This chipset is designed for a single graphics card, which is fine. If we look at the current graphics cards available there are cards that can handle 1080p, 1440p, and 4K gaming. So having a single graphics card really is not a limitation in most scenarios. The next thing is storage. Gigabyte’s AB350-Gaming 3 has a single M.2 slot and six SATA 6GB/s ports. We found that if we did not have more than two SATA drives running it would not impact performance of the M.2 drive. Again this is ideal as you could have 1 large M.2 NVMe SSD, or a mid-size M.2 NVMe SSD and two large SATA SSDs. Finally we have overclocking, which is enabled on B350 motherboards. While it is not as extensive as what you will see on X370 motherboards, you do have the ability to change CPU frequency and voltages. With that we were able to take our Ryzen 7 1700 from its base clock of 3.0 GHz up to 3.9 GHz. This was the same overclock we achieved on a X370 motherboard. This board is targeted towards gamers and Gigabyte has added gaming-specific features, the biggest being the audio solution, which is very good. You also have the USB DAC-UP 2 port, which many gaming and audiophiles alike will appreciate. This board does have RGB lighting, something you do not expect to see on a board in this price-range. There are three different RGB LED zones, all of which can be controlled with Gigabyte’s RGB Fusion software. Finally you have reinforced PCI-Express slots, which is great, especially if you are loading this board up with a massive graphics card. Right now you can pick up this board at our favorite online retailer for $109.99, which is a great price. Overall ThinkComputers gives the Gigabyte AB350-Gaming 3 Motherboard a 9 out of 10 score and our Recommended Award! The Gigabyte AB350-Gaming 3 looks to switch the focus in comparison to B350 competitors at this price point. Instead of focussing on maintaining a particularly strong power delivery solution and ample VRM cooling, Gigabyte instead invests in faster USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports, a better audio solution, and more SATA ports. Offered alongside those hardware features are Gigabyte's crown jewel software features – RGB Fusion and Smart Fan 5. With a recent price drop from £116.99 to £104.99, the Gigabyte AB350-Gaming 3 is placed to compete against the ASRock Fatal1ty AB350 Gaming K4 and MSI B350 Tomahawk, both of which we have reviewed recently. Does Gigabyte's offering have the correct mixture of features and performance to prove itself as a worthy option? Gigabyte AB350-Gaming 3 Form Factor Narrow-ATX, 30.5 cm x 23.0 cm CPU Socket AMD AM4, 4+3 phase VRM Chipset AMD B350 Memory DDR4 Dual channel, 4 DIMMs, up to 64GB, up to 3200MHz with OC (with a Ryzen CPU) Onboard Graphics DVI-D and HDMI ports for use with AM4 APUs Expansion Slots 1x PCIe 3.0 x16 (x16 for Ryzen, wired to the CPU) 1x PCIe 2.0 x16 (x4 mode, wired to the chipset) 1x PCIe 2.0 x16 (x1 mode, wired to the chipset) 2x PCIe 2.0 x1 (wired to the chipset) Storage 4x SATA 6Gbps (via B350 chipset) 2x SATA 6Gbps (via AM4 CPU) 1x M.2 SATA 6Gbps or NVMe PCIe 3.0 x4 (with Ryzen CPUs) or PCIe 3.0 x2 (with AM4 APUs) USB 5x USB 2.0 (4 Internal, 1 Rear via B350) 6x USB 3.0 (2 Internal via B350, 4 Rear via AM4 CPU) 2x USB 3.1 Gen 2 (2 Rear via B350) Networking 1x Realtek RTL8111GR Gigabit LAN Audio Realtek ALC1220-based 7.1 channel HD audio Fan Headers 5, all support 3/4pin fans (2x CPU, 3x CHA) RGB Headers 2, 1x 4-pin RGB & 1x 5-pin RGBW Rear I/O 1x PS/2 mouse & keyboard combo port 1x USB 2.0 port 1x HDMI 1x DVI-D 4x USB 3.0 Type-A 2x USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A 1x LAN (RJ45) port 5x OFC audio jacks 1x Optical SPDIF UEFI BIOS AMI UEFI with DualBIOS redundancy  The Gigabyte AB350-Gaming 3 ships in shiny black packaging with segments of colour. Specifications and features are outlined on the rear. Gigabyte's bundle is far better than we have come to expect at this price point. Four SATA cables are bundled alongside a 5-pin RGBW header extension, front panel connector block, and labelled IO shield. The usual set of documentation is provided alongside a case sticker. The Gigabyte AB350-Gaming 3 uses a red and black colour scheme across the motherboard. This may annoy some users who have grown to prefer a subtler physical colour scheme so that RGB lighting can be used to tweak the style to their individual preference. The PCB is not the deepest black that we have seen but it should be adequately dark when mounted inside a case. Despite providing three physical x16 PCIe slots, a look at the board's rear PCB traces shows that only one runs at sixteen lanes of bandwidth with the others being hard-wired to fewer