Gigabyte has announced that its Z390 and C246 series motherboards now support 32GB of unbuffered DDR4 memory modules and 128GB (4×32GB) of memory configurations in four DIMM slots.
Gigabyte Z390 and C246 motherboards already support up to 128GB of RAM (4×32GB)
This support is made possible by new BIOS updates that can be applied to any motherboard that has a supported chipset. This includes the recently released Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Pro.
So far, Gigabyte is the only manufacturer to announce that this support also extends to C246 motherboards, although the company plans to extend this support to other Intel 300 series chipsets in the future, a promise that other manufacturers have not yet fulfilled.
Previously, 32GB DDR4 memory modules were designed exclusively for registered memory workstations/server motherboards, but this support is now also possible on traditional platforms, which is good news for consumers who need obscene amounts of memory.
At this point it is not known when we will start to see new 32GB DDR4 modules on the shelves, although we expect high-capacity DDR4 memory modules to come onto the market in the coming months. Samsung already produces 32GB of unbuffered DDR4 memory modules, which should benefit us as applications and games begin to put memory requirements well beyond 8 or 16GB of RAM, which could be a problem on motherboards that cannot be upgraded.