GIGABYTE Releases First Workstation Motherboards to Support DDR5 and PCIe Gen5 Technologies

March 14, 2023 ─ Giga Computing, a subsidiary of GIGABTE and an industry leader in high-performance servers, server motherboards, and workstations, today announced two new workstation motherboards, GIGABYTE MW83-RP0 and MW53-HP0, built to support the Intel^® Xeon^® W-3400 or Intel Xeon W-2400 desktop workstation processors. The new CPU platform, developed on the Intel W790 chipset, is the first workstation platform in the market that supports both DDR5 and PCIe 5.0 technology, and this platform excels at demanding applications such as complex 3D CAD, AI development, simulations, 3D rendering, and more.

Advancements in the New Gen of Intel Xeon W Processors
The new generation of Intel “Sapphire Rapids” Xeon W-3400 & W-2400 series processors adds some significant benefits to its workstation processors when compared to the prior gen of “Ice Lake” Xeon W-3300 processors. Like its predecessor, the new Xeon processors support up to 4TB of 8-channel memory; however, the new Xeon CPUs have moved to DDR5, which is incredibly advantageous because of the big jump in memory bandwidth performance. Second, higher CPU performance across most workloads, partially due to the higher CPU core count and higher clock speeds. As mentioned before, the new Xeon processors support PCIe Gen5 devices and speeds for higher throughput between CPU and devices such as GPU. Additionally, CXL is supported, so accelerators and NICs can benefit from the improved bandwidth. To accelerate AI and deep learning, Intel has improved its AVX-512 solution by adding support for AMX/TMUL and BFloat16 instructions. These are just a sample of the many benefits associated with the new Intel Xeon W processor, but there are many additional benefits such as heightened security. For a more in depth look into at Intel’s Xeon W Processor, visit Intel’s page.

Two Distinct Motherboards and Two Distinct Platforms
Of the two new GIGABYTE motherboards, the slightly larger 12”x10.5” motherboard, MW83-RP0, is more feature rich than the standard ATX board, MW53-HP0. The MW83 is designed specifically for the expert workstation Intel Xeon W-3400 series processors with up to 56 cores and 112 PCIe lanes, while the MW53 is built for the mainstream workstation Intel Xeon W-2400 series processors with up to 24 cores and 64 PCIe lanes. Additionally, both motherboards support up to 2TB of memory with eight memory DIMMs; however, the Xeon W-3400 platform has 8-channel memory while the W-2400 platform has 4-channel memory. So, from a processor point of view there is clear product differentiation and that carries over to the two choices of GIGABYTE workstation motherboards as well.

▲ MW83-RP0	▲ MW53-HP0

GIGABYTE MW83-RP0 and MW53-HP0
Two flavors of GIGABYTE motherboards have been designed to target all levels of compute-intensive professional workloads with enterprise grade functionalities. The Intel W790 chipset offers a wealth of high-speed throughput options whether they be PCIe 5.0 lanes for GPUs and drives or USB 3.2 Gen2 (10Gbps) ports for USB devices. Power users that leverage a high core count CPU, fast onboard 10GbE LAN ports, and plenty of expansion slots will opt for the MW83-RP0, while more budget minded users will select the MW53-HP0 that is more than capable of sustaining heavy compute workloads. One thing to note is that each motherboard supports only one processor series because of the type of processor carrier clip included with each motherboard. The W-3400 series uses an E1A (XCC) carrier clip that is in the MW83 box, and the W-2400 uses an E1B (MCC) carrier clip that is also in the MW53 box. Last, both motherboards have BMCs for remote monitoring and management. And to add extra value to the new boards, GIGABYTE provides GIGABYTE Management Console (GMC) for BMC server management via a web browser-based platform. Additionally, GIGABYTE Server Management (GSM) software is available for download on product pages. This software can monitor and manage multiple servers without requiring an additional license fee. GMC and GSM offer great value while reducing TCO and customer maintenance costs.