ATTO Disk Benchmark
The ATTO disk benchmark is a Windows-based utility for testing storage performance of any storage drive or controller. We use the default benchmark setup.
M.2 PCIe Performance
For M.2 testing we use a Toshiba OCZ RD400 256GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD.
Excellent performance from Gigabyte's M.2 slot wired directly to the AM4 CPU. No slowdowns for transfer rates were observed during our testing.
USB 3.0 5Gbps & USB 3.1 Gen 2 10Gbps Performance
We test USB 3.0 5Gbps and USB 3.1 Gen 2 10Gbps performance using a pair of Corsair Force LE 120GB SSDs in RAID 0 connected to an Icy Box RD2253-U31 2-bay USB 3.1 enclosure powered by an ASMedia ASM1352R controller.
Gigabyte's inclusion of 10Gbps USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports is rare for a motherboard in this price range, despite the connections being made available by AMD's B350 chipset. As such, Gigabyte takes a commanding lead in external transfer rate performance compared to options from competing vendors.
Put simply, if you want transfer rates to an external drive that are more than twice as fast as ASRock, MSI, and ASUS offerings in this price range, the Gigabyte AB350-Gaming 3 will give you just that.
SATA 6Gbps Performance
For SATA 6Gbps testing we use a SK Hynix SE3010 960GB SSD.
SATA 6Gbps performance is without restrictions, irrelevant of whether the CPU- or chipset-based ports are used.
Audio
Rightmark Audio Analyser is a freeware benchmarking utility designed to objectively test the performance characteristics of audio solutions. We setup a line-in line-out loop and execute the record/playback test before generating the results report you see below. A sampling mode of 24-bit, 192 kHz was tested.
According to RMAA, overall performance from Gigabyte's audio solution is ‘very good'. The use of Realtek's high-performance ALC1220 codec, compared to the older ALC892 offered by competitors, gives the Gigabyte AB350-Gaming 3 an advantage in terms of audio solution quality at this price point.
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