Buy the Asrock 870 EXTREME3 About Motherboard
$114.24
AMD’s 890FX Chipset
The Phenom II X6 will work in all existing Socket-AM2+ and AM3 motherboards that can 1) support the 125W TDP of the processors, and 2) have BIOS support (apparently over 160 boards at launch). Despite this impressive showing of backwards compatibility, we also get a new chipset today for those of you looking to build a new system instead of upgrade.
The 890FX is a mildly updated version of AMD’s 790FX chipset, mostly adding AMD’s SB850 South Bridge with 6Gbps SATA support. The number of PCIe 2.0 lanes and other major features remains unchanged.
| AMD 890FX | AMD 890GX | AMD 790FX | |
| CPU | AMD Socket-AM3 | AMD Socket-AM3 | AMD Socket-AM3/AM2+ |
| Manufacturing Process | 65nm | 55nm | 65nm |
| PCI Express | 44 PCIe 2.0 lanes | 24 PCIe 2.0 lanes | 44 PCIe 2.0 lanes |
| Graphics | N/A | Radeon HD 4290 (DirectX 10.1) | N/A |
| South Bridge | SB850 | SB850 | SB750 |
| USB | 14 USB 2.0 ports | 14 USB 2.0 ports | 12 USB 2.0 ports |
| SATA | 6 SATA 6Gbps ports | 6 SATA 6Gbps ports | 6 SATA 3Gbps ports |
| IOMMU | 1.2 | N/A | N/A |
| Max TDP | 19.6W | 25W | 19.6W |
You get IOMMU support (an advantage over 790FX) and despite the chipset being built on TSMC's 65nm process, it pulls less power than the 890GX as it lacks any integrated graphics.
The Test
To keep the review length manageable we're presenting a subset of our results here. For all benchmark results and even more comparisons be sure to use our performance comparison tool: Bench.
| Motherboard: | ASUS P7H57DV- EVO (Intel H57) Intel DP55KG (Intel P55) Intel DX58SO (Intel X58) Intel DX48BT2 (Intel X48) Gigabyte GA-MA790FX-UD5P (AMD 790FX) MSI 890FXA-GD70 (AMD 890FX) |
| Chipset Drivers: | Intel 9.1.1.1015 (Intel) AMD Catalyst 8.12 |
| Hard Disk: | Intel X25-M SSD (80GB) |
| Memory: | Corsair DDR3-1333 4 x 1GB (7-7-7-20) Corsair DDR3-1333 2 x 2GB (7-7-7-20) |
| Video Card: | eVGA GeForce GTX 280 (Vista 64) ATI Radeon HD 5870 (Windows 7) |
| Video Drivers: | ATI Catalyst 9.12 (Windows 7) NVIDIA ForceWare 180.43 (Vista64) NVIDIA ForceWare 178.24 (Vista32) |
| Desktop Resolution: | 1920 x 1200 |
| OS: | Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit (for SYSMark) Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit Windows 7 x64 |
168 Comments
RE: Typo found by Anand Lal Shimpi on Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Thank you! Fixed!
RE: RE: Typo found by falc0ne on Thursday, April 29, 2010
:O) lol
RE: Typo found by Rick83 on Tuesday, April 27, 2010
there's also an "i7 670" in one of the charts on the first pages, which should clearly be an i5.
RE: Typo found by msc_chandu on Tuesday, September 07, 2010
nm refers to nano-meter and 65nm is a technology node. So, the processor manufacturing has been rolling down. For example, 250nm to 130nm to 90nm to 65nm to 55nm etc...
It is not a typo and was mentioned correctly. :)
It is not a typo and was mentioned correctly. :)
RE: Typo found by DaCentaur on Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Chandu naanna, if you take a look at the context, i.e. the sentences before and after the "wrong" sentence, you should be able to understand why it should be "W" instead of "nm".
"High end desktop CPUs now spend their days bumping up against 125 - 140W limits. While mainstream CPUs are down at 65W. Mobile CPUs are generally below 35W. These TDP limits become a problem as you scale up clock speed or core count."
Ardhamainada? :D
"High end desktop CPUs now spend their days bumping up against 125 - 140W limits. While mainstream CPUs are down at 65W. Mobile CPUs are generally below 35W. These TDP limits become a problem as you scale up clock speed or core count."
Ardhamainada? :D
Great Article by creathir on Tuesday, April 27, 2010
As usual Anand, the article was great and really helped with figuring out where I am taking my wife's next computer. I was tempted to go AMD this time around for her next PC, but after reading this I believe I will stick with an Intel solution. Thanks man!
- Creathir
- Creathir
RE: Great Article by webmastir on Tuesday, April 27, 2010
yup. agree...very informative article. thanks!
