discussion GIGABYTE 890GPA-UD3H 890GX AM3 Motherboard Review

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Test Setup and Methodologies

Test Setup and Methodologies

The following hardware configuration was used for all benchmarking:

And the following hardware configuration was used for overclocking and voltage regulation testing:

For all of the benchmarks, appropriate lengths are taken to ensure an equal comparison through methodical setup, installation, and testing. The following outlines our testing methodology:

A) Windows is installed using a full format.

B) Chipset drivers and accessory hardware drivers (audio, network, GPU) are installed followed by a defragment and a reboot.

C) To ensure consistent results, a few tweaks were applied to Windows Vista and the NVIDIA control panel:

• Sidebar – Disabled
• UAC – Disabled
• System Protection/Restore – Disabled
• Problem & Error Reporting – Disabled
• Remote Desktop/Assistance - Disabled
• Windows Security Center Alerts – Disabled
• Windows Defender – Disabled
• Screensaver – Disabled
• Power Plan - High Performance
• V-Sync – Off

D) Programs and games are then installed & updated followed by another defragment.

E) Windows updates are then completed installing all available updates followed by a defragment.

F) Benchmarks are each run three times after a clean reboot for every iteration of the benchmark unless otherwise stated, the results are then averaged. If they were any clearly anomalous results, the 3-loop run was repeated. If they remained, we mentioned it in the individual benchmark write-up.

Here is a full list of the applications that we utilized in our benchmarking suite:

• 3DMark06 Professional v1.2.0
• 3DMark Vantage Professional Edition v1.0.2
• Cinebench R10 64-bit
• Cinebench R11.5 64-bit
• Crysis v1.21
• Far Cry 1.02
• HyperPi 0.99b
• wPRIME 2.03
• Lame Front-End 1.0
• Lavalys Everest Ultimate v5.50.2109 Beta
• Left 4 Dead
• PCMark Vantage Advanced 64-Bit Edition (1.0.1)
• Photoshop CS4 Extended (64-bit)
• ScienceMark 2.0 Build 21MAR05
• Street Fighter 4 Demo
• Valve Particle Simulation Benchmark
• WinRAR 3.8.0
• World in Conflict v1.010
• x264 HD Benchmark v1.0

That is about all you need to know methodology wise, so let's get to the good stuff!

 

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Overclocking and Core Unlocking

Overclocking and Core Unlocking

First and foremost, if you are completely new to Phenom II overclocking we highly recommend that you check out our article on the subject, aptly titled "Hardware Canucks: Benchmarkers Guide to the Phenom II". Although it is limited to the AM2+ versions, the fundamentals remain the same as with the AMD Phenom II AM3 processors.

For our overclocking tests today, we’ll be sticking with our Phenom II X2 550 dual-core processor. Based upon the same silicone as the popular top-end X4 955, this chip has quite a bit of overclocking headroom in it.

Let’s see how it does in the 890GPA-UD3H.


Maximum Core Overclock

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We had no difficulty pushing our Phenom II X2 550 to it’s limits on the 890GPA-UD3H. GIGABYTE’s very capable 4+1 phase power delivery system didn’t flinch during our load testing and helped to maintain a rock-solid vCore. A CPU frequency of 4017MHz is just slightly off from the results we attained with the ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO and a bit better than what we achieved with the MSI 790FX-GD70.


Maximum BUS Clock

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We were able to use the 890GPA-UD3H up to about a 315MHz BUS frequency. Although we did have the board priming beyond the 350MHz mark, we simply couldn’t get the system to act properly and would get strange failures to post as well as blue screens and other oddities. None the less, a 315MHz BUS clock is plenty for even the most extreme overclocks on “non-Black Edition” processors.


AMD Deneb Core Unlocking

AMD didn’t just stop at making unlocked multipliers available to enthusiasts in their “Black Edition” processors, but also “accidentally” – please note the quotations there – allowed the disabled cores of the X3 and X2 Phenom II processors as well as some Athlon II processors to be enabled using a special combination of BIOS settings. Having the ability to unlock the disabled cores can drastically increase the CPU power on-tap; potentially much more so than overclocking alone.

