890FXA-UD7 vs. CrossHair IV Formula with X6 1090T - AMD Strikes Back?

We start the presentation with the ASUS card, but before we get into that, we also need to talk about the chipset used. For this reason, the first paragraph is used for this purpose, and of course this is not repeated in the Gigabyte page, as we do not find any difference between the hardware of the two manufacturers in this respect.

Time is running out, the caravan is moving, as the saying goes (saying it at all?). On AMD’s side, it’s also time to switch this year, and not just in the number of processor cores, but also in server chip sets. The predecessor of the current series, the 790x chipset, is certainly two years old, and the last two years have not been free of hardware innovations either. In addition to processors, new USB and new SATA standards have been born, and we can even find them on new motherboards, at least from the mid-range. Because of this, AMD had to step in as well. True, not too big. The 890FX chipset, which serves on current boards, has only changed in the area of ​​the south bridge. These changes are not devilishly revolutionary either, essentially every update serves to address the bandwidth shortage caused by the new standards.

This is due to the doubling of the A-Link bandwidth between the North and South bridges - now 2 GB / second - that native SATA3 support is found, and also that the available bandwidth has been increased to 850 MB / s for the SB500 bridge. . What is also interesting - with a negative sign - is that USB 3.0 support has been omitted. However, to avoid having to worry very much, the number of supported 2.0 USB ports has increased from twelve to fourteen, and thanks to the increased bandwidth, motherboard manufacturers can provide the right speed for third-party USB 3.0 chips, if only because there is a sufficient number of There is a PCI Express band available, for a total of 42. True, this must be managed so that VGA controllers do not starve!

As you can see, there is some progress, if not a lot, especially when we compare these changes to the improvements that have been made to the Intel platform. Of course, we shouldn’t be surprised at this, as AMD is somewhat behind Intel. And this lag is the graphics core integrated in the central unit. At first glance, after all, there’s not much difference between the two vendors ’solutions when it comes to developments with an integrated graphics core, at least in the sense that Intel hasn’t even been able to place the GPU and CPU inside a single chip. This is also the case with AMD, but for Intel, the encapsulation is already common, while for the Greens, this step awaits. For this reason, major changes will also be expected for AMD platforms with integrated graphics solutions integrated into the CPU, in the meantime we will have to settle for some “wrinkle stitching”.

Okay, we've pretty much discussed the chip set with this, let's look at the boards!

"Let's start carving it right away because we won't deal with it in this article! We're going to loosely omit everything from the description of motherboards that has been mentioned several times in several articles. The reason for this is proudly simple. on the other hand, there are so many other interesting things on the pages that they are also enough to make an interesting article, a principle that we will follow not only on ASUS but also on Gigabyte, so if someone finds names about the page that are not explained, please take a look at the motherboard articles here: http://www.hoc.hu/index.php?p=articles&fk=2 Let's see first what came from ASUS! "

The CrossHair IV Formula bears a significant resemblance in appearance and style to the Rampage III Extreme presented in the previous motherboard article, which is no wonder, as the CrossHair IV is also a member of the Republic of Gamer family. The cooling system consisting of the three ribs and the flattened, thick, nickel-plated heat pipe is also very similar, the design of the ribs differs formally in some points, but we feel that the material is the same.

There is not much to be found in the placement of components, rails, connectors, everything can be found where and where it should be, but this is not an extra but a basic requirement for a product of this category. Of course, it supports the latest six-core processors as well as DDR3 memories up to 2000 MHz, plus the latest technologies such as SATA3 (chipset) and USB 3.0 (separate controller) are also missing. Those looking to build a 3D power plant on the AMD line will surely be very pleased that the engineers have applied four full-width PCI-Express rails to the board, but the fourth can only operate in 4 × mode. In the case of two cards, the system works in 2 + 16 threads, in the case of 3 VGAs in a 16 + 8 + 8 line-up, in Hungarian good CrossFireX pixel smelters can be built. Between the four PCI-Express busses are two traditional PCI slots, in case you might still have an older device.

The model also excels at the highest level in the field of tuning, we can be attentive to four physical buttons at the bottom of the printed circuit board. START and RESET are clear, while Turbo Key II and Core Unlocker need some explanation.

Turbo Key II

It's a kind of automatic tuning that tunes the processor to a high-performance yet stable state. Simply click the switch at the bottom of the motherboard and the technology is up and running.

Core Unlocker

ASUS Core Unlocker simplifies the activation of disabled cores on AMD processors - all at the touch of a button. There is an immediate performance boost provided by unlocking the extra processor cores without having to modify the BIOS data.

It’s commendable that AMD is striving to keep up with the times, so the red SATA connectors on the board all support SATA transfer rates of 6 Gb / s, and there are six of them side by side and above. Let's look at the back cover, going from left to right!

A purple PS2 connector with two "traditional" USB 2.0 connectors underneath. Next to them is a microswitch that allows you to perform a BIOS clear (CMOS Clear) with lightning speed and ease without having to suffer a jumper. Going forward, two USBs follow again, but their blue color already indicates that we are dealing with a USB 3.0 standard thanks to the integration of the NEC chip. Of course, we don't have to give up the digital application of sound either, the optical output will help them in this. The little TOSLINK socket is shielded by a skyscraper made up of an eSATA, a FireWire and two USB 2.0. The adjacent tower is the result of the RJ45 LAN port and two other black USBs. The next small switch and the adjacent rotated USB should be handled together, as it is the ROG Connect section that allows tuning from an external device. The line is closed by a building with 6 jack plugs, on which we can also deliver the sound in an analogous way.

Overall, the CrossHair IV is appealing at first glance, as are the vast majority of ROG sheets. The black PCB, the rounded edges, the quality conduits and coils, the impressive cooling all make you feel like you would like to own the product.

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