Wednesday, September 7th 2011
MSI Calls Bluff on Gigabyte's PCIe Gen 3 Ready Claim
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.
Source:
MSI
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.
286 Comments on MSI Calls Bluff on Gigabyte's PCIe Gen 3 Ready Claim
I love MSI video cards but if I knew the majority of MSI employees acted the way you do I would think twice about buying from them again.Manufacturers have access to early engineering samples before the public does. MSI/ASUS/Gigabyte are already working on the upcoming X79 boards and each manufacture their own PCBs for graphics cards so they likely have PCIe 3.0 sample cards as well. Intel also has to share engineering samples with the manufacturers in order for boards to be available at launch.
What I do mind is that in the 11 pages of comments I have read, NONE of your posts helped me at all. I guess, as many have said, we just gotta wait and see
And what you have done is not even worthy of being called a moderator. Going off-topic in every single post.
Also comparing MSI fan-design statement with Gigabytes fake statements about Gen3 PCI-Ex in just Apples to Oranges. Since MSI doesnt advertise something that doesnt work or simply isnt even possible like Gigabyte does.
Neliz isnt slinging mud at Gigabyte, Gigabyte is slinging mud at all the potential customers, scamming them!
A similar situation would be making USB 2.0 slots as "USB 3.0 ready" with just a BIOS update or something.
But the values of these words are sketchy (compatible, supported, ready etc.) when there is no technical reference.With Gen3 cards on those 40 odd gigabyte boards, there are is "enjoy performance enhancements" for users, that's my point.
And second, as far as the tests go, the boards without the necessary components will NOT have the CPU switch to Gen3.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express
According to Wikipedia, you need a 32 lane PCI Express connector to reach 16GB/s on PCI Express 2.0 .. right, okay...
While PCI-SIG is clearly stating that they can do nearly 32GB/s with PCI Express Gen3 x16
www.pcisig.com/news_room/November_18_2010_Press_Release/
So. Gen3 suddenly QUADRUPLED bandwidth? No, it's an end-user interpretation of bandwidth and not what is being "marketed" by PCI-SIG for instance.
Then Gigabyte tried to use Wiki ahem "facts" on our FB pagenow PCI-SIG:And since every tech site out there has it right (Really nice article from Anandtech) why doesn't Wikipedia?
Unless everyone wants all their PCI express cards running Simplex, I'm all for following PCI-SIG and ignoring Wikipedia.
I'm not saying what MSI is saying is FALSE, I'm saying it isn't necessarily TRUE. Until we have more info, we really can't judge.
I just wanted to throw this in here for all GB haters (I'll be talking lga 1366 as that's the only boards I know): Which board is better, Gigabyte's X58A-UD3R or a similarly priced X58 MSI board? I think the GB is the clear winner. So no, not all GB boards are garbage, just as not all MSI boards are garbage. Have some respect for both brands, don't just suddenly say: oh MSI godly GB garbage.
@ neliz
yes I know wiki can be wrong, but in this case wiki is right so it doesn't matter for the matter at hand
Also, maybe I'm wrong here, but that wiki page is littered with "PCI Express bus." There is no such thing as a PCI Express bus. So no kids, don't just trust Wikipedia.
Nothing against you, but damn, I wish I could get paid to argue on a forum.
(and yes, you can find "bus" and "PCI Express" related to eachother on the MSI website as well, I'll try to get that fixed ASAP.This is in my free time, like I've been doing for the past 10 years.
Getting paid to argue on forums (be it in money or hardware) is not worth it imho.
You would NEED to support something that's not your personal opinion.
It's now "Interface" instead of "Bus Standard"
www.msi.com/product/vga/N580GTX-Lightning.html#?div=Specification
Anyway, nice fix, it should make it more clear to people.
for AGP it is accepted because it runs on top of the PCI bus, so it was common to reference to AGP as a bus as well.
But in the end it's just a small detail. :)