Gigabyte Reveals the A88X Series Motherboards

By Niels Broekhuijsen
published

Gigabyte has launched two new A88X motherboards, as well as listed more that will arrive in the future.

Gigabyte has launched two new motherboards for the upcoming AMD Kaveri APUs, though they will also support the existing Trinity and Richland APUs. The motherboards, which will be known as the Gigabyte G1.Sniper A88X and the F2A88X-UP4, will feature the FM2+ socket. The former is also the first AMD G1-Killer gaming motherboard that Gigabyte has ever made. In addition, Gigabyte has also released a list of other A88X motherboards.

The G1.Sniper A88X will feature Gigabyte's AMP-Up Audio technology, as well as Dual-UEFI BIOS, digital PWM, and support for up to three displays. The AMP-Up Audio Technology allows for the motherboard's OP-AMPs to be replaced, the system is built with higher-quality audio components, and it is placed on a separate part of the PCB.

The FM2+ socket also offers support for the PCIe 3.0 standard, as well as DirectX 11.1. The motherboards should also be able to drive up to 4K displays through either the HDMI port or the DisplayPort interface.

Gigabyte is also launching the F2A88X-D3H, F2A88X-HD3, F2A88XM-D3H, F2A85XM-DS2, and F2A88XM-HD3, the last three of which are likely Micro-ATX motherboards. At the time of writing there were no further details on these motherboards.

There was no word on pricing or availability.

Niels Broekhuijsen
Niels Broekhuijsen

Niels Broekhuijsen is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He reviews cases, water cooling and pc builds.

14 Comments Comment from the forums
  • sarinaide
    I will be buying that :D

    Very nice looking boards from Gigabyte.
    Reply
  • rolli59
    All well and good but why a gaming AMD APU board which would need a discrete GPU for serious gaming performance? It is not even their performance line.
    Reply
  • sarinaide
    The availability of PCIe does not diminish the value of a APU, it enhances its value. As Toms latest review showed the lower clocked 750K was keeping up and beating a 965BE and 4300, the 6800K has higher clocks and faster native memory support so should add performance despite the IGPU which can just be disabled in BIOS.

    Is it wrong to add high end flavour to the FM2 socket, it was mostly the masses that branded a A-Series lowend, but for what the socket offers you get lots for little, forgive me for not complaining.
    Reply
  • Justin Pinotti
    @rolli59 because first of all their current APUs actually preform quite well in the graphics department and hopefully their new lineup will be a lot better... and if they fix the frame latency issue with dual GPUs then its gonna sell like wildfire
    Reply
  • Justin Pinotti
    @rolli59 because first of all their current APUs actually preform quite well in the graphics department and hopefully their new lineup will be a lot better... and if they fix the frame latency issue with dual GPUs then its gonna sell like wildfire
    Reply
  • rolli59
    I was just pointing at the fact that manufacturers use marketing slogans to sell products to the consumers. The APU is a fine CPU but an FX8350 or Intel I5 will beat it at gaming all the time and those married to a discrete mid and upper range GPU is a better gaming solution than APU joined with a low range GPU in Xfire.
    Reply
  • KrazyKap
    The FM2+ platform looks like it won't just be for APUs. There are already FM2 CPUs without integrated graphics, and it's the platform that AMD seems most interested at the moment, so it makes sense that higher end parts/more expenisve parts such as these motherboards will be brought across to FM2+, rather than AM3+ at this stage.
    Reply
  • Mitrovah
    is it possible that these boards will be available this fall?
    Reply
  • Hando567
    @KrazyKap

    I have a feeling you are dead on. There have already been rumors that the FX-9590 may be the last FX CPU, and it seems about time to update from the AMx(+) sockets, so I would not be surprised to see the high end CPU offerings moved over to the FMx(+) sockets and rebadged as something different.

    Will be nice too thanks to the severe lack of any quality mATX or mITX boards for AM3+, and even a lack of many high end features seen standard on other platforms on the full ATX side, all of which the FMx(+) platforms seem to have.
    Reply
  • beyondlogic
    @rolli59 you are dead wrong a10 6800k is very close to a i5 3330

    streamroller cores i suspect will boost it to i5 3470 or hell stomp all over it and i own a i5 3330 and it suitable for gaming

    http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i5-3330-vs-AMD-A10-6800K

    and have you seen the energy draw of a 8350 a fx 6300 is far better performance per watt and enough for gaming to me only a idiot buys a 8350 for gaming as its just as expensive as a i5 lol all i hope for is that steamroller is more energy efficient then

    if they can keep

    energy down
    core clock up
    and better gpu

    That will sell it really i wouldnt be surprised if a10 streamroller kicks a i5 3470 in the teeth and a8 will kick i3 in the teeth leaving only i7 as intels main selling point

    i just hope they fix the video encoding as i believe trinity and richland suffered from this

    as for fx cpus hando i believe streamroller will be on the am3+ socket i believe i read that somewhere
    Reply