lanes. Steel-reinforced PCIe slot are a quality touch that add aesthetic appeal. Gigabyte uses the narrow-ATX sizing to reduce manufacturing costs and because additional PCB space is not necessary. Two primary lighting zones (technically three, but the right-edge zones merge together) are found on the motherboard, with two RGB headers also being made available. As can be seen, a user can control the onboard RGB lighting separately to the external strip lighting. Gigabyte's edge-mounted transparent plate is a feature that we have become accustomed to for recent models. The section allows light to glow through and illuminate the pattern in a unique fashion. This plastic section can be replaced by a user to feature a design of one's choice. For example, you could produce (perhaps by 3D printing or conventional methods) a plastic cover in the same dimensions that features your gaming rig's name etched into it. Four DIMM slots support up to 64GB of DDR4 memory. Gigabyte quotes frequency support of up to 3200MHz (provided your memory kit plays nicely with Ryzen). Red and black colouring for the DIMM slots works well as it allows novice users to install two modules in the correct slots for dual-channel operation. AM4 CPUs installed in the AB350-Gaming 3 are fed by 4+3 phase power delivery solution. An Intersil ISL95712 PWM manages the four CPU phases and three SOC phases. Two of Intersil's ISL6625A (marked ‘5AZ XNX‘) MOSFET drivers aid the CPU's four phases while another two aid the SOC's three phases. Eight ON Semiconductor NTMFS4C06N (six on the front and two un-cooled on the rear) and four NTMFS4C10N MOSFETs manage the four CPU power delivery phases. These MOSFETs are decent for a motherboard at this price point and Gigabyte's choice to double-up on the 4C06N low-side MOSFET count aids load- and thermal-balancing, even if the four control phases are a limiting factor. The three phase system for SOC voltage uses three 4C06N and three 4C10N MOSFETs but in an un-cooled fashion. While no direct heatsink contact is likely to be fine for these MOSFETs as they aren't driving the CPU, lower temperatures would aid longevity. A small heatsink to cool three phases is easy to squeeze into the budget on a £105 motherboard and linking it to the CPU section via a heatpipe would provide a beneficial increase in cooling capacity. Compared to MSI's B350 Tomahawk competitor at this price point, Gigabyte's 4+3 power delivery solution is largely comparable, with low-side MOSFET count doubling for both boards on the CPU rail. In some metrics, Gigabyte's solution may slightly weaker than MSI's due to the differing design approaches for the MOSFETs used. Compared to the ASRock Fatal1ty AB350 Gaming K4, Gigabyte's solution features greater control thanks to the use of four PWM channels but more physical phases is an advantage for ASRock. Six SATA 6Gbps ports are provided by the AB350-Gaming 3. The four black ports are operated by the B350 chipset and therefore can be used all the time (except for port 3 which shares its bandwidth with an M.2 SATA device). The two grey ports are delivered by the two SATA 6Gbps lanes on an AM4 CPU that make way for an M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 device. As such, the two grey ports labelled ‘ASATA‘ cannot be used if a PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe M.2 SSD is installed. Page 15 in Gigabyte's manual explains the storage options in detail. No U.2 is not an issue for a motherboard in this market segment. The board's sole 5Gbps USB 3.0 header rests along the bottom edge. One M.2 slot provides support for 32Gbps PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe SSDs (when used with Ryzen) thanks to a direct link from an AM4 CPU. M.2 SATA 6Gbps SSDs can also be used by stealing a lane from one of the physical SATA ports. Drives up to 110mm in length are supported but there is no cooling system for a drive. Slot positioning also means that an SSD will receive warm air from a graphics card sat above it (when used with an open-air cooler card). A positive aspect of that mounting location is the ability to hide an ugly green SSD PCB. Three full-length PCIe slots are made available but the bandwidth delivered to each varies significantly. All sixteen of a Ryzen CPU's PCIe 3.0 lanes are delivered to the uppermost full-length, steel-plated slot for use with a graphics card. The second steel-plated slot receives up to four PCIe 2.0 lanes from the B350 chipset but shares that bandwidth with the slots directly beneath it. It is suitable for use with an older SATA HBA or high-speed NIC, for example, but not a modern PCIe SSD such as the Intel SSD 750. The lowest full-length slot is simply a PCIe 