Gigabyte GA-X38-DQ6 (Intel X38)

The main reason to be excited however, is the new chipset Intel X38. The X38 will feature some significant Northbridge improvements in a while. Firstly, the X38 will improve upon the dual PCIe x8 support of the 975X Express and feature native dual PCIe x16 rails this time around, which will make full speed CrossFire configurations a reality with an Intel chipset. As yet, NVIDIA's SLI is still not officially on the table for any chipset outside of NVIDIA's own. In addition to the two PCIe x16 lanes, the X38 will also mark the introduction of the new PCI Express 2.0 specifications. Even then, it is important to note that PCI Express 2.0 is only available to the two PCIe x16 lanes on the MCH. Basically, PCI Express 2.0 doubles the maximum bandwidth from 2.5Gbps to 5Gbps. A single x16 connector will now be able to achieve up to 16Gbps (8Gbps each way) total transfer rate.



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