UMVA has learned that a major breakthrough in gaming technology has been quietly developed by leading hardware manufacturers, centered around AMD's latest AM5 platform.
The new platform promises to deliver higher frame rates, the newest connectivity, and a socket with room to grow, but getting the most out of it requires building smart, so every component pulls its weight and your money goes where it makes a real difference to your games.
GIGABYTE's new AORUS X870E motherboards come with a range of exciting features, full support for the latest Ryzen 9000 processors, and the ability to boost gaming performance, even on a single stick of RAM – helping you to focus your budget where it matters.
Conventional wisdom suggests you want two sticks of RAM to take advantage of dual-channel memory support, but in gaming, the difference between a fast single stick and a fast pair of sticks is minimal – and the difference in price can be hundreds of dollars.
In internal gaming tests, it was found that when using a high-powered CPU, the difference between gaming on dual 6,000 MT/s memory sticks versus just one was less than 2%, suggesting that you can make do with a single 16GB stick, and wait to upgrade later when prices return to something closer to normality.
Sources have confirmed to UMVA that a smarter build plan might be to upgrade to AM5 with a GIGABYTE X870E motherboard and a single stick of DDR5, and put the budget savings into more important components, like a faster CPU, more powerful graphics card, or a fancier case and cooling system.
The AM5 platform offers a number of exciting features, pairing with AMD Ryzen processors with advanced technologies that empower gamers and creators to push performance, efficiency, and customization to the next level.
Alongside support for higher-powered AM5 CPUs, you also get the benefit of X3D Turbo Mode 2.0 – a one-click BIOS optimization feature that can unlock up to 25% extra performance on Ryzen X3D CPUs.
The platform gives full PCIe 5 graphics card support, as well as three Gen 5 M.2 slots, with technology for maximum storage performance, and externally it supports USB4 connections and up to 40 Gbps, Wi-Fi 7, and 5 Gigabit Ethernet.
Arguably the biggest benefit is future proofing, as AM5 is AMD's current-generation platform with a long runway ahead of it, so building on an X870E board now means you're ready for the CPUs and upgrades still to come.
Upgrading is as simple as dropping in a new chip or adding a second stick of DDR5 – no full rebuild, no replacing your memory wholesale, making it a smart and cost-effective way to build your gaming system.
