GIGABYTE AX370-Gaming K3 Socket AM4 Motherboard PCB Pictured

[btarunr]

The picture of a bare PCB of an upcoming GIGABYTE AX370-Gaming series socket AM4 motherboard is doing rounds on the web. The picture reveals the bare PCB of the motherboard with all its traces and printed markings, but at a stage before surface-mount components can be soldered onto it. One can still make out quite a bit about the board. AMD X370 is the company's upcoming high-end desktop chipset, which will be launched alongside the company's Ryzen 8-core processor, some time in February, 2017.

To begin with, the AX370-Gaming K3 is built in the ATX form-factor. Its AM4 socket supports both Ryzen "Summit Ridge" CPUs and 7th generation A-series "Bristol Ridge" APUs. The board draws power from 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS power connectors, and conditions it for the CPU with a 7-phase VRM. The AM4 socket is wired to four DDR4 DIMM slots. Expansion slots include one PCI-Express 3.0 x16, a second gen 3.0 x16 slot that's electrical x4, and three other gen 3.0 x1 slots. Storage connectivity appears to include at least eight SATA 6 Gb/s ports, and one 32 Gb/s M.2 slot. 8-channel HD audio, gigabit Ethernet, USB 3.1 (including type-C) ports, appear to make for the rest of the connectivity. GIGABYTE's signature Dual-UEFI is featured.



Many Thanks to TheLostSwede and Tomas H. for the tips!

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[VulkanBros]

Really looking forward to some competition for Intel...and hopefully better prizes for consumers....
Still we need to see some reviews, especially from TPU before judgement.... GO ZEN

 

[AsRock]

Feel sorry for these company's as for those who had a new PC over the last 3-4 years there is not real point for most people.

 

[Keullo-e]

Feel sorry for these company's as for those who had a new PC over the last 3-4 years there is not real point for most people.

That's true if having an Intel CPU based PC, but if having an AMD FX..

Or just better connectivity for new hardware, like M.2, USB3.1 etc.

 

[laamanaator]

I'm relatively sure that the number stated as unreadable is X9. About X I'm confident, but the 9 could be some other number also, like 8. It looks to me more like 9, but the image is too bad to be able to tell properly.

 

[ZoneDymo]

Feel sorry for these company's as for those who had a new PC over the last 3-4 years there is not real point for most people.

Same if you are on the Intel side though....

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

"and conditions it for the CPU with a 7-phase VRM"

7? I've hear of 6, 8 10, 14 phase VRMs, but 7? thats an odd number (lol).

I certianly hope that OEMs dont cheap out on AMD VRMs again. Every single microATX FM2+ board is a four phase motherboard, with only the full ATX boards having 6 phases.

Meanwhile, intel gets 8 phase mini ITX boards.

 

[EntropyZ]

Sold my Intel system just for this moment, I hope new Gigabyte MB's are just as reliable as the old ones. They're probably going to make different revision boards just for laughs like they always have.

 

[ironwolf]

"and conditions it for the CPU with a 7-phase VRM"

7? I've hear of 6, 8 10, 14 phase VRMs, but 7? thats an odd number (lol).

I certianly hope that OEMs dont cheap out on AMD VRMs again. Every single microATX FM2+ board is a four phase motherboard, with only the full ATX boards having 6 phases.

Meanwhile, intel gets 8 phase mini ITX boards.

I guess the more important question is: does/will Ryzen *need* more VRM phases?

Also, the board shows a 22110 m.2 slot. Are there any actual 110mm length drives out? Guess that is future-proofing the board.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Something is fishy with the VRM design, looks like a 4+3 design to me, where you got four for the CPU and three for RAM etc.

At least there are no legacy ports on the rear of this board which is a nice thing.

Let's hope there are some higher-end boards coming, as what's snuck out so far is fairly dull stuff.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Also, the board shows a 22110 m.2 slot. Are there any actual 110mm length drives out? Guess that is future-proofing the board.

So far no consumer grade ones, but more and more boards have support for 22110 drives. There are a few server grade ones though which are populated with ultra capacitors to prevent data loss in case of a power failure, like the Seagate Nytro XM1440.

 

[okidna]

Something is fishy with the VRM design, looks like a 4+3 design to me, where you got four for the CPU and three for RAM etc.

It's not fishy, it can be (since we don't know what kind of power requirement of Ryzen CPU) just like your motherboard, 4+3 VRM phase with a doubler on the CPU VCore side so it will run as 8+3 phase, 8 phases for CPU and 3 for integrated graphic.
And RAM VRM on a modern board is always located near the DIMM slot.

Maybe 4+3 (or 8+3) is 4/8 phases for the CPU and 3 for the integrated graphic because there's a HDMI output pin out on the PCB.

 

[Keullo-e]

I'm relatively sure that the number stated as unreadable is X9. About X I'm confident, but the 9 could be some other number also, like 8. It looks to me more like 9, but the image is too bad to be able to tell properly.

I was thinking the same..

