The Truth about Ultra Durable 5 Plus Gigabyte Mother Boards

SonDa5

SonDa5

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GIGABYTE Ultra Durable™ 5 motherboards use IR3550 PowIRstage® ICs, which feature the industry's highest 60A rating, with Lower Losses, Higher Efficiency and Excellent Thermal Management.
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http://www.gigabyte.us/microsite/312/images/PowIRstage.html

Then with the release of the Z87 chipset Gigabyte added the word Plus to the Ultra Durable 5 line of mother boards.

Ultra Durable 5 standard was IR3550 VRM parts.


The mathematical logic of the word plus is to add to the existing value.

The standard was the IR3550 part and adding the word plus to that standard should if anything mean it was improved upon.

There was nothing added by the word plus, instead the wording was just a marketing lie to make the buyer think that the new 8 series chipset with the Ultra Durable 5 IR3550 parts was some how improved upon but instead Gigabyte cheapened the overall quality of the mother board to save money on parts used and trick its market into thinking they were getting more value and quality in parts than the original definition of the line of products that defined the Ultra Durable 5 brand.

To me this is out right deception.

I bought a Gigabyte Z87X-OC that has this Ultra Durable 5 Plus deceptive marketing and I thought I paid into a high quality mother board but it turns out I didn't get the IR3550 parts instead I got a much cheaper VRM part that is found on much cheaper priced Gigabyte mother boards like the UD3H and the UD4H. UD4H actually has twice the number of phases that my more expensive Z87X-OC has.


I feel ripped off and I am totally unsatisfied with this marketing lie that I bought into.

The cheaper IR3553 parts that are found on UD3H, UD4H, and the Z87X-OC motherboard and each one of these mother boards along with a few more expensive Gigabyte mother boards use this cheaper IR3553 VRM part and are marketed as being Ultra Durable 5 Plus.

The Truth is Gigabyte has cheapened down the Ultra Durable 5 name by deceptively adding the word Plus making the buyer (me) think the quality is higher than Ultra Durable 5 quality when in reality it has gotten cheaper.


In the case of the Z87X-Force which costs over $400 Gigabyte has used the more expensive real Ultra Durable 5 VRM part IR3550 yet Gigabyte still uses the GIGABYTE Ultra Durable™ 5 Plus Technology branding which in this case the word Plus really means you get the IR3550 part and a whole bunch of them.


Don't be a sucka to this double standard bogus marketing.
 
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I don't get it. Regardless of which part you get, you'll cook the socket far before hitting the peak output of the mosfets.

I can only for see this being an issue if your using sub zero and going for world records. I'd be willing to bet that in any air/un-chilled water cooling setup, the chip would be your limiting factor, not the mosfets.
 
Jorona said:
I don't get it. Regardless of which part you get, you'll cook the socket far before hitting the peak output of the mosfets.

I can only for see this being an issue if your using sub zero and going for world records. I'd be willing to bet that in any air/un-chilled water cooling setup, the chip would be your limiting factor, not the mosfets.
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Yup. Odds are high that your CPU will fry before the mosfets will.
 
From the Ultra Durable Plus page for the 8 Series motherboard (http://www.gigabyte.com/MicroSite/334/images/ud5plus.html) they list everything that goes into a Ultra Durable Plus board including the part about the All IR® Digital CPU Power Design including this note: Digital PWM Controller design may vary by model.

Nothing deceptive except usual marketing mumbo-jumbo. The onus is on the buyer to properly research the product he/she is buying.

BTW, I think sin0822 explaned in one of his reviews that fancy power stage where mostly overkill for the new CPU (I could have misread so don't rip me apart if I'm wrong! ;))
 
magictoaster said:
From the Ultra Durable Plus page for the 8 Series motherboard (http://www.gigabyte.com/MicroSite/334/images/ud5plus.html) they list everything that goes into a Ultra Durable Plus board including the part about the All IR® Digital CPU Power Design including this note: Digital PWM Controller design may vary by model.

