Search enhanced by
Home News First Looks Reviews Price Lists Membership

ADVERTISEMENT

MAINBOARD GRAPHICS NOTEBOOK MOBILE CASINGS TECH GUIDES
Home > Reviews > Mainboard
Reviews
Select Category:

Mainstream AM3 - AMD 790GX Motherboard Showdown
By : Vincent Chang [Email Us]
Category : Mainboard
Published By : Vijay Anand, 18th May 2009

Bookmark and Share

Quick Jump:


The Mainstream AM3 Shootout

With the recent launch of the Phenom II X4 955, AMD has arguably its strongest processor lineup in years. Able to stand toe to toe with Intel's Core 2 Quads and even dent some of the slower Core i7s, this processor is the latest Socket AM3 Phenom II CPU. To complement these new processors that work with either DDR3 or DDR2 memory, motherboard vendors have been rushing out the AM3 versions of the performance mainstream AMD chipset, the 790GX.

When the AMD 790GX was first introduced, the media's attention (including ours), focused on the Advanced Clock Calibration (ACC) feature on its new Southbridge - SB750, which allows for a better chance of attaining higher overclocks over the rather limited Phenom processors. The integrated graphics on the 790GX made it suitable for the mainstream while the option of having dual CrossFireX graphics cards in addition to the overclocking potential managed to snag the interest of enthusiasts too.

The AMD 790GX is a chipset with broad appeal that has lived up to its mainstream billing. But some things have changed slightly since, with AMD's enthusiast oriented 790FX recently getting a makeover of its own and gaining ACC too. Hence, it was about time that motherboard vendors started issuing AM3 updates of the 790GX. The easy part for them is that nothing has changed with the chipset except for the socket switch. It's essentially the same chipset with the integrated Radeon HD 3300 graphics engine and dedicated SidePort memory that we have all seen before.

Just like our previous shootout where we compared some of the latest AMD 790FX motherboards, we'll be going through some of the best 790GX models that you can find on the market now with boards from ASUS, BIOSTAR and MSIthat managed to survive our stringent testing. Here's how they stack up against each other in features:-

AMD AM3 790GX Motherboards Compared
ASUS M4A78T-E BIOSTAR TA790GX A3+ MSI 790GX-G65
CPU Support AMD Socket AM3 Processors
Chipset AMD 790GX + SB750
System Bus HyperTransport 3.0, up to 5200MT/s
Graphics
  • Integrated ATI Radeon HD 3300 GPU
  • SidePort Memory (128MB DDR2/DDR3)
  • Maximum shared memory - 512MB
Memory
  • Up to 4 x DDR3-1600 (O.C)
  • 16GB Maximum
  • Up to 4 x DDR3-1333
  • 16GB Maximum
  • Up to 4 x DDR3-1666(O.C)
  • 8GB Maximum
Storage
  • 5 x SATA 3.0Gbps
  • 1 x eSATA 3.0Gbps port
  • Support AHCI controller with SATA RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 10 and JBOD configurations
  • 1 x UltraDMA 133/100/66/33 for up to 2 PATA devices
  • 6 x SATA 3.0Gbps
  • Support AHCI controller with SATA RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 10 and JBOD configurations
  • 1 x UltraDMA 133/100/66/33 for up to 2 PATA devices
  • 5 x SATA 3.0Gbps
  • 1 x eSATA 3.0Gbps port
  • Support AHCI controller with SATA RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 10 and JBOD configurations
  • 1 x UltraDMA 133/100/66/33 for up to 2 PATA devices
Audio
  • VIA VT1708S HD Audio CODEC
  • Optical S/PDIF output at rear
  • Realtek ALC888 HD Audio CODEC
  • Realtek ALC889 HD Audio CODEC
  • Optical S/PDIF output at rear
Networking Atheros L1E Gigabit LAN Realtek 8111DL Gigabit LAN Realtek 8111DL Gigabit LAN
IEEE 1394
  • VIA VT6315N
  • 2 x 1394a ports (1 header, 1 rear)
  • LSI FW322
  • 2 x 1394a ports (1 header, 1 rear)
  • VIA VT6315N
  • 2 x 1394a ports (1 header, 1 rear)
Rear I/O
  • 1 x PS/2 keyboard port
  • 1 x HDMI port
  • 1 x DVI port
  • 1 x VGA port
  • 1 x eSATA port
  • 6 x USB 2.0 ports
  • 1 x RJ45 (LAN) port
  • 1 x FireWire port
  • Optical S/PDIF
  • 6 x audio jacks
  • 1 x PS/2 mouse port
  • 1 x PS/2 keyboard port
  • 1 x HDMI port
  • 1 x DVI port
  • 1 x VGA port
  • 4 x USB 2.0 ports
  • 1 x RJ45 (LAN) port
  • 1 x FireWire port
  • 6 x audio jacks
  • 1 x PS/2 port
  • 1 x HDMI port
  • 1 x DVI port
  • 1 x VGA port
  • 1 x eSATA port
  • 6 x USB 2.0 ports
  • 1 x RJ45 (LAN) port
  • Optical S/PDIF
  • 6 x audio jacks
Internal Connectors
  • 3 x USB headers (6 ports)
  • 1 x floppy disk drive connector
  • 1 x COM connector
  • 1 x IDE connector
  • 5 x SATA connectors
  • 1 x 1394a connector
  • 1 x S/PDIF out connector
  • 3 x fan connectors
  • 3 x USB headers (6 ports)
  • 1 x floppy disk drive connector
  • 1 x IDE connector
  • 6 x SATA connectors
  • 1 x 1394a connector
  • 1 x S/PDIF out connector
  • 2 x fan connectors
  • 3 x USB headers (6 ports)
  • 1 x floppy disk drive connector
  • 1 x serial port connector
  • 1 x IDE connector
  • 5 x SATA connectors
  • 1 x 1394a
  • 1 x S/PDIF out connector
  • 3 x fan connectors
Expansion Slots
  • 2 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (full x16 or dual x8 modes - CrossFireX)
  • 2 x PCIe x1
  • 2 x PCI 2.2
  • 2 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (full x16 or dual x8 modes - CrossFireX)
  • 2 x PCIe x1
  • 2 x PCI 2.2
  • 2 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (full x16 or dual x8 modes - CrossFireX)
  • 2 x PCIe x1
  • 2 x PCI 2.2
Special Features
  • Express Gate
  • ASUS Green Design
  • ASUS Power Solution
  • ASUS EZ DIY
  • ASUS Quiet Thermal Solution
  • ASUS O.C features
  • Overclocking Navigator Engine (O.N.E)
  • Memory Integration Test (M.I.T)
  • BIO-Flasher
  • Self Recovery System (S.R.S)
  • Active Phase Switching
  • EZ OC Switch
  • M-Flash
  • Auto Overclocking
  • Winki
Form Factor ATX (30.5 x 24.4cm)