RE: Great Article by pow123 on Wednesday, May 05, 2010
You would have to be insane to pay $1000 for a chip that may be good for gaming. at $199 with slightly lower performance its a no brainer. When I build a system, I don't care if the frame rates etc is 10 to 15% better. Who cares ; the chip is fast and I have not problems playing high end games. I have no special setup and it does everything that my friends I7 can do. Good for me I get more pc for the buck . Go ahead and go broke buying just a motherboard and cpu when I can get a modern motherboard a cpu, 6gigs of ddr3 1600, a 1tb hd and a dvdrw. More for me.
i am with the smart man's choice by abd-jbr on Friday, June 18, 2010
i compared intel and AMD from almost AMD start ( K6 II ) CPU , i believe that AMD did not change their Policy much : they still offer more for less , with one different , in that time the market was also different from today , now a days , you can easly found all the hardware you need and it's compatible and works with AMD ,
it's accurate Say : it's not about absolute Perf , it's about pref at a given price
and in this , i think AMD wins .
it's accurate Say : it's not about absolute Perf , it's about pref at a given price
and in this , i think AMD wins .
Follow AnandTech
Latest from AnandTech
OCZ Releases Low Profile Version of Vertex 3
Lenovo Announces Their 3rd Generation Intel Core Laptop Updates
Sonic 4: Episode II Now Available for Tegra 3
Netgear Announces 2-stream 802.11ac R6200 router and A6200 USB 2.0 adapter
What We've Been Waiting For: Testing OpenCL Accelerated Handbrake with AMD's Trinity
Buffalo Technologies Announces Availability of 802.11ac Router and Media Bridge
NVIDIA Q1 FY2013 Earnings Report: $924M Revenue, $60M Net Income
OCZ Announces 64GB Vertex 4
Supermicro Updates X9 Lineup with GPU-Enabled Solutions
Apple releases iOS 5.1.1 Update - Primarily Bugfixes
Media Center for Windows 8: An Add-on At A Nominal Price
Samsung Galaxy S III Performance Preview: It's Fast
SpaceX Expected to Launch Dragon Capsule to ISS at 3:44am Tuesday Morning
U.S. Government Launches Hybrid Payback Site
Google Gets "Last Chance" to Settle With EU on Antitrust Abuses
Smartphone Giants Apple and Samsung Prepare for Settlement Talks
After a Month Delay U.S. Customs Lets HTC Handsets Trickle Through
5/21/2012 Daily Hardware Reviews
Lenovo's 27" IdeaCentre A720 AIO Launches Today
Five Major Cable Companies Agree to Share Hotspot Access with Customers
Automakers Keep Adding "Distracting" Technology to Vehicles, U.S. Gov Not Happy
Comcast Moves to Increase Data Caps to 300GB on Home Broadband Service
Quick Note: T-Mobile Disses Upcoming AT&T, Verizon Family Data Plans
Motorola Androids Banned in the U.S.; Samsung May be the Last Survivor
Analysts: Nokia Could be Out of Cash in Just a Year
Researchers Develop Bluetooth Fetal Heart Rate Monitoring System
Samsung Researchers Inch Closer to Commercial Graphene Transistors
HP Plans to Cut 25-30k Employees, Force Those Left to be More Efficient
Apple to Power All 3 U.S. Data Centers with Renewable Energy by Feb. 2013
Napping before getting back to writing on this...
@kjeldsendk that's quite possible, this is on IVB/7-series. works quite nicely :)
ahh I love USB 3.0
Manju's answers about HSA: RT @anandtech: Answered by the Experts: Heterogeneous and GPU Compute with AMD's Manju Hegde http://t.co/hIoqMGku
RT @anandtech: GTC 2012 Part 1: NVIDIA Announces GK104 Based Tesla K10, GK110 Based Tesla K20 http://t.co/sHcNlz83
@foresmac it's tough to say for sure, technically it should be possible
ohoh! want 802.11ac RT @anandtech: Netgear Announces 2-stream 802.11ac R6200 router and A6200 USB 2.0 adapter http://t.co/zkgak879
RT @anandtech: What We've Been Waiting For: Testing OpenCL Accelerated Handbrake with AMD's Trinity http://t.co/g51qmJzh
@codedivine @ryanshrout it's 1/16 the single precision rate
RT @anandtech: The AMD Trinity Review (A10-4600M): A New Hope http://t.co/XYOeX9U4
Copyright © 1997-2012 AnandTech, Inc. All rights reserved. Terms, Conditions and Privacy Information.
Click Here for Advertising Information
"While mainstream CPUs are down at 65nm". I think you meant 65w.