Nothing deceptive except usual marketing mumbo-jumbo. The onus is on the buyer to properly research the product he/she is buying.
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While I'm dismissive about the OP's gripe in general...

Are you really suggesting that it is up to the consumer to have to research each and every spec sheet for every IC and chip on a motherboard-that often times those sheets don't exist of those ICs do not have visible part numbers? Because that is just plain old unreasonable. Oh, your gas pedal stuck on your Toyota causing it to crash. If you would have looked at the part number of said gas pedal and researched the specs of it, you'd know it was a faultily designed part so SOL and it sucks to be you. Better research every part in your car you're thinking about buying next time. That is your logic it seems to me.
 
Skripka said:
While I'm dismissive about the OP's gripe in general...

Are you really suggesting that it is up to the consumer to have to research each and every spec sheet for every IC and chip on a motherboard-that often times those sheets don't exist of those ICs do not have visible part numbers? Because that is just plain old unreasonable. Oh, your gas pedal stuck on your Toyota causing it to crash. If you would have looked at the part number of said gas pedal and researched the specs of it, you'd know it was a faultily designed part so SOL and it sucks to be you. Better research every part in your car you're thinking about buying next time. That is your logic it seems to me.
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Well, it is not unreasonable to do research and compare reviews of components before purchase, don't you agree?

Getting specific down to the ICs might be a bit OCD I agree, but not to some people.:D
 
Skripka said:
While I'm dismissive about the OP's gripe in general...

Are you really suggesting that it is up to the consumer to have to research each and every spec sheet for every IC and chip on a motherboard-that often times those sheets don't exist of those ICs do not have visible part numbers? Because that is just plain old unreasonable. Oh, your gas pedal stuck on your Toyota causing it to crash. If you would have looked at the part number of said gas pedal and researched the specs of it, you'd know it was a faultily designed part so SOL and it sucks to be you. Better research every part in your car you're thinking about buying next time. That is your logic it seems to me.
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If you are looking for one specific IC because of a specific need (or want) would you not find it reasonable to do a modicum of research beforehand?

We are not after all talking about a generic board feature (like does the board include 1 or 2 LAN ports) but something very specific.

A simple verification on the Gigabyte Web site would have shown no mention of this particular IC (same thing on the Ultra Durable 5 Plus microsite). At that point if you are looking for something specific, why not simply send an email to the company? Or ask a rep on the forum of your choice?

BTW I'm not bashing the OP. I understand that discovering that what you purchased is not exactly what you where looking for sucks. But I find it difficult to find a fault with the Gigabyte for this since not promotional material or technical info specific to this board made any mention about this specific part.
 
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Jorona said:
I don't get it. Regardless of which part you get, you'll cook the socket far before hitting the peak output of the mosfets.
.
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The performance edge to the IR3550 power output to cpu is hitting peak electical performance out put efficiency at 1.2v DC ouput to cpu. That is a reasonable level of voltage that will not cook any haswell cpu.
 
I don't understand why your so mad about the naming of a product. Companies do this all the time. Its not all that new that a company might change the name of a product if it might higher sales. Fact is if you buy a product just because of a name (without doing any research on said product) then the marketing from the company is doing a good job.
 
soulwatch5 said:
I don't understand why your so mad about the naming of a product. Companies do this all the time. Its not all that new that a company might change the name of a product if it might higher sales. Fact is if you buy a product just because of a name (without doing any research on said product) then the marketing from the company is doing a good job.
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From a consumer standpoint this type of marketing only hurts my desire to buy Gigabyte products. Had I known about the cheap down on the major power output for the cpu I wouldn't have purchased the motherboard.
 
