GIGABYTE X870E Aero X3D Wood Motherboard Review - A touch of wood adds a touch of class

TweakTown Rating: 95%

Our Verdict

The GIGABYTE X870E Aero X3D Wood is simply stunning. Add to that a great feature set and strong performance and it justifies its $499 price.

Pros

• Stunning aesthetic
• Strong performance
• Solid feature set
• Very good cooling and DIY-friendly features
• 64MB BIOS with built-in WiFi driver

Cons

• X3D Turbo Mode 2.0 is not all that impressive
• Dated audio codec
• Lacks USB PD

Should you buy it?

AvoidConsiderShortlistBuy

Buy at Amazon for $485.99 USD

Buy at Newegg for $499.99 USD

Buy at Newegg for $729.98 CAD

Buy at Amazon for £440.49

Buy at PC Case Gear for $729

Introduction, Specifications, and Pricing

There's the old saying that says looks are in the eye of the beholder. Well, I'm going to come right out and say the GIGABYTE X870E Aero X3D Wood is one of the best-looking motherboards I have ever seen. It's got wood! And leather too. The result is one of the most unique motherboards on the market. But looks alone do not make a good board good. How does the rest of it stack up?

The Aero X3D Wood is one of several refreshed AM5 motherboards that carry the X3D nomenclature. It's named for its much-hyped X3D Turbo Mode 2.0. GIGABYTE has made some lofty performance claims, but in our recent review of the AORUS X870E AORUS Elite X3D, we didn't find the gains we hoped for in most applications. But it isn't a heavy focus for this board.

Aside from its stunning design, the X870E Aero X3D Wood is definitely a high-end board with a strong feature set. It's got very good connectivity options, including dual 5G LAN, 320MHz WiFi 7, dual USB4, and a highly capable thermal design. That last point is something that's really stood out on recent GIGABYTE motherboards. Additionally, it's got a unique BIOS theme and a 64MB ROM, which means it is well prepared to support future Zen 6 CPUs.

The X870E Aero X3D Wood supports AMD AM5 Ryzen 7000, 8000, and 9000 series CPUs. It supports up to 256GB of memory at 9000 MT/s+. It comes with a range of ease-of-use features, including toolless M.2 heatsinks, a PCIe quick-release mechanism, and a Wi-Fi EZ-plug.

The X870E AORUS Elite X3D is currently available for $499. That puts it into high-end territory, but it's well under the likes of the ASUS ROG Crosshair X870E Dark Hero and GIGABYTE's own X870E AORUS Master X3D.

Best Deals: GIGABYTE X870E Aero X3D Wood Motherboard

	Today	7 days ago	30 days ago
	$485.99 USD	$478.99 USD	$485.99 USD	Buy
	$499.99 USD	$478.99 USD	$479.99 USD	Buy
	$485.99 USD	$478.99 USD	$485.99 USD	Buy
	$729.98 CAD	$729.98 CAD	$729.98 CAD	Buy
	£440.49	£438.96	£439.98	Buy
	$485.99 USD	$478.99 USD	$485.99 USD	Buy
	$729	$729	$729	Buy
	Check Price	Check Price	Check Price	Buy
* Prices last scanned 5/16/2026 at 1:06 am CDT - prices may be inaccurate. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. We earn affiliate commission from any Newegg or PCCG sales.

Packaging, Accessories, and Overview

Packaging and Accessories

31

The X870E Aero X3D Wood comes in a plain cardboard box, which surely saves GIGABYTE a few cents, but it also matches well with the wood theme.

31

The rear of the box shows off the key specifications and features, but it's free of fancy graphics. I like its minimalist approach.

31

The board comes with a fairly typical set of accessories. The little Aero keychain is a nice touch, though it's a bit flimsy. You get setup and installation guides, some M.2 spacer pads, two SATA cables, a front-panel header connector, and a WiFi antenna. This antenna features GIGABYTE's WiFi EZ-Plug, which is a single plug-in connector that doesn't require any screwing in.

Motherboard Overview

31

Hello beautiful! Even though the wooden accents look like wood, they are, of course, not real. Actually, you wouldn't want real wood on a motherboard due to safety risks and poor thermal conductivity. They blend in well with the silver and white design. It would be a crime to house the Aero X3D Wood in a closed case. Some lovely white lighting, a matching cooler, and a GPU would look fantastic. As the Aero X3D Wood is aimed at creators more than gamers, there's no onboard RGB, though you do get three ARGB headers and a single RGB header for showcase builds.

