In collaboration with the G2 Esports team, Gigabyte has launched its new Z490 Aorus Ultra G2 motherboard for the latest 10th gen Intel processors. It equips a robust 12-phase power design that can smoothly drive the 10-core Intel i9-10900K up to its full potential at 5.30GHz. Gigabyte states that the new Z490 Aorus Ultra G2 features a PCIe 4.0 hardware design but note that all of its M.2 PCIe NVMe drives as well as expansion slots conform to PCIe 3.0 standard.
This is not the first time that Gigabyte is launching a motherboard with a G2 tag from the G2 Esports team. Remember the previous generation Z390 Aorus Master G2?
Now the new Z490 Aorus Ultra G2 motherboard is capable of supporting more cores, higher turbo frequencies, & higher memory DDR4 XMP clocks up to up to an astonishing 5000 MHz and beyond. With four DDR4 DIMM sockets, this motherboard allows for up to 128 GB of RAM (with 32 GB single DIMM capacity).
Storage & Expansion
Gigabyte Z490 Aorus Ultra G2 incorporates up to three M.2 NVMe PCIe 3.0 x4 slots with Thermal Guards II. In addition, you get up to 6 SATA 6Gb/s connectors where you can connect internal SATA SSDs or hard drives.
The motherboard comes with three PCIe expansion slots:
- (PCIEX16) PCIe 3.0 x16 slot, running at x16
- (PCIEX8) PCIe 3.0 x16 slot, running at x8
- (PCIEX4) PCIe 3.0 x16 slot, running at x4
Note that the PCIEX8 slot shares bandwidth with the PCIEX16 slot. So if you’ll populate the PCIEX8 slot, the PCIEX16 will run at x8 instead of x16. This could be a major drawback in the case of a multi-GPU setup.
Connectivity
The new Gigabyte Z490 Aorus Ultra G2 motherboard equips 10 USB ports & also supports Thunderbolt connectivity (via 2x add-in card connectors).
These are all of the connectivity options you can find on the back panel of this motherboard:
- 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port
- 3 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports (red)
- 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports
- 4 x USB 2.0 Type-A ports
- 1 x HDMI port
- 2 x SMA antenna connectors (2T2R)
- 1 x RJ-45 port
- 1 x optical S/PDIF Out connector
- 5 x audio jacks
For reliable wireless connectivity, the new Z490 Aorus Ultra G2 features Intel’s WiFi 6 802.11ax + BT 5 module that enables faster wireless transmission.
Audio
For audio, this motherboard has a lot to offer. It comes with a Type-C interface ESSential USB DAC that features a high quality 3.5mm audio output port. You can also plug-in the ESSential USB DAC to the Type-C interface on your laptop, android smartphone, and other devices in order to enjoy high-end audio conversion.
In addition, the new Z490 Aorus Ultra G2 also features ALC1220-VB audio codec paired with WIMA FKP2 recording studio-level capacitor to provide outstanding audio results. You can find more information here.
Gigabyte Z490 Aorus Ultra G2 Specifications
| Gigabyte Z490 Aorus Ultra G2 | |
|---|---|
| Chipset | Intel Z490 Express Chipset |
| Socket | LGA1200 |
| CPU | 10th Generation Intel processors (up to Core i9) |
| Form Factor | ATX Form Factor |
| Max Memory / RAM | 128 GB (32 GB single DIMM capacity) |
| Memory Speed | 2933 MHz (Up to 5000 MHz via O.C.) |
| Storage | 3x NVMe PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 6 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors |
| RAID Configuration | RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10 |
| LAN | Intel 2.5GbE LAN chip (2.5 Gbit/1 Gbit/100 Mbit) |
| WiFi | Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201 |
| Bluetooth | BT 5.0 |
| Expansion Slots | 1 x PCIe 3.0 x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16) 1 x PCIe 3.0 x16 slot, running at x8 (PCIEX8) -Shares bandwidth with (PCIEX16) 1 x PCIe 3.0 x16 slot, running at x4 (PCIEX4) |
| I/O Controller | iTE I/O Controller Chip |
| Connectivity (Back Panel) | 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port 3 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports (red) 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports 4 x USB 2.0 Type-A ports 1 x HDMI port 2 x SMA antenna connectors (2T2R) 1 x RJ-45 port 1 x optical S/PDIF Out connector 5 x audio jacks |
| Thunderbolt Support | Yes (via add-in card connectors) |
| Dimensions | 30.5cm x 24.4cm |
Gigabyte Z490 Aorus Ultra G2 Price
At the time of this writing, the price for the new Z490 Aorus Ultra G2 edition motherboard is $299.99 USD. You can contact your local dealer to get information on its availability.
Check out the current price and availability for the non-G2 version of the Z490 Aorus Ultra motherboard.
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