The motherboard is an essential part of your computer. It holds everything together and, in many ways, controls your computer’s capacity. If you have an older motherboard, you can’t just slot in high-end parts and expect them to work.

While there are a lot of companies out there that make motherboards, Asus and Gigabyte are one of the more popular choices among PC builders. This article compares Asus and Gigabyte and their flagship motherboards to see which one’s the better pick for you.

Also read: Best gaming PC build under INR 50000

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Performance

Both manufacturers rank the same here as motherboard performance depends on which specific motherboard you end up picking and the exact components you use. You can have a top of the line motherboard, but if you don’t have the right components to match it, you won’t be able to extract the most out of the motherboard. 

Gigabyte motherboards, however, slightly outperform their Asus counterparts, but that slight increase in performance comes at a not so slight price gap between the two. 

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Price

Asus motherboards are often relatively cheaper than their Gigabyte counterparts. Gigabyte motherboard won’t break the bank for you either (once again, depending on the exact motherboard you choose) but will cost more for the same feature set. 

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Models on offer

Gigabyte offers five different categories of motherboards.

• Gigabyte Aorus motherboards are the company’s top-tier offerings and are designed for gamers giving maximum performance. 
• Gigabyte Gaming motherboards are the company’s mid-tier offerings after the Aorus lineup. They also offer good performance for the price, especially if you’re looking to game on them. Other than that, these motherboards will also offer great performance with other CPU/GPU heavy tasks. 
• The Ultra-Durable lineup from the company is designed to give the most reliable performance even in extreme conditions. 
• The company also has a line for server and workstation motherboards aimed to be good performing, reliable motherboards for churning out server loads. 
• Lastly, the Embedded/IoT lineup is meant for headless computers and server devices that often remain connected to the internet. 

Asus, on the other hand, offers eight different categories. 

• The ROG motherboards from Asus offer top of the line performance for enthusiasts and pro gamers. 
• The TUF gaming series is built for casual gamers with enough features to support the latest gaming hardware but won’t perform as well as the ROG lineup. 
• PRIME series motherboards are for all-around builds and give several performance tuning options to users.
• The ProArt and Workstation motherboard lineups are meant for creative professionals and focus on faster memory bandwidth and better CPU performance. 
• For business-grade workloads, the CSM series is the right fit. 
• There’s another business-grade lineup aptly called Business itself. These motherboards focus more on security features like TPMs and locking hardware.
• Lastly, the expedition series is usually meant for niche builds that are highly customised to specific workloads. 

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Asus vs Gigabyte motherboard spec comparison

We’re comparing the flagship motherboards from both companies in the table below. 

Specifications	Gigabyte Z690 AORUS XTREME	Asus ROG MAXIMUS Z690 FORMULA
Socket	LGA 1700 (Intel 12th Gen compatible)	LGA 1700 (Intel 12th Gen compatible)
Chipset	Intel Z690 Express	Intel Z690 Express
Storage	4 x M.2 slots 4 x SATA 6Gb/s slots	5 x M.2 slots 6 x SATA 6Gb/s slots
Memory	4 x DDR5 DIMM slots for up to 128GB RAM	4 x DDR5 DIMM slots for up to 128GB RAM
USB	2 x USB Type-C ports, with USB 3.2 Gen 2 support 4 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports 4 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports (through internal header) 4 x USB 2.0/1.1 (through internal header)	2 x USB Type-C (Thunderbolt 4) 7 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 3 x USB 2.0 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 connector 4 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports (through internal header) 4 x USB 2.0 ports (through internal header)
Expansion Slots	1 x PCIe X16 1 x PCIe X8 1 x PCIe X4	2 x PCIe X16 1 x PCIe X16
Connectivity	WiFi a, b, g, n, ac, ax Bluetooth 5.2	Intel WiFi 6E WiFi a, b, g, n, ac, ax Bluetooth 5.2

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Conclusion 

The final answer here depends on your specific use case and budget. Chances are you’ll find everything you need in an Asus motherboard that’ll be cheaper than the corresponding Gigabyte offering. However, Gigabyte does offer more performance for the price bump. 

We recommend considering the whole picture, including the parts you intend to use in your motherboard and choosing one that’ll help you get the most out of your components. 

Also read: Best gaming PC build under INR 1 lakh