2.0 x1 connection to the chipset. Compatibility with full-length expansion cards that do not need more than PCIe 2.0 x1 bandwidth is the only reason for that slot being full length. A dedicated PCIe 2.0 x1 link is sent to the uppermost PCIe x1 slot, making it suitable for a WiFi card, or similar, without stealing lanes from elsewhere. SLI is not supported and CrossFire would be crippled by the second card using PCIe 2.0 x4 bandwidth through the chipset. For all intents and purposes, this is a single-card motherboard. Gigabyte's AMP-UP audio solution is based on the high-end Realtek ALC1220 codec which is clearly a premium addition for this market segment. Many of the competing solutions at this price use Realtek's older ALC892 codec. Nippon Chemicon capacitors and shielding for the codec are used to boost the system. Seven Type-A USB ports are found on the rear IO, which should suffice for most users. Four of those ports operate at 5Gbps USB 3.0 bandwidth, with two of them using B350-based 10Gbps USB 3.1 Gen 2 connections. The remaining right-angled port uses a USB 2.0 connection and Gigabyte's DAC-UP 2 system for adjusting voltage delivery. The inclusion of 10Gbps USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports is a clear advantage for Gigabyte in this price segment. However, the lack of a USB Type-C connector, even at 5Gbps 3.0 bandwidth, is disappointing. Realtek's 8111GR Gigabit NIC is used on this board and is also a common choice for competing vendors. DVI-D and HDMI 1.4 ports are usable when an AM4-based APU is installed, though neither can output 4K at 60Hz. I am glad to see Gigabyte including the full cohort of audio jacks as well as optical SPDIF. Five 4-pin fan headers are spread around the motherboard, four of which are within reach of the CPU socket. All of these headers, which are marketed as ‘Hybrid Fan Header‘ by Gigabyte, allow for PWM and DC fan control in the UEFI and OS software. Overall fan control and monitoring is handled by the ITE IT8792E chipset. Gigabyte includes two RGB LED headers. The 4-pin version is mounted close to the CPU socket in anticipation for use with the Wraith Spire RGB cooler. A bottom-edge mounting location is used for the 5-pin RGBW header, which is perfectly fine given Gigabyte's inclusion of an extension cable. A noteworthy advantage for Gigabyte's motherboard is the dual BIOS solution. Having redundant BIOS chips is especially useful with the AM4 platform still in its infancy and this motherboard receiving regular BIOS updates. That sort of redundancy would have been welcomed on ASUS' AM4 flagship Crosshair VI Hero when a corrupted BIOS resulted in our board being rendered completely dysfunctional. Gigabyte B350 UEFI The UEFI used by Gigabyte is almost identical across its current product range. As such, we have re-used the bulk of our analysis from previous reviews and updated the text where there are subtle differences. Firstly, we are pleased to report that our generic wireless mouse worked correctly in the Gigabyte UEFI. Some mice can be troubling with UEFI support, so when a generic wireless unit functions correctly in the interface, that is usually a good sign for overall mouse support. Gigabyte’s Easy Mode page is a solid attempt at categorising a handful of simple settings into a single section. Users can alter the boot sequence, check fan speeds, monitor temperatures and voltages, enable XMP, and change the performance mode without jumping into the deeper (and scarier for less experienced users) UEFI sections. I don’t have any complaints about Gigabyte’s Easy Mode implementation. It is as good as the versions used by competing vendors. M.I.T. is the main section where parameters relating to voltages, frequencies, and power settings for the system’s main components are found. The Memory and Voltage sections are split from the Frequency subsection, which makes sense until one realises that an entire group of memory settings is replicated in both the Frequency and Memory subsections. The subsection splitting forces a user to jump back and forth between pages but it also helps to keep the individual subsections tidy and without an overwhelming amount of information on one page (I’m looking at you, ASUS and MSI). Judging whether this sectioned layout or one where most settings are on a single page is better is down to individual preferences, as my colleague Ryan is not particularly fond of jumping between subsections but I personally prefer the segregation. There is a help section on the right side of UEFI pages but it must be manually selected to be displayed. Competing motherboard vendors’ approach of permanently displaying valuable information on the right side is