Gigabyte X299 Aorus Gaming Motherboard Released – See Features and Specs

Gigabyte recently released an X299 motherboard exclusive for Kaby Lake-X processors only (i7-7740X and i5-7640X) – the Gigabyte X299 Aorus Gaming motherboard. If you have been following the launch of the X299 and Core X processors, you may have encountered that some motherboard manufacturers where having problems providing support for both Kaby Lake-X and Skylake-X processors on a single X299 motherboard. While the first batch of X299 motherboards do support all Core X processors, newer motherboards (like this X299 Aorus Gaming) has become specialized or support a particular set of CPUs only. There’s also a new X299 motherboard that only supports Skylake X processors and doesn’t support the Kaby Lake-X. I’m not sure if the X299 Aorus Gaming + a Kaby Lake-X CPU combination would make sense, considering that the cost is higher than a mainstream Z270 + Core i7-7700K setup and offers just a tad improvement from the latter. Not to mention, you won’t be able to upgrade to Skylake X using this same motherboard. Anyway, more details about the Gigabyte X299 Aorus Gaming motherboard below.

Gigabyte X299 Aorus Gaming Motherboard – Features and Specs

The Gigabyte X299 Aorus Gaming motherboard support Intel’s latest Kaby Lake-X CPUs – the Core i7-7740X and Core i5-7640X (only). It only supports dual channel non-ECC DDR4 memory, that’s why there are only 4 DIMM slots, instead of 8 slots on the higher end X299 motherboards. If you look at the motherboard, it looks like a Z270 motherboard with a large CPU socket. It does support Intel Optane memory like most new Z200 and X299 motherboards and features 3-way graphics card support; though you’ll be (severely) limited by the number of PCI lanes that the Kaby Lake-X can offer.

Other than that, you get the usual set of features and specifications: like ALC1220 audio, RGB Fusion with support for Digital LED and RGBW light strips, dual M.2 with PCIe Gen3 x4 interface, NVMe PCIe Gen3 x4 U.2 support, Intel Gigabit LAN, a number of USB connectivity options and even Thunderbolt 3 support. It also features Gigabyte’s UEFI DualBIOS, Smart Fan 5 and several hybrid fan pin headers and temperature sensors.

I find the Gigabyte X299 Aorus Gaming a unique product, not necessarily special. But this is definitely a niche product since not many would consider shifting to an X299 motherboard that is simply limited to Kaby Lake-X processors only. I’m positive that an X299 Aorus Gaming + an i7-7740X would cost more compared to a Z270 motherboard + an i7-7700K setup. Probably the only reason why folks would get this kind of setup is they want that (tiny bit) extra performance they can achieve from an i7-7740X (vs the i7-7700K).
On the flip side of the coin, Asus has released their flagship X299 motherboard – the Asus ROG Rampage VI Extreme; and this motherboard supports Skylake-X processors only.

Gigabyte X299 Aorus Gaming Motherboard