Sapphire Office Visit - X79 Revealed
Author: Dennis Garcia
Published: Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Conclusion and Questions
I didn't have many questions for Sapphire and dispelling rumors is not my style but as you may have guessed the current motherboard PM is very talented and quite familiar with what makes a good motherboard. Of course designs can change given user feedback or even changes in market conditions but many of the basics will likely remain.
Questions
Q: Why has Sapphire spent so much time and effort to build up the motherboard team?
A: Both Intel and AMD have made great strides in the low end graphics market which will affect our low end graphic sales. The motherboards are designed to help fill those gaps and give us a presence in that market.
Q: What are your plans for PCI Express 3.0?
A: Right now there isn't much of a need for PCI Express 3.0 however when NVidia releases a 3.0 compatible bridge chip we will be upgrading our motherboards to support it.
Q: Why do some boards come with PCI Express switches (for lane switching) and others do not?
A: PCI Express lane switches take up valuable space on a PCB and in some cases there isn't enough room to include them.
Q: Is this the only version of X79 we will see?
A: There will be two basic configurations for X79 motherboards, the version you see here is the low-end edition with limited memory support.
I would like to thank Sapphire for allowing me to stop by and check out the new motherboards. With any luck we'll have a few of these boards in the labs for testing.
A: Both Intel and AMD have made great strides in the low end graphics market which will affect our low end graphic sales. The motherboards are designed to help fill those gaps and give us a presence in that market.
Q: What are your plans for PCI Express 3.0?
A: Right now there isn't much of a need for PCI Express 3.0 however when NVidia releases a 3.0 compatible bridge chip we will be upgrading our motherboards to support it.
Q: Why do some boards come with PCI Express switches (for lane switching) and others do not?
A: PCI Express lane switches take up valuable space on a PCB and in some cases there isn't enough room to include them.
Q: Is this the only version of X79 we will see?
A: There will be two basic configurations for X79 motherboards, the version you see here is the low-end edition with limited memory support.
I would like to thank Sapphire for allowing me to stop by and check out the new motherboards. With any luck we'll have a few of these boards in the labs for testing.
