Final Thoughts

Ultra Durable 3 technology has been a while coming; GIGABYTE has used Ultra Durable 2 for over four years now and it's about time to see some improvements. Since power saving has already come under the DES heading, GIGABYTE couldn't really use this as UD3s only advantage. Thankfully they have added in a new design rule, that being the new 2oz copper layers through the PCB and from our initial results, it seems to be helping.

The first UD3 board we have tested to date really gave us hope that UD3 will improve, not only overclocking, but also by helping to reduce power consumption within a PC. After all, if you can lower the temps by reducing power and keeping the components cooler without using extra fans, you are already helping towards a more efficient system. The EP45-UD3P managed to impress us with its performance, overclocking and features; a three win combo here.