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Sapphire PURE CrossFireX 790GX Review March 31, 2009 Tom YodaBlues Colarusso |
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Summary: Looking for a capable motherboard to pair your brand new Phenom II CPU with? Sapphire's PURE CrossFireX 790GX sports a tons of BIOS settings for OC'ing, 6-phase power, and enthusiast-oriented features like a diagnostic display unit and built-in buttons for clearing CMOS and power/reset. See how it fares against MSI's 790GX Platinum in this article!
 Sapphire PURE CrossFireX 790GX Motherboard Review | Page:: ( 1 / 10 ) |
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Sapphire is one of ATI’s closest GPU partners and they hold some of ATI’s largest market share. While they’ve been successful in the GPU market, they haven’t seen the same success with their attempts to branch out into other areas, namely motherboards. Sapphire has developed boards utilizing everything from ATI’s RD480 to the more recent 790X. Today we are going to take a close look at the latest 790GX-based motherboard from Sapphire, the PURE 790GX. Featuring integrated Radeon HD3300 graphics, Hybrid Crossfire technology as well as the latest southbridge from AMD, the SB750, the 790GX boasts an impressive set of features.
| Sapphire PURE 790GX PC-AM2RS790GX | |
| CPU | Supports AMD Socket AM2+/AM2: AMD Phenom FX/Phenom processors Athlon 64 X2 / Athlon 64 FX / Athlon 64 / Sempron processors |
| Chipset | AMD 790GX + AMD SB750 Chipset |
| Hyper Transport | HT 3.0 |
| Memory | Dual Channel DDR2 memory technology 4x 240-pin DDR2 DIMM slots Supports DDR2 1066/800 non-ECC ,un-buffered memory Max.16GB |
| Expansion Slots | 2x 32-bit PCI Slots 2x PCI Express 2.0 x16 slots (X8+X8 or X16+switch card) 2x PCI Express x1 |
| Storage | 6x SATAII Supports RAID 0,1,5 1x UDMA 133/100/66 PATA |
| Audio | Realtek ALC888 8-Channel HD Audio Codec |
| LAN | Realtek RTL8111C GB NIC |
| USB | 4x USB 2.0 Ports 4x USB Headers |
| Rear Panel I/O | 4x USB 2.0/1.1 ports 1x PS/2 mouse & keyboard port 1x VGA port + 1x DVI port + 1x HDMI port 1x RJ-45 port 1x 8 CH HD Audio I / O port |
| Internal I/O | 4x USB 2.0/1.1 headers for 8 USB 2.0/1.1 ports CPU / Chassis Fan connectors 1x 8-pin ATX 12V Power connector 1x 24-pin ATX Power connector 1x Serial Port of 9-pin block CD / AUX Audio in 1x Ultra DMA 133 / 100 / 66 IDE connector + 1x Floppy connector 1x HDMI_SPDIF header + 1x IR header |
| BIOS | Award 8MB SPI Flash Rom |
| Form Factor | ATX Form Factor (305 x 245mm) |
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The PURE 790GX is an AM2+ based board that also provides support for Phenom II AM3 CPU’s. Surrounding the CPU socket is a moderately sized passive cooler for the chipset, which provides ample room for larger heatsinks. The 790GX can support up to 4 DIMMS in dual channel in both 800 and 1066Mhz speeds, with a maximum capacity of 16GB. For Crossfire, Sapphire included 2 PCIe 2.0 x16 slots (x8+x8) or users can enable single card x16 operation with the use a small switch card. The switch card is easily installed into the secondary PCIe x16 slot which enables full bandwidth on the primary graphics slot. Rounding out the internal expansion slots are 2 PCIe x1 slots and 2 PCI slots. The board integrates 6 SATAII plugs with support for many common forms of RAID, 0,1,5, and 0+1. There is also a single PATA connector located just south of the ATX power plug, next to the floppy connector.
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Just above the SATA connectors sits built-in power and reset buttons, while a CMOS reset button sits towards the bottom of the board by the USB headers. These buttons allow the board to booted, reset, and the CMOS cleared without the need for a case or jumpers. From an overclocking perspective, this is a nice touch in the event you push the system a little far and cannot get back into BIOS to reset changes. Another excellent addition is an LED debug readout that gives you a code in the event the system is unable to boot. The manual for the 790GX includes a handy guide for deciphering the codes, which makes troubleshooting a snap.
The back panel for the 790GX is pretty standard fare, as it sports 8 channel Realtek ALC888 audio, Realtek Gigabit LAN and 4 USB 2.0 ports. The integrated video includes 128MB built-in sideport memory, which rests beneath the chipset cooler. The PURE 790GX features all 3 common video connectors, DVI, VGA, and even HDMI with support for audio pass-through. One of the big selling points of the 790GX chipset is that it is the first AMD chipset to support Hybrid CrossFireX.
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Hybrid CrossFire is a technology that allows the on-board HD3300 GPU to run in CrossFire mode with a dedicated GPU. Only the HD 2400 to HD 3400 GPU’s are supported in Hybrid CrossFire mode, which limits the usefulness to low end graphics. However, it is still an interesting technology that provides a performance boost to older GPU’s.
