Hey, for your "Quick Board Feature Comparison", why didn't you include the feature that is right in your article's title - you know, Thunderbolt 3? It's a pain to compare the other boards when I don't know if they have TB3 or not.
To be clear, I would like to know if the other boards being compared specifically support TB3 so that it's more of an apples-to-apples comparison.
Having the Alpine Ridge controller doesn't guarantee the board supports TB3. For example, the Asus Maximus VIII Impact doesn't support TB3. Perhaps this is some type of limitation for mini-ITX boards w/AR controllers; I know the Gigabyte Z170N Gaming 5 has the AR controller but doesn't support TB3. Maybe this is an artificial limit imposed by the mfg, or maybe this is just a limitation of how much circuitry you can stuff into the smaller size.
Where did all the assorted surface mount parts that normally cover the area between the PCIe slots and elsewhere on the board go to give it the cleaner surface look?
They probably put a lot of them on the back. Lots of boards have been doing this recently, I have noticed. A lot of what they clean up is actually not so much components, but excess silk-screen.
Although Thunderbolt is hardly a mainstream protocol (yet) it is big in the audio and video production industry for it's incredibly low latency. With this Skylake offering and the recently released X99P-SLI, I'm optimistic Gigabyte will release a Thunderbolt enabled mATX or ITX board for Broadwell-E.
To clarify, I was referring to round trip audio latency.
Thunderbolt can achieve 2-3 ms of latency (without the heavy CPU penalty when compared to USB) which is essential in recording environments where several plug ins may be being used on a DAW channel strip whilst tracking. Universal Audio, Apogee and Pro Tools have used it on their audio interfaces for years but unfortunately only support OS X. With TB3 now more readily available there may be more widespread adoption as thus far only MOTU (and to a degree Focusrite) have provided support for Windows.
Hi there, It is also at least worth mentioning that there are certain other Gigabyte boards which also have the thunderbolt capability. It is formally advertised on their Z170X Gaming 7, and Gaming G1. Which are the premium / more expensive ones.
However I also heard from another Gigabyte owner that with a newest BETA bios, he got his G170X Gaming 5 to also register / recognize TB3 support. It had been switched on too around that same time as the other ones. Just not advertised by Gigabyte and/or certified by Intel.
I mention it because many people already buy the Gaming 5 for other reasons. Indeed its very popular out of all Gigabyte's entire Z170 range. So for those guys who already have something else... might as well upgrade your BIOS and give it a try.
You also need to download the TB3 Driver Utility from Gigabyte's support website. Its the same version for all of these Gigabyte boards. Can get it from the UD5-TH's support page / tab.
Note: TB3 doesn't work on Gaming 3 (or lower), as I have checked myself. It is likely missing such optional TCON / PHY and different PCI-e lanes wiring / layout. So with those ones the Alpine Ridge chip can only provide USB 3.1.
One of the only reasons I would get Thunderbolt 3 on a desktop is as a cheap-ish way to get 10Gbps networking between two devices. Could you do a test on TB3 networking to see if it's any good and the kind of performance one gets from SMB3 on it?
I know its not as sexy, but you can use SMB multi-channel to get pretty good results without the cost. I plugged two NIC's into my NAS and two into my desktop and got 180MB/s transfer speed to and from.
Cost is about as much as an extra network card and cable someplace.
Can anyone confirm that this board's HDMI 2.0 port handles the full 18 Gbps speed? A lot of things that claim "HDMI 2.0" can support the features, but run at the lower 10.2 Gbps speed of HDMI 1.4b. An easy way to test this is to connect it to a 4K TV, run full 3840x2160 at 60 Hz, and verify there is no chroma subsampling (i.e. you want 4:4:4, not 4:2:0). A way to check for chroma subsampling if the driver doesn't make it obvious (Intel's software is weak there) is to make an image with purely-blue text in a small font on a purely-red background: it will look as expected with RGB or YUV4:4:4, but will be totally unreadable with YUV4:2:0.
Thunderbolt will never take off among consumers and enthusiasts due to cost and poor implementation in peripherals that make their price less attractive than USB. I have a TB2 dock and TB2 drive enclosure. USB3 in the dock maxes out at 350MB/s. SSDs mounted in the enclosure max out at 390/360MB/s R/W. All docks and all enclosures have this speed cutoff. And they're very expensive for what you get.
I don't think you quite understand what Thunderbolt is. Thunderbolt is essentially an external connector to your PCIe BUS. You don't compare it to USB. Sometimes it is USB because that's what you run on it. The advantage to Thunderbolt is that it is whatever you want it to be, including USB.