better. Voltage control in the UEFI for Gigabyte's B350 motherboard is very limited. The only method of adjusting voltage for the CPU or SOC is by using offsets that go both positive and negative. This is fine in theory but makes overclocking more difficult in practise as one has to first find their CPU's default voltage and then apply the correct offset number to reach their desired final voltage. Keying in a simple voltage figure, as competing vendors allow, would have been more straightforward. There is no loadline calibration control for this motherboard, either. This is something that seems to be common for the lower-end AM4 offerings using the B350 chipset, as we saw on ASRock's Fatal1ty AB350 Gaming K4. With that said, MSI offers a functional set of loadline calibration options that help an overclocking user better tune the voltage curve. The CPU frequency multiplier is given 0.25x granularity, as it should be, and core disabling is also available to users who like to tinker. Memory dividers up to 32x can be selected and enabling XMP is as easy as clicking the button. M.I.T. works fine overall but it feels very old fashioned and clunky compared to competing vendors’ solutions. There are generally no drop-down lists for selecting frequencies and no colour indication is given to highlight a high voltage level. The Smart Fan 5 settings subsection can be accessed from the M.I.T. page. This superb fan control system is the crown jewel for Gigabyte’s UEFI. All fan headers can be individually selected and their speed profiles can be tweaked in real time. Gigabyte includes several preset fan speed control settings and a choice of temperature monitoring points. The headers can also be set to PWM or voltage (DC) mode at will, which is ideal for feeding continuous current to a watercooling pump or letting PWM fans adjust their own speed. It’s the manual fan speed tweaking mode where Smart Fan 5 really shows its worth. Six points on a graph can be used to create the fan speed curve. A level as low as 0% PWM speed down to 0°C is also supported, meaning that you can set the fan to switch off if the system is operating at ambient, or elevated, temperature (provided the fan is able to stop itself spinning). The temperature monitoring points for fan speed curves include the CPU, chipset, MOSFETs, and PCIe slot. Not all the fan headers can interact with all monitoring points (the CPU, not CPU_OPT, can only read CPU data, for example) but this range of sensors is superb. A user should be able to comfortably set fan speed adjustments based on relevant data from the CPU, MOSFET, and PCIe slots. The only noteworthy omission is a graphics card monitoring sensor. It would be good if Gigabyte fed data from its Aorus graphics cards, for example, through to the motherboard-controlled fan headers. PCIe readings in the UEFI relate to the actual slots, not the cards installed in them. However, this is not a criticism but instead a point for improvement as no competing motherboard vendors support GPU temperature data being fed through to the fan control system. The Peripherals tab contains settings and information relating to onboard devices such as the SATA controller and NVMe configuration. The USB DAC-UP 2 voltage can also be adjusted. RGB Fusion is Gigabyte’s basic UEFI-based LED colour control tool. Colours can be adjusted in real time and the LED activation mode can be set, but that’s about it. There is a limit to how complex the tool can be given its residence inside the UEFI. The OS version has greater functionality. With that said, I like to see at least some form of LED control available in the UEFI as it helps to maintain user-defined parameters in the case of an OS reinstall or system corruption that damages the OS-based LED profiles. This is a clear advantage that Gigabyte offers and its competitors do not. Settings relating to IOMMU support, among others, can be tweaked in the Chipset page. Up to eight individual profiles can be saved to the board’s internal memory. Further profiles can be transferred using a storage medium. Gigabyte’s BIOS updating tool – Q-Flash – is accessed via a hidden tab on the bottom of the screen. I took a few minutes to find its location which was annoying as it would make more sense if there was some reference to it in one of the main pages, such as BIOS. We could enter different folders within our USB drive using Q-Flash and then update the BIOS with ease. There’s no internet-based BIOS update tool available through the Gigabyte UEFI, as we have seen some competing vendors offer. UEFI Summary: Superb fan control options through Smart Fan 5 and an ability to control RGB LED settings, albeit in a basic manner, through