Z490 Aorus PRO AX review

Mainboards 328 Page 1 of 1 Published by

Click here to post a comment for Z490 Aorus PRO AX review on our message forum
https://forums.guru3d.com/data/avatars/m/178/178348.jpg
So, Z490 then. PCIe 4 doesnt work, 2.5 Gbps ethernet doesnt work. So what exactly is the advantage over Z390 other than you're lighter by £70-£80. Intel should have waited until this platfortm was ready.
https://forums.guru3d.com/data/avatars/m/147/147322.jpg
little offtopic ... I found this weird, I got Gigabyte Z490M Gaming X and I need to install network driver from CD, because support for this motherboard does not offer network driver and latest Windows 10 2004 installation does not have a network driver present.
https://forums.guru3d.com/data/avatars/m/273/273678.jpg
people with intel lan should just use the latest intel release.
data/avatar/default/avatar11.webp
the rear i/o heatsink has become so ginormous that I tough it was a mini-atx board lol apparently that's the norm now apparently, I wonder how much of it is related to the 2.5+ ethernet controllers as 10Gbe is runs hot or if it's just volume space used to cool the heatpipe I wish they moved the extra power pins on the right side like AMD, it's super annoying to cable them in the upper right corner in mid-towers
https://forums.guru3d.com/data/avatars/m/147/147322.jpg
Astyanax:

people with intel lan should just use the latest intel release.
I would like to, but any driver from Intel does not detect the LAN, only driver from Gigabyte CD works.
data/avatar/default/avatar34.webp
they might have gone "full re...." sorry "full msi" maybe lol MSI has drivers and utilities to download on their website (MSI creator for trx40 creator motherboard) except they are UWP and UWP only install properly from the MS store so if you try to download and install from their website it doesn't work or will heavily bug you need to find and download them from the ms store and bam it works properly (something that several popular youtubers didn't catch ,well all of them really as I can see in their pc build or motherboard review videos that most of MSI apps are missing half the menus lol) here it's different but I'm thinking kind of the same problem, manufacturers seem to have problems managing the new windows 10 environement
https://forums.guru3d.com/data/avatars/m/273/273678.jpg
SpajdrEX:

I would like to, but any driver from Intel does not detect the LAN, only driver from Gigabyte CD works.
then there are no further drivers for this device yet, i can't even tell what phy is used, gigabyte don't mention if its a I219V or I119V
https://forums.guru3d.com/data/avatars/m/147/147322.jpg
It's I219V LAN. Thanks for checking it with me @Astyanax For some reason when I uninstalled current (CD) driver and restarted Windows it now shows newer (2 months only old driver vs 12 months old driver before). What I only did was to try to install new driver, which informed me it installing driver for l219V model but then abort that no Intel LAN is present. Anyway sorry for offtopic.
https://forums.guru3d.com/data/avatars/m/273/273678.jpg
SpajdrEX:

It's I219V LAN. Thanks for checking it with me @Astyanax For some reason when I uninstalled current (CD) driver and restarted Windows it now shows newer (2 months only old driver vs 12 months old driver before). What I only did was to try to install new driver, which informed me it installing driver for l219V model but then abort that no Intel LAN is present. Anyway sorry for offtopic.
I219-V supported in 25.0 and 25.1
https://forums.guru3d.com/data/avatars/m/198/198461.jpg
I've been on the Aorus Pro AX since launch, it works fine. A lot of nice features on the aorus boards like the temperature probes, I can finally set my fan curves based on internal case temp. Two issues i've had, I found it very difficult to get the ram stable above 2933mhz. It doesn't want to boot and I have to go through a painful boot loop training process every time I want to change a memory setting. XMP would not work out of the box. The intel ethernet has some connection issue on reboot, however disabling and re-enabling the adapter seems to make it come back to a working state. Overall my issues seem to be from the z490 platform, not gigabyte specifically.
https://forums.guru3d.com/data/avatars/m/147/147322.jpg
@MM10X : I also had some connection issues on reboot, but disabling most of power saving stuff under LAN properties seems to fixed it completely.
data/avatar/default/avatar08.webp
MM10X:

I found it very difficult to get the ram stable above 2933mhz. It doesn't want to boot and I have to go through a painful boot loop training process every time I want to change a memory setting. XMP would not work out of the box.
probably you know all that already but I have to ask, do you have a cpu overclock ? XMP is validated only for default settings cpus as soon as you manually overclock it's out of spec and then not running at their sold frequency is common if it doesn't boot with default cpu settings that's another problem DerBauer just made a video about 5000Mhz kits on Z490 being hard not to say impossible to get running at 5Ghz, he had to reduce the cpu overclock to boot with that it also seems to be a problem with heat on the memory as if he ran fans at max speed then it booted
https://forums.guru3d.com/data/avatars/m/237/237957.jpg
Never had much luck with Gigabyte motherboards, they would last about 2 1/2 years tops before they would die. I use ASUS now.
https://forums.guru3d.com/data/avatars/m/242/242388.jpg
maize1951:

Never had much luck with Gigabyte motherboards, they would last about 2 1/2 years tops before they would die. I use ASUS now.
Gigabyte has never failed me. Thing is with any brand there are going to be lemons. For some time there I saw so many complaints about MSI mobos when they started seriously getting to be in the spotlight but people kept buying due to them providing the best OCs and also pricing was decent. I will never touch an MSI motherboard. Gigabyte, Asus, ASRock (might as well be Asus) are what I look at first.
https://forums.guru3d.com/data/avatars/m/242/242388.jpg
In regards to the article I can't say much as I haven't kept up on new hardware much over the years as 1155 socket stuff was satisfactory to late 2019 for me. I will say though Gigabyte, all black or close to it motherboard are pluses but as for the VRM cooling I don't know much about that but I sure as heck know based on what I see here I would not want this board compared to others. Anyway this is an Intel motherboard and not happening this generation for me as AMD has taken leaps and bounds to offering very affordable, high performance products.
data/avatar/default/avatar26.webp
DeViLzzz:

I will never touch an MSI motherboard. Gigabyte, Asus, ASRock (might as well be Asus) are what I look at first.
went from Asrock Z390 to MSI TRX40, asrock taichi bios was awesome, full hd super readable an ultra responsive file browser find your file and flash the bios, multiple profiles etc..also the "fast boot" setting that basically zaps the bios screen and you go from power off to moving the mouse on desktop in 15s with an m.2 msi amd bios looks like a 1990 industrial bios with pimp my ride graphics on top of it, awful also takes 5min to boot (I blame amd but that might be msi...) that said if you study how MSI shares the cpu lanes and their m.2 placement it's better designed than the other brands both on intel and amd MSI = great motherboard layout design but the worst I have seen apps, software and bios it's clearly not their strong point
https://forums.guru3d.com/data/avatars/m/232/232504.jpg
SpajdrEX:

little offtopic ... I found this weird, I got Gigabyte Z490M Gaming X and I need to install network driver from CD, because support for this motherboard does not offer network driver and latest Windows 10 2004 installation does not have a network driver present.
This is the latest, doesn't work on you? https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1W_UTf3Bunqefq07H8S7cLMfhi9bZhGP1?usp=sharing Do it through Device Manager.