Motherboard Features
AMD’s multi-monitor advantage comes from the way it separates PCIe and GPU functions to deliver sixteen PCIe 2.0 lanes to graphics cards (up to two) without sacrificing integrated graphics functionality. Its Catalyst driver package controls both onboard and discrete Radeon graphics controllers simultaneously, seamlessly managing multiple desktop configurations. The three boards in today’s roundup have another advantage over those of our recent H55 comparison, in that those products didn’t support DVI dual-link mode for extra-large displays.
| 890GX Motherboard Features | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Row 0 - Cell 0 | Asus M4A89GTD Pro/USB3 | Gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H | MSI 890GXM-G65 |
| PCB Revision | 1.01G | 1.0 | 1.0 |
| Chipset | AMD 890GX/SB850 | AMD 890GX/SB850 | AMD 890GX/SB850 |
| Voltage Regulator | Ten Phases | Five Phases | Five Phases |
| BIOS | 0402 (02/09/2010) | F3 (02/08/2010) | V1.0B18 (02/22/2010) |
| 200.0 MHz BCLK | 200.7 MHz (+0.35%) | 200.0 MHz (+0.0 MHz) | 200.0 MHz (+0.0 MHz) |
| Clock Generator | ICS 9LPRS477CKL | Realtek RTM880N-793 | Realtek RTM880N-793 |
| Sideport DRAM | H5TQ1G63BFR-12C 128MB DDR3-1600 | H5TQ1G63BFR-12C 128MB DDR3-1600 | H5TQ1G63BFR-12C 128MB DDR3-1600 |
| Internal Interfaces | |||
| PCIe x16 | 2 (x16/x0, x8/x8) | 2 (x16/x0, x8/x8) | 2 (x16/x0, x8/x8) |
| PCIe x1/x4 | 1/1 | 3/0 | 1/0 |
| Legacy PCI | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| USB 2.0 | 4 (8-ports) | 4 (8-ports) | 4 (8-ports) |
| IEEE-1394 | 1 | 2 | None |
| Serial Port | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Parallel Port | None | None | 1 |
| Floppy | No | Yes | No |
| Ultra-ATA 133 | 1 (2-drives) | 1 (2-drives) | 1 (2-drives) |
| SATA 3.0 Gb/s | None | None | None |
| SATA 6.0 Gb/s | 6 | 6 | 5 |
| 4-Pin Fan | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| 3-Pin Fan | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| FP-Audio | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| CD-Audio | No | Yes | Yes |
| S/PDIF I/O | Output Only | Both | Output Only |
| Power Button | No | No | No |
| Reset Button | No | No | No |
| CLR_CMOS Button | Jumper Only | Jumper Only | Jumper Only |
| Diagnostics Panel | Pass/Fail LEDs | Pass/Fail LEDs | Pass/Fail LEDs |
| I/O Panel Connectors | |||
| P/S 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| USB 2.0 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| USB 3.0 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| IEEE-1394 | 1 | 1 | None |
| Network | Single | Single | Single |
| eSATA | 1 | None | 1 |
| CLR_CMOS Button | No | No | No |
| Digital Audio Out | Optical | Optical | Optical |
| Digital Audio In | None | None | None |
| Analog Audio | 6 | 6 | 6 |
| Video Outputs | DVI, HDMI, VGA | DVI, HDMI, VGA | DVI, HDMI, VGA |
| DVI Dual Link | Yes | Unverified | Yes |
| Dual Monitor | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Mass Storage Controllers | |||
| Chipset SATA | 6x SATA 6Gb/s | 6x SATA 6Gb/s | 6x SATA 6Gb/s |
| Chipset RAID Modes | 0, 1, 5, 10 | 0, 1, 5, 10 | 0, 1, 5, 10 |
| Add-In SATA | JMB361 PCIe 1x eSATA 3.0 Gb/s | JMB363 PCIe 1x eSATA 3.0 Gb/s | None |
| Add-In Ultra ATA | JMB361 PCIe | JMB363 PCIe | JMB368 PCIe |
| USB 3.0 | NEC D720200F1 | NEC D720200F1 | NEC D720200F1 |
| IEEE-1394 | VT6308P PCI 2x 400 Mb/s | TSB43AB23 PCI 3x 400 Mb/s | None |
| Gigabit Ethernet | |||
| Primary LAN | RTL8111E PCIe | RTL8111D PCIe | RTL8111DL PCIe |
| Secondary LAN | None | None | None |
| Audio | |||
| HD Audio Codec | ALC892 | ALC892 | ALC889 |
| DDL/DTS Connect | Unspecified | Dolby Digital Live | Unspecified |
Unfortunately, while Gigabyte’s dual-link mode appeared to accommodate our lab's 2560x1600 display, loading the driver seemed to break this feature. This is most likely a driver bug, since AMD’s Catalyst 10.3 Preview package is not yet finished.
Another advantage today’s motherboards have over the Intel H55-based competition is the chipset’s additional PCIe 2.0 lanes, one of which supplies each of today’s motherboards with the same USB 3.0 controller at its full 5.0 Gb/s interface bandwidth. Intel’s chipset lanes run at half-speed, so that two lanes and a costly PCIe switch are required to reach the controller’s maximum throughput.
