Things are starting to really heat up in the battle between AMD and Intel, as just last week AMD released its most powerful desktop processor yet. The release of the Phenom II X6 series was significant for AMD and although few applications are ready to put six-cores to work, their current pricing strategy makes this less of a concern.

Given that the flagship and now AMD’s most expensive desktop processor, the Phenom II X6 1090T, costs just $310 US, many users are going to be looking at migrating to the AM3 platform. Alternatively, if the flagship model is a little rich for your blood, then perhaps the Phenom II X6 1055T for just $210 US is more your style.

The beauty of the new Phenom II X6 processors for those already in possession of an older AMD processor using the AM2/AM2+ socket, is that in order to get their hands on a new six-core processor they need not upgrade any other component. The only catch being that the motherboard manufacturer must provide a new BIOS revision to enable Phenom II X6 support.

Those that cannot obtain Phenom II X6 support, who feel their AM2/AM2+ motherboard is getting too long in the tooth, or who are simply building a new AMD system from the ground up, are all going to be in the market for a new AM3 motherboard. There are a number of options to choose from and depending on your needs these options can often be quickly narrowed down.

While we will discuss the new AMD 8-series chipsets on the next page, the 890GX is a good option for most users. This chipset offers a vast array of features, excellent performance, and most motherboards supporting it are reasonably priced. The 890GX was also the first 8-series chipset to make its debut and as such there are more motherboards supporting it right now than any other 8-series chipset.

Pricing starts at $120 US and goes as high as $150 US. Impressively, one of the cheapest 890GX motherboards is also one of the best, as the Gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H is priced at just $130 US. Interestingly, Gigabyte is offering just a single 890GX motherboard at this point, though having said that, most motherboard manufacturers only have one or two boards on offer.

However despite this, Gigabyte looks to have nailed it with the 890GPA-UD3H, by offering a perfect balance of features and value. In fact, if you compare the Gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H to the Asus M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 motherboard, there appears to be very little difference between them, and despite this the Asus board comes at a $20 US price premium.

The AMD 890FX is king, designed purely for performance, by providing gamers with the ability to fully support multiple-GPUs. The 890FX and 870 do not feature integrated graphics engines, where as the 890GX and 880G chipsets do. Motherboards based on the 890FX and 870 chipsets include the feature rich SB850 south bridge, which is important.

The key difference between the two is that the 890FX features more PCI Express lanes, almost twice as many with 42 lanes, opposed to just 22 lanes of the 870 chipset. The 890FX is also the only chipset to support virtualization IOMMU 1.2 technology. So really other than the improved support for multi-GPU technology, there is not much difference between the 890FX and 870 chipsets.

The 890GX chipset is similar to the 870 in that it only offers 22 PCI Express lanes. However it is an IGP (Integrated Graphics Platform) and as such includes an ATI Radeon HD 4290 graphics engine. This means installing an add-in graphics cards is not essential, though is highly recommend for gaming. Finally we have the 880G chipset, which is virtually the same as the 890GX with the exception of the graphics engine, which has been downgraded to the ATI Radeon HD 4250.

Now the real issue comes down to pricing. As it stands, 890FX boards are priced at between $200 - $230 US, while 890GX boards are much cheaper at $120 - $150 US. Motherboards sporting the 880G chipset are priced between $85 - $140 US, and the 870 motherboards $100 - $110 US.

Those installing a pair of Radeon HD 5850 or 5870 graphics cards, or even more, in Corssfire for example, will want an 890FX motherboard hands down. If not, then motherboards using 890GX, 880G or 870 chipsets will fit the bill. The difference between these chipsets is almost negligible, so it really comes down to pricing and what extra features the motherboard offers, though if possible the 890GX is the way to go.

In fact, when it boils down to it the Radeon HD 4290 graphics engine is almost a rebadged version of the Radeon HD 3300 found in the 790GX chipset. So the real difference between the 890GX and 790GX chipsets is the supporting south bridge chip. Whereas the 790GX was accompanied by the SB750, the 890GX gets the new SB850 south bridge. The SB850 provides SATA 6Gb/s support, two more USB 2.0 ports, and is manufactured using the 65nm process opposed to the older 130nm process.

The 890GX still uses the HyperTransport 3.0 (5.2GT/s) to link the processor and north bridge together, while memory support is determined by the processor. Multi-GPU technology is supported, though it is limited to Crossfire and Radeon graphics cards. Furthermore, when using Crossfire the chipset is limited to PCIe 2.0 x8 bandwidth.

