[Hardware] Gigabyte Z490 Vision D and Vision G Review: For Creators

[Agent47]

 

 

In addition to the high-level specs, both boards provide six SATA ports and a slew of USB connectivity on the rear IO. One other difference between these two outside of price, looks is the integrated Wi-Fi and Thunderbolt 3 connectivity: The Vision D has three M.2 slots, while the Vision G has two. Before we get to a detailed look at layout and performance, below is a complete list of specifications on both motherboards, from Gigabyte.

Motherboard makers are coming up with some innovative ways to distinguish their motherboard product lines. From overclocking series to creator boards, each company has something different, including Gigabyte, with its creator-focused Vision brand of boards. Here we’re covering the Intel side of the lineup, with the Z490 Vision D ($289.99) and Z490 Vision G ($199.99). As usual, we’ll be comparing their hardware, included features and performance, to see which motherboard is better for the creator these boards are designed for.

Gigabyte states its Vision line offers “...a no-compromise platform that excels in performance, functionality, and stability… paving the way for creators to work faster and efficiently...” The Vision D is higher up the product stack than the Vision G, bringing more features to the table including integrated Wi-Fi, Thunderbolt 3 ports, and RGB lighting. The Vision G, on the other hand, is priced about $90 less and doesn’t include the features mentioned in the previous sentence. Outside of that, both motherboards offer users solid power delivery, premium integrated audio, and more.

Performance between these two boards in our tests was nearly indistinguishable, as we would expect. Both have the same power delivery and utilize the same behavior for Intel boost. Compared to other boards, our Vision samples also mixed in well with the competition. Overclocking went well, with both able to take our Intel Core i9-10900K to 5.2 GHz and memory to DDR4 4000 speeds without issue. The VRMs ran a bit warm, but still well within operating parameters.
Vision D and Vision G Features 
Vision D
Gigabyte’s Vision D includes enough accessories to get your system up and running. It comes with the usual slate of SATA cables, Wi-Fi Antenna and more. Below is a complete list of what is included in the box along with the board.

●      User manual, Installation Guide

●      Four SATA cables

●      WiFi antenna
Starting off with appearance, the Vision D in many ways looks like most boards sitting around the $300 price point. It comes handsomely appointed with large black-and-silver heatsinks on the VRMs, heatsinks on all three M.2 slots, and a large chipset heatsink as well. RGB lighting is included on this board, with accents under the IO shroud as well as the chipset heatsink. If what exists isn’t enough, there are four headers onboard for RGB expansion.
Zooming in on the top half of the board, we’re able to get a closer look at the heatsinks, shrouds, and other business going on. The VRM heatsinks are connected via heatpipes in order to share the load. The left heatsink sports a brushed-aluminum look (as are all the silver/aluminum-colored heatsinks) while the top has a high-gloss black brushed appearance. Between them is a reinforced 8-pin EPS (required) plug and an (optional) 4-pin for powering the CPU.

To the right of the CPU socket are four reinforced DIMM slots capable of running up to 128GB of RAM. Speeds are listed up to DDR4 4400 for this motherboard which is on the lower side of speed support (the Vision G is up to DDR4 5000). Unless you’re benchmarking competitively, this shouldn’t be a problem for most users. The board is designed for creators, and for those types of users, stability is more of a key than ultra-fast RAM speeds/bandwidth support.

Note that due to the primary PCIe slot’s location, it’s difficult to reach the bottom locks for the RAM, as they bump into the video card. Gigabyte should use single-sided locking mechanisms if RAM slots are going to be that close to the GPU.

Wedged between the DRAM slots and top VRM heatsink is the first (of eight) 4-pin fan headers. There are plenty of headers by count. However, the manual doesn’t seem to mention how much power each of these is capable of. To that end, assume they are all 12W/1A to avoid issues.

On the right edge of the board on top, we find the first of four RGB headers. Just below it is the 2-character debug LED, a nice value add for this class of motherboard. Below that is the reinforced 24-pin ATX power plug for the motherboard, two system fan headers, and one of the 2-pin temperature headers. Continuing down the right edge is a front panel USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port and a USB 3.2 Gen 1 header.