MSI Launches the World’s First PCI Express Gen.3 Mainboard

[btarunr]

MSI, the world-renowned mainboard and graphics card manufacturer, officially launches the Z68A-GD80 (G3), featuring world's first large bandwidth PCI Express Gen 3 mainboard, and the latest UEFI technology: Click BIOS II which features a homogenous interface both under Windows and the UEFI interface. Conforming to Intel's latest design standard, the MSI Z68A-GD80 (G3) with PCI Express Gen 3 provides a data transfer rate that is 200% faster than PCI Express Gen 2, enhancing the performance of graphics cards without bandwidth limitations.

Click BIOS II, allows simple and intuitive system adjustments in both Windows and the UEFI interface! In addition, Z68A-GD80 (G3) utilizes MIL-810STD Certified Military Class II components and are equipped with OC Genie II technology which increases the performance of hard drive up to 457%. The MSI Z68A-GD80 (G3) enables next generation superior performance with PCI Express Gen 3 and OC Genie II, ultimate stability with certified Military Class II components and an extreme user-friendly Click BIOS II interface both in Windows and in the UEFI BIOS.



If you want to own the highest specification, components and the most superior performance and technology, the best choice is MSI Z68A-GD80 (G3). The product is expected to hit the market in the very early Q3 2011 as the first PCIe Gen 3 mainboard available in the global market.

The world's 1st PCI Express Gen 3 Mainboard - unparalleled performance
With the Z68A-GD80 (G3) MSI introduces the world's first PCI Express Gen 3 mainboard. With ultra-high 32GB/s transfer bandwidth, PCI Express Gen 3 is 200% faster than PCI Express Gen 2. This allows the MSI Z68A-GD80 (G3) to process huge amounts of data and information, maximizing the performance of AMD CrossFireX and NVIDIA SLI multi-GPU solutions.

MSI Z68A-GD80 (G3) is backwards compatible with all the devices with PCI Express 2.0 or older devices already available on the market and enhances their performance considerably. For example, PCI Express 2.0 SSD devices on MSI Z68-GD80 (G3) mainboards perform 14% faster than on competitors mainboards.

Click BIOS II with unified interface - provides the best experience
ClickBIOS IIAs an industry leader of UEFI technology, MSI revolutionizes the industry again with the world's first UEFI BIOS which utilizes a unified graphical interface in both Windows and in the UEFI BIOS, Click BIOS II. Click BIOS II brings the ease of a clear, unified interface with all the benefits of MSI's UEFI interface. This allows both die-hard overclockers or first-time system users to get the maximum out of their system through an easy-to-use Graphical User Interface. This interface supports all traditional input devices like a Keyboard, Mouse or new touch-screen interfaces for the most flexibility.

OC Genie II unleashes total system power
OC Genie2MSI's exclusive OC Genie II provides stunning system performance within a single push of a button and unleash the true performance of CPU, memory and integrated graphics all at once. By maximizing system performance and guaranteeing the most stable condition, it gives users the best benefits in the shortest time. When measuring with industry-standard benchmarking software such as 3DMark Vantage and PCMark Vantage, the results show that OC Genie II boosts 3D game performance up to 145% and hard drive reading speed up to 457% along with Intel Smart Response Technology.

Military Class II brings top quality and stability
Military Class IIMSI has equipped all its Z68 mainboards with the leading-edge Military Class II components. In addition to Hi-c CAPs made out of the rare element Tantalum and the Solid CAPs with a lifespan longer than 10 years, Military Class II includes Super Ferrite Choke (SFC) that provides 30% more power and is 10% more efficient. Military Class II components ensure ultimate stability and performance under any circumstance.

The MSI Z68A-GD80 (G3) and Z68A-GD65 (G3) both provide exclusive next generation PCI Express Gen 3 with support for NVIDIA SLI and AMD CrossFireX and Virtu smart switchable graphics visual technology as well as MSI exclusive technologies like ClickBIOS II, OC Genie II, Military Class II Standard components.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[treboRR]

NEED BENCH!

 

[xenocide]

NEED BENCH!

Probably unnecessary. There are no GPU's that are really bottlenecked at the motherboard. As it is, most GPU's run about as well at 8x as they do at 16x. Having twice as much bandwidth doesn't necessarily mean the card would run twice as fast.

