Gigabyte GA-Z270X-UD5 onboard graphics & thunderbolt supported?

[jazztronaut]

Hi i'll make this short and sweet. I'm new and I need to build a machine for audio editing & possibly video editing in the future.

I have TWO (2) questions:

1. Will the graphics on the GA- Z270X-UD5 work? (until I have the budget to get a propoer GPU)
2. I need thunderbolt 3 connection to work with my audio card, (crucial). Can anyone confirm Thunderbolt connection is working perfectly with Serria?

Many Thanks for any input.

Build SPECS for your refrence:

MB:Gigabyte GA- Z270X-UD5
CPU:Core i7-7700k
RAM:Crucial Ballistic Sport LT 2x8gb
GPU: ?? <- future upgrade

 

[Jamesbond007]

Hi i'll make this short and sweet. I'm new and I need to build a machine for audio editing & possibly video editing in the future.

I have TWO (2) questions:

1. Will the graphics on the GA- Z270X-UD5 work? (until I have the budget to get a proper GPU)
2. I need thunderbolt 3 connection to work with my audio card, (crucial). Can anyone confirm Thunderbolt connection is working perfectly with Sierra?

Many Thanks for any input.

Build SPECS for your reference:

MB:Gigabyte GA- Z270X-UD5
CPU:Core i7-7700k
RAM:Crucial Ballistic Sport LT 2x8gb
GPU: ?? <- future upgrade

(1) Whether the graphics work depends on which CPU you choose to use since the graphics hardware is located on the CPU. If your choice is an i3 / i5 / i7 CPU then it should work with MacOS Sierra. Which CPU do you plan to use?

(2) Well, Thunderbolt 3 seems to work once you load a copy of Windows and install the Thunderbolt drivers in Windows, to "activate" the Thunderbolt hardware. I have been told you have to do this or the Thunderbolt hardware won't work in MacOS.

 

[jazztronaut]

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[jazztronaut]

(1) Whether the graphics work depends on which CPU you choose to use since the graphics hardware is located on the CPU. If your choice is an i3 / i5 / i7 CPU then it should work with MacOS Sierra. Which CPU do you plan to use?

(2) Well, Thunderbolt 3 seems to work once you load a copy of Windows and install the Thunderbolt drivers in Windows, to "activate" the Thunderbolt hardware. I have been told you have to do this or the Thunderbolt hardware won't work in MacOS.

Thank you so much. i7 -7700k for CPU. I've tried searching to see if thunderbolt will work for the Z270X, but only found documentations on the Z170X.

Do you know where I can find some info on how I would go about activating the thunderbolt 3 in WINDOWS? Also any bios settings I would have to watch out for? Thanks

 

[afree]

Thank you so much. i7 -7700k for CPU. I've tried searching to see if thunderbolt will work for the Z270X, but only found documentations on the Z170X.

Do you know where I can find some info on how I would go about activating the thunderbolt 3 in WINDOWS? Also any bios settings I would have to watch out for? Thanks

Hey I am using a GA-Z270X-UD5 w/ an 7700k and can confirm thunderbolt works with the iGPU. My thunderbolt display and dock work perfectly. I did run windows and have to do the driver install thing through first. I don't think I had to do anything besides be connected to the internet with it plugged in. It found all the required drivers on windows 10.

On a slightly related note I'm wondering if I can still use the thunderbolt port but have my GTX1060 do the video processing instead of the iGPU/on-board graphics. Haven't figured it out yet.

 

[jazztronaut]

On a slightly related note I'm wondering if I can still use the thunderbolt port but have my GTX1060 do the video processing instead of the iGPU/on-board graphics. Haven't figured it out yet.

I don't really understand your question. You mean its not possible to have a designated GPU if the thunderbolt port is used?

Pls elaborate, am gathering parts now. Want to be sure. Thanks

 

[afree]

I don't really understand your question. You mean its not possible to have a designated GPU if the thunderbolt port is used?

