Gigabyte MA790FX-DS5 Review

Testing:

I will be running the GA-MA790FX-DS5 Premium through our benchmarking suite to see what kind of performance the motherboard delivers. The OverclockersClub series of benchmarks include both system tests and gaming benchmarks to verify the performance of this product. During our stock speed benchmarking, all clock speeds and memory timings will be the same on each of the boards to eliminate any variables. All motherboard and video card settings were left at setup defaults, again to eliminate any variables.

Testing Setup:

• AMD Athlon64 Processor 6000+
• Gigabyte MA790FX-DS5
• Patriot Extreme Performance 2GB PC2-9200 DDR2-1150MHz
• OCZ Vendetta CPU Cooler
• PowerColor HD2600 PRO (Catalyst 8.3)
• Antec NeoPower 650W
• 1x250GB Maxtor SATA
• 2x400GB Seagate SATA
• Plextor PX-716SA 16X DVD RW SATA
• HL 4164B 16X DVD RW IDE
• Windows Vista Ultimate

Comparison System:

• AMD Athlon64 Processor 6000+
• ECS A770M-A
• Patriot Extreme Performance 2GB PC2-9200 DDR2-1150MHz
• OCZ Vendetta CPU Cooler
• PowerColor HD2600 PRO (Catalyst 8.3)
• Antec NeoPower 650W
• 1x250GB Maxtor SATA
• 2x400GB Seagate SATA
• Plextor PX-716SA 16X DVD RW SATA
• HL 4164B 16X DVD RW IDE
• Windows Vista Ultimate
   

Overclocking:

The first thing most of us in the enthusiast community want to know is how well does it perform. I will show you up front and personal. The best results on the AMD 6000+ processor was 350HT with clock speeds of 3150MHz on a 9x multiplier. Memory speed was topped out at 350MHz.

I was able to get a suicide shot with the HT at 400, but subsequent reboots would drop the CPU multiplier down to 5 and drop the voltage to 1.1V as well.

Benchmarks:

• Scientific & Data:

1. Apophysis
2. WinRAR
3. SpecviewPerf 10
4. PCMark Vantage Professional
5. Sandra XII
6. ScienceMark 2.02 Final
7. Cinebench 10
8. HD Tune 2.54

• Video:

1. Crysis
2. Knights of the Sea
3. Bioshock
4. Call of Duty 4
5. World in Conflict
6. Call of Jaurez
7. 3DMark 06 Professional