GIGABYTE Z590 Aorus Tachyon Review: Built for SPEED

Power Delivery Thermal Analysis

A lot more focus has been put on power delivery specifications and capabilities, not just by manufacturers but as a result of users' demands. In addition to the extra power benefits from things like overclocking, more efficient designs in power deliveries and cooling solutions aim to bring temperatures down. Although this isn't something most users ever need to worry about, certain enthusiasts are bringing more focus onto each board's power delivery. The more premium models tend to include bigger and higher-grade power deliveries, with bigger and more intricate heatsink designs, with some even providing water blocks, while others are spending more just to make sure the most efficient parts on the market are being used.

The direct 12-phase power delivery on the GIGABYTE Z590 Aorus Tachyon (operating at 11+0/1+0)

Testing Methodology

Our method of testing is if the power delivery and its heatsink are effective at dissipating heat. We do this by running an intensely heavy CPU workload for a prolonged method of time. We apply an overclock which is deemed safe and at the maximum that the silicon on our testbed processor allows. We then run the Prime95 with AVX2 enabled under a torture test for an hour at the maximum stable overclock we can which puts insane pressure on the processor. We collect our data via three different methods which include the following:

• Taking a thermal image from a birds-eye view after an hour with a Flir Pro thermal imaging camera
• Securing two probes on to the rear of the PCB, right underneath CPU VCore section of the power delivery for better parity in case a probe reports a faulty reading
• Taking a reading of the VRM temperature from the sensor reading within the HWInfo monitoring application

The reason for using three different methods is that some sensors can read inaccurate temperatures, which can give very erratic results for users looking to gauge whether an overclock is too much pressure for the power delivery handle. With using a probe on the rear, it can also show the efficiency of the power stages and heatsinks as a wide margin between the probe and sensor temperature can show that the heatsink is dissipating heat and that the design is working, or that the internal sensor is massively wrong. To ensure our probe was accurate before testing, I binned 10 and selected the most accurate (within 1c of the actual temperature) for better parity in our testing.

To recreate a real-world testing scenario, the system is built into a conventional desktop chassis which is widely available. This is to show and alleviate issues when testing on open testbeds which we have done previously, which allows natural airflow to flow over the power delivery heatsinks. It provides a better comparison for the end-user and allows us to mitigate issues where heatsinks have been designed with airflow in mind, and those that have not. The idea of a heatsink is to allow effective dissipation of heat and not act as an insulator, with much more focus from consumers over the last couple of years on power delivery componentry and performance than in previous years.

For thermal imaging, we use a Flir One camera to indicate where the heat is generated around the socket area, as some designs use different configurations and an evenly spread power delivery with good components will usually generate less heat. Manufacturers who use inefficient heatsinks and cheap out on power delivery components should run hotter than those who have invested. Of course, a $700 flagship motherboard is likely to outperform a cheaper $100 model under the same testing conditions, but it is still worth testing to see which vendors are doing things correctly. 

Thermal Analysis Results

We measured 77.7ºC on the hottest part of the CPU socket during our testing

The GIGABYTE Z590 Aorus Tachyon is using a premium direct 12-phase power delivery, which is operating at 11+1. Something that's interesting is GIGABYTE is utilizing two PWM controllers, one for the CPU section and another for the iGPU. For the CPU area of the power delivery, GIGABYTE is using an Intersil ISL69269 PWM controller operating at 11+0, with eleven Vishay SiC840 100 A DrMOS power stages. GIGABYTE is using a Renesas RAA229001 PWM controller that independently controls one Vishay SiC840 100 A power stage which is modulating the iGPU voltages. Cooling the power delivery is a large heatsink that consists of two parts, but is molded into one unit and uses a single heat pipe. This heatsink has a lot of mass and has some channeling to resemble fins and direct airflow over the surface area to help transfer heat with the aid of passive airflow when installed into a chassis. 

In our power delivery thermal testing, the GIGABYTE Z590 Aorus Tachyon performs very well, with some of the lowest temperatures observed from our pair of K-type thermocouples, with temperatures of 64ºC and 66ºC. Using GIGABYTE's integrated temperature sensor, we measured a maximum temperature of 71ºC, which puts it within a couple of degrees celsius of the ASRock Z590 Taichi, which is using an actively cooled design. In terms of designs, the Tachyon has an efficient design with an equally efficient heatsink, which does a good job of removing thermal energy away from the componentry, albeit at the cost of dumping it into the power plane of the power delivery. This is why the CPU socket area around the PCB appears hotter than other elements of the power delivery.