SonDa5 said:
From a consumer standpoint this type of marketing only hurts my desire to buy Gigabyte products. Had I known about the cheap down on the major power output for the cpu I wouldn't have purchased the motherboard.
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I understand where you are coming from and can understand why your mad. I agree that as a consumer it's a little shady but gigabyte isn't the only company that does this. Pretty much all major companies do this kind of thing. Gigabyte, MSI, Asus, intel etc. All products are "buyer beware" even from the $.99 candy bar to a $100k car. If you're looking for something specific in the item you're purchasing its up to the consumer make sure I product has it before purchasing.
 
soulwatch5 said:
I understand where you are coming from and can understand why your mad. I agree that as a consumer it's a little shady but gigabyte isn't the only company that does this. Pretty much all major companies do this kind of thing. Gigabyte, MSI, Asus, intel etc. All products are "buyer beware" even from the $.99 candy bar to a $100k car. If you're looking for something specific in the item you're purchasing its up to the consumer make sure I product has it before purchasing.
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I agree and normally I am very careful about anything I buy. Gigabyte got me here but I hope this thread will help someone else avoid the negative experience.
 
And OP I'm not in no way bashing you and not saying that it is good/right way to market products. Just saying this isn't all that uncommon and make sure you do the research before you purchase anything.
 
SonDa5 said:
The performance edge to the IR3550 power output to cpu is hitting peak electical performance out put efficiency at 1.2v DC ouput to cpu. That is a reasonable level of voltage that will not cook any haswell cpu.
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Okay, take your chip, put it in a OC Force, and show me a difference in maximum OC. I'm willing to bet that you'll have at most 100mhz difference in your maximum OC. It could even be worse.

I reiterate that there will likely be a negligible difference unless you're going sub-zero. Then MAYBE the amperage difference will matter. I doubt much though, both VRM designs are overkill for the draw of Haswell.
 
Jorona said:
Okay, take your chip, put it in a OC Force, and show me a difference in maximum OC. I'm willing to bet that you'll have at most 100mhz difference in your maximum OC. It could even be worse.

I reiterate that there will likely be a negligible difference unless you're going sub-zero. Then MAYBE the amperage difference will matter. I doubt much though, both VRM designs are overkill for the draw of Haswell.
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Higher quality power benefits Haswell at any speed.
 
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magictoaster said:
From the Ultra Durable Plus page for the 8 Series ....
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Why did you not use the number 5? The 5 is the most important part of the Ultra Durable 5 naming.

Back in 2012 at Computex 2012 Gigabyte made the huge leap to the Ultra Durable 5 branding when they added the IR3550 part http://www.pureoverclock.com/2012/0...-ultra-durable-5-technology-at-computex-2012/ ....

From the link:

The award winning IR3550 PowIRstage ICs feature greater power e¬fficiency and are the highest rated Power Stage in the industry, able to provide up to 60A of power. This ensures the best power delivery to the CPU, for more stable operation and better overclocking performance. GIGABYTE Ultra Durable 5 motherboards also use both IR digital PWM controllers and IR PowIRstage ICs, for a uniquely seamless power delivery system.

IR has leveraged its world class packaging technology developed for the DirectFET, improving the thermal capability and layout of the PowIRstage significantly over that of other MCM packages.
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The 5 is very important.
 
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I really have mixed emotions about this. On the one hand I hate the obscure marketing keywords being thrown around. I would have probably assumed the same thing as OP when looking at the 'plus' on the ultra durable. However on the other hand its a new socket and northbridge line, so everything can be different and as a whole the entire line has to be researched to know what you are buying. Ultra Durable 3, 5, etc don't seem to have any specific meaning except value levels for gigabyte and maybe the amount of copper they throw onto the mobo.

It certainly is a bit deceptive, but its used in almost every market, from cars, to drink mixes, to computer parts. The 'plus' means either change, upgrade, or nothing at all in today's deceitful marketing society.
 
While I understand the sentiment of feeling cheated, I really don't see the outrage over the actual figures.

http://www.irf.com/product-info/datasheets/data/ir3550.pdf
http://www.irf.com/product-info/datasheets/data/ir3553.pdf

60A vs 40A current capability and peak efficiency of 95% vs 93.2%. Just looking at the datasheets though, I wonder if their testing showed that 60A was simply overkill and decided to go for the cheaper part to save on money and/or possibly use the cost savings elsewhere? A peak efficiency change of 1.8% is not really that big of a change...
 