RGB Fusion are positive points for Gigabyte’s UEFI. The interface was stable throughout our testing but we did get a little frustrated with the limited CPU voltage tuning settings that limited our overclocking capabilities. The omission of LLC settings was another disappointment for overclocking. Overall styling of the UEFI is older, less interactive, and far less appealing than the solutions from competing vendors. I found myself relying upon the keyboard for parameter adjustments more than I do in competing UEFI implementations. There’s no ‘special‘ UEFI feature like SSD Secure Erase with ASUS and MSI or ASRock’s and MSI’s System Browser and Board Explorer tools, respectively. However, Gigabyte has an overall superior feature set to its competitors thanks to a combination of the superb Smart Fan 5 and RGB Fusion. Gigabyte’s Easy Mode page is a nice addition that can help novices. The inclusion of XMP support is great and it worked in our testing. Fan control functionality is superb and that should be enough of a positive for users to overlook the other negatives relating to overall design and slight overclocking challenges. Software The software used by Gigabyte is almost identical across its current product range. As such, we have re-used the bulk of our analysis from previous reviews and updated the text where there are subtle differences. Gigabyte makes a vast number of software utilities available for installation with its motherboards. Thankfully, not all the tools have to be installed and APP Center is a very good method of managing the selected software, as well as third-party apps and Windows settings. EasyTune is Gigabyte’s tool for managing system operating parameters. The performance profile of the system can be adjusted using EasyTune and there’s also the option to conduct automated system tuning. Other system settings such as voltages, speeds, and ratios can also be adjusted and saved into profiles. System Information Viewer (SIV) is a similar setup to EasyTune but it is geared towards fan control and system monitoring. System recordings relating to voltages, temperatures, and fan speeds can also be made. This is particularly useful for analysing stability in the form of checking how your system behaves during an extended gaming or video rendering session, for example. The Hardware Monitor break-out tab is a method for reading a wealth of system information while inside the OS. The quantity of information displayed is good and the readings look to be accurate. Four fan speed profiles can be selected and manual fan control ability is provided in great detail. An 8-point curve can be set for all the motherboard’s fan headers or, alternatively, an RPM-fixed mode can be applied (which custom liquid cooling enthusiasts may appreciate). RGB Fusion is Gigabyte’s in-depth LED control application. The Basic tab can be used to activate different LED operation modes and tweak the RGB behaviour. I was particularly fond of the Intelligent mode which adjusts the LED colour profile based on statistics such as the CPU temperature or load, the LAN speed, or even a time schedule. The Advanced section gives more LED control, allowing users to adjust the lighting colour and behaviour for the board’s lighting zones (and RGB header). This motherboard differs to higher-end Aorus offerings in its ability to only change the single colour applied to each of the board’s lighting zones, not individual colours for individual zones. The RGB strips can, however, be set as a different colour to the motherboard. A calibration tool is available for Gigabyte’s unique 5-pin RGB header, allowing greater compatibility on the fragmented RGB LED strip market. Three individual LED profiles can be saved and they can be exported/imported to share with friends or for backup purposes. We are told that RGB Fusion can control the LED profiles of partnering hardware such as an RGB-enabled Aorus graphics card but we do not have the hardware at hand to test the claim. USB DAC-UP 2 can change the settings of certain USB ports to suit a user’s preference with their audio hardware. Focussing on some of the more useful tools, 3D OSD is a RivaTuner-like application that can be used to overlay system information on the screen. I don’t see the need for this feature when RivaTuner is freely available alongside MSI Afterburner but it may prove useful for some people, nonetheless. Color Temperature can be used to adjust the blue-light profile of one’s monitor. I tested this feature with an AOC 4K monitor using a GTX 1080 Ti and it worked well. OS Software Summary: Gigabyte’s variety of available software tools is strong and the system for managing them through APP Center is