Review: GIGABYTE Z590 Aorus Tachyon motherboard

One of the most unique models of the Z590 chipset is the GIGABYTE Z590 Aorus Tachyon. While it works as a normal “relatively” daily motherboard, the main focus is on extreme overlcoking. Based on the design of its previous XOC models, which are part of its long line of performance-inspired designs, the Tachyon has only two memory slots designed to shorten the distance between memory and CPU to improve latency and overall performance. PCIe slots are also designed to allow for huge GPU coolers and power connections that are ancillary to graphic benchmarking. Other features include an extensive toolkit for overclockers, many premium drivers such as 2.5Gb Ethernet, 6E Wi-Fi and a premium built-in audio solution. To offer a solution that extreme overclockers can push Rocket Lake to its breaking point, as well as for less aggressive enthusiasts, the GIGABYTE Z590 Aorus Tachyon tries to take the Z590 to the next level.

Gigabyte Z590 Aorus Tachyon review
Getting the most out of Intel’s Rocket Lake silicon requires a robust platform with multiple aspects, and there are some premium Z590 models that can push the boundaries of both memory and CPU. One of the most specific models aimed solely at squeezing so many missile lake performance is the GIGABYTE Z590 Aorus Tachyon. Designed for overclockers, particularly extreme overclocks that want to go below zero, the Z590 Aorus Tachyon has one of the most interesting designs with an extended frame of atx size but with only two memory slots.
The CPU socket area is physically almost flat and devoid of any foreign capacitor that could break by removing some of the moisture protection, since traditional motherboards can sometimes have that problem. The almost flat and light design helps to mount copper pots for sub-zero overclockers, with naked shots much easier to isolate to prevent condensation from form into components and electronic circuits.

Focusing more on the power front, the GIGABYTE Z590 Aorus Tachyon uses a 12-step design with a direct design. It uses high-quality 100A power stages, with tantalum polymer capacitors, further improving specifications and adding some design features associated with extreme overclockers. The overall design is all black, with a single RGB LED strip separating the chipset heatsink from the PCIe slot armor and M.2 heatsinks.
UEFI GIGABYTE firmware remained consistent with previous generations on intel and AMD models. Looking at the design, GIGABYTE uses a mostly black background with orange accents, white text, and fits the Aorus game theme. The Z590 Aorus Tachyon BIOS has two main modes, Easy Mode and Advanced Mode. Enter advanced mode, which can be done by pressing the F2 key when it is in the firmware, allows access to all options of overclocking, chipset, power and card security. The Tweaker section houses the Tachyon’s extensive overclocking features, including options to adjust CPU frequency, cache frequency, built-in graphics frequency, and all relevant voltage settings.For memory, GIGABYTE includes extensive memory overclocking options, including ratio and latency optimization options, as well as Intel’s new gear mode, which allows the built-in memory controller to operate at half the memory speed at a ratio of 2:1 or 1:1, which theoretically should allow for more aggressive frequency overclocks.
Given the obvious unfounded overclocking pedigree of the Z590 Aorus Tachyon, GIGABYTE provides easy and intuitive firmware that is also responsive. The easy and advanced mode feature allows users of all levels of experience to access key features such as the Smart Fan 6 utility and flash firmware via BIOS.
Software
GIGABYTE includes a wide variety of software and utilities with the Z590 Aorus Tachyon, which focuses on the Aorus App Center, which serves as a centralized hub for all installed GIGABYTE software, Windows-related settings, and even third-party software. Some of the most important applications include EasyTune software, RGB Fusion 2.0 software to customize board aesthetics, and the System Information Viewer (SIV) utility.
The GIGABYTE Z590 Aorus Tachyon is an E-ATX motherboard designed primarily for extreme enthusiasts and overclockers, with many features for regular users such as gamers and content creators. The feature set includes four full-length PCIe slots, two running on PCIe 4.0 x16 and x8x/8 respectively, and two on PCIe 3.0 x4 and x1 respectively (top to bottom). For storage, the Tachyon has three M.2 slots, a 4.0 x4 PCIe and two 3.0 x4/SATA PCIes, with eight SATA ports in total. Six of the SATA ports are chipset controlled with RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10 support, while the other two are led by an ASMedia ASM1061 SATA controller.
Users can overclock the CPU, memory, base clock (BLCK), and INTEL UHD graphics built into the Tweaker section.
In each of the different sections there is an advanced submenu, which includes advanced CPU options, advanced memory settings, and advanced voltage settings. Each of these menus is an intricate and detailed list of customizable options to adjust both processor and memory. For the CPU, there are many power-related options and options that allow users to disable CPU thermal monitoring and CPU over-temperature protection. We don’t recommend that users use these features unless they experience or overblock in the art of benchmarking.
The firmware also includes extensive voltage configuration, load line calibration and power connection in the Advanced Voltage Settings submenu. In this menu, users can customize the CORE CPU PLL overvoltage, RING PLL overvoltage, and DRAM training voltages. There are also many CPU-specific power options, such as load line calibration and optimization of the most intricate CPU virtual core protection, which can be set automatically (default) or in millivolts.
In general, the firmware is very intuitive and easy to navigate when it comes to overclocking. There are plenty of customizable options for simple overclocks and more extensive features needed for extreme overclockers. The key to extreme overclocking in addition to firmware is the well-equipped overclocker toolkit located in the upper right corner of the board. Photo: GIGABYTE
The GIGABYTE Z590 Aorus Tachyon offers elements for both gamers and content creators, but it should be noted that to benefit more from features and features, it would require sub-zero cooling. There’s plenty for typical users, including Intel 2.5GbE, Wi-Fi 6E, and USB 3.2 G2x2 Type-C connectivity, but the overall design offers much more for extreme overclockers, including design, premium power delivery, and as such, showed some fantastic results in our overclocking tests. There’s not much on the way to competing with the two main rivals, the FORMULA ASRock Z590 OC and ASUS ROG Maximus XIII Apex, both offer similar feature sets that contain a similar extreme pedigree. For fans and extreme overclockers, the Tachyon is a brilliant example of extreme motherboard properly made, but for the average joe, there’s a lot more value in other Z590 options due to the big price tag of $530.
In general, this tab allows regular users to get the best out of their CPU, however, paying the premium for this may not be a profitable investment. Users who get the Tachyon want the best of everything from their processor. That’s why extreme overclockers will fully appreciate Tachyon.