Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Motherboard Audio Review

[jony_m]

Thanks for the review. I wonder how the measured results would compare while running a video game in full load (I would assume far more noise).
My GPU sits right on top of where the onboard audio shielding plate is.

 

[bennetng]

Thanks for the review. I wonder how the measured results would compare while running a video game in full load (I would assume far more noise).
My GPU sits right on top of where the onboard audio shielding plate is.

You can get GPU noise even with an external and independently powered DAC:
https://archimago.blogspot.com/2013/02/measurement-asus-xonar-essence-one.html

On the other hand you may not get a lot of noise when stressing the GPU with an onboard codec:
http://archimago.blogspot.com/2018/05/measurements-msi-x370-sli-plus-am4.html

...or for that matter, an internal PCIE soundcard:
https://hydrogenaud.io/index.php?topic=100481.0

So, you already have an onboard codec, if it is noisy enough to be audible, then you can hear it already.

 

[bboris77]

Thanks for the review. I wonder how the measured results would compare while running a video game in full load (I would assume far more noise).
My GPU sits right on top of where the onboard audio shielding plate is.

Or even while a well-known 3D benchmark is running, like 3D Mark. that way, it is repeatable. Best would be to run a benchmark at relatively low resolution, to max out the frame rates. That causes coil whine and electro-magnetic noise to be at their maximum.

 

[PolkFan]

I helped make this review happen by donating some cash for it i feel its very important to have motherboard reviews as a LOT of PC users wonder if they will see a benefit from upgrading and as we can see here yes they indeed can most headphones are under 100 ohm and it wouldn't sound so great on a 78 Ohm output.

Keep in mind all your PC's that have worse boards then this $300 one might perform worse and that easily includes your $2000 bestbuy computers that always use crappy power supplies and motherboards to get that extra profit.

As i kept saying in our dac thread i do believe dac's are good enough in modern PC's but the amps certainly aren't.

 

[amirm]

Thanks for the review. I wonder how the measured results would compare while running a video game in full load (I would assume far more noise).
My GPU sits right on top of where the onboard audio shielding plate is.

My measurement software uses a full core at least and this was running during the test. So this is not a lightly loaded system. I can try to run a benchmark and see what happens. I am not a gamer so have no games to run .

 

[companyja]

You can load the system with something like AIDA64 which will tax the system at a semi-reasonable level (it is used for stability testing so worst case scenario). For ultimate loading, Prime95 can be used, but this is a completely unrealistic scenario

 

[bennetng]

My measurement software uses a full core at least and this was running during the test. So this is not a lightly loaded system. I can try to run a benchmark and see what happens. I am not a gamer so have no games to run .

This website runs a WebGL 2 demo without the need to install anything. No need to click "play" at all. Just click "ultra" and it will exercise the GPU.
https://playcanv.as/e/p/44MRmJRU/

 

[PolkFan]

Awesome. I’ve wondering for a while whether these ports leak less video card/ psu noise down the common ground. Keep in mind, you can only notice this if there is a ground loop present. For example if your DAC, amp or studio monitors use a 3 prong power cord. For me, the worst culprit was my GTX 980 video card. Since I changed to GTX 1660 Super, the noise has diminished to almost imperceptible but it is still there if I don’t break the ground loop.

I was trying to tell others on this forum weeks ago that this is a common issue and yet one more reason to upgrade your PC audio.

 

[companyja]

I helped make this review happen by donating some cash for it i feel its very important to have motherboard reviews as a LOT of PC users wonder if they will see a benefit from upgrading and as we can see here yes they indeed can most headphones are under 100 ohm and it wouldn't sound so great on a 78 Ohm output.

Keep in mind all your PC's that have worse boards then this $300 one might perform worse and that easily includes your $2000 bestbuy computers that always use crappy power supplies and motherboards to get that extra profit.

As i kept saying in our dac thread i do believe dac's are good enough in modern PC's but the amps certainly aren't.

I wonder if anyone's ever made a discrete USB DAC with a Realtek chip? I bet they're absolutely good enough (they report 120db+ SNR values on their website, that's why these MoBo manufacturers just copy-paste that value). I don't think I've ever seen realtek used other than a motherboard, I wonder if there are licencing issues. That would be pretty cool to see how a Realtek chip would do in an established, proper platform with clean power and everything.

 

[PolkFan]

You can get GPU noise even with an external and independently powered DAC:
https://archimago.blogspot.com/2013/02/measurement-asus-xonar-essence-one.html

On the other hand you may not get a lot of noise when stressing the GPU with an onboard codec:
http://archimago.blogspot.com/2018/05/measurements-msi-x370-sli-plus-am4.html

...or for that matter, an internal PCIE soundcard:
https://hydrogenaud.io/index.php?topic=100481.0

So, you already have an onboard codec, if it is noisy enough to be audible, then you can hear it already.