Overall, board layout is good with the notable exception of the PCIe x1 slots, which are situated between the 2 x16 PCIe slots. Tall add-in cards might have clearance issues if running in CrossFire, while long cards could potentially block a fan on one of your GPU’s. While there isn’t a huge selection of PCIe add-in cards on the market, more and more manufacturers are moving in that direction. We would rather have seen at least one of these slots situated above the first x16 slot to avoid this problem. This way, if you decide to run an add-in audio or network card, you won’t run the risk of affecting airflow or clearance issues with water blocks.
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| BIOS and Overclocking | Page:: ( 2 / 10 ) |
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The PURE 790GX runs Phoenix AWARD BIOS and has some pretty impressive configuration options for overclockers. DRAM timings are configurable in multiple steps, with latency adjustable from 3T, 4T, and 5T. Individual memory timings can also be adjusted within BIOS, along with the memory divider. CPU clock speed is adjustable in single increments from 190 to 600Mhz, which is impressive although I doubt anyone could get close to that high number without some form of LN2. CPU voltage is adjustable from 0.800v all the way up to 1.550v, each adjustment an increment of 0.025v. Further adjustments can be made using the Vcore 7-shift feature, which will increase CPU voltage in 31 stages based on a percentage of the current Vcore voltage(5%-35%) should the system need a little more juice to maintain stability. Other voltage adjustments can be made on the chipset, PCIe, and memory.
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Our overclocking results with the PURE 790GX weren’t as good as we had hoped, despite the plethora of options we had. Our AMD Phenom II 810 CPU wouldn’t run stable above 3.016Ghz, regardless of voltage and memory adjustments. While not a bad overclock, roughly 416Mhz, we have seen these CPU’s get as high as 3.3Ghz on air with other boards. Our reference board for instance, the MSI DKA790GX, was maxed out at 3.211Ghz. We are left to assume that perhaps there are still some AM3 tweaks or adjustments needed to be made on these boards to open up the full overclocking potential. Hopefully a BIOS update can unlock some overclocking overhead down the road. Let’s take a look at some performance numbers.
| System Setup | Page:: ( 3 / 10 ) |
AMD Phenom II X4 810 AM3
Sapphire PURE 790GX PC-AM2RS790GX
MSI DKA790GX Platinum
4GB (2x 2GB) OCZ Reaper PC8500 DDRII
HiS Radeon 4870 X2
Catalyst 9.3
Western Digital SATAII 300GB
Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit SP1
Benchmarks
Cinebench 10
Windows Media Encoder
Divx 7
Lost Planet
World In Conflict
Crysis
Company of Heroes
| Synthetic Benchmarks | Page:: ( 4 / 10 ) |
| Lost Planet | Page:: ( 5 / 10 ) |
| World in Conflict | Page:: ( 6 / 10 ) |
| Crysis | Page:: ( 7 / 10 ) |
| Company of Heroes | Page:: ( 8 / 10 ) |
| Ballistics Report | Page:: ( 9 / 10 ) |
Pros
BIOS Options: The PURE 790GX features some pretty powerful BIOS options that will help overclockers maximize performance across the board. With CPU ratios ranging between 190 and 600Mhz, as well as voltage adjustments in 0.025v increments up to 1.55v, the board has a lot of overclocking potential. The CPU Vcore 7-shift is another great feature that ensures any overclocking done is achieved as stably as possible, as voltage can be increased in percentages if needed. While memory speeds are limited to DDR 1066, memory timings and voltage has a lot of room for adjustment.
Performance: Performance numbers for the PURE 790GX were impressive throughout our testing. While it may not have beaten the more well known MSI board, it came well within 1%-2%.
Board Features/Layout: Between the built-in power, reset, and CMOS clear buttons, as well as 4 USB headers, the board layout and feature set is pretty complete. The PURE 790GX sports 6 SATAII slots with support for many common RAID configurations. Also, the debug LED takes some of the guess work out of troubleshooting booting problems.
Another interesting feature is the Hybrid CrossFireX technology. Supporting up to a HD3400, Hybrid CrossFire is an interesting way to add a performance boost without breaking the bank. While it certainly won’t beat any of the mainstream cards currently on the market, it’s still far more powerful than most integrated on-board video capabilities. Sapphire also included an ability to overclock the on-board video up to 100Mhz, further granting users a performance increase.
Cons
Somewhat limited Overclocking: While the BIOS is full of options for overclocking, the board itself would not run stably over 3.016Ghz, an overclock of 416Mhz versus 2.600Ghz stock. While it’s certainly not a bad overclock, we know the 790GX chipset is capable of more. We’re hoping a BIOS update could easily rectify this later on down the road, as manufacturers get used to AM3 CPU’s.
PCIe x1 Slot Location: Installing any standard size PCIe add-in cards could interfere with the CrossFire bridge, or worse, block airflow to the GPU in the first slot. While we realize many manufacturers put an x1 slot in between the GPU cards, we wish Sapphire had relocated at least one of the x1 PCIe slots above the first graphics card location.
| Verdict | Page:: ( 10 / 10 ) |