There's a good set of onboard USB headers providing up to four USB 2.0 ports, four USB 5Gbps ports, and a single Type-C 20Gbps port. A notable omission is the lack of front-panel USB PD support, which is surprising for this class of board.

Other key headers and connectors include eight fan headers, two thermistor headers, and an HDMI 1.4 port for use with case-mounted LCD screens. It supports up to 1080p at 30Hz, so it's not really suitable for regular monitors.

The X870E Aero X3D Wood includes a 64MB BIOS ROM. This will all but guarantee support for upcoming Zen 6 CPUs. It also gives GIGABYTE space to include a WiFi driver directly in the BIOS, providing instant WiFi access after Windows installation is complete. This negates the need to download a driver from another device and then transfer it. I hate doing that.

At this price, you'd expect power and reset buttons, but in a smart move, GIGABYTE placed them on the rear panel, which makes a lot of sense. Traditional buttons are hard to access in a closed case, but putting them on the rear makes them accessible without opening the case. Some might argue they're just as difficult to access at the rear, though it depends on where you place your PC.

31

The rear of the board is covered by a robust backplate. It adds rigidity to the board and helps to cool the rear of the VRM subsystem.

31

Four DIMM slots support up to DDR5-9000+ speeds. Such speeds are very difficult to achieve with a Ryzen 9000 CPU, so these are almost certainly validated with 8000 series APUs. It's off topic, but I really look forward to seeing what Zen 6 CPUs can achieve with memory. Maybe we'll get CUDIMM support for really crazy memory support.

Of course, such speeds are more for bragging rights unless you really tune your RAM with tight timings. AMD recommends memory in the 6000-6400 MT/s range in 1:1 mode for the best balance of speed, latency, and compatibility.

Also seen here is the aforementioned HDMI port.

31

The board offers three PCIe x16 slots. slot. The upper pair supports PCIe 5.0 x16 and x8, respectively, or x8/x8 if used together. The bottom x16 slot supports PCIe 4.0 x4 electrically. I think this is a good layout for a triple-slot board, as it gives a very large graphics card plenty of room to breathe while still allowing the use of one or more expansion cards.

The Aero X3D Wood supports up to four M.2 SSDs. The primary slot supports PCIe 5.0 x4 drives and is cooled by a dedicated heatsink with upper and lower thermal pads. The second PCIe 5.0 x4 slot is the bottom-most slot. I think this is a smart location, as it keeps it as far from the heat pumped out by a GPU as reasonably possible. The other two slots are connected to the chipset and support PCIe 4.0 x4. The bottom three slots are cooled by a single large plate. Both feature toolless mechanisms for easy access.

Four SATA ports join the four M.2 slots.

31

Look at the right of the heatsinks, that's a bit of faux-leather. Did I mention I really like the design of the Aero X3D Wood? I always test an SSD in the primary M.2 slot, and GIGABYTE usually impresses. It did again here, with a peak temperature of just 51 degrees with our Teamgroup SSD.

Note that the second PCIe 5.0 M.2 (M2B_CPU) slot shares bandwidth with the Asmedia USB4 controller. If it's populated, both the slot and USB4 controller drop to x2 speeds. Bandwidth sharing is inevitable with dual PCIe 5.0 M.2-equipped boards due to lane limitations.

31

The X870E Aero X3D Wood features a solid 16+2+2-phase VRM with 80A stages. It's not the most powerful VRM we've come across, but given Ryzen 9 chips are not extreme power guzzlers, it is more than sufficient. Time will tell if Zen 6 CPUs take a step up in TDP, but if a basic B850 board will run them, then it's a given that the Aero X3D Wood will too.

GIGABYTE's VRM cooling apparatus usually impresses on its mid-range and high-end boards. Though the X870E Aero X3D Wood doesn't include a finned heatsink, it does feature a large surface area, direct-touch heatpipes, and 7W/mK thermal pads. I expected the wood-and-plastic cover over the Aero branding to slightly hinder cooling, but it turned out not to. It performed very effectively in our test. A peak recorded temperature of 54 degrees is just one degree behind the mighty MSI X870E Godlike X Edition, which costs more than double and includes finned heatsinks.

31

The rear I/O of the X870E Aero X3D Wood is impressive. We'll begin with the USB complement, which starts with dual USB4 Type-C ports, both of which support DP 1.4a. There's also an HDMI 2.1 port, which gives you triple-monitor support without a GPU. The USB4 ports are joined by a 20Gbps Type-C port, five 10Gbps ports, and three 5Gbps ports. Even in 2026, I still like to see a pair of USB 2.0 ports for things like a keyboard, mouse, or printer, but that's nitpicking. 11 high-speed ports are sufficient for most.