(kas, täällähän näkee tuttuja! )

 

[dont whant to set it"']

This thread almoast needs a poll on how are those 7 vrm phases distributed if at all:
a) full out 7 vrm phases for the cpu,as if need for other vdomains could be done on-die;
b) 6 cpu ,1 cpu/nb;
c) none of the above and below;
d)4cpu,2cpu/nb,1idk use your brain;
e) feel free to join in on poll sugestions;

 

[Keullo-e]

I wouldn't be so worried about the VRM section yet, since Zen's power usage probably is different than FX's.

 

[laamanaator]

This thread almoast needs a poll on how are those 7 vrm phases distributed if at all:
a) full out 7 vrm phases for the cpu,as if need for other vdomains could be done on-die;
b) 6 cpu ,1 cpu/nb;
c) none of the above and below;
d)4cpu,2cpu/nb,1idk use your brain;
e) feel free to join in on poll sugestions;

Since AM4 needs to support APUs (Bristol, Raven), at least one of the VRM phases must be the phase for the GPU. One will probably be for the NB, but that'd leave 5 phases for CPU, which at least to me sounds rather odd.

Hmm, the story was updated to say that the number previously stated as unreadable is K3. Could be that, but I swear that that's an X right there...
@9700 Pro (Moikkista pöytään )

 

[TheLaughingMan]

Please keep in mind Gigabytes naming scheme. A "K3" is the entry level for high performance for them. There will be a K5, K7, and possible specialized K-Gaming versions. Take this as the bare minimum Gigabyte will offer for AMD X370 boards. I am sure they will add more robust power phasing, more connectivity, etc. to the others.

 

[Assimilator]

Since AM4 needs to support APUs (Bristol, Raven), at least one of the VRM phases must be the phase for the GPU. One will probably be for the NB, but that'd leave 5 phases for CPU, which at least to me sounds rather odd.

Hmm, the story was updated to say that the number previously stated as unreadable is K3. Could be that, but I swear that that's an X right there...
@9700 Pro (Moikkista pöytään )

Additional pictures were added which clearly shows it to be K3. Since Gigabyte uses numbers to differentiate their product stack, it makes sense that a "3" motherboard only has PCIe x16/x4 (their Intel boards with a 3 in the name, e.g. Z77-D3H, do the same). So this is definitely not the highest-end board they're going to be producing.

 

[Keullo-e]

I was also thinking about "3", since it doesn't look like a high end board.

 

[YautjaLord]

That built-in/onboard GPU markings scar me. lol Still looks massive for mid-range mobo, what VRMs heatsinks they'll use on that one, Ultra Durable's or G1 Gaming's one? Also 3 more AIBs mobos missing: MSI's, ASRock's Fatal1ty series & ASUS's Crosshair series. 2017 come-a-knockin' in 4 n a half hours here. Happy New Year, i'll be sleeping by the time it actually happens.

 

[cdawall]

I wouldn't be so worried about the VRM section yet, since Zen's power usage probably is different than FX's.

Considering my H170 mini itx board is a 3+2 non-heatsinked setup and supports the highest end 1151 chips, I would hope AMD was equally pretty close to equaling that...

 

[Dippyskoodlez]

I wouldn't be so worried about the VRM section yet, since Zen's power usage probably is different than FX's.

There could be nothing good about a 4 phase on a device intended for gaming.

 

[cdawall]

There could be nothing good about a 4 phase on a device intended for gaming.

How so, plenty of 4 phase z170, H170 and the likes? We both grew up on 3 and 4 phase boards "for gaming" if wattage is back down then it will be fine.

 

[Dippyskoodlez]

How so, plenty of 4 phase z170, H170 and the likes? We both grew up on 3 and 4 phase boards "for gaming" if wattage is back down then it will be fine.

they demo'd a what, 95w tdp base? 4 phase may be 'good enough' for just hitting the bios, adding a few hundred mhz and calling it a day but it'll be a legit concern for anyone wanting to push any additional voltage on the things. z170 and h170 can get away with a 4 because quad cores haven't been a meaningful heatload for a few years at this point. amd is touting what appears to be 6/8+? heat is going to start ramping up real fast compared to a mature, and at this point a soon to be antiquated, well binned quad core design.

old school stuff also didn't have the more complicated power plane designs that can really start stressing vdroop as well under a high overclock which would really hurt long term oc use to reduce downtime power consumption.

 

[cdawall]

they demo'd a what, 95w tdp base? 4 phase may be 'good enough' for just hitting the bios, adding a few hundred mhz and calling it a day but it'll be a legit concern for anyone wanting to push any additional voltage on the things. z170 and h170 can get away with a 4 because quad cores haven't been a meaningful heatload for a few years at this point. amd is touting what appears to be 6/8+? heat is going to start ramping up real fast compared to a mature, and at this point a soon to be antiquated, well binned quad core design.

old school stuff also didn't have the more complicated power plane designs that can really start stressing vdroop as well under a high overclock which would really hurt long term oc use to reduce downtime power consumption.

4 phase also doesn't mean bad. You can have a well setup 4 phase and a poorly setup 8 phase. We don't know where this falls in the lineup judging from the single 16x slot I wouldn't imagine to far up.