by theygamesWhen Gigabyte launched its Xtreme Prestige lineup a few weeks ago, we weren’t entirely sure what to make of the extravagantly decorated graphics card and motherboard. But, having got hands and eyes on with the real deal, we can’t help but be impressed, even if we’re still not sure why you’d put forged titanium on a computer component.
The specs and designs of these products are such that Gigabyte would certainly hope they earn places on their respective best-of lists. The Aorus GeForce RTX 4080 Super Xtreme Ice 16G especially stands out as its the fastest clocked card in its class and so a natural candidate to be one of the best graphics card you can buy.
Gigabyte Aorus GeForce RTX 4080 Super Xtreme Ice 16G
Looking a little closer at the Aorus GeForce RTX 4080 Super Xtreme Ice 16G, then, and the first thing that hits you about it is how large it is. Even though we’re mostly used to how big high-end graphics cards can be these days, it can still be a little surprising just how hefty they can be, and this Xtreme model is even large than most other RTX 4080 Super cards.
Measuring 357mm long, 166mm tall and 75mm thick – that’s fully three PCIe slots wide – it’s a behemoth in every way. Nvidia SFF-Ready this thing isn’t.
The second thing that struck us about this particular card is that is was side by the big man himself, Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia – written in gold, of course. We hate to imagine how much that little gold scrawl will have added to the value of this card.
Now we get onto the real defining features of this card, with its gold and titanium. The gold is most prominent with the serial number plate that sits perfectly position on the rear corner of the card where it should be visible whatever graphics card configuration your case has.
As for the forged titanium, this is an interesting addition. The use of titanium at all just adds luxury, of course, as it’s such an expensive material that’s difficult to work with. But, while the hammered finished here looks and feels quite cool, there’s a slight dullness and subtleness to the finish that means it doesn’t actually standout that much from a lot of angles.
Had the whole card’s fan shroud been finished in this material, it would’ve been a different matter. Imagine a whole forged titanium version of the slick-looking AI TOP GPU that Gigabyte was also showing off and is shown below. Now that would be cool.
So would we want or recommend this card? Well, we’re still yet to test it though are quite sure its performance is in the top bracket for an RTX 4080 Super, and that card is already out top pick in terms of bang for buck for a high-end card. We’re also sure that the massive cooler keeps the GPU cool and quiet. But, with an asking price of $1,800 you’re paying a big premium over normal 4080 Super cards.
Now, maybe if they all came with Jensen’s signature…
Gigabyte Aorus Z790 Xtreme X Ice
Moving on to the motherboard, the Z790 Xtreme Ice has a designed that’s more dominated by three elements: the frosted plastic cover, the forged titanium, and the massive screen over the IO. The graphics card also had a screen on its top edge but it’s a much smaller one.
With the board not plugged in, the potential dazzling delights of the screen weren’t on show, with it instead just being an obvious blank space on the board. Likewise, we’re sure there’s plenty of LEDs shining forth from under all that frosted plastic when the board’s on.
However, even unplugged, the titanium cover that blocks off the entire lower section of the board, other than the GPU slot, is super prominent here. Again, like with the graphics cards, it would’ve be really cool to see a full cover made of this stuff, but at least here you get a decent-sized plater of it. Though there’s still a chance it would sink into the background a little once installed in a case.
Even up close, it wasn’t clear how the frosted plastic cover for the CPU section doesn’t just get in the way for the vast majority of CPU cooler installations. Clearly this is a board aimed at high-end water-cooled setups but that’s still a very limited amount of space for a water block.
It’s a shame, as it’s a neat effect, and one that several motherboard manufacturers could try. Forget having clever BTF hidden cable motherboard and case designs, you could just hide all the unsightly bits with a frosted cover. Done.
Speaking of hidden cables, the main cable IO on this board all sits on its edge, which should make for easy installation in most conventional, non-BTF, cases. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a neat line of power, SATA, USB, and more headers on a motherboard.
As you might expect with all the coverings for the board, the graphics card slot uses an offset release mechanism with a button towards the back of the board unhooking the GPU retainer. That’s not a unique feature but it’s absolutely the sort of premium but useful feature we’d hope to see on a board of this price.
As for whether this board is worth you spending your hard earned cash on, it’s clearly a natural fit for if you like the graphics card, but otherwise it’s a little trickier to justify. The GPU has a roughly 30% markup over typical RTX 4080 Super cards but this board is as much as 10x the price of some Z790 boards.
Still, that’s the nature of some flagship products. They’re there to be a fun outlandish option for those that fancy it. And if we had the cash we’d certainly be tempted to pop this Xtreme Ice setup in an amazing white fish tank case like the Hyte Y70.
For more of what we’ve seen on the show floor at Computex 2024, including Corsair’s new Custom Lab peripherals and AMD’s new Zen 5 CPUs, check out our Computex news hub.