Gigabyte UD3 Technology

We take a very early look at this next gen tech, brought straight to you from the GOOC event in Taiwan.

GIGABYTE took us to a small(ish) event yesterday, and we had the privilege of being one of the first people worldwide to learn about their third iteration of the Ultra Durable technology. UD2, the current standard for GIGABYTE, includes solid capacitors, ferrite core chokes and low RDS MOSFETs. This is something that we 've taken for granted these past few months, and many of those ideas are starting to spread to the other manufacturers.



GIGABYTE, with this latest release, has outdone even itself. The third generation of this technology not only includes all of the UD2 features, but the changes here can’t be seen without breaking your board open. Most motherboards are made with one oz of copper, in two sheets that are used for grounding, as well as power. These are responsible for minimising some signal noise, as well as helping to cool the board. So, naturally, GIGABYTE has doubled this amount – to two 2oz sheets. This doubling of width allows an increase in stability, but also a drop in electrical resistance, meaning that less heat will be generated (and also less power lost). You also get the added benefit of increased strength, if you’re one of those people who enjoys placing your entire weight onto a graphics card to install it.



This board (the brand-spanking new EP45-UD3) is one of three P45-based mobos coming out with this new tech, and also sports a very serious-looking cooling array on the chipset. While you can’t see it, there is quite definitely two 2oz thick pieces of copper sandwiched in there, that should improve stability, AND overclocking performance. Hell, even the boards are now rated at 1366MHz with DDR2, and have reached 1503MHz in the GIGABYTE labs.



Not only this, but GIGABYTE also say that simply running exactly the same gear in a UD3 motherboard will net you a performance increase – even at stock! We can’t wait to grab one of these boards for the Labs, and give them a full test, but until then you’ll just have to make do with 'only' half the copper. With two ounces of copper, and a whole new chipset cooler (we’re really digging that blue), this is definitely a whole new wave of boards to keep an eye on.

We’ll keep you up to date with all the latest news at the GIGABYTE Open Overclocking Championship, as it develops.