Also connected to the north bridge are six PCI Express 2.0 x1 slots, as was the case with the 790GX. Just like the 790GX, the 890GX features a total of 26 PCIe lanes, though only 22 of them are usable. The other 4 lanes are used to connect the 890GX north bridge and SB850 south bridge chips together, providing 2GB/s of bandwidth, something AMD calls A-link Express III.

In total the SB850 south bridge supports 14 USB 2.0 ports, which is two more than the SB750 used by the 790GX chipset. Therefore the key improvements on the SB850 is support for SATA 6.0Gb/s, extra USB 2.0 ports, and native Gigabit LAN support. For now USB 3.0 is not natively supported and will require a third-party controller.

Interestingly, as it stands, the 890GPA-UD3H is just $10 US more than the equivalent Gigabyte 790GX motherboard, so we feel it is worth paying a little extra for this more updated model. Across the pond it is also worth noting that most Intel H57 based motherboards do cost considerably more than the 890GPA-UD3H.

Gigabyte has gone with a 4+1-phase CPU VRM design for the 890GPA-UD3H and although this is all the AMD specification calls for, their new 890FX boards have received an 8+1-phase design. Furthermore, the Asus 890GX boards feature 8+2-phase designs, so the 890GPA-UD3H does appear to be a little lacking in its power delivery. That said, this may account for very little, and we are interested to see how well this Gigabyte board overclocks.

Gigabyte claims that their 4+1-phase design is more than enough to handle the new AMD Phenom II X6 hexacore processors and will support processors with a 140W TDP (Thermal Design Process). The AMD SB850 south bridge provides six SATA (6Gb/s) ports, while an additional Gigabyte SATA2 (Re-labeled JMicron JMB363) controller offers an IDE connector and a pair of SATA (3Gb/s) ports.

Expansion slots include a pair of PCI Express 2.0 x16 slots (x8/x8 when both are populated), two PCI slots and three PCIe x1. The full length x16 slots are separated by two PCIe x1 expansions slots, so users wanting to utilize Crossfire can have room to spare while losing one of these ports.

Whereas the Asus 890GX motherboards require an annoying switch card to allow a single graphics card to receive full PCI Express x16 bandwidth, this is not the case with the Gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H. Rather, the secondary port is only wired for x8 bandwidth, though it can accommodate for full size graphics cards.

The board’s audio is taken care of by the Realtek ALC892 8-Channel HD Audio CODEC featuring optical and SPDIF outputs. This audio solution also features support for jack detection, multi-streaming and front panel jack retasking.

Gigabit Ethernet is provided by a Realtek 8111D controller. This controller utilizes the PCI Express bus for maximum bandwidth. The 890GPA-UD3H also incorporates three Firewire (IEEE1394a) ports using the Texas Instruments TSB43AB23 controller, one of which is located on the boards I/O panel.

Along with the twelve USB 2.0 ports, the 890GPA-UD3H also boasts USB 3.0 support. The two USB 3.0 ports are color coded blue and are driven by the NEC D720200F1 controller, which connects directly to the 890GX north bridge chip for maximum throughput. This wraps up the bulk of the features found on the Gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H motherboard.

As you would expect from a tier 1 board maker, the design of the 890GPA-UD3H is very neat and tidy. For example, the PCI Express x16 graphics card ports are well clear of the four DIMM slots. This means it is possible to install/remove memory with a full size graphics card installed. Motherboards that place the DIMM slots too close to the PCI Express x16 port force users to remove the graphics card first before installing/removing memory modules.

The SATA ports are placed together in the bottom right corner where they are easy to access and are also mounted on a 90-degree angle to avoid interfering with long graphics cards. This is one aspect where we feel Asus really dropped the ball with their 890GX motherboards, as they created a bit of a mess here.

The 890GPA-UD3H does not suffer from any real design flaws, though we did find one annoying issue with the board. There is no CMOS reset switch, which is not so much of an issue in itself. However this does become an annoying problem when the CMOS reset jumper and battery are located between the PCI Express x16 slots and not the bottom right hand corner of the motherboard, and this is something that will certainly drive overclockers mad.

Other than the issue with the CMOS jumper and battery location, everything else was smooth sailing. The I/O panel is well stocked and includes all of the display connectivity (DVI, D-Sub, and HDMI), minus DisplayPort. The I/O panel carries a single PS/2 port for legacy keyboards, four USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports, six audio jacks, optical, S/PDIF, Firewire and LAN.

Those seeking additional USB ports will be happy to learn that another 8 can be supported using headers. Surprisingly, Gigabyte did not include any expansion brackets with this motherboard, though we have found this to be the case with all the 890GX motherboards we have come across thus far.

