Gigabyte cancels P67 program – moves 100% to Z68

Kitguru isn't the most trustworthy website, I guess, but this time they might be onto something. I heard this rumour before and it makes perfect sense to discontinue the P67/H67 chipset for Z68 since Z68=P67+H67. The only thing I'm worried about, however, is that maybe the BIOS support for the P67 boards might hurt from this.

Having shown off a very early board at the start of March 2011, at CeBIT in Hannover – it was known that Gigabyte was far down the line with its research into the new technology. The huge upheaval caused by the total recall of initial Sandy Bridge products seems to have helped the mainboard maker make a decision about its future direction.

Straight to Z68, do not pass go and do not order any more of those P67 chip things.

Full details are still not available and if you read the early spec list for Z68, you would be forgiven for thinking that it’s nearly identical to the P67.

Well, for one, it will see Asus get a nice little kick. The Gigabyte P67 boards that are already in the channel – are the last that were ever made. No new stocks of P67 have been ordered by Gigabyte and none are in production. So companies wishing to order P67 in any kind of bulk, may well switch to Asus or MSI or Asrock or someone else.

On the other hand, you enthusiasts are a fickle bunch who get drawn to the new/shiny stuff nice and early – so maybe Gigabyte is doing the right thing by pushing all of its enthusiast class mainboard products to a new chipset ahead of the competition.