AM3 Mobo Advice Wanted?

nheather · 24 Sep 2009 at 13:13

Trying to decide whether I should get a 790GX or a 790FX.

At the moment I only have one card (4890) and no plans to change that.

Read the Wikii and it seems the major difference is between the chipsets seems to be the PCIe functionality

GX has two PCIe 2.0 (one is 16X and the other 8X)

FX has four PCIe 2.0 (two are 16X and two are 8X)

So I assume that with my one card they are both pretty much the same - run at 16X on each.

But if I got a second 4890 then they would both run at 8X on the GX and 16X on the FX.

Firstly, have I got that right?

Secondly, what is the difference between running XFire in 8X rather than 16X - I mean real detectable terms.

Thanks for the advice.

Cheers,

Nigel

5abr3 · 24 Sep 2009 at 13:46

The GX also have onboard graphics from what I can recall.

nheather · 24 Sep 2009 at 14:04

Yes I noticed that but wouldn't be using it.

Basically the GX cards are £30 cheaper than the FX ones and I'm just trying to work whether the extra £30 would be wisely spent.

Cheers,

Nigel

SMAndy · 24 Sep 2009 at 14:21

That can only be a personal choice, depends if you want the chance to go crossfire at a later date. I hear crossfire scales very well on certain cards, so go for the one with 2 x16 slots if you want that upgrade choice.

Check for PCI slot availability. If you have any old PCI cards that you need, they may not fit in the multiple PCIe board if you go for crossfire!

MSI-Guru · 24 Sep 2009 at 17:39

The 790FX is the flagship board, and will give the ultimate performance. If you can guarantee that you will never want to use Crosssfire the the GX is a good choice. However for £30 you guarantee yourself and easy graphics upgrade by picking up another 4890 in the future.

The 790GX has been very well reviewed, however the 790FX has even more awards to its name. The 790FX is also meant to be a better overclocker. A few below:

http://www.cpu3d.com/review/7466-1/msi-790fx-gd70-am3-motherboard/introduction.html
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/motherboards/2009/05/04/msi-790fx-gd70/1
http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews.php?reviewid=761

basically if you overclock and or want the flexibility of x16/x16 crossfire go FX. Otherwise the 790GX will save you a couple of bob and perform similar