smart and efficient. EasyTune has good potential for system tuning on the fly. SIV offers superb control of fan speeds through an easy-to-use OS-based interface. This is one of the best fan control interfaces on the market that does a superb job of complementing Gigabyte's excellent UEFI-based Smart Fan 5 control system. RGB Fusion is excellent and gives users a sizeable amount of flexibility for tuning their system’s lighting conditions. The LED-adjusting tool is as good as ASUS’ AURA software in some respects and better in many respects (re-programmable RGB header pins and the Intelligent RGB modes). Though ASUS' recent release of the AURA SDK gives that platform more future potential. Some form of RAM drive software tool would have been a nice addition and we experienced some bugs that are likely tied to the new platform. Overall, though, it is difficult to find criticism for Gigabyte’s strong selection of OS-based software. We will be outlining the Gigabyte AB350-Gaming 3 motherboard’s performance with the Ryzen 7 1800X CPU and 16GB of 3200MHz G.Skill Flare X DDR4 memory. Stock voltage hovered around 1.3V under Cinebench load. This was using the latest F6 BIOS. AM4 Motherboard Test System:
Comparison AM4 Motherboards:
Software:
Tests:
Cinebench R15 Cinebench is an application which renders a photorealistic 3D scene to benchmark a computer’s rendering performance, on one CPU core, all CPU cores or using the GPU. We run the test using the all core CPU mode. Handbrake Conversion Handbrake is a free and open-source video transcoding tool that can be used to convert video files between different codecs, formats and resolutions. We measured the average frame rate achieved for a task of converting a 6.27GB 4K video using the Normal Profile setting and MP4 container. The test stresses all CPU cores to 100% and shows an affinity for memory bandwidth. SiSoft Sandra Processor Arithmetic SiSoft Sandra is a multi-function utility program that supports remote analysis, benchmarking and diagnostic features for PCs, servers, mobile devices and networks. We run the application’s processor arithmetic test to gauge the CPU performance on each tested motherboard. No issues with Gigabyte's AB350-Gaming 3 when it comes to CPU-heavy performance. The performance is almost identical to that of ASRock and MSI competitors. AIDA64 Memory Throughput AIDA64 is a multi-featured software suite for diagnostics, stress testing, benchmarking, software auditing and various other measurement parameters. We use AIDA64 Engineer to benchmark memory throughput and latency. AIDA64 Memory Latency AIDA64 is a multi-featured software suite for diagnostics, stress testing, benchmarking, software auditing and various other measurement parameters. We use AIDA64 Engineer to benchmark memory throughput and latency. 7-Zip 7-Zip is an open source Windows utility for manipulating archives. We measure the Total Rating performance using the built-in benchmark tool. The test stresses all CPU cores to 100% and shows an affinity for memory bandwidth. Memory-based performance is also fine with the Gigabyte board, even if its latency numbers are very slightly worse than those of its competitors. 3DMark 3DMark is a multi-platform hardware benchmark designed to test varying resolutions and detail levels of 3D gaming performance. We run the Time Spy benchmark, which is indicative of high-end 1440p PC Gaming with the DX12 API. Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation Metro: Last Light Redux Despite its age, Metro: Last Light Redux remains a punishing title for modern computer hardware. We use the game's built-in benchmark with quality set to Very High, SSAA enabled, AF 16X, and High tessellation. You should not notice any gaming performance drops using Gigabyte's AB350-Gaming 3. Manual CPU Overclocking: To test the Gigabyte AB350-Gaming 3 motherboard’s CPU overclocking potential, we aim to set the CPU voltage close to 1.40V. CPU VCore is set to +0.060V in order to target 1.40V. SOC voltage is left unchanged due to the use of an offset voltage adjustment system rather than a direct numerical input. We maintained the DRAM frequency at 3200MHz to take its stability out of the overclocking equation. A challenge with the offset voltage application method is the voltage overshoot during load. Our initial testing used a +0.102V offset as this should have delivered around 1.4V under load, based on the default load voltage levels. However, our load voltage was reported as 1.440V when running Cinebench and was too high for a motherboard of this calibre. We backed down to +0.072V (load voltage of 1.404-1.416V), which was more reasonable, but could not get our Ryzen 7 1800X to hold stability