Thanks for that blog post i think i found another site i will have to read

 

[Berwhale]

I wonder if anyone's ever made a discrete USB DAC with a Realtek chip? I bet they're absolutely good enough (they report 120db+ SNR values on their website, that's why these MoBo manufacturers just copy-paste that value). I don't think I've ever seen realtek used other than a motherboard, I wonder if there are licencing issues. That would be pretty cool to see how a Realtek chip would do in an established, proper platform with clean power and everything.

USB Type C headphone adapter that claims to contain a Realtek DAC Hi-Res ALC4042...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Soditer-Adapter-Headphone-Realtek-Earphone/dp/B07MHH14M5

And the Hidizs S1 has the same chip...

https://www.hidizs.net/products/hidizs-s1-type-c-dac-cable

Amirm measured and older version here: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...asurements-of-hidizs-dac-and-amp-dongle.8707/

I don't know if it had the same Realtek DAC chip.

 

[ZolaIII]

USB Type C headphone adapter that claims to contain a Realtek DAC Hi-Res ALC4042...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Soditer-Adapter-Headphone-Realtek-Earphone/dp/B07MHH14M5

And the Hidizs S1 has the same chip...

https://www.hidizs.net/products/hidizs-s1-type-c-dac-cable

Amirm measured and older version here: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...asurements-of-hidizs-dac-and-amp-dongle.8707/

I don't know if it had the same Realtek DAC chip.

Hidizs is bitching again and renaming "it's own" products... First whose Sonata S1 , than Sonata S2 both actually TempoTec and same as Sonata HD with old CS42L42 one of which Amir tested & they didn't shown good. Now Hidizs renamed Sonata 3 will ALC 4042 to Sonata 1 because its obviously a downgrade of previous ones that ware bad to start with.

 

[JohnBooty]

Unfortunately the "laptop" is about 11 lbs. and huge - so by the time I'm bringing it, the monstrous power supply, mouse, etc. - I could have tossed in a Topping NX4 or similar and never even noticed the extra weight.

Strap a Benchmark AHB onto that sucker for the true ultimate rig!

 

[odyo]

The main reason why I have switched to PS4 Pro for gaming is the fact that only top of the line video cards can play anything at 4K with 60fps consistently. And in my experience, most top of the line video cards produce coil whine and leak a ton of it down the common ground. Plus they cost 1k in Canada.

I have SBX AE5 soundcard and heavily overclocked RTX 2080 in a custom loop. Which means much, much more coil whine than and electrical noise than average gpu. AE5 really doing amazing job. No noise at all. I hope my external dac will be clean as AE5. There is also heavily overclocked 9900k and ram.

 

[odyo]

I know, it is nuts that one has to spend 3 times the cost of a PS4 Pro or XBox One X for a graphics card that runs things acceptably at 4K.
But what really annoys me is that the video card manufacturers just do not seem to give a crap about coil whine that their cards produce or the interference that they dump down the common ground. At least PS4 Pro uses a 2-prong cord which eliminates the latter problem. However, most PS4 Pro consoles, including my own, have a very pronounced coil whine emanating from the unit itself that is easily audible in menus where the frame rate is uncapped (for some reason). I had to put mine into a ventilated closet just so that the coil whine and fan noise would not bother me. With PCs, you can control the fan noise easily, you can cap that frame rates which helps the coil whine, but electric interference via common ground is still an issue.

You can't compare. RTX 2080 is as powerful as upcoming next gen consoles. Current gen consoles are pretty weak and they don't do 4k max settings. They use upscaling and mix of ''low'' ''medium'' settings. They are on par with relatively cheap RX 580 and GTX 1060.
Next gen consoles gonna be weaker than 2 years old Nvidia gpu.

 

[odyo]

Honestly, hook it up to Magni heresy or Atom and you have a perfectly "suitable" output+amplifier combo for $100. Definitely "OK".

Yep. Stock headphone performance is just horrible and useless. It will be ok with an external amp.

 

[Jimster480]

Shame that with all your measurements on audio products; you are running Intel CPU's which measure quite poorly and cost alot of money

 

[amirm]

Shame that with all your measurements on audio products; you are running Intel CPU's which measure quite poorly and cost alot of money

Because my audio app is not multi-threaded, single core performance is most important to me and that is where Intel shines.

 

[majingotan]

Or even while a well-known 3D benchmark is running, like 3D Mark. that way, it is repeatable. Best would be to run a benchmark at relatively low resolution, to max out the frame rates. That causes coil whine and electro-magnetic noise to be at their maximum.

We can also use Furmark GPU stress + Prime95 all cores with large FFTs on high-priority then check for the coil whine. Keep in mind the temps as they stress both chips very close to maximum

 

[hellboundlex]

I wonder how S/PDIF does from this motherboard, compared to say using a topping d10. Is this something that can be tested?