Gigabyte G1 Sniper A88X (FM2+) Motherboard Review

Final Thoughts

Pricing

In the UK the Gigabyte G1 Sniper A88X motherboard sells for £83.99 and £82.62 from two of our preferred retailers. In the USA it retails for $99.99 while in Canada it sells for $119.99 CAD. Over at Caseking they have a price of €101.90 which should be similar to what other Eurozone residents pay.

As we mentioned at the beginning there is also a upgrade kit for the Op-Amps, this is available separately but Gigabyte have not specified a price currently. My guess would be something under £10 since you can pick each of the Op-Amps for around £2 each and then the tool is probably another few pounds.

Overview

While the FM2+ socket isn’t the first and most obvious choice for the gaming crowd, Gigabyte have shown that the FM2+ platform has real potential. Of course we won’t be able to see the true potential of Kaveri until that is released next year but even if you’re using a Richland or Trinity APU there is still plenty of performance to be had. Now the first thing to note, with regards to performance, is that some of the stock numbers for the Gigabyte board look a bit poor relative to the ASUS board we tested it against. However, there is a simple reason for this – Gigabyte’s default AMD Turbo Core implementation is less aggressive than the ASUS one, so the ASUS one ended up clocked at 4.4GHz the whole time while the Gigabyte one fluctuated between 4.1 and 4.4GHz depending on power consumption and temperatures which as far as I know is what the AMD Turbo Core is supposed to do. Either way we can see that the Gigabyte board was back to being neck and neck with the ASUS one when we overclocked them both to the 4.8GHz maximum of our A10 6800K chip. On the subject of power consumption the Gigabyte one seemed to be a little more efficient than the competition – which is always nice. We assume that is down to the less aggressive Turbo Core voltages which means it draws slightly less power to the CPU.

Performance aside let’s consider some other things. Firstly, the connectivity on the board is pretty nice. Gigabyte have been sensible enough to offer consumers lots of PCIe connectivity and SATA ports but they have also recognised that the A88X FM2+ platform is still a budget one, so legacy PCI and lots of USB 2.0 is still useful. Next the audio which was a bit of a mixed bag in my opinion. Gigabyte’s tweaking and high quality components have managed to squeeze out an exceptional level of performance from the ALC 892 codec. The separate interchangeable Op-Amps are also a great addition and while my ears aren’t exactly tuned enough to tell the difference between the four Gigabyte make available (believe me I tried) I can see that these Op-Amps will benefit the avid headphone user – maybe not so much speakers. The gain switches were also surprisingly effective and the tracer light on the PCB is a “cool” gamer-style addition. Yet for a motherboard that is so heavily focused on audio the decision to equip the ALC 892 codec over the ALC 1150 codec baffles me slightly. I understand Gigabyte want to keep the costs down to keep the motherboard attractive but it seems like there is more of an audio upgrade to be had by going from ALC 892 to ALC 1150, than there is from trying to “turbo charge” the ALC 892 codec with higher quality components. Don’t get me wrong – the audio is terrific for such an affordable motherboard, I just think they could have produced something significantly better without adding much more to the cost. I also had one last issue, which is the lack of a Killer NIC. Again I understand the price-point limitations of an FM2+ motherboard but Gigabyte’s Killer Series motherboards are renowned for their Killer NICs, so it would of been nice to see one here. To give them some credit they do offer users a complimentary copy of “cFosSpeed Internet Accelerator Software” (worth $19.95) which essentially creates a more advanced gaming orientated network controller out of the onboard Realtek Gigabit Ethernet.

There is one last ambiguity that I want to cover, which is where does this board fit into the gaming market? Of course we tested this with a HD 7970 and A10-6800K, so that ignores the integrated GPU. Sadly we didn’t have a compatible GPU to pair with this in Hybrid-CrossFire, which is what I wanted to do. The reality is most people are going to use this motherboard with an APU, and use the integrated graphics, our results are more representative of if you wanted to use an FM2(+) Athlon CPU (aka the APU without the graphics). We already known the A10-6800K when overclocked is capable of churning out HD 6670 levels of graphics performance but Gigabyte’s A88X G1 Sniper is quite pricey as far as FM2(+) motherboards go, so you’ll definitely be using something extra with this motherboard – aka Hybrid CrossFire or an Athlon FM2 CPU with a high-end GPU. With AMD’s FX platform rumoured to be coming to an end, this is the main way AMD users will be able to carry on using AMD CPUs – by using FM2(+) Athlons with A85/A88X motherboards. Of course it is worth considering that when Kaveri does come out next year it might offer a huge leap forward in APU graphics performance, which would make this board more “justified” for “just” an APU. So the shortened version of what I have been trying to say is if you’re just going to use an APU only with this motherboard, it probably isn’t worth it (though Kaveri is likely to change that), you should consider something cheaper like the Gigabyte GA-F2A88XM-D3H or the GA-F2A88X-D3H. However, if you want to use a discrete graphics card (as a standlone GPU with an Athlon CPU) or use Hybrid CrossFire – then this motherboard suddenly looks like a really attractive option. You’d still have space for ample expansion cards, like a networking card, and you can run up to 8 SATA III devices and have full RAID 0/1/5/10/JBOD support out of the box. Mix that with some impressive customisable audio, a 3 year warranty and just a great gamer look and the Gigabyte G1 Sniper A88X motherboard is easily one of the best high-end FM2+/A88X motherboards currently available.

Pros

• Customisable audio
• Great gamer aesthetics
• Attractively priced for all the features
• 8 X SATA III 6Gbps with RAID 0/1/5/10/JBOD
• Abundant PCI(e) connectivity
• 3 Year Warranty 
• Overclocks well

Cons

• UEFI BIOS isn’t the best one Gigabyte have produced
• Audio would benefit from the ALC 1150 Codec
• Relatively expensive compared to other A88/A85X motherboards
• No Killer NIC

“Gigabyte’s G1 Sniper A88X motherboard is an admirable attempt at doing something that hasn’t really been done before for an AMD APU motherboard. Gigabyte have wrestled with bringing the features we’d expect from their Killer series but making sure it comes in at a competitive price for an FM2+ motherboard. I think all things considered Gigabyte have struck up an excellent balance. The G1 Sniper A88X is a great motherboard for someone looking to build an APU based gaming system. We think when Kaveri hits the shelves next year this motherboard will become very popular. “

Thanks to Gigabyte for providing this review sample.