Unlocking a Phenom II X2 or X3 processor requires three things: An unlockable CPU, disabled cores that can operate with stability and last but not least, a motherboard and BIOS that supports it. We should definitely note up front that core unlocking is luck-of-the-draw. Not all Phenom II X2 and X3 CPUs can be unlocked as various steppings produced at varying times will have varying results. Just like getting a CPU that overclocks well, finding an unlockable one is luck of the draw. One thing that is very controllable however is selecting a motherboard that allows core unlocking.

Unfortunately, the GIGABYTE 890GPA-UD3H did not support core unlocking upon release. None of the official BIOS releases allows for this feature at this time, but there is a beta release that was just released April 20th, 2010 that enabled this functionality. After doing some searching across the interweb, we can confirm that it does indeed unlock Deneb processors. We didn’t get a chance to test this new release for unlocking ourselves, but we’ll be giving it a shot and will report back.

Better late than never!

 

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Synthetic Benchmarks

Synthetic Benchmarks


Lavalys Everest Ultimate v5.02

Everest Ultimate is the most useful tool for any and all benchmarkers or overclockers. With the ability to pick up most voltage, temperature, and fan sensors on almost every motherboard available, Everest provides the ability to customize the outputs in a number of forms on your desktop. We selected two of Everest's seven CPU benchmarks: CPU Queen and FPU Mandel. According to Lavalys, CPU Queen simple integer benchmark focuses on the branch prediction capabilities and the misprediction penalties of the CPU. It finds the solutions for the classic "Queens problem" on a 10 by 10 sized chessboard. At the same clock speed theoretically the processor with the shorter pipeline and smaller misprediction penalties will attain higher benchmark scores. The FPU Mandel benchmark measures the double precision (also known as 64-bit) floating-point performance through the computation of several frames of the popular "Mandelbrot" fractal. Both tests consume less than 1 MB system memory, and are Hyper-Threading, multi-processor (SMP) and multi-core (CMP) aware.

Lavalys Everest Ultimate v5.02

Everest Ultimate is the most useful tool for any and all benchmarkers or overclockers. With the ability to pick up most voltage, temperature, and fan sensors on almost every motherboard available, Everest provides the ability to customize the outputs in a number of forms on your desktop. In addition to this, the memory benchmarking utility provides a useful tool of measuring the changes to your memory sub-system.

ScienceMark v2.0

Although last updated almost 3 years ago, and despite its rudimentary interface, ScienceMark v2.0 remains a favorite for accurately calculating bandwidth on even the newest chipsets.

While interesting, these are all the synthetic benchmarks, so will the results be any different in real-life applications? Let's find out.

 

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System Benchmarks

System Benchmarks


SuperPi Mod v1.5

When running the SuperPI 32MB benchmark, we are calculating Pi to 32 million digits and timing the process. Obviously more CPU power helps in this intense calculation, but the memory sub-system also plays an important role, as does the operating system. We are running one instance of SuperPi via the HyperPi 0.99b interface. This is therefore a single-thread workload.

Cinebench R10

Cinebench R10 64-bit
Test1: Single CPU Image Render
Test2: Multi CPU Image Render
Comparison: Generated Score

Developed by MAXON, creators of Cinema 4D, Cinebench 10 is designed using the popular Cinema software and created to compare system performance in 3D Animation and Photo applications. There are two parts to the test; the first stresses only the primary CPU or Core, the second, makes use of up to 16 CPUs/Cores. Both are done rendering a realistic photo while utilizing various CPU-intensive features such as reflection, ambient occlusion, area lights and procedural shaders.

PCMark Vantage x64

PCMark Vantage Advanced 64-bit Edition (1.0.0.0)
PCMark Suite / Default Settings
Comparison: Generated Score

The main focus of our General Tasks category lies with the most recent installment of the PCMark series, Vantage. While still classified under the description of a Synthetic benchmark, PCMark Vantage uses many of Vista's (Note - Vantage is Vista-only) built-in programs and features along with its own tests, so it is "real-world" applicable in regards to CPU performance. The following is a general list of the tests in the PCMark suite, very much in line with tasks of an average user: Data encryption, Data compression, CPU image manipulation (compression/decompression/resize), Audio transcoding,Video transcoding,Text editing,Web page rendering, Windows Mail, Windows Contacts, and CPU game test.

