Gigabyte motherboards model naming scheme

Gigabyte motherboards model naming scheme

gigabyte-naming-scheme

General formula: GA-[power saving method + chipset name + form factor + specific feature]-[main features  +minor feature]

1. Available 1st segment abbreviations

  • If “A” appears after the chipset code, it has the 333 onboard acceleration (USB 3.0, USB Power X3, SATA 3.0 6 Gbps)
  • If “M” appears after the chipset code, it is a mATX board.
  • If “N” appears after the chipset code, it is a Mini-ITX board.
  • If “M” appears in front of the chipset number it means it is for an AMD processor, but has a non-AMD chipset.
  • If “MA” appears before the chipset number it is for an AMD processor and has an AMD chipset.
  • If “E” appears beofore the chipset number it has Dynamic Energy Saver as energy saving method. ie: (GA-EG45M-UD2H)

2. Chipset used

3. Available 2nd segment abbreviations

  • E – If it appears as the first letter in the third segment (ie.GA-EG45-EUD2H),it means it has Easy Energy Saver feature.
  • T – Only DDR3 SDRAM support (i.e: GA-MA770T-US3)
  • C – Both DDR2 and DDR3 SDRAM support
  • F – Includes FireWire port and header (i.e: GA-EG41MF-US2H)

No T or C abbreviations mean that the motherboard only has DDR2 SDRAM support.

4a. Available 3rd segment abbreviations

  • D (Durability) – Indicates that the motherboard uses only solid state capacitors.
    U/UD (Ultra Durable 3) – Introduces 2 ounces of copper for both the Power and Ground layers.
  • USB3 – Indicates that the motherboard fetaured Ultra Durable 3 and USB 3.0 support
  • S2 (Smart, Safe) – Various features such as Q-Flash BIOS etc.
  • S3 (Smart, Speed, Safe) – Same as above, but includes overclocking features.
  • S4 (Silent Pipe, Smart, Speed, Safe) – Same as above, but uses heat pipe cooling.
  • S5 (CrossFire, Silent Pipe, Smart, Speed, Safe) – Same as above, but with CrossFire support.
  • Q6 (Quad BIOS, Quad Cooling, Quad E-SATA 2.0, Quad Triple Phase, Quad-Core Optimized, Quad DDR2 Slots) – Indicates quad-core optimization.

4b. Available 4th segment abbreviations:

# (2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7) – Compares boards of same class. (i.e: GA-P55-UD3)

4c. Available 5th segment abbreviations:

  • R – 2 extra SATA 2.0 ports and possibly RAID support. May have FireWire port. May not have ATI CrossFire support. (i.e: GA-P35-DS3R)
  • G – Solid capacitors for the CPU Volt Regulator Module.
  • H – HDMI port. Possibly Changing, Using it for DisplayPort if HDMI port standard (i.e.: GA-H55-USB3 has HDMI)
  • L – Probably “Lite”. Fewer SATA 2.0 ports. No RAID support. No FireWire ports. No ATI CrossFire support. Heatsink cooling. (i.e GA-P35-DS3L). It could also indicate Gigabit LAN (as in GA-G31M-S2L, versus GA-G31M-S2C which has support for 10/100 Mbit/s Ethernet). (L” / “C” / “E” / “G” means minor/customized spec change version)
  • P – Silent Pipe, RAID, Extra PCI Express slots, extra SATA 2.0 ports. (i.e: GA-EP45-DS3P)

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