At first we weren’t entirely sure, but now, after testing several models, it’s pretty clear – the Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7 motherboard from Gigabyte deserves the Smart buy! editorial award. The set of its features in ratio to the price is really attractive. At around 340 EUR, it can be a good choice even for the most powerful CPU of the Intel LGA 1851 platform – the Core Ultra 9 285K.
The provisional editorial award “Approved” is being changed to the more prestigious one – “Smart buy!“. This is the conclusion regarding the Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7 motherboard. This isn’t a dramatic reversal, and readers of motherboard tests will recall that we were already considering awarding it the Smart buy! award when it wasn’t yet clear how competitive models would stand up relatively. After testing the MSI MPG Z890 Carbon WiFi and the Asus ROG Strix Z890 Gaming WiFi, we can give the (Gigabyte) Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7 that prestigious award with a clear consciousness.
There are several reasons for this decision. One is the above-standard power efficiency of this motherboard and also the lower temperature of its VRM. This is a really strong point in the price class of the Z890 Aorus Elite. Sure, the temperature results and overall power consumption results are also largely due to the less aggressive power supply (for which there is more room on other boards), but that’s also the point when it comes to the most favorable operating characteristics immediately after plugging in, without additional user intervention in the BIOS settings.
Apart from the measurable results of the operating characteristics and computing (or gaming) performance of the platform built on this motherboard, the Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7 is also characterized by a more premium design or generous features, although internally you only have to rely on two USB 3.2. gen. 1 ports or only four SATA ports. But these numbers are also common on significantly more expensive motherboards.
You can find the complete analysis of the Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7 motherboard at this link. It was also the MSI MAG Z890 Tomahawk WiFi motherboard that left HWCooling with the “Smart Buy!” award. However, we don’t have it tested in a full comparison with the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K processor (and the results obtained are with the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K).
English translation and edit by Jozef Dudáš