Photoshop CS4

For the image editing portion of this review, we will use Photoshop CS4 in coordination with Driver Heaven’s Photoshop Benchmark V3, which is an excellent test of CPU power and memory bandwidth. This is a scripted benchmark that individually applies 15 different filters to a 109MB JPEG, and uses Photoshop’s built-in timing feature to provide a result at each test stage. Then it’s simply a matter of adding up the 15 results to reach the final figure.

Lame Front End

Lame Front End v1.0 is a single-threaded application, which means that it only utilizes a single processor core. This will obviously limit performance but it will allow us to see the benefits of Lynnfield aggressive Turbo Boost with single-threaded loads. We will be encoding a WAV rip of Santana’s Supernatural album and converting it to MP3 using the highest fidelity VBR 0 quality preset.

x264 HD Benchmark

x264 HD Benchmark v1.0
Test: MPEG-2 HD 720P Video Clip Conversion to x264
DVD Video Length: 30 Seconds
Comparison: FPS of Second Pass

x264 is quickly becoming the new codec of choice for encoding a growing number of H.264/MPEG-4 AVC videos. Think of it as the new Divx of HD and you can understand why we felt it critical to include. Tech Arp's recent development of the x264 HD Benchmark takes a 30 second HD video clip and encodes it into the x264 codec with the intention of little to no quality loss. The test is measured using the average frames per second achieved during encoding, which scales with processor speed and efficiency. The benchmark also allows the use of multi-core processors so it gives a very accurate depiction of what to expect when using encoding application on a typical full length video.

WinRAR

WinRAR 3.8.0
Test: Compression of 1GB of Assorted Files
Comparison: Time to Finish

One of the most popular file compression/decompresion tools, we use WinRAR to compress a 1GB batch of files and archive them, timing the task until completion.

 

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I/O Benchmarks

I/O Benchmarks

A first here at Hardware Canucks, we have finally included some basic I/O benchmarks. We love to hear your thoughts and ideas about what to implement and whether we should expand to include LAN and audio tests, so let us know on the forums.


HD Tach 3.0.4 - SATA

For this benchmark, HDTach was used. It shows the potential read speed which you are likely to experience with an Intel X-25M 80GB G1 solid state drive (SSD) on this motherboard. The long test was run to give a slightly more accurate picture. The test was run three times with the results averaged out.

We don’t put much stock in Burst speed readings and this goes double for SSDs; the more important number is the Average Speed number. This number will tell you what to expect from a given drive in normal, day to day operations. The higher the average the faster your entire system will seem.

We also test CPU utilization in order to make sure that there isn't a problem needlessly wasting CPU cycles. Lastly, we have also included the random access time, just as another barometer of overall storage sub-system performance. In both cases, the lower the better.

The 890GPA-UD3H doesn't feature an eSATA port, thus no results.


HD Tach 3.0.4 - USB

For this benchmark, HDTach was used. It shows the potential read speed which you are likely to experience from this motherboard's USB 2.0 ports. In this test, we connected an external 2.5" 5400RPM hard drive to a USB port, ran the test three times and averaged the results. The long test was run to give a slightly more accurate picture.

We don’t put much stock in Burst speed readings; the more important number is the Average Speed number. This number will tell you what to expect from a given drive in normal, day to day operations. The higher the average the faster your entire system will seem.

We also test CPU utilization in order to make sure that there isn't a problem needlessly wasting CPU cycles. Lastly, we have also included the random access time, just as another barometer of overall storage sub-system performance. In both cases, the lower the better.

