Most Gigabyte Series 6 MB Are NOT PCI-E 3.0 Compliant As Gigabyte Claim

[Budda_357]

Hi Guys
I have been waiting for a response from Gigabyte tech support management on PCIE-3.0 switch IC’s that gigabyte advertise that all 6 series are compliant.

So I had to replace my card so I checked for myself

Now the definite sad news for all you Z68XP-UD4 Rev 1.0 MB's that thought they were they are not fully PCI-E 3.0 compliant as the BS GIGABYTE claim

If as in one thread Gigabyte management has said that V1.3 MB's have identical components then these boards are also not compliant and I would say 99% of the series 6 MB’s are not

Here are pictures of my motherboard
First one shows where chips are in between the X16 slots



Second one shows they are all PCI-E 2.0 Spec Chips



Third one is a blow-up of one of the chips as you can see they are 2.0 spec chips



And the last gives short specs for this chip



Gigabyte NOW the Fireworks begin my first stop will be the ACCC (Australian government legislated body who have just won case here against Apple for their misleading IPad 4G claims for this country) with all the Gigabyte series 6 PCI-E 3.0 claims and my photos

[kristixs]

 it is probably rather hard for them to meet specs that are in the future and not finalized at time of production, so i can see how this might occur. in any casel, i purchased this board the other day, so im looking forward to gigabytes official reply on how they will handle this, perhaps by letting people swap to a fully featured model like this one with the new functionality? they have had good customer service for me in the past, so i have consistently purchased gigabyte boards for the last 7 years.

[Dark Mantis]

I sincerely doubt that the company will do anything unless absolutely forced to. There is too much money at stake for a business to be so magnaminous as to replace all previous products because they made a mistake. That is considering your information is accurate Budda. The same thing happened a couple of years ago with the Marvel chip which was supposed to offer SATA3 support but didn't. In that case it wasn't just Gigabyte though but all manufacturers who used Marvell's chip.

[Budda_357]

Hi, Guys
            In Australia the ACCC took Apple to court over Apples misleading advertised claims that the IPad 4G could connect to Aussie 4G networks & won that case here forcing Apple to offer refunds Apple are a bigger company than Gigabyte.

I have already lodge a complaint with the ACCC & wait and see what they have to say or can do.

My observations appear to be accurate as checked the Pericom website database in addition, to some of the resellers database they all say they are only PCI-E 2.0 spec switching chips. PCI-e 2.0 delivers 5 GT/s, but uses an 8b/10b encoding scheme that results in a 20 percent overhead on the raw bit rate. PCI-e 3.0 removes the requirement for 8b/10b encoding, and instead uses a technique called "scrambling" that applies a known binary polynomial to a data stream in a feedback topology.  In addition, also uses a 128b/130b encoding scheme, reducing the overhead to approximately 1.5%, as opposed to the 20% overhead of 8b/10b encoding used by PCI-e 2.0. PCI-e 3.0's 8 GT/s bit rate effectively delivers double PCI-e 2.0 bandwidth.
This makes Gigabytes claims BS 

And the old saying a picture is worth a thousand words.

I chose this MB due to what was advertised by Gigabyte and wanted the benefits (and cost effective upgrading) that PCI-e 3.0 would offer for my video NLE built system.

In addition, people may have a chance if they have the Z68xp series motherboards as the 2 spec PCI-E 3.0 Pericon Chips were available from December 2010 prior believe to production of at least this motherboard and if the Version 1.3 of the Z68XP-UD4 does have either of the 3.0 Spec chips PI3PCIE3412 or PI3PCIE3415 then Gigabyte will not have a leg to stand on
My supplier is very good and have forwarded this information and if the V1.3 is fully 3.0 compliant will RMA my MB

There are plenty of products on the market that are fully spec compliant for example wireless N heaps of products even MB's before N protocol was even ratified by the governing body.

