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Elitegroup A790GXM-A (AMD 790GX)Author:Date: 23/11/2008 AMD 790GX ChipsetA while after release of the highly successful chipset 780G, AMD is releasing the more advanced 790GX. From a certain viewpoint, 790GX can be seen as the "improved" 780G. The "improvement" was performed in two ways. First, the rather fast integrated graphic core (based on RV610) is now even faster: the core speed has been increased from 500 MHz to 700 MHz. The remaining parameters left intact: 40 streaming processors, 16-bit graphic memory controller, support for the DirectX/OpenGL (10.1/2.1), DisplayPort, HDMI, DVI, VGA, as well as the integrated UVD core for hardware acceleration of playing the HD content. However, the rise of frequency allowed the marketing people at AMD to call the video core - Radeon HD3300 (Radeon HD3200 - on 780G). Extra performance gain was achieved through installation of video memory onboard following the SidePort technology. A similar technology is supported by 780G (Display Cache), but products on this chipset are positioned as cheaper, and normally have no integrated memory.
Integrated graphic memory on Elitegroup A790GXM-A
Like 780G, the new chipset supports the Hybrid CrossFireX (a joint operation of external video cards and the integrated video core), Hybrid Power (power-saving through disabling external video cards), as well as the SurroundView (plugging in up to six monitors). Secondly, the new north bridge supports 26 PCI Express v2.0 bus lanes and allows arranging two PEG slots with 8 bus lanes on each. Therefore, products built on the 790GX offer support for the CrossFire and allow installing two video cards. It should be noted that the same number of PCI-E lanes was supported by 780G as well, but in that case the engineers has to solve technical problems in arranging two slots with symmetrical distribution of the bus lanes. Since the end-user motherboards were positioned as entry, no one was involved in that. As regards the south bridges, the north bridge of 790GX is compatible to both SB700 and the most recent SB750 (which we talked of repeatedly). Elitegroup A790GXM-A Specifications
Elitegroup A790GXM-A: Layout and FeaturesThere is nothing to complain about the PCB design, since the first PCI-Express video card does not block the DIMM latches. Besides, we note that the main 24-pin power connector is installed on the board's bottom edge, with the additional 8-pin connector (the backward compatibility to the PSU with a 4-pin cable has been preserved) - near the power converter. There is also an additional 4-pin Molex power connector. Near the CPU socket, there is a 4-pin CPU_FAN1 connector to plug in a CPU cooler. Besides it, there are two more 3-pin connectors: SYS_FAN1 - near the power converter, and PWR_FAN1 - near DIMM slots. On the north bridge, there is quite a large radiator with a logo of the Black series. Then, there are four DIMM slots, and the maximum memory capacity makes 16 GB. We also note that DDR2-1066 is supported by AM2+ CPU only. As regards the expansion options, the board uses two PCI Express x16 slots as well as two PCI Express x1 and two PCI slots. Expansion optionsElitegroup A790GXM-A supports 6 SerialATA-II links due to the south bridge SB750. The respective connectors are installed near the "south bridge". The board uses a couple of RTL 8111ะก Gigabit LAN controllers. The board offers support twelve USB 2.0 ports, six of which are mounted on the rear panel, with 6 more ports connected with brackets. The last thing to dwell on is the integrated High Definition Audio. The ALC888S chip is used as the codec, which supports output to 8 channels. The board's rear panel looks like this: Note that ECS has left PS/2 ports for a mouse and keyboard, as well as one COM port. Instead of the LPT and the second COM port, the engineers have installed a VGA connector and a block for a couple of USB 2.0 ports and one HDMI. Note that there are buttons to power-on and reboot the system onboard: Now on to the BIOS settings. BIOSThe BIOS of Elitegroup A790GXM-A is built on the AMI BIOS version. The extended pack of memory settings is in the "M.I.B" section: The parameter in charge of selecting the memory operating frequency is also over there: Now move on to the section to do with the system monitoring. The board keeps track of the CPU's and system's current temperatures and rotational speeds of the three fans. Besides, the user can control the rotational speed of the CPU cooler with the Smart Fan feature. There are few parameters for tuning the integrated video core. One of them allows allocating memory capacity for the needs of integrated graphics: There is one more parameter that determines the speed of the integrated video memory: Overclocking and stabilityNow let's look at the power converter. It uses an 5-phase power scheme in which there are five 270 mkF and ten 820 mkF capacitors. There is a small radiator on the power components: Now on to the overclocking features: First off, Elitegroup A790GXM-A allows adjusting the HTT speed within 200 to 355 MHz in 5 MHz increments. Secondly, the user can adjust the HyperTransport bus multiplier between the NB and CPU: Here are the remaining overclocking tools:
We attained the maximum stable HTT frequency which amounted to 250 MHz: And this result is the same both when using the integrated video core and using an external video card. As regards the integrated graphic core, it retained its functionality to frequencies up to 930 MHz: Performance testsElitegroup A790GXM-A is very precise at setting the nominal HTT speed: In our performance tests, we benchmarked Elitegroup A790GXM-A versus Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H (AMD 780G) and ASUS M3N-HT Deluxe (nForce 780a SLI). In our test setup, we used the following hardware:
Let's first take a look at the results of synthetic benchmarks. Now on to the gaming benchmarks. Tests of application software. Video encoding (DivX, Xvid) was measured in seconds, i.e. the less the better. Data compression (WinRAR) was measured in Kb/sec, i.e. the more, the better. Final WordsWe start with conclusions regarding the chipset AMD 790GX. Engineers at AMD have slightly improved the 780G chipset and produced a superb product of higher class at minimum cost. It's just this chipset that the motherboard manufacturers started release of mid-end and higher-end products. Therefore, their price will be much higher than that for motherboards based on the 780G. In particular, in the Moscow retail chain the few motherboard offerings built on the 790GX are available at prices within 3000 to 4500 rubles ($120-$180), which in our view is pretty too much. As regards Elitegroup A790GXM-A, its price is still unknown. It is even hard to imagine what it will be like. The thing is, ECS is specializing at entry produce, so we can expect that A790GXM-A will also be cheap enough. On the other hand, this motherboard is definitely higher than the mid-end: apart from two PCI Express x16 slots, it offers two Gigabit LAN controllers. We should also note the great number of features for overclocking both the CPU and the integrated video core. While the overclocking results for Phenom did not impress us, we were able to overclock the Radeon HD3300 core to 930 MHz! ConclusionPros:
Cons:
The board's specific features:
- Discuss the material in the conference
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