Once in the M.I.T menu the first option that the user is presented with is titled “IGX Configuration”, which is used to tweak the integrated graphics engine. A number of options can be found here that allow the user to increase the SidePort memory frequency, frame buffer size, and even overclock the core. For those using an add-in graphics card, chances are you will simply skip over this sub-menu.

Back in the main menu of the MB Intelligent Tweaker, we have many overclocking related options such as CPU clock ratio, CPU north bridge frequency, CPU host clock control, PCIe clock, HT link width, HT link frequency and DRAM frequency.

There are basic voltage options available that allow the user to adjust the CPU, memory, and north bridge voltages. So really there are enough of the right options to allow for a decent overclock using any AMD Phenom II processor.

The DRAM configuration sub-menu allows the user to get up close and personal with the memory timings. Something that we really liked about this menu was that it clearly lists what timings the BIOS is using when testing to auto as well as the programmed SPD settings of the modules. This makes fine tuning the memory modules very easy and the user can opt to just change the settings that they desire.

When playing with the voltage options we found a similar situation to that of the memory, as the BIOS clearly states what voltage the system is currently using so the user has a good idea of how much they are increasing or decreasing certain voltages. In total there are eight tweakable voltage options, that will allow overclockers to fine tune their system for best results.

Other menus of interest will include “Integrated Peripherals”, where the user can enable or disable various onboard features, as well as alter storage related settings. The “PC Health Status” is another useful menu that allows the user to quickly and accurately monitor voltages as well as temperatures. This menu also houses a number of fail safe and warning settings, along with the smart fan controls.

Something that was lacking from the 890GPA-UD3H was the ability to save BIOS profiles, which is a feature we have come to accept as being quite standard. This is a little disappointing, as we find having the ability to save profiles makes overclocking much easier and have come to depend on this feature. Still, despite this, when it came time to overclock our AMD Phenom II X4 965 processor, this Gigabyte 890GX motherboard did not disappoint.

In the past we have struggled to reach 4.0GHz with our Phenom II X4 965 processor. However this was not the case with the Gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H, which did achieve a stable 4.0GHz overclock, matching our previous best attempts.

Hardware - Intel Core i7 930 - x3 2GB G.Skill DDR3 PC3-12800 (CAS 8-8-8-24) - Seagate 500GB 7200-RPM (Serial ATA300) - Radeon HD 5870 (1GB) Crossfire - Asus P6T Deluxe (Intel X58) Software - Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit) - ATI Catalyst 10.3

Hardware - Intel Core i5 750 - x2 2GB G.Skill DDR3 PC3-12800 (CAS 8-8-8-24) - Seagate 500GB 7200-RPM (Serial ATA300) - Radeon HD 5870 (1GB) Crossfire - Asus P7P55D-E Premium (Intel P55) Software - Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit) - ATI Catalyst 10.3

Hardware - AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition - AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition - x2 2GB G.Skill DDR3 PC3-12800 (CAS 8-8-8-24) - Seagate 500GB 7200-RPM (Serial ATA300) - Radeon HD 5870 (1GB) Crossfire - Asus Crosshair IV (AMD 890FX) - Asus M4A89GTD Pro (AMD 890GX) - Gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H (AMD 890GX) - Asrock 890GX Extreme3 (AMD 890GX) Software - Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit) - ATI Catalyst 10.3

The memory bandwidth figures are not at all surprising considering that the memory controller is located in the processor and not the chipset. Therefore the AMD 890GX chipset has no real way of influencing memory performance. Still, it is important to measure the performance here to make sure everything is working properly, as these results will have a real impact on other performance tests, such as gaming.

Something worth noting is that the memory bandwidth performance of the Phenom II X4 965 processor is considerably weaker than the Core i5 750 and Core i7 930 processors. Still, when looking at bandwidth performance, the Gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H is on par with the Asus and Asrock motherboards.

The SPECviewperf v10 results are very interesting. While the 890GX and 890FX platforms with the Phenom II X4 965 provide only a slight performance advantage over the Core i5 750/P55 combo in the Maya test, they were faster when running the 3dsMax test. Again the Gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H delivered comparable performance to the Asus and Asrock motherboards.

AMD performs very well in the Povray benchmark, as the Phenom II X4 965 beat both the Core i5 750 and Core i7 930 processors. Again the Gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H closely matched the performance of the Asus and Asrock 890GX motherboards.

GPU performance once again heavily favored the AMD platforms, this time when testing with CINEBENCH R11.5, which saw the Gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H beat the Core i5 750/P55 combo by a 16% performance margin. Now we should point out that this test measures the performance of the graphics engine and not the processor. This is puzzling as both platforms were using the Radeon HD 5870 with the same drivers, yet AMD has a significant advantage here.

