VERDICT
Superbfancontrolandgreatlooks,although
youcangetmoreforyourmoneyelsewhere.MASTERPIECE
+ Excellent fan control
+ Lots of overclocking
and testing tools
+ Angled 24 -pin
connectorHIT PIECE- VRMs lack
cooling headroom - Dated and
cluttered EFI - Cheaper competition
PERFORMANCE
32 / 35FEATURES
24 / 35
VALUE
26 / 30OVERALLSCORE
82 %
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Performance
With a stock speed system score of 358,471,
the TRX40 Aorus Master sits right in the
middle of the pack this month, with slim
variations in most tests, although it didn’t
suffer from the Asus board’s occasional
stock speed slowdown in the Realbench
tests. However, it was noticeably slower than
the other boards when it came to the PCI-E
4 speed tests, sitting around 350MB/sec
slower on the read speed – a problem that
also seemed to affect its more expensive
sibling. We can’t complain about the audio
performance, though, which is excellent.
Overclocking was a little disappointing,
as we hit a wall at 4.3GHz, which is 50MHz
short of the all-core overclock we achieved
with other boards. Again, the TRX40 Aorus
Xtreme had the same issue, and even
applying the extreme loadline calibration
setting didn’t net us a stable result at the
usual 1.325V. We also needed that setting to
get our CPU stable at 4.3GHz. That said, the
performance deficit was barely noticeable,
if at all, in most of our tests.
This overclock saw the RealBench
system score rise from 358,471 to 401,296,
with the latter actually sitting at the top
of the chart this month, despite the slight
frequency deficit. The Cinebench multi-
threaded score rose from 13,772 to 14,440
as well but, as usual, the single-threaded
Cinebench score fell a little, thanks to the
manual overclock disabling the CPU’s
4.5GHz peak boost frequency.
Gigabyte’s EFI is still a little dated and
messy-feeling compared with the likes of
Asus and MSI, but we do love its fan control
section. It offers far more control than anyother manufacturer’s EFI, including the
ability to switch fan response inputs to other
devices than the CPU – you could tag your
radiator fans to a coolant probe, for example.Conclusion
The Gigabyte TRX40 Aorus Master looks
fantastic and has features that match or
better the competition in several areas;
it’s especially adept at controlling your
PC’s fans. Only the ASRock TRX40 Taichi
is a noticeably better buy, offering similar
features and more storage options, as well
as actively cooled VRMs, for less cash.
However, the Gigabyte fights back with its
right-angled 24-pin ATX connector and 5
Gigabit Aquantia Ethernet controller.
The main problems for the Gigabyte are
its sub-par M.2 PCI-E 4 speeds and lack
of overclocking headroom compared with
the boards from other manufacturers this
month. That said, 3rd-gen Threadripper
CPUs are arguably best left at stock speed
anyway. If you like the Gigabyte’s looks, and
if cable tidying and fan control are bigger
priorities for you than the number of M.2
ports, it’s still a decent board for the money.YoudogetRGBLEDextensioncablesand