MSI Calls Bluff on Gigabyte's PCIe Gen 3 Ready Claim

[btarunr]

In August, Gigabyte made a claim that baffled at least MSI, that scores of its motherboards are Ready for Native PCIe Gen. 3. Along with the likes of ASRock, MSI was one of the first with motherboards featuring PCI-Express 3.0 slots, the company took the pains to educate buyers what PCI-E 3.0 is, and how to spot a motherboard that features it. MSI thinks that Gigabyte made a factual blunder bordering misinformation by claiming that as many as 40 of its motherboards are "Ready for Native PCIe Gen. 3." MSI decided to put its engineering and PR team to build a technically-sound presentation rebutting Gigabyte's claims.



More slides, details follow.

MSI begins by explaining that PCIe support isn't as easy as laying a wire between the CPU and the slot. It needs specifications-compliant lane switches and electrical components, and that you can't count on certain Gigabytes for future-proofing.



MSI did some PCI-Express electrical testing using a 22 nm Ivy Bridge processor sample.



MSI claims that apart from the G1.Sniper 2, none of Gigabyte's so-called "Ready for Native PCIe Gen. 3" motherboards are what the badge claims to be, and that the badge is extremely misleading to buyers. Time to refill the popcorn bowl.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[GSG-9]

Oh snap.

 

[Fx]

lol nice! things just got real...

 

[neliz]

Nice to see when Marketing BS is burned to the ground by technical realities.

 

[kereta]

Is the source reliable?

 

[Easo]

Epic popcorn shall be consumed indeed...

 

[Radical_Edward]

Daaaaaaaaamn. Gigabyte got burned bigtime.

 

[Chaitanya]

I see a big storm brewing on the horizon after this press release.

 

[DannibusX]

False advertising is pretty serious in the States. Can't the FTC look into this? It might suck to be Gigabyte pretty soon. I hope not though, they make good stuff.

 

[dir_d]

Glad to see MSI step up their game.

 

[cadaveca]

I'm staying well outta this one. WTF is going on here? Shall I start making popcorn?

 

[TheLaughingMan]

Nope. Using the word "Ready" gives them at least 2 loopholes to get out of this that I see. It will be interesting to see how they respond.

 

[heky]

Busted!, thats what they get for trying to fuck people over.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Ok, how easy would it be to fake the lane readout? As for one, are there any Gen 3 PCI Express x16 cards MSI could've fitted to the slot?
And what happens if you put a x8 Gen 1 card in a slot of any board? Wouldn't that revert the slot speed to the same speed as the card?
Also, what utility is MSI using to get that readout?

On top of that, Gigabyte never said it'd work for multiple cards, only that the primary slot would operate at x16 Gen 3 speed.

I dunno about the components on the PCB though beyond the switches, which MSI is making a big deal out as the only choice, but there are at least two more companies that already have Gen 3 switches, none of those are used on the Gigabyte board in question though.

 

[arroyo]

War… War never changes…

 

[buggalugs]

OH Noes!! Gigabyte have done it again. Gigabyte are really screwing up lately....

 

[Steevo]

Has MSI actually gotten honest and better?

 

[kid41212003]

Probably those pictures are just for promotion purpose and not really present the finished products.

 

[arnoo1]

some one is feeling pressure from gigabyte's awesome mobo's
msi that's just lame

 

[RejZoR]

The whole thing is a bit lame, but it's nice to see MSI uncovering the truth. It's only good for us, consumers.

 

[entropy13]

Probably those pictures are just for promotion purpose and not really present the finished products.

Huh? Gigabyte is saying their boards are "Ready for Native PCIe Gen. 3", and obviously they're already the "finished products" since you can buy them right now, and all you need is a BIOS update.

 

[robal]

Eagerly awaiting Gigabyte's response

 

[Vincy Boy]

some one is feeling pressure from gigabyte's awesome mobo's
msi that's just lame

Lame to reveal a company's attempt at misinforming us consumers? What are you some kinda blind Gigabyte fanboy? I've had my eye on a Gigabyte Z68 and this only helped me making a more informed purchase decision.
Looking forward to hear Gigabyte's response on this.

 

[kid41212003]

Huh? Gigabyte is saying their boards are "Ready for Native PCIe Gen. 3", and obviously they're already the "finished products" since you can buy them right now, and all you need is a BIOS update.

I guess I missed the "In August" part.

And since they use the picture that look like promotional picture, i thought these boards are yet to be released .

 

[WarraWarra]

Cool another win for the end user.
I wonder what could be said for the gpu's that is being produced / labeled as Gen 3 PCIe ?
Makes you think about cpu's as well, at least Intel admitted their bugs and is working on the 2011 fix for that.

MSI = Robin Hood men in Tights LOL.
Who would have though that there is still that ancient mythical concept called democracy and a legal system or that which they embody that still lives somewhere today on planet earth, thought it died out 200 years ago and here MSI shows us this is still alive.

Is MSI Chinese / Russian or something, maybe I should move to that country to find democracy & freedom.

Keep up the good work MSI.