Intel's 12th generation CPUs are quite fast, and now that 65W CPUs have been released, there are some really affordable options. Sadly, Z690 motherboards have increased in price significantly since the previous generation. If you don't mind expensive high-end-only features like Thunderbolt 4 and 10G LAN, in particular, you'll probably find some value in them.

The Gigabyte Z690 Aorus Pro is priced at $330 (£290, A$569), which would have been a high-end price a few years ago but is mid-range in today's market. If you are a gamer looking to build a 12th generation rig, the Aorus Pro will meet most of your requirements. And rather than spending a fortune on an unnecessarily high-end motherboard, you can channel the savings into another price-hike necessity: a GPU.

While I am reviewing the Aorus Pro DDR5 model, it is worth noting that there is also a DDR4 version. Sadly, it is easily available in my home country of Australia, but not in the US or EU, which is a real shame as the Aorus Pro DDR4 appears to have some excellent features among DDR4 boards.

The DDR5 version of the board features a contrasting design with lots of gray heatsinks. The gray chipset and much of the M.2 cooling is hidden under the GPU, but it may not be the easiest board to blend into your build. There is also minimal RGB lighting, with only a small Aorus logo on the rear I/O heatsink, which is unusual for a 2022 gaming motherboard. However, there are four RGB headers, two of which are addressable, so you can add some fancy illumination if you really need it.

The board itself has one PCIe 5.0 x1x slot, plus two PCIe 3.0 x16 physical slots that electrically operate at x4. There are six SATA ports, seven fan headers, and another for the water pump. A power button and debug LED are also welcome additions at this mid-range Z690 price point.

One of the strengths of the Z690 chipset is the wide range of chipset-to-CPU DMI links that work with PCIe 4.0 x8. This is twice the bandwidth of the PCIe 3.0 x8 link of the previous generation Z590 chipset. This means the chipset can run more devices simultaneously without compromise. In addition to the primary CPU-connected PCIe 4.0 M.2 slot, the Aorus Pro has three additional PCIe 4.0 x4 slots, all of which are heatsinked. However, with all of these, proper airflow must be ensured to prevent heat absorption from the GPU during gaming.

The Aorus Pro has a powerful VRM, which was most likely designed with AVX-512 loads in mind before it was officially removed by Intel. The overly powerful VRM system is no doubt part of the reason the Z690 board is more expensive than its Z590 predecessor; the Aorus Pro's 16+3 phase VRM is 90A, which until just a couple of years ago was reserved for high-end boards. 1440A of current is delivered, so LN2 over clock will not exceed this board. Air coolers and water coolers reach their CPU cooling limits before the board itself is stressed.

Heatsinks are effective, but it is unfortunate that Gigabyte did not include the finned heatsinks found on the higher-end Aorus boards; when we ran a VRM torture test, the Aorus Pro's peak temperature was 57°C.

The Aorus Pro's peak temperature was 57°C. [17] [18] The Aorus Pro's peak temperature was 57°C. This is roughly in the middle of the range, but 8°C higher than the Aorus Master's superior finned heatsink. As long as the airflow is adequate, the Aorus Pro's VRM can easily handle an overclocked Core i9 12900K.

Rear I/O is very good, especially with 13 USB ports. Few modern boards, especially in this price range, have more USB ports, consisting of four USB 2.0 ports, four 3.2 Gen 1 ports, four 3.2 Gen 2 ports, and two Type-C 3.2 Gen 2x ports. One 2.5G Ethernet port, a Wi-Fi antenna port, and one DP 1. 4 ports are used by Intel's Xe integrated graphics.

Perhaps the only thing missing is a full set of analog audio ports connected to the Realtek silicon. Only line-in and line-out ports, but this is really just a minor point.

The Z690 Aorus Pro has pure Intel networking consisting of 2.5G Ethernet and Wi-Fi 6. This is because 5G LAN and Wi-Fi 6E are what is used to justify the soaring price of the more expensive Z690 board.

System Performance

Gaming Performance

The Z690 boards perform mostly within each other's margins of error, with few outliers seeming to be present. the Aorus Pro performed well in the multithreading test, the gaming test, and the storage Intel's prolonged 241W PL2 limit seems to have led to a convergence of results. In the past, some manufacturers were quick to make assumptions about Intel's power settings and tau, but this does not seem to be the case now that the limit has been extended.

Using CPU overclocking as a measure of board quality is of little use when any mid-range to high-end board has a VRM that is not stressed before the CPU reaches its cooling limits. Memory overclocking, however, is a different matter, especially in the early DDR5 era, as it relies heavily on BIOS optimization.

Our G.Skill DDR5-6000 test kit is 100% stable at 6,400 MHz on some boards, such as the Asus ROG Z690 Apex, but we could not find stability at this speed on the Aorus Pro. The Aorus Pro's early BIOS really struggled with the Samsung-based G.Skill kit, but after a few updates it ran at rated XMP speeds.

We think 6,400MHz may be the limit for memory controllers, at least as long as they don't get too crazy with VDDQ voltages. In other words, if you have a fast DDR5 kit on hand, don't forget to update the BIOS on your Aorus Pro.

Gigabyte's Z690 Aorus Pro is in the sweet spot of the real Alder Lake, offering a full feature set at a bargain price; features like Thunderbolt 4, a fifth M.2 slot, and 10G LAN are additions that are hard to justify cost. Plain Wi-Fi 6, 4x M.2 slots, powerful VRM, and plenty of USB ports would satisfy most gamers. And for $330, you can put it toward rarer items such as DDR5 memory or a faster GPU.

With these key features and an attractive price, the Aorus Pro is a solid, good mid-range board; it's not the best yet BIOS-wise, but it's a long way from its pre-release state. We are still in the early stages of the platform. However, if you download the latest BIOS, the Aorus Pro is a board I would recommend for your 12th generation build.