Thunderbolt 3 currently combines either the USB 3 type C connector or DisplayPort 1.2 with PCIe in a single serial signal. This allows you to connect anything you would normally put into your PCIe slot. Many items can be found in the form of an adapter, such as ethernet, USB, SATA, etc.; others can be connected via an external PCIe slot such as video cards, audio cards, and more.
With TB3 coming to several of Gigabytes Gaming boards, is this board worth it when the G1 is about the same price? Granted you get 2 TB3 instead of 1, but still:
We’ve updated our terms. By continuing to use the site and/or by logging into your account, you agree to the Site’s updated Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
29 Comments
Back to Article
romrunning - Friday, February 19, 2016 - link
Hey, for your "Quick Board Feature Comparison", why didn't you include the feature that is right in your article's title - you know, Thunderbolt 3? It's a pain to compare the other boards when I don't know if they have TB3 or not.extide - Monday, February 22, 2016 - link
He did, although, to be fair, you need to know that having the Intel Alpine Ridge controller listed under USB3.1 implies TB3.romrunning - Wednesday, February 24, 2016 - link
To be clear, I would like to know if the other boards being compared specifically support TB3 so that it's more of an apples-to-apples comparison.Having the Alpine Ridge controller doesn't guarantee the board supports TB3. For example, the Asus Maximus VIII Impact doesn't support TB3. Perhaps this is some type of limitation for mini-ITX boards w/AR controllers; I know the Gigabyte Z170N Gaming 5 has the AR controller but doesn't support TB3. Maybe this is an artificial limit imposed by the mfg, or maybe this is just a limitation of how much circuitry you can stuff into the smaller size.
pikunsia - Thursday, August 4, 2016 - link
Hey romrunning, look at thishttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderbolt_(interfa...
DanNeely - Friday, February 19, 2016 - link
Where did all the assorted surface mount parts that normally cover the area between the PCIe slots and elsewhere on the board go to give it the cleaner surface look?extide - Monday, February 22, 2016 - link
They probably put a lot of them on the back. Lots of boards have been doing this recently, I have noticed. A lot of what they clean up is actually not so much components, but excess silk-screen.RazrLeaf - Friday, February 19, 2016 - link
From the images, it looks like the motherboard has 2-packs of 2 SATA cables, so 4 total.tspacie - Friday, February 19, 2016 - link
Is anyone doing TB on a small motherboard? I don't need the fast, external port if I have a bunch of PCIe slots and room for extra disks.romrunning - Friday, February 19, 2016 - link
Small, mini-ITX boards only have the 1 PCIe slot. So that fast TB3 port certainly helps if you need it.alamilla - Friday, February 19, 2016 - link
Although Thunderbolt is hardly a mainstream protocol (yet) it is big in the audio and video production industry for it's incredibly low latency.With this Skylake offering and the recently released X99P-SLI, I'm optimistic Gigabyte will release a Thunderbolt enabled mATX or ITX board for Broadwell-E.
Folterknecht - Friday, February 19, 2016 - link
With a DPC Latency of ~250 I 've my doubts.alamilla - Friday, February 19, 2016 - link
To clarify, I was referring to round trip audio latency.Thunderbolt can achieve 2-3 ms of latency (without the heavy CPU penalty when compared to USB) which is essential in recording environments where several plug ins may be being used on a DAW channel strip whilst tracking.
Universal Audio, Apogee and Pro Tools have used it on their audio interfaces for years but unfortunately only support OS X.
With TB3 now more readily available there may be more widespread adoption as thus far only MOTU (and to a degree Focusrite) have provided support for Windows.
dtgoodwin - Friday, February 19, 2016 - link
If Intel wants TB3 to be successful, they need to include it for no extra cost above the AR controller.extide - Monday, February 22, 2016 - link
Huh, not sure I understand. You buy the AR controller you get TB3, maybe you meant they should include it directly in the chipset?dreamcat4 - Friday, February 19, 2016 - link
Hi there,It is also at least worth mentioning that there are certain other Gigabyte boards which also have the thunderbolt capability. It is formally advertised on their Z170X Gaming 7, and Gaming G1. Which are the premium / more expensive ones.
However I also heard from another Gigabyte owner that with a newest BETA bios, he got his G170X Gaming 5 to also register / recognize TB3 support. It had been switched on too around that same time as the other ones. Just not advertised by Gigabyte and/or certified by Intel.