GIGABYTE includes a pair of Realtek RTL8126 controllers for the dual 5G LAN ports. A second port is useful for creative types with network attached storage. The MediaTek MT7927 controller supports 320MHz connections and delivers up to 5.8Gbps of bandwidth.

Next are the audio ports, which consist of 3.5mm line-in and line-out ports and S/PDIF. These are driven by a Realtek ALC1220 codec. This codec has mostly been supplanted by the ALC4080 family. ALC1220 still does the job, but it's a bit middling for a 2026 premium motherboard.

Finally, there are CMOS clear, BIOS flashback, power, and reset buttons. The latter pair is placed away from the USB ports, so you should not accidentally press them when accessing them.

UEFI, Software and Test System

UEFI

The X870E Aero X3D Wood features a UEFI design that closely matches the board's aesthetic. It's one of the better-looking implementations I've seen, complete with wood buttons. The fonts have a nice contrast, and the layout will be familiar to anyone who's used a GIGABYTE board in recent years.

The Easy Mode page includes many important settings, and many users will never need to navigate to the advanced section. You can also toggle the X3D Turbo Mode on or off. I did not test X3D Turbo Mode on this board, but I will cover it briefly here for those who are interested. It can loosely be described as Precision Boost Overdrive on steroids.

It's an AI-powered performance enhancement designed to extract greater performance from AMD Ryzen X3D processors. It optimizes performance in real time, delivering a claimed performance uplift of up to 25%, though only under specific workloads.

The AI model is trained using data collected from other X3D systems. It analyses power management, temperatures, and frequencies in conjunction with dynamic workload sensing to adjust frequencies in real time.

There are two settings: Extreme Gaming Mode and Max Performance Mode. Gaming Mode is obviously designed to optimize gaming performance, while Max Performance Mode is designed to boost overall system performance.

The board's primary control app is the GIGABYTE Control Center. It comes with loads of functionality. RGB Fusion is a particularly useful component, as is fan control and monitoring. Another separate app is the GIGABYTE OnFly X3D app, which allows users to switch Turbo X3D modes on or off. Of course, it only works with X3D processors.

Test System

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 9950X - Buy from Amazon
• GPU: MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super Ventus 3X - Buy from Amazon
• RAM: G.Skill Trident Z Neo RGB 2x16GB DDR5-6000 CL30 - Buy from Amazon
• Cooler: Cooler Master MasterLiquid PL360 Flux - Buy from Amazon
• OS Storage: Teamgroup T-Force Z540 2TB - Buy from Amazon
• Power Supply: Super Flower Leadex Titanium 850W - Buy from Amazon
• OS: Microsoft Windows 11 Pro - Buy from Amazon

Benchmarks - Rendering and Encoding

Cinebench 2024

Cinebench 2024 is a reliable, widely used benchmark that measures both single- and multi-threaded performance. Note that all our benchmark testing used the latest available Windows updates.

31

The X870E Aero X3D Wood achieved the fastest multi-threaded result we've seen to date with our test configuration. It achieved 2,315 in the nT test and 140 in the 1T test.

Blender

A rendering application like Blender is just one of many reasons a user might consider a high-core-count CPU, such as the Ryzen 9 9950X. We use the Whitelands demo file and record how long it takes to render the image.

31

Ditto in our Blender test. Though the entire field is covered by only 9 seconds, it's better to be at the top rather than the bottom.

Handbrake

Handbrake is a simple-to-use video encoding and transcoding application. Here, we convert a 4K movie trailer to 1080p. The results below show the average FPS, where a higher value indicates the task will take less time to complete.

31

161.6 FPS is again the fastest result we've seen from an AM5 board to date. The Aero X3D Wood is certainly a strong board for heavily threaded workloads.

Benchmarks - File Compression and Memory Latency

7Zip

7Zip is a commonly used free file compression and decompression app. It's very sensitive to changes in memory speed and latency, and scales with the number of CPU threads.

31

That makes it four from four! The Wood brings some special sauce under heavily threaded loads. Though it has to be said, the margins are small.

AIDA64 Memory Latency

Memory latency has been an area where Intel has traditionally held an advantage. Chiplet architectures inevitably add some latency compared to monolithic chips. The real-world benefits aren't that important, though.

31

Only the dual-DIMM ASUS Apex and ASRock Taichi OCF sneak ahead by a whisker here. Impressive!

