Gigabyte teased the first images of the Ryzen 3 Threadripper motherboard. And although they are dark, the photos show enough to give people a taste of what to expect.
For one, the board seems to have eight DIMM slots for DDR 4, with a maximum capacity of 256 GB. If you look closely enough, you will see a heatsink row near the VRMs and another heatsink next to the I/O slots. You can find another heatsink on the right portion of the Threadripper 3 board.
For the VRMs, it seems that it has a 12-phase design, although it doesn’t mean there couldn’t be more. The board also looks like it has three M.2 ports, and they all feature heat shields. It’s not clear at the moment, but the SATA 3 ports could either be eight or ten.
Also, there seem to be no changes in the socket, as well as the mounting mechanism. But you can find an upgraded PCH over the previous X399. This prepares the board to support PCIe Gen 4.0 support. The PCH requires active cooling, but then again, you won’t have that problem with the Threadripper 3.
For customization, you have RGB Fusion 2.0 LED that snakes through the sides of the board. You can also see LED lighting on the heatsink in the PCH.
Gigabyte is rumored to be using the TRX40 chipset for the Threadripper 3. It was earlier reported that Gigabyte is working on three HEDT chipsets. They are the TRX40, TRX80, and the WRX80. The TRX40 will allegedly use a 4-channel memory, as well as a lighter I/O. The high-end chipsets, meanwhile, will feature 8-channel memory with at least 64 PCIe rows.
Lastly, Gigabyte has brought back the X570 chipset fan, which gamers will really appreciate. What it indicates, too, is that the Threadripper might be based on the X570 chip. You will note that AMD uses the same chip for the Ryzen 300 chips, particularly on the I/O die.
Could it be that the TRX40 is simply a rebranded X570 chip?
Gigabyte has not announced a timeline for the Threadripper 3 motherboard’s exact release date. AMD targets to release the motherboard next month. The rumors going around point to a Nov. 19 launch. The company also did not tease the expected price. However, judging from the build and features, this could be one of the company’s more expensive boards.
