Workstation motherboards already support huge amounts of RAM. However, additional memory is often useful or even necessary. For such cases, Gigabyte introduced AI Top CXL R5X4 is a specialized expansion card that further increases the memory capacity of TRX50 AI Top and W790 AI Top motherboards.
At first glance, AI Top CXL R5X4 can be confused with a basic gaming video card if you don’t pay attention to the memory slots. This is due to the form factor: the card has dimensions of 12×25.4 cm and is installed in a standard slot PCIe 5.0 x16. The design is based on a 16-layer HDI board and Microchip PM8712 controller. Cooling is provided by the CXL Thermal Armor system — an all-metal thermal design with an additional fan. It removes hot air from the shutter, cooling the adjacent memory slots.
Unlike other CXL solutions, such as Samsung CMM-D modules with a fixed memory capacity, Gigabyte AI Top CXL R5X4 is equipped with four DDR5 slots for RDIMMs. This allows you to choose the amount of RAM and upgrade it later. Each slot supports up to 128 GB, so the total capacity is up to 512 GB.
Gigabyte has not yet specified which memory speeds are supported. For reference, some RDIMM modules have reached DDR5-8800 frequencies. The compatibility list for AI Top CXL R5X4 includes DDR5 kits that support speeds up to DDR5-6800.
Although the card is installed in a PCIe 5.0 x16 slot, it interacts with the system via CXL 2.0/1.1 protocols. Therefore, you need a motherboard with at least an AMD TRX50 or Intel W790 chipset. Gigabyte directly advertises the compatibility of AI Top CXL R5X4 with its TRX50 AI Top and W790 AI Top, although technically it can work on any board that supports PCIe 5.0 and CXL.
A standard 8-pin EXT12V connector is used for power supply. Next to it, Gigabyte has placed a small LED indicator that shows whether the power cable is connected correctly.
Gigabyte has not yet announced either the launch date of AI Top CXL R5X4 (code 12ME-ATCXL54-101AR) or the price of this expansion card.
Source: tomshardware
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