Is It Worth It? AMD Spider Platform Benchmarked

The Results

Taking a look at our results, I was really surprised to see that the 690 board hung in there is as many of the tests as it did. In fact, it did more than just hang in there, it actually scored higher than the 790 board in several of our tests. Sandra, Everest and POV were tests that the 690 did very well in, but once we got into a little more demanding programs and applications, that is where the 790 chipset just spread its wings and took off. Anything that was graphic intensive proved that the 690 was no match for the 790 chipset at all. Our gaming benches were all led with the 790 board, with the 690 really no where to be found. In fact, the 790FX board scored an average of about 20% better than the 690 al the way around. It was a little amazing to see such a big jump in scores in gaming when some of the other scores were much closer, and actually led by the 690. What was the reason? Nate and I got to talking, and he wondered if it could possibly be the the pci-e 2.0 that was pushing the 790 over the top. We would have liked to have tested that theory theory by turning off the PCI-e 2.0 option in the BIOS, but found out that this Asus board did not have the ability to turn on and off the PCI-e 2.0, so we are left wondering.

Our PCMark Vantage testing also produced similar results, with the 790 board easily out-scoring the 690 board in every test. The 790FX board is certainly a board that will cause you to take a second look, especially if you are a gamer.