FM2+ Motherboards

[Hamiac]

With Kaveri around the corner (some say further away than AMD says) a host of new motherboards are being released systematically buy manufacturers.

 

Asus were first:

Personally Im not a huge fan of their new 'gold standard' colour scheme - their blue seemed a good all-rounder... but Im sure we will still buy them.

 

 

Gigabyte were next:

Gigabyte are the first to release an official 'gaming' motherboard for the APU platform.

 

And now ASRock:

I do like the all black colour scheme. really striking with the gold.  ASRock seem to have come a way in quality in the past few years.

 

 

Anyway, that is the latest on the FM2+ motherboard front.  I focused only on the A88X chipset boards as they the the higher spec of the two currently available chipsets. With Gigabytes gaming motherboard could we perhaps be seeing a new, higher standard of gaming on APUs?

 

Links:

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/A88XMA/

http://www.gigabyte.co.nz/products/list.aspx?s=42&jid=10&p=2&v=32

http://wccftech.com/asrock-unveils-a88x-chipset-based-fm2a88x-extreme6-extreme4-motherboards-kaveri-apus/

[ExDreamer]

Love the asrock mobo

[TechFan@ic]

I don't know if it's only me, but have you guys noticed that the FM2+ socket is black ? all the previous FM sockets were white, & only the AM based sockets were black.
I think this is AMD's way of saying that FM2+ is their new high-end socket.

[Guest GRRigger]

I have high hopes for Kaveri. Something like richland cpu performance and HD7770 + gpu performance for under 200$ would be fantastic for low end gaming builds. It that happens, amd will blow nvidia away and got a chunk of intel market too. And it would be awesome for consumers.

Maybe we are getting close on PS4 gpu performance with desktop APUS. Given that 7870 performance that is rumored to be in ps4 can get on destop APU, whole low - mid range market for gpus would go down in price or just APUs would dominate this market. 

[jbro1232]

I'm actually quite impressed with the asrock!

 

Also I didn't know that PCIe 3.0 was natively supported on FM2+. Shame they haven't done that for the AM chipset yet...

[Fetzie]

That AsRock motherboard looks spectacular. The option to cross-fire and use a sound card is great. The Gigabyte one will look good with the right build and lighting. The Asus one...not so much. I really don't like the gold-coloured plastic.

[mymouthandi]

I do find it hard to believe that we will have to wait another 4 months before CPU's arrive. I expect them to be released before Christmas to consumers. 

[JujuShinobi]

Can't wait to see what Kaveri brings to the table. I would love to a performance boost on the CPU and iGPU and make it more efficient for gaming, encoding and etc. Also, WOW all of those FM2+ motherboards just look so sexy! Must... TOUCH!!!!

[JujuShinobi]

I do find it hard to believe that we will have to wait another 4 months before CPU's arrive. I expect them to be released before Christmas to consumers.

I did hear from their press conference at Computex that they said Kaveri was some time this year. I may be wrong though

[TechFan@ic]

I'm really curious as to why Kaveri was delayed, they showed working samples at CES, that's over 7 months ago.
My theory is that they want to wait for more applications to incorporate HSA before they release the product to ensure good reviews for Kaveri.

[JujuShinobi]

I have high hopes for Kaveri. Something like richland cpu performance and HD7770 + gpu performance for under 200$ would be fantastic for low end gaming builds. It that happens, amd will blow nvidia away and got a chunk of intel market too. And it would be awesome for consumers.

Maybe we are getting close on PS4 gpu performance with desktop APUS. Given that 7870 performance that is rumored to be in ps4 can get on destop APU, whole low - mid range market for gpus would go down in price or just APUs would dominate this market.

That would be amazing if that were true actually Although I would still wan't more CPU performance from the APUs even if the 6800k wasn't too bad.

And where did the rumors of PS4 having 7870 performance come from? O_o

[Fetzie]

Can't wait to see what Kaveri brings to the table. I would love to a performance boost on the CPU and iGPU and make it more efficient for gaming, encoding and etc. Also, WOW all of those FM2+ motherboards just look so sexy! Must... TOUCH!!!!

 

Yep, no need for a budget system to look like a budget system now. Of course, I can't imagine the G1 Sniper to be under 160 dollars, but the AsRock Extreme4 (mATX board) looks very similar to the Extreme6 pictured above.

[TechFan@ic]

That would be amazing if that were true actually Although I would still wan't more CPU performance from the APUs even if the 6800k wasn't too bad.

And where did the rumors of PS4 having 7870 performance come from? O_o

We know the PS4 has a 7870 with one CU unit disabled but it will most likely be clocked lower & so performance will be closer to that of the 7850.

[JujuShinobi]

We know the PS4 has a 7870 with one CU unit disabled but it will most likely be clocked lower & so performance will be closer to that of the 7850.

That sounds like a good thing for PS4 and PC users alike then. Shame Tales of Xillia 2 won't be on PS4 since some of the graphics lagg the heck out of the PS3. But then again, I won't have to buy a PS4 for it since it's coming on PS3 =)

[Goldilock]

When are the mobos will be available for purchase?

[TechFan@ic]

When are the mobos will be available for purchase?

"Towards the end of the year" is the last thing we've heard.

[LonliestofAll]

The Gigabyte board looks beast to bad it doesn't have the hybrid heat sink cooler on it like the G.1 Sniper for Intel's LGA1150 socket.

It would be pretty sweet if Gigabyte did that. Also the other boards are pretty nice looking especially the ASRock board.

[gastew15]

ASRock boards are pretty nice now, but the PCB is actually a darkish brown in person and not black. My MOBO looked the same in the picture, but when I got it I saw that it's really not black, but it still looks pretty good, and alot better than the gaudy gold & green IMO.

[JujuShinobi]

Wait I just thought of something, if Gigabyte is bringing the G1.Sniper class of MoBos to FM2+, Kaveri might just be a high performance APU. May not be able to keep up with the likes of the 8350 or 4670k but who knows? All those boards look kind of mid-high end

[Fetzie]

Wait I just thought of something, if Gigabyte is bringing the G1.Sniper class of MoBos to FM2+, Kaveri might just be a high performance APU. May not be able to keep up with the likes of the 8350 or 4670k but who knows? All those boards look kind of mid-high end

 

Yeah, there wouldn't be any point marketing a 180+ dollar motherboard to 80 dollar CPUs

[Common_Courtesy]

Wait I just thought of something, if Gigabyte is bringing the G1.Sniper class of MoBos to FM2+, Kaveri might just be a high performance APU. May not be able to keep up with the likes of the 8350 or 4670k but who knows? All those boards look kind of mid-high end

It would make sense as well seeing as they just killed off the am3/amd3+ platform.

[Guest GRRigger]

That would be amazing if that were true actually Although I would still wan't more CPU performance from the APUs even if the 6800k wasn't too bad.

And where did the rumors of PS4 having 7870 performance come from? O_o

Only rumors tho. 1.8 teraflop... same as 7870. ofcourse that doesnt mean so much. but idk.