AMD's 890GX Chipset - Same Graphics, Better South Bridge
by Anand Lal Shimpi on March 2, 2010 4:36 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
Integrated Gigabit Ethernet MAC
The SB850 includes a new integrated Gigabit Ethernet MAC. However, unless I’m reading this incorrectly both the ASUS and Gigabyte boards I’ve seen thus far still rely on external Realtek RTL8111 series single chip MAC/PHY solutions.
| Windows File Copy from NAS to SSD | AMD 890GX | Intel H55 |
| Peak Bandwidth | 952 Mbps | 952 Mbps |
Performance is as expected - transfer rates approach 1000Mbps regardless of platform. I don’t believe these boards are using AMD’s integrated MAC though.
Final Words
At this point there’s not much to say about AMD’s 890GX. With no improvement in graphics performance, no die shrink and no new audio/video features today’s launch is really about the SB850 South Bridge.
Native 6Gbps SATA support is an impressive move by AMD. Unfortunately I’m not totally sold on AMD’s SATA controller. Compared to the SB750, the new SB850 appears to be a step forward. However, even the new south bridge isn’t as fast as Intel’s I/O controllers when it comes to peak performance with a high end SSD. With standard hard drives and even slow SSDs I doubt there’s much cause for concern, but as SSDs become more commonplace we’re going to see controller deficiencies exposed more readily. I had hoped for a bigger reset in south bridge performance with the 890GX/SB850 combo. Perhaps it’ll take a few more BIOS/driver revisions before we get there. Update: We're getting closer!
While I would have liked to have seen native USB 3 support as well, at least AMD is willing to provide enough bandwidth to feed any external USB 3 controllers at this point. It’s more of a theoretical advantage than anything else today, but it’s worth giving credit for.
I get the distinct feeling that there just wasn’t much effort put into 890GX. The real focus for AMD has been Llano and making sure that chip has the sort of significant improvement in graphics performance that we’ve been waiting for. Until then, it looks like we’ll get a model number update with few new features. In a sense, AMD has finally taken a page out of Intel’s chipset playbook.
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semo - Tuesday, March 2, 2010 - link
I'm not aware if the motherboard header pin configurations for USB 3.0 have been standardized yet. I'm sure there will be a period when every maker will come up with their own design until we settle on a single oneglockjs - Tuesday, March 2, 2010 - link
i don't feel so bad in being impatient and buying one of the gigabyte 333's...790xta to be exact. looks like i didnt miss much :Dsemilobster - Tuesday, March 2, 2010 - link
Great review Anand! When can we expect a review of the new Hybrid-Crossfire with the 5450? How did they make this work? So far Hybrid-Crossfire has only worked with other RV610 based GPUs (the RV620 was just a slightly modified RV610)Spoelie - Tuesday, March 2, 2010 - link
Extremely disappointed. Still the uncompetitive SATA performance, no USB3, no ACC and the same integrated graphics performance we had back in 2007, 2 and a half years ago.For a company that's behind on cpu performance and tries (tried?) to push the platform "advantage", this is one lackluster platform. It's like they've given up altogether.
I've had AMD systems for the past years, but 2010 seems to be time to switch, and it pains me :(
Alouette Radeon - Wednesday, March 10, 2010 - link
Let me see if I understand this correctly. You're going to switch to the criminal organization known as Intel because AMD hasn't upgraded their SATA? You're kidding right? No spinning hard drive today can keep up with the SATA speeds as they are except for SSDs and you're whining about that? Don't even get me started on the fact that the Radeon HD 4290 is still the top performing IGP with DX10.1 added. Do you really think you'd prefer an Intel GMA??? My god, what rock do you live under? Just for ideological purposes alone, I won't touch Intel or nVidia until they clean themselves up. Dishonesty in a corporation pisses me off more than anything and if you've seen the way Intel has conducted itself in the last 10 years you wouldn't be so quick to switch. Sure, switch to Intel, increase their market share, let AMD die and then we'll all be happy with Intel having a monopoly and dictating to us what we get as they slow technological advancement down and raise prices on everything all because you felt inadequate without SATA performance numbers that are meaningless because there's no hard drives that can take advantage of them! With knuckleheads like you in the world, it's no wonder we're where we are today!AznBoi36 - Tuesday, March 2, 2010 - link
I don't really see a problem with AMD's platform. Sure their SATA performance isn't as great as Intels; but like Anand said - as long as you aren't running the latest SSDs then the SATA performance difference between AMD/Intel is negligible.And yeah, these guys are sitting on their asses as far as chipsets go. How long has ICH/r10 been out? A long time now. I'm still waiting for 8 SATA ports with RAID6. That's probably a long time coming though.
If you want ACC, then you can still pick up an older 790/785 board. Even my old Gigabyte MA785GM-US2H has it. The only benefit I see with the new 890GX is if you need native SATA3 RAID and more than 2 ports (all other boards use the marvel controller and have only 2 SATA3 ports with RAID 0/1/0+1)
Mr Perfect - Wednesday, March 3, 2010 - link
The problem is that native SATA 6gbps for SSDs is exactly why I was interested in the 8 series. It's back to 3rd party controllers now, which gives AMD no advantage.leexgx - Wednesday, March 3, 2010 - link
but it does support ACC and core unlocker they had an page Just for it (did any one read all of this pre-review before posting)all that amd have done is hid the option now but it still can be done
Griswold - Tuesday, March 2, 2010 - link
Oh yea switch to where the grass has the same color because there are no more significant upgrades between platforms either...They have now all been equally lazy. And lets not talk about nvidia with their endless nfarce rebadging of chipsets from a decade gone by...
Its clear that there is no pressure in the platform business anymore. Nvidia is a joke and AMD / Intel just throw old bones at us. Get used to it. Also because "platform" is becoming more and more meaningless, except for southbridges...
Spoelie - Tuesday, March 2, 2010 - link
I'm not saying Intel has a better platform feature wise, but it has more performance (SATA, CPU) and lower power consumption. AMD used to have a platform advantage, but the last year that was erased. There is absolutely no reason anymore, except for price, to pick AMD at this moment. And you do not want to be in that position in this industry.