The AMD 790GX Chipset Arrives – Asus M3A78-T Motherboard

Testing Results

So, with all that out of the way, how did this new board stack up against the tried and true 790FX? Actually, it did very well! Let’s look…

As we take a look at the results, keep in mind that this board is not expected to be the top of the line board for AMD when it comes to their chipsets. We should expect it to be a little slower than the top of the line chipset since AMD would want to keep the demand for the top boards to achieve the best results. After all, if you are gonna pay for the best, you want the best. Let me just say though that this board, though not poised to be the top dog certainly is not far off. in fact, it would make you question as to why you would want to spend the extra money for another board. This board took me totally by surprise with its performance.

The 790FX board certainly had no issues with Sandra testing. It takes the top spot in all of the benchmarks that we ran. Though it was in the top slot, the Asus M3A78-T 790GX motherboard was right there with it. For an early release BIOS, this board holds its own.

Everest is a split between the two. It is so close though that they basically tie here.

We see the same in our POV testing. Both the RTR and beta scores are so close, there is virtually no difference in performance.

We do see the GX board take a dive in Cinebench though. This is the only test that I can say the FX board just blew it out of the water.

HDTach shows us that the new GX board has better HDD performance, as the average score for the GX board is around 12% better than the FX.

The FX board dominates the GX board in 3dMark06 by taking 3 of the 4 tests in it.

We see that the gaming tests get really interesting. In fact, this is what impressed me the most about the Asus M3A78-T motherboard. It did awesome in gaming! It traded blows back and forth in each of our gaming tests, proving that it is a board that a gamer can take serious. In fact, there literally would be no noticeable difference in performance while gaming using either board. They are that close.

Vantage gives us a peak at the slight performance advantage that the FX board has over the GX board. Once again, very little difference between the two. In fact, I would think that as the 790GX chipset matures, there really will be no difference in performance at all.

Overall, there is not a person that is looking for an AMD based system that would be disappointed in the performance that this board produces. In fact, with these GX boards slated to launch at between $100-$150, why would anyone need to or want to pay up to $100 more for an FX board? Of course, there are some other things that you get with the FX, so i am not knocking those boards. They have their place. But if you do not need all the frills, bottom line, this board rocks!