Introduction

The Gigabyte GA-X38-DQ6 was the first motherboard we reviewed based on Intel's newest flagship chipset, the X38. However, as a DDR2 motherboard, you can say that the GA-X38-DQ6 wasn't really able to flex the muscles of the new chipset. It was a great board for users hanging on to their precious (and most probably overclocked) DDR2 memory, but we wanted to see what the X38 could do in a next-gen setting. After our recent review of the Foxconn X38A, we were so stoked about the Intel X38's DDR3 capabilities, we decided to revisit Gigabyte and have a go at their DDR3-based GA-X38T-DQ6 instead. The GA-X38T-DQ6 is the DDR3 version of the GA-X38-DQ6, so these two boards are identical in all aspects except for memory support.

Gigabyte GA-X38T-DQ6 motherboard, the DDR3-only variant of the GA-X38-DQ6.

As we've already reviewed the board in the past, all our comments based on features, layout and design aspects have not changed. In this article, we only want to evaluate the performance of the board using DDR3 memory instead of DDR2. Hence, we will jump straight into benchmarking. If you want to know more about the Gigabyte X38 DQ6 series, check out our original GA-X38-DQ6 review here . The technical specification sheet below should provide you with a quick refresher of the board's features and capabilities before we continue.