Thursday, July 11th 2013
Gigabyte Rolls Out 990FXA-UD3 Rev. 4
Gigabyte rolled out the fifth revision to its 990FXA-UD3 socket AM3+ motherboard, which possibly heralds a series of upgrades to the company's existing socket AM3+ motherboard SKUs. The 990FXA-UD3 Rev. 4 features a host of changes over its UEFI-equipped predecessor, beginning with a refreshed 10-phase CPU VRM (Digital Power Engine), a different selection of chokes, capacitors, and MOSFETs, newer VRM and chipset heatsinks capable of handling higher thermal loads, and Gigabyte's newest UEFI setup program. The board is otherwise identical to the 990FXA-UD3 Rev 3.
Designed with support for AMD FX "Vishera" processors out of the box, the 990FXA-UD3 Rev. 4 features a split power-plane 10-phase CPU VRM, with chokes that don't whine under load, and lower footprint MOSFETs. The CPU socket is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots supporting up to 64 GB of dual-channel DDR3-2133 MHz memory, and the AMD 990FX northbridge. This chip gives out two PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slots, and two PCI-Express 2.0 x4 slots (physical x16). Two PCI-Express 2.0 x1, and a legacy PCI make for the rest of its expansion. All six SATA 6 Gb/s ports from the SB950 southbridge are assigned as internal ports, while a Marvell 9172 controller handles two eSATA 6 Gb/s. The board offers a total of four USB 3.0 ports, driven by EJ168 controllers by Etron. 8-channel HD audio driven by Realtek ALC889 CODEC, and a gigabit Ethernet interface driven by Realtek 8111F, cover the rest of its connectivity. Since it's a revision to an existing SKU, we expect it to be priced the same, around $140.
Designed with support for AMD FX "Vishera" processors out of the box, the 990FXA-UD3 Rev. 4 features a split power-plane 10-phase CPU VRM, with chokes that don't whine under load, and lower footprint MOSFETs. The CPU socket is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots supporting up to 64 GB of dual-channel DDR3-2133 MHz memory, and the AMD 990FX northbridge. This chip gives out two PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slots, and two PCI-Express 2.0 x4 slots (physical x16). Two PCI-Express 2.0 x1, and a legacy PCI make for the rest of its expansion. All six SATA 6 Gb/s ports from the SB950 southbridge are assigned as internal ports, while a Marvell 9172 controller handles two eSATA 6 Gb/s. The board offers a total of four USB 3.0 ports, driven by EJ168 controllers by Etron. 8-channel HD audio driven by Realtek ALC889 CODEC, and a gigabit Ethernet interface driven by Realtek 8111F, cover the rest of its connectivity. Since it's a revision to an existing SKU, we expect it to be priced the same, around $140.
18 Comments on Gigabyte Rolls Out 990FXA-UD3 Rev. 4
Gigabyte is finally upgrading their VRM circuit to handle the newer FX-8xxx series CPUs when people OC them.
If you don't ever stress your FX-8xxx CPU as above for lengthy periods of time then you'll never see VRM throttling of the CPU. With a proper VRM circuit and cooling heatsink, you'd never hit the thermal threshold where the VRM starts throttling. VRM overheating is a particular issue for those who OC their CPU. With FX-8xxx CPUs often running at 4.6+ GHz., they can stress the VRM circuit beyond it's intended design - which was for the pre-Bulldozer Phenom CPUs.
This new design provides more headroom for those looking to OC their FX-8xxx CPU and run it hard for long periods of time. It will probably support the FX-9590 also.
Placing a fan on the VRM sink will be much easier than the early puny ones.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiMHTK15Pik
I planned to upgrade to Steamroller from the get-go (if the next generation is still Steamroller, that is).
I made the mistake of touching the northbridge heatsink once before adding a fan and was immediately burned. Interested, I pointed an IR thermometer at the heatsink and discovered that it was running at about 210 degrees (F). No wonder.
The northbridge heatsink is my only real complaint with the board. It has even survived being conformal coated and used for dry ice overclocking sessions.
The rev available on gigabyte is : rev 1, 1.1, 2 , and 3.
Anyhow, the CPU compatibility PDF (again, in French, sorry about that) lists all CPUs as compatible from the get go (i.e. BIOS version F1).
Curiouser and curiouser, I'm tempted to say.
Good luck with your 9370, bobdole776. And welcome aboard, too! ;)