going to see any big performance difference when running the same components and clock speeds. The exception to that is when boards are auto overclocking of course and there are a few areas where components can make a difference like with ethernet and USB controllers. For testing the Z890 Aorus Pro Ice, with it being the first Z890 board that I’ve tested I don’t have any comparison numbers for the test results below. Those will come later when I check out other Z890 options. However, I did want to focus on the network performance. Even just testing on our Wifi 6E network, not Wifi 7 which the Z890 Aorus Pro Ice supports. Its wireless performance was great at 1631 Mb/s. The wireled Realtek NIC is 5GbE and it was in line there as well at just under with 4743 Mb/s. I will say that the 5GbE NIC as a whole seems like a weight stopgap. I get the use of 2.5GbE NICs as that has become more popular in consumer hardware recently. But in any situation where you are getting the full speed out of a 5GbE NIC, you are running 10GbE network gear and might as well have 10GbE on the board. That said, given some of the reliability issues in previous generation 10GbE NICs maybe this is a happy medium for now.

3DMark – Speed Way

Motherboard

Overall Score

Gigabyte Z890 Aorus Pro Ice

10121

  3DMark – Time Spy

Motherboard

Overall Score

Graphics Score

CPU Score

Gigabyte Z890 Aorus Pro Ice

31412

36463

17599

3DMark – Time Spy Extreme

Motherboard

Overall Score

Graphics Score

CPU Score

Gigabyte Z890 Aorus Pro Ice

17608

18948

12572

PCMark 10 Score

Motherboard

Overall Score

Essentials

Productivity

Content Creation

Gigabyte Z890 Aorus Pro Ice

10254

12221

11796

20296

Passmark PerformanceTest 11

Motherboard

Overall

CPU Mark

2D Graphics Mark

3d Graphics Mark

Memory Mark

Gigabyte Z890 Aorus Pro Ice

17938.3

65912.5

1440.3

36481.5

3960.7

Watch Dogs Legion – 4K Ultra Detail – Average FPS

Gigabyte Z890 Aorus Pro Ice

119 FPS

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands Breakpoint – 4K Ultra Detail Preset - Average FPS

Gigabyte Z890 Aorus Pro Ice

145 FPS

Far Cry 6 – 4K Ultra Detail - Average FPS

Gigabyte Z890 Aorus Pro Ice

138 FPS

Average Network Speed – WiFi 6E - Mbits/Sec

Gigabyte Z890 Aorus Pro Ice - Intel Wi-Fi 7 BE200

1631.1 Mbits/sec

Average Network Speed – wired on 10G Network - Mbits/Sec

Gigabyte Z890 Aorus Pro Ice - Realtek 5GbE LAN

 4743.9 Mbits/sec

                     

Before finishing up my testing I did want to check out the lighting on the Z890 Aorus Pro Ice and Gigabyte has lighting in two locations. Up under the main M.2 heatsink, they have some undergrows, and then over the rear I/O that heatsink has the Aorus branding backlit. This is better than what I have seen on some boards which isn’t spread out at all and there isn’t too much lighting that will chase off someone who isn’t interested in lighting at all. Beyond that, you also have the status LED display as well. I was surprised to see that they did light that up in white to match the white board, that’s a nice touch!

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I also ran the 286K using AIDA64’s CPU stress test with the FPU workload for a half hour to heat up the VRMs to get a look at how well the heatsinks were handling things there. The hottest spot in our thermal images was 53c but that was up against the CPU. 51.1c was how warm the PCB in the top left corner where the two sets of VRMs are closest as well as the CPU. The heatsink on top ran warmer than the larger one on the left but overall both heatsinks were spreading the heat around and cooling. A little larger on the top heatsink is the only thing that I would improve there.

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Overall and Final Verdict

With all of our testing out of the way, we can step back and look at the whole picture for the Z890 Aorus Pro Ice. The first thing that I have to say is that this is a great-looking motherboard. The Ice theme with its white with some silver accents looks amazing but it comes down to the details that set this one apart. Details like all of the small connections and plastic parts being white, even going as far as to have the status LED display being white and using white LEDs as well. Even the BIOS itself is a white/silver to match. Setting up a system in the Z890 Aorus Pro Ice was easy, especially their M.2 mounting setup which has a tool-less latch for the drive (standard these days) and tool-less latches for the M.2 heatsinks as well. On top of all of that, you get an impressive 5 M.2 slots in total with one being PCIe 5.0 and the others being 4.0. I was also impressed that even with 5 M.2 slots and the three PCIe slots, the Z890 Aorus Pro Ice doesn’t have any slots that don’t work when another device is being used. We see a lot of boards have an M.2 slot that stops working when you populate the second PCIe slot or something similar but that doesn’t happen here.

The Z890 Aorus Pro Ice did have a few downsides but most of these are small or nothing burgers. The biggest one was how the BIOS navigates. I ran into a few issues where the exit button for menus wouldn’t work and you have to click up top to restart, on top of that keyboard navigation didn’t seem to have a proper back button unless I missed it. The other issue, which a lot of people won't care at all about, was that the Z890 Aorus Pro Ice doesn’t have a traditional display output on the rear I/O. You get an HDMI inside for use with an internal screen which is nice and you have two Thunderbolt connections which can function as a display out, but a lot of people still need an HDMI or DisplayPort connection for their displays. This isn’t the setup that a lot of people will need or use their integrated graphics, but sometimes you do need it when it comes to diagnosing an issue for example. Beyond that, I noted that I would love to see a 10G NIC here and I did want to clarify on this one. The 5G NIC on the Z890 Aorus Pro Ice performed well and frankly, a lot of people don’t need more than a 2.5G, but with any 5GbE NIC, to use it you are going to be setting up a 10GbE network.

Overall though, Gigabyte did a great job with the Z890 Aorus Pro Ice. For pricing the MSRP is $399.99 which isn’t cheap. Especially once you pair it up with one of the new CPUs, but that is in line with the features you are getting. Gigabyte has also made a point to get their white motherboard pricing matched up with the black boards as well, so that premium that we used to see is no longer there which is great to see.

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Author Bio
garfi3ld
Author: garfi3ldWebsite: http://lanoc.org
Editor-in-chief
You might call him obsessed or just a hardcore geek. Wes's obsession with gaming hardware and gadgets isn't anything new, he could be found taking things apart even as a child. When not poking around in PC's he can be found playing League of Legends, Awesomenauts, or Civilization 5 or watching a wide variety of TV shows and Movies. A car guy at heart, the same things that draw him into tweaking cars apply when building good looking fast computers. If you are interested in writing for Wes here at LanOC you can reach out to him directly using our contact form.

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