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i have to go with Neb here the 40amp IC seems fine depending how how the board is layed out
 
SonDa5 said:
Why did you not use the number 5? The 5 is the most important part of the Ultra Durable 5 naming.

The 5 is very important.
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Because Gigabyte listed the Z87 series being Ultra Durable 5 Plus and not Ultra Durable 5 everywhere on its site and in its promotional material.

Before purchasing a motherboard I always look at the specifications for the model I'm interested in without assuming that what is applicable for other models (no mater what generation) is also applicable for the current generation.

I'm sure someone could provide an amusing car analogy with reference to packages being removed/changed for different production years. ;)
 
In actual practice, the difference is a lot less. Due to thermal losses and constraints it's not 60A vs 40A, it's 40A vs 30A. And while the extra headroom and efficiency might be nice, it's not needed. It may be more cost effective to run more phases at a lower current than fewer at high current. The extra cost of the "premium" parts just may not be needed, especially since the premium parts tend to cost exponentially more with slight increases in specs. The Ultra Durable line originated with the use of polymer "OSCON" capacitors which are about 10x as expensive as traditional electrolytics, but are much better in just about every aspect (lifespan, temperature rating, ESR, current delivery). It has also changed inductor types to a ferrite core that has higher saturation ability.
 
Fenris_Ulf said:
In actual practice, the difference is a lot less. Due to thermal losses and constraints it's not 60A vs 40A, it's 40A vs 30A. And while the extra headroom and efficiency might be nice, it's not needed. It may be more cost effective to run more phases at a lower current than fewer at high current.
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My main problem is the Z87X-OC missing the IR3550 part but I would feel better if my Z87X-OC had at least 16 x IR3553 by 8 phases like the lower priced Z87-UD4H.

The Z87X-OC and Z87X-OC FORCE were stated to both be flagship over clocking mother boards at Computex 2013 yet with the cheap vrm design on Z87X-OC and high price it seems like a bunch of hot winded marketing.

Looking at the performance data you can clearly see that the IR3550 offers alot more performance.

http://www.irf.com/product-info/datasheets/data/ir3553.pdf

http://www.irf.com/product-info/datasheets/data/ir3550.pdf



These charts taken from the information posted in the links above clearly shows the huge performance gains of the IR3550 over the IR3553 part.

f755b4de_OCTruthZ87Xboards.jpeg
 
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You keep using the term "performance" and "huge performance gains", but that's not what is listed. "Efficiency & Power loss" does not equal performance measurement; for that to happen you must prove that the difference would impact performance and as Fenris_Ulf has stated, it's really not that big a difference. Unless you know what type of load is being placed on the vrm, you can't say that there is or isn't a performance gain or loss either way. In that aspect, you can say you're guilty of hot winded marketing :p
 
Neb said:
You keep using the term "performance" and "huge performance gains", but that's not what is listed. "Efficiency & Power loss" does not equal performance measurement; for that to happen you must prove that the difference would impact performance and as Fenris_Ulf has stated, it's really not that big a difference. Unless you know what type of load is being placed on the vrm, you can't say that there is or isn't a performance gain or loss either way. In that aspect, you can say you're guilty of hot winded marketing :p
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The electrical performance is real.
 
SonDa5 said:
The electrical performance is real.
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Yes, the electrical characteristics of the part are known, but what is the change in system performance between the two parts? That's what matters, and without any actual data you might as well be guessing.
 
I looked at the specs and the 60 a driver is just a "bigger" one, not nessisarly better. It's more efficicnet because it's bigger (electronics tend to work that way)

It could be that the ud4h / z87x-oc is more efficient then an older board with 60a drivers if they better allocate them.

More drivers with less capacity could be easier to fine tune. The 40a driver driver is smaller, cheaper so they could use more of them for more granularity.

Besides effiency and capacity, I don't see a difference in specs otherwise.

I noticed the smaller 40a driver is more efficient at high switching frequencies.