 

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Gaming Benchmarks

Gaming Benchmarks


Futuremark 3DMark06

3DMark06 v1.1.0
Graphic Settings: Default
Resolution: 1280X1024

Test: Specific CPU Score and Full Run 3Dmarks
Comparison: Generated Score

The Futuremark 3DMark series has been a part of the backbone in computer and hardware reviews since its conception. The trend continues today as 3DMark06 provides consumers with a solid synthetic benchmark geared for performance and comparison in the 3D gaming realm. This remains one of the most sought after statistics, as well as an excellent tool for accurate CPU comparison, and it will undoubtedly be used for years to come.

Futuremark 3DMark Vantage

3DMark Vantage v1.0.1
Graphic Settings: Performance Preset
Resolution: 1280X1024

Test: Specific CPU Score and Full Run 3Dmarks
Comparison: Generated Score

3DMark Vantage is the follow-up to the highly successful 3DMark06. It uses DirectX 10 exclusively so if you are running Windows XP, you can forget about this benchmark. Along with being a very capable graphics card testing application, it also has very heavily multi-threaded CPU tests, such Physics Simulation and Artificial Intelligence (AI), which makes it a good all-around gaming benchmark.

Crysis

Crysis v1.21
Resolution: 1680x1050
Anti Aliasing: 0
Quality Settings: High
Global Settings: DX10 / 64-Bit

Test 1: Ice benchmark_CPU2 demo
Comparison: FPS (Frames per Second)

Still one of the most hardware intensive game on the market today, Crysis has been chosen for its obvious ability to be able to showcase the differences between platforms and to showcase just how far one will need to go in the quest for maximum performance. The game also features the renowned CryEngine, the power behind the incredible graphics, which is expected to be foundation of future titles.

Far Cry 2

Far Cry 2 1.02
Resolution: 1680x1050
Anti Aliasing: 0
Quality Settings: Very High
Global Settings: DX10 Enabled

Test 1: Ranch Long Demo
Comparison: FPS (Frames per Second)

Far Cry 2 is the hot new new first-person shooter from Ubisoft's Montreal studio, and the first game to utilize the new visually stunning Dunia Engine, which will undoubtedly be used by numerous future games. Using the included Benchmarking Tool, we ran the Long Ranch demo in DX10 mode at 1680x1050 with all settings set to very high.

Left 4 Dead

Left 4 Dead (Latest Update)
Resolution: 1680x1050
Filtering: 4X MSAA / Anisotropic 8X
Graphic Settings: High
Shader Detail: Very High
Test 1: HWC Custom Timedemo
Comparison: FPS (Frames per Second)

Left 4 Dead is the latest disorienting, fast-paced zombie apocalypse mega-hit from Valve. L4D uses the latest version of the Source engine with enhancements such as multi-core processor support and physics-based animation. We test here at 1680x1050 with in-game details set to their highest levels, with MSAA 4X and AA 8X. For benching, we used a pre-recorded 20 minute timedemo taken on the No Mercy campaign during The Apartments mission.

World in Conflict

World in Conflict v1.010
Resolution: 1680x1050
Anti-Aliasing: 4X
Anisotropic Filtering: 4X
Graphic Settings: Very High
Test 1: Built-in Benchmark
Comparison: FPS (Frames per Second)

One of the most visually stunning real-time strategy games in recent history, World in Conflict can really push systems to the brink, which is what we attempt by running the game in DirectX 10 mode at 1680x1050 with all settings maxed out. For this test we used the in-game benchmarking tool.

 

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IGP Gaming and Decoding Benchmarks

IGP Gaming and Decoding Benchmarks

Up until now we really haven't seen much of a variance between the boards tested. Let's take a look at the differences in the IGP performance.


Futuremark 3DMark06

3DMark06 v1.1.0
Graphic Settings: Default
Resolution: 1280X1024

Test: Specific CPU Score and Full Run 3Dmarks
Comparison: Generated Score

The Futuremark 3DMark series has been a part of the backbone in computer and hardware reviews since its conception. The trend continues today as 3DMark06 provides consumers with a solid synthetic benchmark geared for performance and comparison in the 3D gaming realm. This remains one of the most sought after statistics, as well as an excellent tool for accurate CPU comparison, and it will undoubtedly be used for years to come.