Benchmarks - PCMark and 3DMark

PCMark 10 Productivity

We'd love to use our PCs solely for leisure, but some of us have to work too! The PCMark 10 productivity test performs a series of tests using office productivity applications.

31

Ultimately, all the tested boards are within a couple of percent of one another. This is the first mid-pack result for the GIGABYTE. But PCMark 10 is now dated. I'll be replacing this benchmark with something more modern when next-generation CPUs and motherboards are released.

3DMark Storage

UL's newest 3DMark SSD Gaming Test is the most comprehensive SSD gaming test ever devised. It is superior to testing against games themselves because, as a trace, it is much more consistent than variations that will occur between runs of the actual game.

31

It's another strong result for the X870E Aero X3D Wood.

3DMark Time Spy Extreme

Time Spy Extreme has lost favor as a graphics benchmark to Speed Way and Steel Nomad, but its CPU test is still a good measure of multi-core performance.

31

GIGABYTE is definitely doing something right with the X870E Aero X3D Wood! This is again the highest CPU score we've seen from our test configuration. To be fair to the other boards, the differences are minor, with only a few hundred points separating them when measured by CPU score.

Benchmarks - Gaming

Cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunk 2077 is brutal on graphics cards, but when things like ray tracing are removed, it becomes more sensitive to CPU and memory performance differences.

31

The GIGABYTE performs well in games too, though it's no surprise that the motherboard makes little difference in graphically limited scenarios.

Horizon Zero Dawn

When using the 'favor performance' preset, Horizon Zero Dawn can achieve high frame rates with powerful graphics cards.

31

It's an equal first place for the Wood! If you're lucky enough to own an RTX 5090, the margins would be a little larger.

Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition

Metro Exodus received an update that added improved DLSS support, enhanced ray tracing features, and variable rate shading, among other things. Still, with a powerful graphics card, it is affected by CPU and memory performance at 1080p, though less so with a card like the RTX 4070 Ti Super.

31

Just four frames per second cover the entire field in this test.

VRM and SSD Temperatures

These tests are performed to show the differences between each motherboard's cooling assemblies. Each board is subjected to a 20-minute Cinebench loop, while the SSD test records the peak temperature during the lengthy 3DMark Storage test.

31

A peak temperature of 54 degrees is a strong result. GIGABYTE boards usually have high-quality VRM heatsinks, and the X870E Aero X3D Wood is another great GIGABYTE entry.

31

The Wood's primary SSD heatsink doesn't have the large surface area of some of its competitors, though it still produces an excellent temperature reading of just 51 degrees with our Teamgroup SSD.

Final Thoughts

The GIGABYTE X870E Aero X3D Wood is a really impressive motherboard that justifies its $499 price. Above that point, diminishing returns set in. It's got nearly all of the specs you'd expect from a high-end board, and of course, there's nothing like it due to its stunning design.

I tend to rate aesthetics behind value for money, functionality, specifications, layout, ease of use, and performance, but in this case, aesthetics have to be a major factor. It demands to be shown off in a windowed case. I'd love to build a white system with some tasteful RGB lighting and an AIO with an LCD display. I may well just go ahead and do it!

Aside from its appearance, the X870E Aero X3D Wood performs very well across all the other categories mentioned above.

31

The board is very well built, with a solid backplate. The VRM heatsinks perform brilliantly. The stylish primary SSD heatsink works very well and is a good example of a board that can combine form and function.

A word on the performance of the board, too. I'd say it offers the most impressive performance I've seen from an 800 series motherboard. It's important to remember that the margins between boards are small, and AM5 is a well and truly mature platform. But a gain of a few seconds here, or an extra gaming frame there, is better to have than not.

The negatives are few. I'd like to see USB PD. It doesn't have to be the 65W or so that some premium boards have, but being able to transfer data and charge via a front USB port is a useful feature. The audio codec is also dated in 2026.

The Aero X3D Wood goes head-to-head with the ASUS ProArt X870E Creator, which offers a similar feature set but tends to cost more. The ASRock X870 Taichi Creator is a cheaper option, but it is an X870 board, which means some significant compromises when its SSD slots are fully populated.

For $499, you get a feature-rich board. It's got dual PCIe 5.0 SSD support, very good cooling, dual 5G LAN, fast memory support, great DIY features, very good connectivity, and excellent performance. It's simply beautiful, too. The GIGABYTE X870E Aero X3D Wood earns a TweakTown Editor's Choice Award.