The WinRAR test goes the way of Intel once multi-threading support is enabled. The Gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H motherboard along with the other AMD configurations were considerably slower than the Intel offerings.

The Intel Core i5 750 processor is clearly faster than the AMD Phenom II X4 965 when working with Excel 2007. The Core i5 750 was anywhere from 25–35% faster in this test, while the 890GX motherboards produced similar results. The Gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H was a fraction slower than the Asus and Asrock boards, though the margins were minimal.

Here we have conducted our own WinRAR compression test using a 400MB program made up of over a hundred files and a single 700MB audio/video file. The Core i5 750 and Phenom II X4 965 processors delivered a similar level of performance in this test. Furthermore, the Gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H delivered the same level of performance as the Asus and Asrock boards.

When testing with Adobe Photoshop CS5 we see that the 890GX motherboards deliver the same level of performance once again. The Core i5 750 does have a performance advantage in this application, applying the radial blur filter a few seconds faster. However the Core i7 930 performance is amazing and it appears that HyperThreading support plays a huge role in this application.

The HandBrake results are very close, with the AMD Phenom II X4 965 beating the Core i5 750 processor by just a few frames per second. The Gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H performance was again comparable to the Asus and Asrock 890GX motherboards.

The AMD Phenom II X4 965 processor is superior when testing with the x264 HD Benchmark 3.0, as it was 18% faster than the Core i5 750. Once again we did not see much difference in performance when comparing the 890GX motherboards, and although the Gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H was the slowest board tested, the margins were minimal.

The TMPGnc 4.0 XPress test places the Core i5 750 processor at a slight advantage, with no discernible difference in performance when comparing the Phenom II X4 965.

Please note that the Asus Crosshair IV featuring the AMD 890FX chipset was using a pre-release BIOS version and this is likely the reason for the poor performance when testing with Unreal Tournament 3.

The Gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H also struggled in this game, with an average of 202fps at 1920x1200. The Asus and Asrock 890GX boards averaged 208fps and 210fps respectively, making them quite a bit faster.

The Company of Heroes results were far more competitive and although the Gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H was slightly faster than the Asus and Asrock 890GX boards at 1024x768, it was also slightly faster at the higher resolution of 1920x1200.

The Far Cry 2 performance was identical across all three 890GX motherboards when using the Phenom II X4 965 processor at both of the tested resolutions.

Finally, the last game that we tested with was Resident Evil 5, and as you can see the Gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H matched the Asus and Asrock 890GX motherboards in this test.

The power consumption levels of the Gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H motherboard when paired with the Phenom II X4 965 processor are quite typical. Using 104 watts of power at idle and 231 watts under load placed the Gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H directly between the Asrock and Asus 890GX motherboards.

That said, the more equipped ECS A890GXM-AU model costs exactly the same as the Gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H, despite the fact that the Gigabyte version offers more features. Also priced at $140 US is the Asus M4A89GTD PRO (the non USB3 version), though again this board provides a few less features than the 890GPA-UD3H.

Therefore in terms of value, Gigabyte looks to be providing one of, if not the best 890GX deal right now. The 890GPA-UD3H is a well designed motherboard that is rich in features and at the same time combines a high-level of overclocking ability. For the most part the Gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H also matched the performance of the other 890GX boards featured in this review.

There were a few tests where the Gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H did slip a little further behind than we were expecting, though never did we see any results that raised alarm bells. It is also worth mentioning that the Gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H was tested using the initial BIOS release (version FA) and as it stands this is still the only BIOS release for this motherboard.

The board design and layout is about as close to perfection as we have seen, though as is the case with even the very best motherboards it would seem, there are a few small annoying issues with the design such as the battery and CMOS clear header position.

Still, these are not design flaws that will affect everyone, and we feel most users will be very pleased with this design. Lastly while on the topic of board design, we would just like to add that the Gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H supports Radeon HD 5870 graphics cards in Crossfire mode very well.

Motherboards such as the Gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H provide excellent opportunity for those building a new computer on a budget. Not only does this motherboard support the latest AMD processors using the latest series of AMD chipsets, but it also carries native SATA 6Gb/s support as well as USB 3.0 support.

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This means for roughly $325 US users can purchase AMD’s flagship quad-core processor, the Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition, along with the Gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H motherboard. Additionally, for just $440 users can get a taste of what hexa-core computing is all about, with a Gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H/AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition combo. Of course given AMD’s massive range of desktop processors, there are countless more possible combinations.

All in all, the Gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H offers solid stability, a fantastic BIOS, phenomenal tuning potential, as well as an excellent feature set. But most importantly, it brings further value to the AM3 platform in the way of savings compared to other strictly enthusiast-oriented options.