Futuremark 3DMark Vantage

3DMark Vantage v1.0.1
Graphic Settings: Entry Preset
Resolution: 1024X768

Test: Specific CPU Score and Full Run 3Dmarks
Comparison: Generated Score

3DMark Vantage is the follow-up to the highly successful 3DMark06. It uses DirectX 10 exclusively so if you are running Windows XP, you can forget about this benchmark. Along with being a very capable graphics card testing application, it also has very heavily multi-threaded CPU tests, such Physics Simulation and Artificial Intelligence (AI), which makes it a good all-around gaming benchmark.

Crysis

Crysis v1.21
Resolution: 1280x1024
Anti Aliasing: 0
Quality Settings: Low
Global Settings: DX9 / 64-Bit

Test 1: Sphere benchmark - autotest demo
Comparison: FPS (Frames per Second)

Still one of the most hardware intensive game on the market today, Crysis has been chosen for its obvious ability to be able to showcase the differences between platforms and to showcase just how far one will need to go in the quest for maximum performance. The game also features the renowned CryEngine, the power behind the incredible graphics, which is expected to be foundation of future titles.

Far Cry 2

Far Cry 2 1.02
Resolution: 1280x1024
Anti Aliasing: 0
Quality Settings: Low
Global Settings: DX9 Enabled

Test 1: Ranch Long Demo
Comparison: FPS (Frames per Second)

Far Cry 2 is the hot new new first-person shooter from Ubisoft's Montreal studio, and the first game to utilize the new visually stunning Dunia Engine, which will undoubtedly be used by numerous future games. Using the included Benchmarking Tool, we ran the Long Ranch demo in DX9 mode at 1280x1024 with all settings set to low.

World in Conflict

World in Conflict v1.010
Resolution: 1280x1024
Anti-Aliasing: 0X
Anisotropic Filtering: 0X
Graphic Settings: Low
Test 1: Built-in Benchmark
Comparison: FPS (Frames per Second)

One of the detailed and most visually stunning real-time tactical games in recent history, World in Conflict remains a staple in gaming lineup. For this test we used the in-game benchmarking tool.

Street Fighter 4

Street Fighter 4 Demo
Resolution: 1680x1050
Anti-Aliasing: 0X
Graphic Settings: High
Test 1: Built-in Timedemo
Comparison: FPS (Frames per Second)

Street Fighter IV is a 2008 arcade game produced by famous developer Capcom, that has finally been released on the PC platform. This game has not been 'ported' since the Street Fighter IV arcade machines actually have PC internals, with circa 2005 components. As a result, the version of the game released on the PC is considered the definitive version. With fully multi-threaded engine and an astounding hybrid 2D/3D graphics style, this game is sure to please all fans of the Street Fighter series.

IGP HD Video Decoding

In order to test the high definition video decoding capabilities of the 890GX IGP we loaded up CyberLink PowerDVD Ultra 9.0.2320 and played high definition 1080p media with three different types of HD codecs, namely VC-1, H.264/AVC, and WMW HD. Hardware acceleration was enabled in PowerDVD to take advantage of the accelerated decoding capabilities of our IGPs and GPUs.

Chapter 24 of the Batman Begins Blu-ray DVD was our source for VC-1.
Chapter 8 of the Transformers Blu-ray DVD was our source for H.264/AVC.
The entire clip of The Living Sea (IMAX) was our source for WMW HD.

What we are looking for is the lowest possible CPU utilization.

As you can see the 890GX IGP proved supremely capable at handling 1080p HD content. Clearly, the full hardware accelerated decoding of HD formats is working quite well. It appears to be slightly more efficient than it's predecessors as well.

 

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Voltage and Power Consumption Testing

Voltage and Power Consumption Testing

Most people don’t realize that stable system power is the responsibility of more than just the PSU. A motherboard is essentially a complex power supply on its own, converting 12V and other supplied voltages to the required outputs for various system components. We’ll be validating the 890GPA-UD3H’s “dialed in” voltages in the BIOS using a digital multimeter.