at its known 4.05GHz limit. The highest frequency we could achieve was 4.00GHz – a 50MHz reduction compared to the MSI B350 Tomahawk. As such, further trial and error showed us that a +0.060V offset voltage on the CPU would deliver a constant 1.404V under heavy load that was perfectly good for the 4.00GHz overclock. Just like the ASRock Fatal1ty AB350 Gaming K4, Gigabyte's AB350-Gaming 3 could not match the MSI B350 Tomahawk for Ryzen 7 1800X overclocking performance. The speed difference was small but it is a factor for potential buyers. Overclocked Performance As a performance comparison, we have included the results from two other AM4 motherboards. The maximum overclocked configuration achieved with each board was either a 4000MHz (40.0 x 100MHz) or 4050MHz (40.5 x 100MHz) processor frequency whilst using 3200MHz CL14 memory. Limited overclocking capacity, compared to MSI's B350 Tomahawk, hurts the performance of Gigabyte's AB350-Gaming 3 in Cinebench. Power We leave the system to idle on the Windows 10 desktop for 5 minutes before taking a reading. For CPU load results we run Cinebench multi-core and take a reading. The power consumption of our entire test system (at the wall) is shown in the chart. Gigabyte's power consumption is close to that of MSI's thanks to better voltage accuracy of both of those motherboards compared to ASRock's competitor. A 1.4V overclock with an eight-core CPU puts heavy demand on the power delivery solution, as proven by the 236W system-wide draw for the Gigabyte-based system when overclocked and loaded with Cinebench. We saw reported MOSFET temperatures quickly rising towards 90°C after five consecutive Cinebench runs and would therefore advise monitoring of these temperatures to ensure that they remain at a sensible level. Gigabyte's heatsink for the CPU MOSFETs is decent but the supplementary three-phase solution (primarily for the SOC rail) is un-cooled. ATTO Disk Benchmark The ATTO disk benchmark is a Windows-based utility for testing storage performance of any storage drive or controller. We use the default benchmark setup. M.2 PCIe Performance For M.2 testing we use a Toshiba OCZ RD400 256GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD. Excellent performance from Gigabyte's M.2 slot wired directly to the AM4 CPU. No slowdowns for transfer rates were observed during our testing. USB 3.0 5Gbps & USB 3.1 Gen 2 10Gbps Performance We test USB 3.0 5Gbps and USB 3.1 Gen 2 10Gbps performance using a pair of Corsair Force LE 120GB SSDs in RAID 0 connected to an Icy Box RD2253-U31 2-bay USB 3.1 enclosure powered by an ASMedia ASM1352R controller. Gigabyte's inclusion of 10Gbps USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports is rare for a motherboard in this price range, despite the connections being made available by AMD's B350 chipset. As such, Gigabyte takes a commanding lead in external transfer rate performance compared to options from competing vendors. Put simply, if you want transfer rates to an external drive that are more than twice as fast as ASRock, MSI, and ASUS offerings in this price range, the Gigabyte AB350-Gaming 3 will give you just that. SATA 6Gbps Performance For SATA 6Gbps testing we use a SK Hynix SE3010 960GB SSD. SATA 6Gbps performance is without restrictions, irrelevant of whether the CPU- or chipset-based ports are used. Audio Rightmark Audio Analyser is a freeware benchmarking utility designed to objectively test the performance characteristics of audio solutions. We setup a line-in line-out loop and execute the record/playback test before generating the results report you see below. A sampling mode of 24-bit, 192 kHz was tested. According to RMAA, overall performance from Gigabyte's audio solution is ‘very good'. The use of Realtek's high-performance ALC1220 codec, compared to the older ALC892 offered by competitors, gives the Gigabyte AB350-Gaming 3 an advantage in terms of audio solution quality at this price point. The Gigabyte AB350-Gaming 3 is available at Overclockers UK for £104.99. A three-year manufacturer warranty is provided. With its 10% price reduction from £116.99 to £104.99, the Gigabyte AB350-Gaming 3 enters a different market segment where it has an overall feature-set advantage over its competitors. This new price point also renders the £5 cheaper AB350-Gaming redundant. Is AB350 gaming 3 good?Very fast build for chomping around the net, gaming and office work. That's all ya need for the most part. Of course a higher end video card is necessary to play today's PC games. Just for stats this build is running on a 275 watt PSU small form factor. What is the form factor of the ab350m gaming 3?Gigabyte AB350-Gaming 3 Motherboard Review. |