Anyway, I payed $52 for my UD4H so I can't complain. :-D
 
the lower spec IC is probably because there is an auxiliary PCI Express input which feeds directly to the PCIExpress x16 slots. [less need for higher load ICs]

the only thing you really need to worry about is whether the real world performance of the OC series overclocks better than the UD series boards.
 
This just sounds like whining that you didn't get the fancier parts that are on the more expensive board, on your cheaper board.

Show me one graph where it shows the same chip OCing higher on the Force then on the OC on conventional cooling. Air or Water. Lidded or Delidded. The VRM design on both boards are grossly overkill for Haswell. Temps and/or the chip will be your road block, not VRM temps or Vdroop.

Prove me wrong.
 
Guys the IR3550 is the better part any way you cut it and it was the signature part of the Ultra Durable 5 brand.
 
Jorona said:
This just sounds like whining that you didn't get the fancier parts that are on the more expensive board, on your cheaper board.

Show me one graph where it shows the same chip OCing higher on the Force then on the OC on conventional cooling. Air or Water. Lidded or Delidded. The VRM design on both boards are grossly overkill for Haswell. Temps and/or the chip will be your road block, not VRM temps or Vdroop.

Prove me wrong.
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Over clocking and getting your money's worth is 2 different topics. I feel ripped off by the marketing and let down on the lower quality parts.
 
Sorry Triple post on server delay.
 
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csshih said:
you realize we're talking about a mosfet.. how is there better quality?
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The IR3550 is actually called a Power Stage. Watch the video I posted above which describes the benefits of it.
 
I wouldnt be so upset/worried about falling for a marketing mix up with a name. I'd be more worried about falling for the marketing of the different MOSFET itself. All you are doing is falling for the "this is better for you because we say so" part.

Even under extreme cooling there hasn't been a real noticeable difference between a ud4 model or any of the higher models because of how much overkill there is


And with haswell the difference in MOSFETs matters even less since Intel moved power to the die itself. You won't get less vdroop or a higher oc if you get a ud3 or the most expensive board.


You should be thanking them for using a cheaper part that allowed them to sell it at a cheaper price.
 
Cecil said:
I wouldnt be so upset/worried about falling for a marketing mix up with a name. I'd be more worried about falling for the marketing of the different MOSFET itself. All you are doing is falling for the "this is better for you because we say so" part.

Even under extreme cooling there hasn't been a real noticeable difference between a ud4 model or any of the higher models because of how much overkill there is


And with haswell the difference in MOSFETs matters even less since Intel moved power to the die itself. You won't get less vdroop or a higher oc if you get a ud3 or the most expensive board.


You should be thanking them for using a cheaper part that allowed them to sell it at a cheaper price.
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More than anything I blame myself for not doing enough research. This is my first Gigabyte Mother board and I was completely sold on the Ultra Durable 5 Power Stage technology.

The IR3550 part doesn't cost that much more money. From what I have researched so far the price may have been another $5 for 8 of the IR3550 parts instead of the IR3553 parts. Really bothers me that they went back wards with the Ultra Durable 5 Power Stage technology on one of their 2013 Flagship over clocking mother boards just to make a few extra dollars.


This MB represented a pure over clock board with very little bells and whistles. Its main features were supposed to be high quality 8 phase CPU power (I thought it was IR3550) and good over clocking controls.

Those 60AMP chokes were designed to be pared up with the IR3550. Looking at the board it looks ready to go but when you pop off the heat sinks and see the lower quality IR3553 part its a big let down.

I really wouldn't have bought this MB if I knew that it didn't have the IR3550 part on it.


Seeing is believing. Here are the IR3553 CPU power parts on my Z87X-OC, those cool looking chokes with the letter P(for power?) lightning bolts on them are rated for 60A while the IR3553 part is only rated for 40A, seems like a marketing move to use the high rated chokes.



8Phaselowres.jpg
 
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5 bucks across 1,000s of boards adds up
again dont really need it
 
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