GIGABYTE Z590I AORUS Ultra (Intel 1200)

Our first batch of reviews of the Z590 on launch day showed us that the 11th Gen Intel CPUs were, if anything, split between models that were fabulous and everything you'd expect from a new Intel product - the i5-11600K - and a disappointing hot mess that was the Core i9. Naturally though the big Core i9-11900K is going to be the processor that tests the motherboards to their limit, and once we'd committed to testing with that we have to see it through. We want to always put the product under the "worst case scenario" of usage and the biggest CPU will always do that, even if we now know that the newest Core i9 doesn't get the job done with the panache of the earlier ones.

The Gigabyte Z590I AORUS Ultra is a well-rounded board with high-end features and meaningful improvements over its Z490 counterpart. If you are in the market for a high-end ITX Z590 motherboard, the Gigabyte Z590I AORUS Ultra is worth checking out.

The Gigabyte Z590I AORUS ULTRA packs a lot of features into a very small board. Those looking for an ITX Z590 board will be happy to see it still have two M.2 slots, PCIe 4.0 (when using 11th Gen CPUs) and much more to offer. The board also still remains to look pleasing with everything it has going on. The extra shielding, heatsink and heat pipe will also help to dissipate heat and keep temps as low as possible.

After almost a decade of total market dominance, Intel has spent the past few years on the defensive. AMD's Ryzen processors continue to show improvement year over year, with the most recent Ryzen 5000 series taking the crown of best gaming processor: Intel's last bastion of superiority. Now, with a booming hardware market, Intel is preparing to retake some of that lost ground with the new 11th Gen Intel Core Processors. Intel is claiming these new 11th Gen CPUs offer double-digit IPC improvements despite remaining on a 14 nm process. The top-end 8-core Intel Core i9-11900K may not be able to compete against its AMD rival Ryzen 9 5900X in heavily multi-threaded scenarios, but the higher clock speeds and alleged IPC improvements could be enough to take back the gaming crown. Along with the new CPUs, there is a new chipset to match, the Intel Z590. Last year's Z490 chipset motherboards are also compatible with the new 11th Gen Intel Core Processors, but Z590 introduces some key advantages. First, Z590 offers native PCIe 4.0 support from the CPU, which means the PCIe and M.2 slots powered off the CPU will offer PCIe 4.0 connectivity when an 11th Gen CPU is installed. The PCIe and M.2 slots controlled by the Z590 chipset are still PCI 3.0. While many high-end Z490 motherboards advertised this capability, it was not a standard feature for the platform. In addition to PCIe 4.0 support, Z590 offers USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 from the chipset. The USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 standard offers speeds of up to 20 Gb/s. Finally, Z590 boasts native support for 3200 MHz DDR4 memory. With these upgrades, Intel's Z series platform has feature parity with AMD's B550. On paper, Intel is catching up to AMD, but only testing will tell if these new Z590 motherboards are up to the challenge.