Pls elaborate, am gathering parts now. Want to be sure. Thanks

Sorta. My other two monitors plugged into the GPU would show up as being powered by that. However my main display and one I connected to over thunderbolt would only use the integrated GPU. I ended up getting a different display so I could use just my GTX1060 for everything. I think even if you have the iGPU active in bios and nothing plugged into it the system still defaults to it. But not 100% sure about that last part. You could also try to get a board with thunderbolt 3 and no onboard video and that might work for both. Does that help?

 

[jazztronaut]

Sorta. My other two monitors plugged into the GPU would show up as being powered by that. However my main display and one I connected to over thunderbolt would only use the integrated GPU. I ended up getting a different display so I could use just my GTX1060 for everything. I think even if you have the iGPU active in bios and nothing plugged into it the system still defaults to it. But not 100% sure about that last part. You could also try to get a board with thunderbolt 3 and no onboard video and that might work for both. Does that help?

The thing is I can't find any of the Thunderbolt MBs anymore. They are all out of production, and the new Z370s are for sale but they are not thunderbolt supported. This might have to do with APPLE? greedy fu****ers

 

[Jamesbond007]

The thing is I can't find any of the Thunderbolt MBs anymore. They are all out of production, and the new Z370s are for sale but they are not thunderbolt supported. This might have to do with APPLE?

Intel released Z370 and the corresponding Coffee Lake CPUs in October and it is natural that the motherboard vendors phased out Z270 production in favour of Z370.

As to the Thunderbolt motherboards, they had been few and far between starting from the introduction of Thunderbolt. I think the problem is more with Intel, since from what I can learn Intel apparently charged high licensing fees for the necessary hardware required to support Thunderbolt on PC motherboards. This naturally discouraged the motherboard vendors from making more models with Thunderbolt as the cost would rise, maybe significantly. Intel has decided it wants to change that :

https://www.windowscentral.com/intel-drops-thunderbolt-3-royalty

The Z370 requires additional hardware to support Thunderbolt 3 as well :
https://www.anandtech.com/show/1185...-lake-review-8700k-and-8400-initial-numbers/3

Anandtech said :

It’s critical that we say ‘support’ here, because the diagram above from Intel is misleading: Intel is not supporting Thunderbolt directly from the chipset, and motherboard manufacturers will have to include a Thunderbolt 3 controller in order to do so.

As far as I know, there is only one Z370 motherboard with integrated Thunderbolt 3 at this time, the ASRock Fatal1ty Z370 Gaming-ITX/ac.

 

[jazztronaut]

Intel released Z370 and the corresponding Coffee Lake CPUs in October and it is natural that the motherboard vendors phased out Z270 production in favour of Z370.

As to the Thunderbolt motherboards, they had been few and far between starting from the introduction of Thunderbolt. I think the problem is more with Intel, since from what I can learn Intel apparently charged high licensing fees for the necessary hardware required to support Thunderbolt on PC motherboards. This naturally discouraged the motherboard vendors from making more models with Thunderbolt as the cost would rise, maybe significantly. Intel has decided it wants to change that :

https://www.windowscentral.com/intel-drops-thunderbolt-3-royalty

The Z370 requires additional hardware to support Thunderbolt 3 as well :
https://www.anandtech.com/show/1185...-lake-review-8700k-and-8400-initial-numbers/3

Anandtech said :


As far as I know, there is only one Z370 motherboard with integrated Thunderbolt 3 at this time, the ASRock Fatal1ty Z370 Gaming-ITX/ac.

Hey really appreciate the info many thanks! Would it be possible to use a Thunderbolt 3 PCIe card? Would this essentially work with OSX or would I need a TB3 integrated MB??

Im thinking it would be wiser to go with COFFEE Lake anyways, since its an improvement over Kaby Lake.

But I really need the TB3 for my audio device........ Any help or advises or where to look for this info?

Would I successfully install OSX with a Fatal1ty Z370 Gaming-ITX/ac ?!