Overclocking and Conclusion

Overclocking

To give a feel for the overclocking performance potential of the X470 Gaming 7 WIFI motherboard, we attempted to push it to known CPU-supported performance parameters with minimal tweaking. At the stock base clock speed of 100Mhz, we were able to get the system stable at a 4.3GHz CPU speed across all cores and 2667MHz memory speed. This was done at a 1.45V CPU voltage, a 1.35V VCORE SOC voltage, a 2.12V CPU 0VDD18 voltage, and a +0.20 CPU VDDP voltage with all other values left at default settings. Unfortunately, the system would not stabilize at any CPU or memory speeds greater than those listed above. All overclocking sessions remained stable for over 4hrs. System stability was tested running the AIDA64 stability test in conjunction with EVGA's OC Scanner X graphical benchmark running at 1280×1024 resolution and 8x MSAA in stress test mode. Note that 8GB (2 x 4GB) of Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR4-4000 memory modules were used for the overclocking tests.

100MHz Base Clock Stats with 4.3GHZ CPU and 2667MHz memory speed

Note that this is is meant only as a quick preview of the board's performance potential. With more time to tweak the settings to a greater extent, pushing to a higher base clock and ring bus speed may have been achievable, in addition to an overnight stability run without issue.

Pricing

As of August 01, the GIGABYTE X470 AORUS Gaming 7 WIFI motherboard was available from Amazon.com for $228.49 with Prime shipping. The board was also available from Newegg.com for $228.63.

Conclusion

The X470 AORUS Gaming 7 WIFI motherboard is another winning product in GIGABYTE's AORUS motherboard line. Like its predecesor, the board integrates all the same features that have come on the latest revisions of the Intel boards including integrated RGB LEDs and external RGB LED strip support, top notch sound, and a wide variety of storage options (including its PCIe x4 M.2 slots). Further, its integrated chipset and CPU-controlled USB 3.1 and 3.0 ports perform much better than the ASMedia controller variants. It features a simple black and white aesthetic, easily finding a home in any enthusiast build. It performs as well as it looks both at stock speed with some oddities encountered while overclocking. The processor overclock speed over all cores achieved a respectable 4.3 GHz. However, its memory speed remained firmly capped at 2667MHz with the modules used for testing.

Strengths

  • Stock performance
  • Overclocking potential
  • Board aesthetics, layout, and design
  • UEFI BIOS design and usability
  • Variety of storage solution support including SATAand M.2
  • Intel-based network offerings – GigE and 2×2 802.11ac WiFi adapter ports
  • PCIe x1 slot 1 usable with dual slot video card seated in primary PCIe x16 slot
  • Configurable RGB LEDs using RGB Fusion through both UEFI and Windows app
  • CMOS battery placement

Weaknesses

  • 80mm M.2 slot used PCIe 2.0 bus, limiting upper device speed to 1600 MB/s
  • Unable to run memory at speeds above 2667MHz

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