ASUS 890FX Crosshair IV Formula Teardown

[Socratus]

http://futuremark.yougamers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=114924

 

[PaulieG]

http://futuremark.yougamers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=114924

Read time is similar. However, write and access times are much better with the VR's. Anyways, back on topic...

 

[Socratus]

Read time is similar. However, write and access times are much better with the VR's.

HD Tune
VR:
Min 145
Max 230
Avg 192

F3:
Min 130
Max 270
Avg 220

ATTO Disk Benchmark
VR:
Avg ~200

F3:
Avg ~250-300

HDTach:
VR:
Avg 208

F3:
Avg 236

 

[PaulieG]

HD Tune
VR:
Min 145
Max 230
Avg 192

F3:
Min 130
Max 270
Avg 220

ATTO Disk Benchmark
VR:
Avg ~200

F3:
Avg ~250-300

HDTach:
VR:
Avg 208

F3:
Avg 236

I'm not disputing reads. Please compare access times. VR clearly beats the F3's here. Like I said though, back on topic. If you'd like a VR vs. F3 thread, start one. Thanks!

 

[GSquadron]

He was talking about these raptors, populating formulas.

 

[Reefer86]

ive sent my forumla back, the board isnt all that great, its very unstable with my 965c3 and ram. it may have been a ram issue tbh. But people are calling this board the holy grail and it just isnt. i cant deny it has some nice features but for me i will always stick with bios overclocking and the turbo V program will more then likely be replaced with a better 3rd party app or overdrive, turbo V overclocking crashed my machine everytime went into bios and changed bios by myself and worked a dream. anything above 3.8 at any voltage on my 965 wasnt stable.

 

[cadaveca]

The board just came out, so wil lstill need some bios revisions before it works good with everything. I've had my Crosshair3 for a year, took almost 6 months before I got a good bios for my mems.

That said, I don't ming waiting for my board to arrive.

 

[Reefer86]

well thats great but im not gona wait for 6 months for a decent bios revision with my machine being unstable and crashing about 5-6 times a day. Also the overclocking is awful. i might aswell keep the board i have that has been stable from day one and performed a charm getting my 965 up to 4.3 stable and the crosshair couldnt even keep 3.8 stable.

I dont mind waiting for six months but im not going to keep the board for six months with constant crashing. Regardless that this board just came out the instability shouldn't be there. I tried both the bios's that came with the board and the new on from asus both were unstable when clocking past 3.8 and i couldnt acheive 2400 on the HT either no matter what voltage. They may work awesome with the x6's but the x4's not so good.

The 800 chipset is a revision of the 700 series chipset rather then a overhaul with performance increases. You can get sata 6gb and usb3 on 790fx boards, i should know i have one with them.
they are the only added benefit of grabbing 890fx over a 790fx series as there is not more performance increases over 790fx. Yeah sure it brings a better IGP but for enthusiasts like myself I would never use it anyway.

Other boards have scored better in reviews like the Gigabyte 890fx UD7, im looking at that board tbh.

 

[cadaveca]

I hear ya on that one. Being an adopter of new tech certainly has it's disadvantages. I am dealing with this not only in pcs, but in guitars too. Guitars have proven far more expensive though.

I've stayed with ASUS lately due to how they perform in memory benches. They tend to keep the timings you cannot see in bios fairly tight, and bioses are always tuned for a specific config.

Right now, The Crosshair4 is all about x6 and Elpida Hypers. I knew this long before the board was released, so I'm all set. No other sticks are hitting 1800mhz mem @ CAS 6 with low volts, so I knew that was where this board was headed.

790fx/sb750 and C3 with 4-series cards are a platform(Dragon). They work best together, it seems.

Likewise, 890FX is the Leo platform, for X6 chips and 5-series cards. It also seems very centered around populating all 4 DIMM slots, as memory usage has picked up a bit, and will only increase.


I won't be talking about my Leo platform for a few months yet. Like the 5-series cards, I'm goning to give them some time to get things perfect before I make a final judgement.

Heck...I'm only getting the Formula because it's red/black. I don't care about how it overclocks...


:shadedshu

 

[ebolamonkey3]

Drooool......

 

[DavidV]

Heres a review MSI GD 70 790FX and the Crosshair IV Formula 890FX useing the AMD 965 BE.



http://www.techreaction.net/2010/04/27/asus-crosshair-iv-formula-890fx-performance-review/

 

[dumo]

For CH IV mobo with bios 0707.....If you clocked memory @ >1600 make sure you set HT manually as high as you can

 

[cadaveca]

Maybe an explanation as to how the efficiency drops if you don't, might motivate people a bit more, Dumo. I know you've been hyping high HTT, as I have been, for some time now, but not everyone is gonna understand why we need to do this.

Many people are still claiming PH2 doesn't get a boost from HTT scaling either. We need to change this...so uh, if ya could post up some screens showing the difference, that'd be great.

 

[cdawall]

well thats great but im not gona wait for 6 months for a decent bios revision with my machine being unstable and crashing about 5-6 times a day. Also the overclocking is awful. i might aswell keep the board i have that has been stable from day one and performed a charm getting my 965 up to 4.3 stable and the crosshair couldnt even keep 3.8 stable.

