990FX Motherboard Roundup with Thuban and Bulldozer – A Second Wind for ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI and Biostar
by Ian Cutress on April 5, 2012 11:00 AM ESTBiostar TA990FXE In The Box
In The Box
For a cheap board, we would expect a bare box with limited additions, reminiscent of what certain other manufactures may put in there. But I was quite surprised:
IO Shield
Driver CD
User Manual
Six SATA cables (locking)
Two Crossfire bridges
The addition of Crossfire bridges is odd, as typically SLI bridges are given in boards (although the initial BIOSes of this board did not support SLI). Also worthy of note is that the CPU back bracket on the board did not function with AMD all-in-one cooler.
Image courtesy of Newegg
Board Features
Biostar TA990FXE | |
Price | Link to Newegg |
Size | ATX |
CPU Interface | AM3+ |
CPU Support | AMD FX/Phenom II/Athlon II/Sempron |
Chipset | AMD 990FX |
Base Clock Frequency | Auto, 200 MHz to 600 MHz |
Core Voltage | Auto, 0.70 V to 1.55 V, Offset +0.50 V to +1.450 V |
CPU Clock Multiplier | Auto, x8 to x31.5 |
DRAM Voltage | Auto, -0.25 V to +0.49 V |
DRAM Command Rate | Auto, 1T or 2T |
Memory Slots |
Four DDR3 DIMM slots supporting up to 32 GB Up to Dual Channel Support for DDR3, 800-2000 MHz, |
Expansion Slots |
2 x PCIe Gen2 x16 (x16/x16) 1 x PCIe Gen2 x4 2 x PCI |
Onboard SATA/RAID | 5 x SATA 6 Gbps, Support for RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 |
Onboard |
5 x SATA 6 Gbps (SB950) 3 x Fan Headers 1 x Front Panel Header 1 x S/PDIF Output Header 2 x USB 2.0 Headers 1 x USB 3.0 Headers 1 x IEEE1394 Header 1 x Serial Port Header 1 x CIR Header |
Onboard LAN | Atheros AR8151 |
Onboard Audio | Realtek ALC892 |
Power Connectors |
1 x 24-pin ATX connector 1 x 8-pin 12V connector 1 x 4-pin Molex connector |
Fan Headers |
1 x CPU Fan Header 2 x SYS Fan Headers |
IO Panel |
2 x Keyboard/Mouse PS2 Port 1 x Optical SPDIF Output 1 x Coaxial SPDIF Output 1 x Gigabit Ethernet 2 x USB 3.0 4 x USB 2.0 1 x eSATA 3 Gbps Port 1 x IEEE1394 Port Audio Outputs |
BIOS Version | 29/02/2012 |
Warranty Period | 3 Years from Manufacture date |
As I mentioned in the TA990FXE overview, there are a few oddities. The placement of the PCIe slots is questionable as it doesn't allow a gap between multi-GPU systems, and the inclusion of the Atheros network controller rather than a Realtek (for the combo discount) is odd. The lack of fan headers is a concern.
Software
As we have never covered Biostar software before, it was worth my time to dig deep into what makes Biostar tick in this regard. The myriad of software comes down a few key utilities - eHotLine, BIOS Update, TOverclocker and G.P.U.
eHotLine: This software seems to be part of Biostar's bug reporting. Have an issue with your board, and this software pulls almost all the necessary info for you to send to them to help diagnose it.
BIOS Update: Does exactly what it says on the tin - even better if you are connected to the internet, as then it will search for the latest BIOS it can find from the Biostar servers, then download it and install.
TOverclocker: The main hub of software action takes place in TOverclocker. On loading, it will apply any overclock previously set (even if it crashes your system), but offers information on the CPU, Motherboard and memory. The OC Tweaker allows the user to change the base frequency and select the overclocking mode - the voltage options did not work on the Bulldozer processor. H/W Monitor shows the voltages and temperatures, and even offers a CPU fan calibration tool.
