If you are looking for a good quality X670E motherboard, you have probably been surprised by its high price. The electrical complexity of the platform, plus broader economic issues, have driven prices up to levels that would have been laughable a few years ago.

However, it should be remembered that there are two versions of the X670 chipset: the X670E has a single x16 or x8 PCIe 5.0 expansion slot, while the non-E version has PCIe 4.0. However, some motherboards have PCIe 5.0 M.2 slots on both versions. High-end motherboards are likely to be X670E models; one of the reasons for the higher price of X670E boards is that both PCIe 5.0 expansion and M.2 slots require high-quality signals.

PCIe 5.0 x16 graphics cards currently mean nothing, so if you don't need to check out their capabilities (and you really don't), the X670 board is a perfectly valid option. We obtained the Gigabyte X670 Aorus Elite AX for review. Priced at $289/£349/599 Australian dollars, it is much cheaper than the high-end X670E board. However, for the Elite AX to come in at this price, will some sacrifices have to be made?

As a non-X670E board, it loses support for PCIe 5.0 slots, but retains one PCIe 5.0 x4 M.2 slot. This alone does not save hundreds of dollars; there are still four M.2 slots, high-quality connectivity, I/O, and a VRM with good cooling capacity; the Elite AX is not a cheap, cut corners affair.

The board is anything but beautiful. There are all sorts of oddly matched metallic highlights, as if Gigabyte scoured the factory for heatsinks. However, it is not lacking in functionality. The heatsinks are effective, especially the VRM heatsinks, which would have been considered huge just a few years ago, but unfortunately Gigabyte chose not to include a good finned heatsink design on this model.

The primary M.2 heatsink is not as large and chunky as those found on high-end boards. Time will tell if this heatsink is sufficient to cool a PCIe 5.0 SSD running at high temperatures, especially if it is located adjacent to a heat-dissipating GPU. There are a total of four M.2 slots, and in addition to the primary PCIe 5.0 x4 slot mentioned above, there are three PCIe 4.0 x4 slots cooled by one large heatsink. To complement the storage there are four SATA ports.

And the board itself has no RGB LEDs; RGB is definitely past its peak. However, for those who prefer flashy lighting, there are a total of five headers, a mix of RGB and ARGB headers.

Other highlights include a USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Type-C header, power, reset, and CMOS clear buttons, and a Thunderbolt 4 header.

The board features a 16+2+2 phase VRM with a 70A power stage. As expected, it's not as enhanced as boards twice the price, but it's hardly known that the average user doesn't need to put more than 1000W into the CPU; with a PBO-enabled Ryzen 9 7950X (open in new tab) on the Elite AX, that's not a problem. VRMs are Long before it is stressed, cooling will reach the 7950X's 95°C operating temperature.

Even if the TDPs of the Zen 5 and Zen 6 CPUs were stepped up, it is not hard to imagine that the Aorus Elite AX would struggle to power those CPUs.

In short, cooling, storage, and VRM are more than adequate for most users. So, is I/O lacking? The Aorus Elite AX comes with AMD's RZ616 Wi-Fi 6E and a Realtek 2.5G LAN. It is unfortunate that it does not have USB 4 at this price point, but the rest of the USB is extensive: 3.2 Gen 2x2 Type-C ports, two Gen 2 ports, six Gen 1 ports, and four 2.0 ports. There are 13 rear USB ports. There is an HDMI 2.1 port for integrated graphics, new to the Ryzen 7000, and a BIOS flashback button.

Audio is nothing special and is supported by the aging Realtek ALC897 codec. There is not much to complain about in terms of connectivity, except that an S/PDIF output would be nice, but other than that, there is not much to complain about.

System Performance

Gaming Performance

Benchmarks don't reveal much unless there is a particular issue, but it is good to see the Aorus X670 Elite AX consistently topping various benchmark lists. Although only by a mere 1 percent, it is always preferable to lead the pack rather than trail it.

In general, the X670 Aorus Elite AX feels like a mature product. Not all motherboard manufacturers can say that. We must remember that we are in the infancy of the AM5 platform, AGESA updates and tweaks will continue for years, and if we compare the first generation X370 boards at the time of the Zen 1 launch to today, AMD is in a much better position this time around.

Since the debut of the UEFI BIOS interface, the aesthetic changes to the X670 Elite AX, as with other board manufacturers, are minimal. If there is any criticism, it is that it is a little less feature-rich. For most users, that won't be an issue. We are not talking about the gigabyte extreme Aorus Tachyon here. Once you install Windows with XMP enabled, many gamers will never go back to BIOS.

The attractive price of the X670 Aorus Elite AX is a bit shocking when looking at so many overpriced X670/E boards. It doesn't have the full feature checklist of a high-end board, but if you're someone who runs an M.2 drive or two and a GPU, you'll lose almost nothing.

If you need a PCIe 5.0 slot for a GPU, the Asrock X670E Pro RS (open in new tab) is an option worth considering, although its VRM and cooling are not as good as the Aorus.

Other manufacturers also have very competitive boards in this price range that should not be overlooked. But at any rate, the Elite AX shows that manufacturers are getting a little greedy at the high end of the market. If you must have USB4, 10G LAN, and Thunderbolt, you have to pay more. For the mainstream market, boards like the Aorus Elite AX are the best choice.