This topic has come up a couple times recently and will only become a bigger issue as Ivy Bridge nears release. Thank you, MSI. http://www.techpowerup.com/151718/MSI-Calls-Bluff-on-Gigabyte-s-PCIe-Gen-3-Ready-Claim.html

So there's more to it than just the switches... great read Corey, thanks for sharing

While the MSI claim is interesting, one must admit it would be commercially (recalls!) and legally (class-action lawsuit!) extremely foolish for Gigabyte to sell specification mis-compliant hardware. Beware of FUD ! If MSI engineering lags Gigabyte's, FUD is the best short-term strategy to undermine a powerful competitor. Also we can turn the question around: Given that "True PCI 3" requires a few simple and cheap components (resitor, capacitor, v. 3 of a small PCIe switching chip), why on Earth would Gigabyte sell motherboards that don't support their PCIe 3 claim and trade the reputation of their brand for some short-term sales? Hardly. Does Gigabyte not posess the engineering needed to add those components to their MB's? Again, hardly. Time will tell (thank you hardware reviewers!) and in the meantime we can't really be sure who is telling the truth. Cheers, - jahman.

While the MSI claim is interesting, one must admit it would be commercially (recalls!) and legally (class-action lawsuit!) extremely foolish for Gigabyte to sell specification mis-compliant hardware. Beware of FUD ! If MSI engineering lags Gigabyte's, FUD is the best short-term strategy to undermine a powerful competitor. Also we can turn the question around: Given that "True PCI 3" requires a few simple and cheap components (resitor, capacitor, v. 3 of a small PCIe switching chip), why on Earth would Gigabyte sell motherboards that don't support their PCIe 3 claim and trade the reputation of their brand for some short-term sales? Hardly. Does Gigabyte not posess the engineering needed to add those components to their MB's? Again, hardly. Time will tell (thank you hardware reviewers!) and in the meantime we can't really be sure who is telling the truth. Cheers, - jahman.

Because at the time those boards where designed and manufactured, there were no PCIe 3.0 switches available. Probably GB were slow to include them once the technology was available to them (except for one of their boards, all the rest still use PCIe 2.0 switches) while the competition (Asrock and now MSI) launched 3.0 ready boards sooner and advertised them... even though we know it's not going to matter at all for quite some time. Probably that's what GB thought. Why even bother?

Depending on financial settings I will do a mobo upgrade as well when I upgrade the system next year so I can be sure I am ready. Might try a ASUS mobo. Its more fun as well taking everything off, like building it from scratch.