I dont mind waiting for six months but im not going to keep the board for six months with constant crashing. Regardless that this board just came out the instability shouldn't be there. I tried both the bios's that came with the board and the new on from asus both were unstable when clocking past 3.8 and i couldnt acheive 2400 on the HT either no matter what voltage. They may work awesome with the x6's but the x4's not so good.

The 800 chipset is a revision of the 700 series chipset rather then a overhaul with performance increases. You can get sata 6gb and usb3 on 790fx boards, i should know i have one with them.
they are the only added benefit of grabbing 890fx over a 790fx series as there is not more performance increases over 790fx. Yeah sure it brings a better IGP but for enthusiasts like myself I would never use it anyway.

Other boards have scored better in reviews like the Gigabyte 890fx UD7, im looking at that board tbh.

Even with x4's you are the first person I have heard of having issues with this board could it maybe be the clocker and not the board? Even when the ch3 came out it didn't clock as good as my m4a did the next bios fixed all of those issues and I hit 5ghz on dice using my 550be. Same thing has happened with my 890gx bios one topped around 250htt and 1900mhz ram 2nd bios seems a bit better.

 

[Reefer86]

that being true cdawall , the 890fx has no performance increases over 790fx, very tiny if any its a revision. My gigabyte is a great board so far and im enjoying using it. So spending £170 for another board that i might have to wait 3-4 months for aint my thing. The sata 6gb and usb 3.0 is already on my 790fx board

I will return the board and pick up a X6 with the cash seems the better option. As many reviews have said its an evolution for storage essentials rather then performance.

all being said it might just be my ram being dodgy im not sure, all i know is my setup was rock solid at 4.3 on my gigabyte and was very unstable on the crosshair. Im not saying its a bad board, but there are other 890fx board that have better reviews then the crosshair.

 

[erocker]

Im not saying its a bad board, but there are other 890fx board that have better reviews then the crosshair.

What boards? I'd like to know.

 

[cdawall]

What boards? I'd like to know.

He seems somewhat gb tainted some I'm going to say ud7

 

[erocker]

Just saw a UD7 vs. Crosshair review and that can't seem to be it, since the Crosshair came out on top. Must be a different board?

 

[runnin17]

that being true cdawall , the 890fx has no performance increases over 790fx, very tiny if any its a revision. My gigabyte is a great board so far and im enjoying using it. So spending £170 for another board that i might have to wait 3-4 months for aint my thing. The sata 6gb and usb 3.0 is already on my 790fx board

I will return the board and pick up a X6 with the cash seems the better option. As many reviews have said its an evolution for storage essentials rather then performance.

all being said it might just be my ram being dodgy im not sure, all i know is my setup was rock solid at 4.3 on my gigabyte and was very unstable on the crosshair. Im not saying its a bad board, but there are other 890fx board that have better reviews then the crosshair.

I don't see how you can say that when it has easily been shown that the 890FX chipset is more stable when it comes to RAM overclocking. The CH IV formula is the only AMD board I have seen that can run ram over 2000MHz stable with decent timings.

I haven't seen any specific reviews on the MSI 890FX chipset and ram overclocking, but so far the CH IV formula is a king when it comes to this. Couple that with better USB 3.0 and SATA 6GB/s implementation and a better board layout that the CH III and you have a much better board IMO.

 

[dumo]

Maybe an explanation as to how the efficiency drops if you don't, might motivate people a bit more, Dumo. I know you've been hyping high HTT, as I have been, for some time now, but not everyone is gonna understand why we need to do this.

Many people are still claiming PH2 doesn't get a boost from HTT scaling either. We need to change this...so uh, if ya could post up some screens showing the difference, that'd be great.

Heres from Bingo @ asus http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showpost.php?p=4364946&postcount=49

 

[erocker]

So it is best if HTT/NB are at the same frequency? How about HTT voltage in relation to frequency?

 

[cadaveca]

So it is best if HTT/NB are at the same frequency?

Yes, as it is at stock. Both are 2000mhz. But 2000mhz NB is really optimized for 1066 ram. To keep the timings you don't see optimized, you need to keep both in sync. You also need to set multis manually, or they will revert as close to 2000mhz as possible. ASUS plans on fixing it on thier boards.

Remember a few guys complaining that NB/HT multi reset to stock when pushed a bit on ASUS board? Now you know why.(I'm guessing here, but it makes sense).

How about HTT voltage in relation to frequency?

790FX supports 2600mhz HTT @ default, as a minimum. 890FX can only do better. Check your mobo box...it says up to 5200MT HTT...

 

[Reefer86]

the MSI 890FXA-GD70 Motherboard is apparently the same performance margins with the crosshair and the UD7 does look great also the gigabyte fx also has got great reviews. i would link but i used the links from the main page and cant remember where i saw them.

The crosshair has been given the performance awards in alot of places, but the performance crown is still not found its home as other boards have got this award and also gold awards over the crosshair.

 

[erocker]

Need more 890FX boards to know what is best. You'll notice most items that are reviewed get some sort of an award. Asus and AMD has always been superb for me. Plus the Crosshair looks better.

 

[PaulieG]

Just saw a UD7 vs. Crosshair review and that can't seem to be it, since the Crosshair came out on top. Must be a different board?

I've seen one review with the Crosshair on top, another with the UD7 winning. They are very, very close. I just like the Gigabyte bios better. However, I just bought a Crosshair since Gigabyte is taking their sweet time getting the UD7 to vendors. I REALLY wish there were more options at launch