Gigabyte Unveils AM3+ GA-990FX-Gaming Motherboard

AMD’s upcoming Zen architecture requires a new socket and supports DDR4 memory. This is the first socket change in almost five years and there hasn’t been many updates to the ageing AM3+ platform. However, in a surprise announcement, Gigabyte has just revealed the GA-990FX-Gaming motherboard which supports AMD AM3+ FX processors, and the older AM3 Phenom as well as the Athlon II.

Additionally, the motherboard can utilize a maximum capacity of 32GB 2000(O.C.)/1866/1600/1333/1066 MHz DDR3 memory. There’s also a Killer E2201 LAN chip, Realtek ALC 1150 codec with TI Burr Brown OPA2134 operational amplifier, USB 3.1 with USB Type-C, UEFI DualBIOS™ Technology, 6x SATA 6Gb/s connectors and an M.2 connector.

On the rear I/O, we can see a PS/2 connector, single USB 3.1 Type-C, USB 3.1 Type-A, two USB 3.0 ports, six USB 2.0 ports, an RJ-45 port, optical S/PDIF connector and audio jacks. The motherboard provides a great deal of expansion slots and adopts a gamer-friendly red and black colour scheme. It will be fascinating to see how this performs compared to much older motherboards on the AM3+ platform, and we should be receiving a review sample from Gigabyte very soon.