G.P.U: The confusing part of the software is this - the Green Power Utility. Why it was called GPU I have no idea, but this software takes a while to load and attempts to adapt the system to use less voltage.
57 Comments
View All Comments
mmstick - Thursday, April 5, 2012 - link
The primary problem with AMD FX is that in order to use the full power of the FPU the program needs to be compiled with FMA4 support, else it is only using half of the FPUs, thus making it a quad core. Secondly, many Windows-based programs are compiled with the Intel C+ compiler, so although the FX may support AVX and many other instructions, the compiled program sees it as a non-Intel CPU so it disables those instruction sets, allowing Intel CPUs to be optimized, and AMD CPUs to remain deoptimized. This is what happens when you are up against someone with the most market share, whom has the ability to dictate what instruction sets they want programmers to use. As well, when people say they are going to buy Intel CPUs instead because they claim AMD didn't make a good processor, why do you think they can't be on top of performance? Without R&D budget there isn't much that can be done, and when you face someone who practically owns a monopoly, that makes it even moreso harder to compete.Omoronovo - Thursday, April 5, 2012 - link
The IC++ compiler has not done that since 2010 when they were forced to settle their antitrust dispute with AMD.DigitalFreak - Thursday, April 5, 2012 - link
" This is what happens when you are up against someone with the most market share, whom has the ability to dictate what instruction sets they want programmers to use. As well, when people say they are going to buy Intel CPUs instead because they claim AMD didn't make a good processor, why do you think they can't be on top of performance? Without R&D budget there isn't much that can be done, and when you face someone who practically owns a monopoly, that makes it even moreso harder to compete."Waaaaah. It's always someone else's fault.
anubis44 - Friday, November 9, 2012 - link
"Waaaaah. It's always someone else's fault."Well, sometimes it really IS someone else's fault. If the mafia had it in for you, and cut your brake cables and burnt your house down when you weren't looking, you'd say it's 'someone else's fault' too. Intel's blackmail and threats to suppliers who used AMD processors kinda screwed AMD over just a tad.
That said, I think now that Jim Keller is back at AMD and head of AMD's CPU division, it won't be too long before AMD is seriously back in the game.
Monkeysweat - Thursday, April 5, 2012 - link
I saw them on some of the benchmarks, why didn't you post them along side the AMD benchies for gaming?If we are looking at a roundup of the best of what AMD and it's partners have to offer, I'd like to see what the competing team brings to the table,, just leave em stock and even let the AMD ones get overclocked.
I wouldn't even worry about cherry picking the Intel combos,, just something random.
Beenthere - Thursday, April 5, 2012 - link
AMD has not abandoned the highend CPU market. Their focus may be broadening but that does not mean they will discontinue discrete highend desktop CPUs for at least several years. Eventually everyone except a small group will use APUs as they will deliver the best performance/value proposition. Only extremists will bother with a discrete CPU/GPU with higher power consumption, increased heat and little practical benefit for mainstream users.Articuno - Thursday, April 5, 2012 - link
It's a pretty nice chipset and the lower tier boards are quite cost-effective. Just wish Bulldozer was competitive with Intel, let alone their last gen chips.Mathieu Bourgie - Thursday, April 5, 2012 - link
Thank you for this article Ian.Are there any chance that we'll see a review of the newer FX-6200 CPU or at least have data for it in the CPU bench? Considering that it's 500MHz faster than the model that it's replacing and no major site (or any that I can see) did a review of it, it'd be interesting to see how it performs.
I'm curious to see if it's a valid alternative, in any way, for $170, vs the Intel Core i5-2300 ($180).
I don't expect any miracle for gaming performance, but for workstation workloads (Photoshop, video editing and the like), who knows?
Thanks,
Mathieu
cosminmcm - Thursday, April 5, 2012 - link
There is a review at pcper, a good one. The processor is pretty weak, nothing exciting there. Thuban walks all over it.Mathieu Bourgie - Friday, April 6, 2012 - link
Thanks, I didn't see that.Quite disappointing indeed.
Here's about that Piledriver or Trinity are more competitive.