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Questions about GIGABYTE products => Motherboards with AMD processors => Topic started by: Dreaddy on September 01, 2011, 11:10:00 am

Title: GA-MA790X-UD3P - Wanting to upgrade from DDR2 to DDR3
Post by: Dreaddy on September 01, 2011, 11:10:00 am

Hi people!
 I have a GA-MA790X-UD3P Mobo - i was wanting to upgrade the ram to DDR3 as that is kinda the norm these days and after checking the memory list and the product page specs, i cant seem to find out if DDR3 will be compatible, it says it supports DDR2 but doesnt say if it does or doesnt support DDR3.

If a new mobo is needed, does anyone have an idea as to a good successor to the GA-MA790X-UD3P - I have a Phenom II x4 9850 BE (AM2) CPU and would like to keep cost down to a minimum so the new board would need to run DDR3 but still use the older AM2/AM3 sockets..

Any advice?

Thanks for your time!

Title: Re: GA-MA790X-UD3P - Wanting to upgrade from DDR2 to DDR3
Post by: absic on September 01, 2011, 11:50:07 am

Hi there,

Well I have to say that your question made me scratch my head for a while. However, if my memory serves me correctly you will be unable to run DDR3 with your CPU as I think it only has a controller for DDR2.

I did go to AMD's site and managed to find this: http://www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/processors/phenom/Pages/AMD-phenom-processor-model-numbers-feature-comparison.aspx which seems to support my recollection with regards to this processor and you will need to upgrade your processor to an AM3 model to allow for DDR3 RAM Support.

I stand to be corrected but also trawling through available motherboards on the Gigabyte site for your CPU no board offers DDR3 support you can check here: http://uk.gigabyte.com/support-downloads/cpu-support.aspx in case I missed something.

A motherboard that only has DDR2 memory support will not take DDR3 modules because of the socket design.