Gigabyte MA790FX-DQ6
Performance
While determining the starting FSB speed, we found that the board sets it without essential overstatement.
In our test setup, we used the following hardware:
| Test setup |
| CPU |
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ (real clock speed 2.2 GHz) |
| Cooler |
Gigabyte 3D Cooler GP Edition
|
| Video Card |
MSI NX7900 GT (GeForce 7900GT; PCI Express x16)
Driver version: 93.71 WHQL |
| Sound card |
- |
| HDD |
Samsung HD160JJ |
| Memory |
2x512 MB Corsair DDR2 TWIN2X1024-8000UL1
|
| Housing |
Inwin506 with PowerMan 300 W PSU |
| OS |
Windows XP SP1 |
As contenders to this board, we used Asus M2N32-SLI Premium and DFI NF590 SLI M2R/G LanParty (nVidia nForce 590 SLI).
Now on to the gaming benchmarks.
Final Words
So, the final conclusions regarding the RD790 chipset have fully coincided with the preliminary: in order to make this chipset successful, the new south bridge SB700 is needed. And in combination with SB600 the chipset RD790 loses to competitors at most parameters. We had nothing to complain about the SB600 chip itself - it runs normally, but its specifications meet those of chipsets for at least the previous generation. Certainly, that builds some difficulties to the developers of motherboards, who have to install additional controllers to make the product competitive. In particular, Gigabyte MA790FX-DQ6 uses 2 additional RAID controllers in order to increase the number of SerialATA II links to the standard 8 (the number is regular for a high-end motherboard).
We note it separately that in the conclusions regarding AMD RD790 we did not take the overclocking results for Gigabyte MA790FX-DQ6 into account. The reason for that is straightforward: the board is of a preliminary design (revision 0.3) and preliminary version of the BIOS. Therefore, it is not quite clear what is to blame for that we were unable to overcome the HTT = 333 MHz - the Gigabyte board or the AMD chipset. For comparison, the results of overclocking for Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe (ATI Xpress 3200) were as follows: maximum HTT = 366 MHz.
As regards the Gigabyte MA790FX-DQ6 itself, it is exceptionally well-implemented for an engineering sample. The performance level is high enough for a test specimen that uses a debug version of the BIOS. That means the final version of the board (the one which will be shipped to the retail) will be better.
Among the board's specific features, we should point to the powerful and well-made power converter and a noiseless system for cooling the major components. The cooling system includes massive radiators on the reverse side the board. Of note also is the configuration of the rear panel which has got rid of the couple of outdated ports (they are supported by the bracket), but on the other hand it contains a great number of USB2.0, SATA, and Firewire ports.
Finally, the most important trait: 4 PCI Express x16 slots, which allows installing 4 video cards on board and plugging in 8 monitors.
In fact, the board has no shortcomings. The only thing we would like to note - the package bundle looks somehow scanty. But the retail price is still unknown, so we can't rate the package bundle.
Conclusion
Pros:
- high stability;
- 10-phase power scheme;
- Four PCI Express v2.0 x16 slots (16+16; 8+8+8+8);
- Support for SerialATA II/RAID ( 8 links; SB600 + 2x Gigabyte SATA2);
- support for one P-ATA link (SB600);
- Integrated 8-channel audio and two LAN (Gigabit Ethernet) controllers;
- support for USB2.0 (10 ports) and IEEE-1394 (Firewire; 2 ports);
- a rich selection of Gigabyte's proprietary technologies (DualBIOS, C.I.A2, EasyTune Center, FaceWizard, @BIOS, etc.);
- passive system for cooling the chipset and the power supply module;
- functional rear panel.
Cons:
The board's specific features:
- CPU overclocking results are above average.
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