I mention it because many people already buy the Gaming 5 for other reasons. Indeed its very popular out of all Gigabyte's entire Z170 range. So for those guys who already have something else... might as well upgrade your BIOS and give it a try.
You also need to download the TB3 Driver Utility from Gigabyte's support website. Its the same version for all of these Gigabyte boards. Can get it from the UD5-TH's support page / tab.
Note: TB3 doesn't work on Gaming 3 (or lower), as I have checked myself. It is likely missing such optional TCON / PHY and different PCI-e lanes wiring / layout. So with those ones the Alpine Ridge chip can only provide USB 3.1.
klagermkii - Friday, February 19, 2016 - link
One of the only reasons I would get Thunderbolt 3 on a desktop is as a cheap-ish way to get 10Gbps networking between two devices. Could you do a test on TB3 networking to see if it's any good and the kind of performance one gets from SMB3 on it?I_Know_God - Thursday, February 25, 2016 - link
I know its not as sexy, but you can use SMB multi-channel to get pretty good results without the cost. I plugged two NIC's into my NAS and two into my desktop and got 180MB/s transfer speed to and from.Cost is about as much as an extra network card and cable someplace.
torchedguitar - Friday, February 19, 2016 - link
Can anyone confirm that this board's HDMI 2.0 port handles the full 18 Gbps speed? A lot of things that claim "HDMI 2.0" can support the features, but run at the lower 10.2 Gbps speed of HDMI 1.4b. An easy way to test this is to connect it to a 4K TV, run full 3840x2160 at 60 Hz, and verify there is no chroma subsampling (i.e. you want 4:4:4, not 4:2:0). A way to check for chroma subsampling if the driver doesn't make it obvious (Intel's software is weak there) is to make an image with purely-blue text in a small font on a purely-red background: it will look as expected with RGB or YUV4:4:4, but will be totally unreadable with YUV4:2:0.KimGitz - Saturday, February 20, 2016 - link
Yes it offers 18Gb/s of bandwidth. It also supports native cinematic 21:9 ratio.GoMoeJoe - Friday, February 19, 2016 - link
Any Z170 based mobo what still uses a shared M.2 is unacceptable.Especially the way these clowns did it on this product ...
GoMoeJoe - Friday, February 19, 2016 - link
Any Z170 based mobo *that still uses a shared M.2 is unacceptable.Especially the way these clowns did it on this product ...
nehway0912 - Saturday, February 20, 2016 - link
There is a fw update for alpine ridge today. Can you retest the usb 3.1 performance with the lastest fw?jabber - Saturday, February 20, 2016 - link
Wake me up when I can buy a TB3 card for £10 and a TB3 caddy for around the same. No rush.garfieldalvin - Monday, February 22, 2016 - link
Any test perform on the TB3 port for read write data rate, displayport daisy chain with multi monitors?Zak - Friday, February 26, 2016 - link
Thunderbolt will never take off among consumers and enthusiasts due to cost and poor implementation in peripherals that make their price less attractive than USB. I have a TB2 dock and TB2 drive enclosure. USB3 in the dock maxes out at 350MB/s. SSDs mounted in the enclosure max out at 390/360MB/s R/W. All docks and all enclosures have this speed cutoff. And they're very expensive for what you get.olePigeon - Tuesday, April 12, 2016 - link
I don't think you quite understand what Thunderbolt is. Thunderbolt is essentially an external connector to your PCIe BUS. You don't compare it to USB. Sometimes it is USB because that's what you run on it. The advantage to Thunderbolt is that it is whatever you want it to be, including USB.Thunderbolt 3 currently combines either the USB 3 type C connector or DisplayPort 1.2 with PCIe in a single serial signal. This allows you to connect anything you would normally put into your PCIe slot. Many items can be found in the form of an adapter, such as ethernet, USB, SATA, etc.; others can be connected via an external PCIe slot such as video cards, audio cards, and more.
Thunderbolt doesn't compare to USB, it coexists.
WarlordBB - Monday, March 21, 2016 - link
With TB3 coming to several of Gigabytes Gaming boards, is this board worth it when the G1 is about the same price? Granted you get 2 TB3 instead of 1, but still:http://www.gigabyte.com/mb/thunderbolt3/overview
WarlordBB - Monday, March 21, 2016 - link
I meant the G7coldlogic - Tuesday, May 3, 2016 - link
Can anyone point me in the right direction to understand how TB3 passes video through from the GPU?