 

[Flanker]

i'm guessing the new PCIE will be more beneficial to future SSD's

 

[renq]

I thought AsRock was the first one?

http://www.techpowerup.com/148152/A...y-Motherboard-with-PCI-Express-3.0-Slots.html

 

[InnocentCriminal]

I thought AsRock was the first one?

http://www.techpowerup.com/148152/A...y-Motherboard-with-PCI-Express-3.0-Slots.html

I think they were, just that this is the world's first MSI board with PCIe 3.

 

[xenocide]

I thought AsRock was the first one?

http://www.techpowerup.com/148152/A...y-Motherboard-with-PCI-Express-3.0-Slots.html

Well the difference might be in the wording actually;

ASRock Readies - Implying the announced, but didn't ship, thus not on sale.
MSI Launches - Implying they are announcing, shipping, and selling.

 

[renq]

Well the difference might be in the wording actually;

ASRock Readies - Implying the announced, but didn't ship, thus not on sale.
MSI Launches - Implying they are announcing, shipping, and selling.

From the original source (techconnect):

Unfortunately, despite ASRock’s bragging about the Fatal1ty Z68 Professional Gen3 going ‘on sale now’, we haven’t found it in stores.

Why should MSI be any better?

 

[inferKNOX]

MSI, y u no make for AMD too?!

 

[Maban]

What makes the single PCIE slot motherboards and/or ones without lane switches not "Gen 3"?

 

[Hayder_Master]

I thought AsRock was the first one?

http://www.techpowerup.com/148152/A...y-Motherboard-with-PCI-Express-3.0-Slots.html

+1 i whould to say that

 

[Yellow&Nerdy?]

Unless you are running two dual-GPU cards, this won't yield much better results.

 

[LAN_deRf_HA]

All I want to know is if you'll get a few percent higher performance. Similar to the dif. between 8x and 16x on gen 2. I like every percent.

 

[EarthDog]

Cool! Too bad today's cards cant max out 2.1!

 

[dj-electric]

"data transfer rate that is 200% faster than PCI Express Gen 2" = X3 (?!)

 

[mustang9]

I heard MSI is Intel CPU Beta partner. They claim to have an ivy bridge ES cpu to develop this kind of motherboards. They say u have Gen 2.0 with a Sandy Bridge cpu and Gen 3.0 PCI-E with the new Ivy CPU. The reson that MSI is the only one shipping is becouse they have a real Gen 3.0 solution and not a switch type solution. We will have to wait till IVY CPU are here to see the real results. The also claim that u can have benefit from 3.0 with a 2.0 / 2.1 grafic card in combination with an ivy cpu.

 

[gR3iF]

Ivy Bridge might be the first Cpu which will enable Pcie 3.0....

All in all this Board isnt worth more money...

 

[[H]@RD5TUFF]

Now if only MSI could get their build quality up.

 

[laszlo]

a pointless release as there are no pcie3 cards yet and till they surface the board become old

 

[TIGR]

Excellent! Been waiting for this since the PCIe 3.0 specifications were released almost eight months ago. It's not today's video cards that will benefit. The main thing that comes to mind is that PCIe 3.0 (1GBps per lane) compliant RAID controllers can now be designed and used to their full potential and provide double the bandwidth per lane over PCIe 2.x or four times the bandwidth of PCIe 1.x. So you could theoretically get up to 4000MBps transfer speeds out of a RAID controller with a PCIe x4 interface (minus a couple percent for overhead, but 3.0 has a lot less overhead than previous PCIe versions). Affording the drives that can max it out is another story. But even PCIe x1 cards will now have plenty of bandwidth for a couple SSDs or many HDDs.

Not sure if there will be any benefit for video cards in the near future.

 

[Yukikaze]

This is useless as long as there are no CPUs with PCIe 3.0 controllers. When there will be, there will be better boards out, so what's the point of this, really?

 

[mustang9]

This is useless as long as there are no CPUs with PCIe 3.0 controllers. When there will be, there will be better boards out, so what's the point of this, really?

As i said, with the new Ivy bridge cpu even Gen 2.0 cards will slightly benefit from this upgrade according to MSI.
For some people it`s nice that they can buy a great new future proof motherboard now and buy a new cpu and GPU later and now use their currend hardware (sandy bridge cpu and Gen 2.0 Card). As far as i know Ivy Bridge`s advantage will only be support of Gen 3.0.

If u have the sell your Z68 when Ivy Bridge comes out this motherboard will earn more money then Gen 2.0 boards.