Other motherboard vendors didn't have an appropriate model to send in for this shootout, such as Gigabyte for example which doesn't have a Socket AM3 based AMD 790GX board. While some others didn't yet have their kinks sorted out such as the promising ECS A790GXM-AD3 which we'll take a look at it separately in the near future.

Page 1 of 10 | Next>>


Related Reviews
AMD 790GX Face-Off: Foxconn vs MSI
AMD Does DDR3 - The AM3 Phenom II
Battling for the AM3 Crown - AMD 790FX Motherboard Shootout
Build Your Own AMD Phenom II Machine - A HardwareZone DIY Special
Gigabyte MA790GP-UD4H (AMD 790GX) - Ultra Durable 3 for DDR2
Native SATA 6Gbit/s Arrives - AMD 890GX Motherboards Examined
The Great DDR3 1600MHz Memory Showdown
The Power of 3 - Investigating the Trinity

Recent Reviews
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 - Mainstream Fermi Done Right
Samsung Galaxy S i9000 - Take Me To Your Leader
HTC Desire - Unleashed Android Power
Preview: NVIDIA's 3D Blu-ray Playback
Lenovo's Idea of Fun
Hands-on with the Nokia C3, C6 and E5

Today's News
NETGEAR Shakes Up Security Market with New ProSecure Appliance
QNAP Business Series Turbo NAS Lineup Gets Fall 2010 Refresh
ZOTAC ID33 and ID34 ZBOX Mini-PCs Get Atom D525 and Blu-ray Drive
Olympus Bags Double EISA Awards for μ TOUGH-8010 and M.ZUIKO Lens
Taiwanese OCer Scores Big in GIGABYTE's H55 Mini-ITX OC Contest
Head Back to School in Style with Transcend Gadgets
 
Recent First Looks
Shinco SLIM-4390 Instant Fix
Motorola Backflip
First Looks: The Sony Ericsson Vivaz
Lenovo ThinkPad SL410
Veho Mimi VSS-002 Wireless USB Speakers
Creative Sound Blaster World Of Warcraft Wireless Headset

www.hardwarezone.com.au
Contests & Winners A complete list of on-going www.hardwarezone.com Contests and Results!
| Contact Us | Content RSS | Terms Of Service |
Best viewed with Internet Explorer 6 or Mozilla Firefox v1 at 1024x768.
Copyright © 2009 SPH Magazines Pte Ltd. All rights reserved.