[Dark Mantis]

Yes I agree with what you say regarding the application of ongoing specs even before they are ratified. Just because something isn't finalised is no reason to just use anything and then use that as an excuse because it was pre-emptive. If it is only the chips that are different is it not possble to do a chip swap and retrofit the PCIE3.0 chip in place of the PCIE2.0 one ? That would seem to be a sensible way forward if possible.

[Budda_357]

Hi Dark Mantis
                    You are correct as they are a direct replacement no modifications necessary and are backward compatible with 2.0 specs.
In addition, without these PCI-e 3.0 switch fitted (it will be impossible to achieve the PCI-e 3.0 format specifications which were developed by the PCI special interest group of some 900 plus companies that would assume many of the MB OEM's are a part of) it makes the Gigabyte press statement illegal and misleading (in Australia at least and we have very good consumer protection here)
Taipei, Taiwan, August 8, 2011 - GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co., Ltd, a leading manufacturer of motherboards, graphics cards and computing hardware solutions today announced their range of 6 series motherboards are ready to support the next generation Intel 22nm CPUs (LGA1155 Socket) as well as offer native support for PCI Express Gen. 3 technology, delivering maximum data bandwidth for future discrete graphics cards.
Wanting to provide maximum upgradeability (they can't even spell properly) to customers, GIGABYTE has enabled native support for PCI Express Gen. 3 across the range of GIGABYTE 6 series motherboards, including the recently launched G1.Sniper 2 motherboard, when paired with Intel's next generation 22nm CPUs. By installing the latest BIOS for their 6 series motherboards today, users can be assured they are ready to take advantage of all the performance enhancements tomorrow's technologies have to offer.
Take into account that

• Gigabytes engineers had to be aware of this fact those engineers would have had this information from Preicom back in Sept 2010 it was an easy option to use the 3.0 spec switch chips obviously Gigabyte wanted to use up all of their 2.0 switch IC stock first
• And this is an obvious & in Australia an illegal ploy by Gigabyte to ensure sales of all 6 series MB's
• And as with any large scale manufacturing it was simple for Gigabyte from December 2010 (as they are a direct replacement and spec backward compatible no modifications necessary) to simply change out the 2.0 spec chips for the 3.0 chips at the station where they were inserted onto the motherboard by the robots

Obviously by the look of it the only series 6 MB's fitted with 3.0 switch chips are the GA-Z68XP-UD4 (rev. 1.3) & G1.Sniper 2 (rev. 1.0)

[Dark Mantis]

We, too have a very strong and legally active Consumer office over here in the UK and I find it hard to beleive that Gigabyte would intentionally flout the law just to use up old stocks of chips. As with anything like this it always comes out in the end and then it becomes even more expensive for the company in terms of legal costs and customer confidence. 

[Budda_357]

Hi Dark Mantis
Yeah you've got that right.

In addition, today found this post on Toms Hardware US in response to MSI's claims Gigabyte wants to clear the air surrounding its PCIe 3.0 support in its 6 series motherboards.  http://www.tomshardware.com/news/gigabyte-msi-pcie-3.0-gen3-third-gen,13485.html
I believe still very misleading as Gigabyte claim on the features page of my Z68XP-UD4 (ver 1.0) MB The GIGABYTE motherboard is fully configured to provide gamers with the latest Gen.3 PCI Express technology, delivering maximum data bandwidth for forthcoming discrete graphics cards.* PCIe Gen. 3 is dependent on CPU and expansion card compatibility.

Most gamers I know have multi-GPU card setups thereby in Gigabytes own words by my understanding by their response on the Tom Hardware post (it would have been helpful if they included who the person at Gigabyte they spoke with) to get the full bandwidth you need those 3.0 switch ICs if you intend to install two PCI-e 3.0 compatible cards

As I still have not received a reply from Gigabytes global technical services department manager on my the PCI-e 3.0 switch IC question between
I have updated my question to include my photos and asked them to confirm that the only series 6 MB's that have the 3.0 switch IC's fitted are the Z68XP -UD 4 (ver 1.3) & G1.Sniper 2 (rev. 1.0) MB's