Gigabyte X99 Gaming G1 WiFi (LGA 2011-3) Review

Final Thoughts

Pricing (accurate at the time of writing)

Gigabyte’s X99 Gaming G1 WiFi costs $345 at Amazon and Newegg in the United States. Here in the UK it fetches around £290 at etailers like Scan Computers. A 3 year warranty is provided.

Summary

The X99 Gaming G1 WiFi is a pricey motherboard. Its pricing relative to other motherboards varies depending on the region but some key contenders include the MSI X99 XPower AC (£275~/$385), the ASUS X99-DELUXE (£290~/$390)  and the famed ASUS Rampage V Extreme (£330~/$470). As a result of those comparisons, the Gigabyte X99 Gaming G1 WiFi finds itself in direct competition with other very high-end motherboards. It’s also worth pointing out that the X99 Gaming G1 WiFi costs nearly twice as much as the Gigabyte X99-UD4 (£170) here in the UK. My perspective on this is that Gigabyte’s X99 Gaming G1 WiFi must therefore match or better the competition in terms of features and performance to justify its significant price tag.

The Gigabyte X99 G1 Gaming WiFi motherboard is a feature packed motherboard, with dual LAN, AC WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0, SATA Express, M.2, abundant USB, onboard buttons, high quality audio, a powerful VRM system and some nifty LED lighting options. These features, however, are not exclusive to Gigabyte at this price point. Rival offerings from ASUS, ASRock and MSI also offer up a similarly impressive array of features and connectivity. In fact, determining between all motherboards in this price segment becomes virtually impossible as every high-end motherboard has just about every feature you could possibly want. From that perspective, the Gigabyte X99 G1 Gaming WiFi motherboard, predictably, ticks a lot of the right boxes.

Moving onto performance and it is clear to me that the X99 Gaming G1 WiFi is not the strongest X99 board out there. It does lead our testing as the strongest overclocker in terms of raw frequency but we find that performance in some areas can be improved: notably memory and M.2 storage. On the CPU side of things this board is a very strong performer and we commend its overclocking credentials: even for a gaming motherboard. While other rival boards perform slightly better in our overall suite of benchmarks, the real-world difference is neglible between all X99 motherboards and most people will appreciate the higher clock speed offered by Gigabyte’s X99 Gaming G1 WiFi.

There are a few areas that I think warrant closer scrutiny for the prospective buyer. The first is relative to the BIOS with the way getting into the BIOS proved challenging at times and often resulted in the system hanging at a black screen. I had this problem on other Gigabyte X99 boards suggesting it’s either a Gigabyte X99-wide problem or a problem with our specific setup. Given other X99 boards from ASUS and MSI have not had the same issues I believe it is a Gigabyte problem and as such I would like to see a fix for it. My second issue is with regards to the aesthetics. The audio capacitors are bright green and these stand out like a sore thumb, in a bad way. The WiFi/Bluetooth combo card also stands out in the middle of the board: why has it not been relocated to the rear I/O like how other vendors implement it? Finally, I would like to ask Gigabyte to reconsider the use of Creative’s SoundCore 3D chip. For such a high-end board I would liked to have seen a Realtek ALC1150 based audio package. My preference for this comes from the fact Realtek ALC1150 audio codecs are capable of better quality audio and the fact that the Realtek audio control panel is laid out better resulting in it being more intuitive.

On the whole the Gigabyte X99 G1 Gaming WiFi is a solid motherboard for any performance enthusiast, especially in the USA where pricing is very competitive with rival offerings. Here in the UK I feel pricing puts this board in a tough position and some buyers may be more tempted by rival offerings

Pros

• Solid overclocking
• Great range of connectivity options: network, USB, multi-GPUs, etc.
• Choice of BIOS layouts (new UEFI vs old BIOS style)
• Great audio extras (amplifiers, gain switch, etc)
• Competitive stateside pricing

Cons

• No 32 Gbps M.2 port
• Dubious UK pricing
• Green audio capacitors and WiFi combo card litter the clean aesthetics
• Issues with BIOS entry

“With a staggering number of features, connectivity options and great overclocking potential the Gigabyte X99 G1 Gaming WiFi is an extreme performance product and a worthy contender for your next high-end build.”

Thank you to Gigabyte for providing this review sample.