Asus M4A89GTD Pro/USB 3 & AMD 890GX Chipset

Introduction

While AMD has pushed their GX boards as mid range parts, they still come with higher end IGP solutions. Today we have AMD's latest addition to the GX family, the 890GX. This motherboard comes with a 4290 IGP, which performs better than the previously released 4200. This should be a nice addition for users looking for higher quality on board graphics. This board also supports Crossfire, which provides a great upgrade path if you would like to slowly upgrade your computer as games become more demanding.

The 890GX also comes with full support of every AM3 CPU released to date, and plans to keep the chipset in production as long as the AM3 socket is still AMD's primary desktop socket. As with most of the previous 790 series boards the 890 uses DDR3, so you won't have the option of running an AM2 CPU. This puts a spoil on anyone who was hoping to keep their AM2 CPU going into the newest chipsets.

The biggest advance of the 890GX is its addition of the SB850. The last time AMD released a new South Bridge overclocking potential was greatly increased, so it would be nice to see the same result here. However we are not expecting to see a large increase in overclocking. The 890GX also has added support for SATA 6 GB/s. This support for the latest technology is nice to see, as it shows that AMD is keeping their chipsets on the front line of technology.