For this particular test, we used a Phenom II X4 965 and left our CPU at 3.4GHz and memory at the default 1333MHz frequency so that they could be consistent across all voltages selected. We took measurements of both CPU Vcore and CPU-NB voltage as well as DRAM voltage. For a grounding point, we used the fan header at the bottom-right hand side of the board.

The voltage accuracy of the GIGABYTE 890GPA-UD3H is nothing short of phenomenal. This is one of those rare occasions where we can say with confidence that what you set in the BIOS is what you get in actuality. We were also amazed to see absolutely zero droop at load and no fluctuation. The 890GPA-UD3H has had it’s output very precisely calibrated and we saw no more than 0.001V of variation between idle and load with a power hungry quad in the socket.

Although we were impressed with the LLC options on some of ASUS’s latest AM3 boards, this feature simply isn’t necessary on the 890GPA-UD3H. It’s output perfect and doesn’t need to be tuned.

Now this is the point in the review that we say “See! More isn’t better”. Here we have a simple 4+1 power delivery system that simply blew us away. More phases do not always equate to accurate and stable power delivery as the UD3H so perfectly illustrates. Great work, GIGABYTE!


Power Consumption

Interestingly, the 890GPA-UD3H is a bit more power hungry than the other boards in this comparison. We should note that Gigabyte’s latest beta BIOS indicates a “power consumption improvement” in the release notes. We’re hoping that this may bring it closer in-line with the other boards we tested.

 

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Conclusion

Conclusion

If we had to sum up this review in one sentence, we’d have to say that we were incredibly impressed by the GIGABYTE 890GPA-UD3H. Considering its very affordable price tag, rich feature set and impressive capabilities, we would recommend it to both those looking for a budget board as well as to those looking for something a bit higher end. This truly is a board that caters to everyone.

First and foremost, we can’t help but mention the healthy feature set that the 890GX brings to the table. With a very capable IGP, native SATA 6Gbps and PCI-E 2.0 lanes all around, it truly is a next-generation platform. Gigabyte even fills the gap, providing USB 3.0 connectivity via the NEC controller. For those interested in more than just the IGP can deliver, a pair of 8X PCI-E 2.0 slots provide support for Crossfire-X.

Aside from the minor layout issue we found with the case header connections, the 890GPA-UD3H’s layout is well thought out. The PCI-E slot spacing is perfect and all critical areas of the board remain free from obstructions.

We definitely have to pay special mention to the 890GPA-UD3H’s fantastic power delivery system. Although a 4+1 phase power delivery system doesn’t sound terribly exciting, it proved to provide extremely accurate and stable power to the CPU. We also saw absolutely no droop at load and rock-solid stability. Gigabyte opted for some beefy regulation components with large coils and multiple capacitors per phase, so support for hex-core CPUs and other 140W CPUs isn’t an issue, nor is high vCore overclocking.

Speaking of overclocking, the 890GPA-UD3H faired very well with our Black Edition processor and had little difficulty pushing it beyond 4GHz. It also was able to maintain a high 315MHz BUS clock for those interested in pushing non-BE processors to their limits. We were also happy to see that GIGABYTE enabled core unlocking in their latest beta BIOS, and look forward to seeing this feature arrive in an official release in the near future.

Overall, we were very impressed with the 890GPA-UD3H. It is a fantastic all-around performer. We’re happy to award it with Hardware Canucks’ “DAM GOOD” award and “DAM GOOD VALUE” awards.

A special note: This review was a collaborative effort. A big thanks goes out to MAC for conducting all of the benchmarks and charts for the review, and also to SKYMTL for his assistance with some of the photography!


Pros:

• Great Price!
• SATA 6Gbps
• USB 3.0 Support
• Fantastic power delivery system – no droop and rock solid vCore!
• Crossfire-X Support with 8X/8X PCI-E
• Great overclocker
• Good Layout
• Very capable integrated graphics
• Sideport memory for IGP
• Copper PCB layer and solid capacitors throughout
• Well sized and very functional passive cooling system
• Great included software suite
• 3-year warranty
• Dual BIOS for redundancy

Cons:

• Case header connections can be blocked by extra long video cards.

Thanks to GIGABYTE for providing this sample!


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