GIGABYTE Announces FM2+ A88X Series Motherboards for Kaveri
by Ian Cutress on August 16, 2013 10:17 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- AMD
- Gigabyte
- FM2
- Kaveri
The evolution of the Bulldozer module, through Piledriver, and Steamroller on Kaveri to come has been an eventful journey. Despite recent rumors floating around the Internet reporting delays to AMD’s deployment of Kaveri (which AMD have since confirmed to the media that Kaveri will ship to customers in Q4-2013), motherboard manufacturers, like GIGABYTE, are announcing their lineup for Steamroller based APUs.
These APUs will be using the FM2+ socket, which is backwards compatible with Trinity/Richland FM2 APUs (FM2 based motherboards are not forwards compatible), as well as a new chipset in the form of A88X, which as far as we know is for FM2+ only. These new APUs offer native support for PCIe 3.0 as well as DX11.1 and 4K support – something all AMD partners will be keen to promote.
GIGABYTE’s initial FM2+ lineup will consist of seven models with four ATX and three micro-ATX:
G1.Sniper A88X
F2A88X-UP4
F2A88X-D3H
F2A88X-HD3
F2A88XM-D3H
F2A85XM-DS2
F2A88XM-HD3
Continuing on the Sniper theme, the G1.Sniper A88X is aimed at the gaming market with two new exclusive audio features – GIGABYTE USB DAC-UP (a feature for optimized power to user DACs) and Gain Boost where high gain output is required. This board will also feature the high end audio solution from the G1.Sniper 5 (the Intel Z87 version), including OP-AMP, audio tracing separation and filter caps to improve noise quality. Below the G1.Sniper A88X is the F2A88X-UP4, which will feature 60A IR3550 ICs in its power delivery, similar to the F2A85X-UP4 which we reviewed in our initial Trinity coverage.
Release date for these motherboards is likely to be the same day that AMD release Kaveri, which should be in the hands of system integrators by the end of the year.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
24 Comments
View All Comments
kolo22 - Saturday, August 17, 2013 - link
How long does GIGIABYTE usually provide BIOS fixes for?lmcd - Saturday, August 17, 2013 - link
ITX at launch is a must, or I can guarantee there'll be a Haswell in the next machine I put together.CajunArson - Saturday, August 17, 2013 - link
So those boards look nice but... why buy one now when you'll have to wait until next February to get a Kaveri anyway?David_K - Saturday, August 17, 2013 - link
You can buy one and use it with a richland APU 0Amoro - Monday, August 19, 2013 - link
Uh, the 2nd sentence in the article states,"Despite recent rumors floating around the Internet reporting delays to AMD’s deployment of Kaveri (which AMD have since confirmed to the media that Kaveri will ship to customers in Q4-2013), motherboard manufacturers, like GIGABYTE, are announcing their lineup for Steamroller based APUs."
Parablooper - Saturday, August 17, 2013 - link
Oooh. Fancy.djshortsleeve - Monday, August 19, 2013 - link
So the next APUs wont be compatible with FM2 like originally stated?I have an A8-5600k HTPC. I built it to test out AMD APUs and throw some business their way. Ive thought on several occasions how much I regret the move.
Taft12 - Monday, August 19, 2013 - link
The next APUs *WERE* compatible with FM2: RichlandYou're going to have to show me where AMD ever said Kaveri APUs would be compatible with FM2. FM2+ has been on the roadmap for a while:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/display/201305302...
Dirk Broer - Saturday, August 24, 2013 - link
You can use your A8-5600K in FM2 mobos and in FM2+ mobos as well. You can't place a Kaveri in FM2 mobo though, as Kaveri has 2 more pins than socket FM2 allows for.lopper - Wednesday, August 28, 2013 - link
A question: I remember some saying that Kaveri's ondie graphics would have GDDR5. So, if these boards aren't majorly redesigned, what if these can only run Kaveri in a castrated form?