The Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H is not priced defectively, and chances are that it will get more reasonable in a couple of months to become a great option for those looking to build a reasonable desktop PC based on an AMD processor.

Video output choices contain VGA, DVI and HDMI. The board gives an AM3 socket and 4 dual-channel DDR3 RAM slots. The Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H utilizes a northbridge and southbridge combo of 890GX and SB850 correspondingly.

It's SB850, which givess six ports SATA drive for data storage; all 6Gbps support SATA and RAID 0/1/5/10/JBOD modes. There are 2 PCI-Express slots for graphics, which supports a single card in x16 mode or two in CrossFireX mode at x8 each, as well as support Hybrid CrossFire for use onboard IGP, in combination with discrete graphics cards. Superfast support USB 3.0 devices provided using controllers NEC, Gigabit Ethernet controller by Realtek, and 7.1 HD-audio codec Realtek ALC892.

Gigabyte has a view of "Ultra Durable 3" tag, which tells you that it gives Dual-BIOS, use high quality Japanese capacitors and that the PCB motherboard is two pounds worth of copper layer - the intended result, to make the product more secure and stop the different problem that may affect any main board. Some of the more Goodies thrown into the path of the so-called Gigabyte Easy Energy Saver, Easy Tune 6 configuration utility, and "3x USB Power Boost", to give more power to USB devices that need it.

This is a full-ATX motherboard blue with white dash for connectors and slots. For those with transparent cabinets for show internal components, we would say, it looks stylish yet sober. Heat sinks banks are concentrated around the processor does not preclude the use of secondary market CPU cooler with a little more than usual trace.

Proper balance seems to be a compromise between the positioning of the two PCI-E slot for discrete graphics cards, and from the ports of SATA. You can install two high-end graphics cards, which are long and Dual-Slot, but does not block access to ports SATA. Note that this design works well only with full-Tower ATX cabinets that you can use if you are already an enthusiast desktop PC.

Those with mid-tower or smaller cabinets, cannot find the location of SATA ports to be very affordable. In addition, two-slot graphics card enough space separating them, but if you use more than two or PCE PCI-E x1 expansion cards (eg, TV tuner or sound card), you should avoid installing a second graphics card. There is no external SATA (E-SATA) support via the ports on the back of the motherboard or headlines, but there are many USB ports.

IGP at (Radeon from AMD 890GX HD 4290) differs from the old 785G (Radeon HD 4200) in terms of clock frequency, but only supports DirectX 10.1. As expected, the motherboard box has a logo, that claim is slightly inflated performance numbers. Contents Gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H box package were pretty standard - manual, CD with drivers, on the rear panel for the rear I / O ports, one PATA and 2 SATA cables. BIOS give all the aspects one would expect, as well as raising the clock frequency. Gigabyte gives a 3 year warranty on this board.

To avoid bottlenecks, we tested the performance of this motherboard with the following mechanism - AMD Phenom X4 II 965 Processor (3.4GHz), AMD Radeon 4870 graphics card, 4 GB Kingston 2000MHz DDR3 RAM, Intel X25-M 80GB SSD, Asus Blu -- Ray drive, Tagan BZ-1300W PSU, and Windows 7 Ultimate 64-Bit Edition.

In the first half of the trials were the real world and the subjective performance. As expected, the OS worked easily each day productivity applications and the Internet just stressing any components. High-Definition and high bitrates 1080p rips the movie played fine without any jerking or the on-screen objects, which can be attributed to the raw speed of the processor used. Blu-Ray discs played without a snag, whether it is using the processor alone, or when using the acceleration IGP to take the load from the processor.

Hard disk speed was at the level of the best motherboards we have tested (e.g., 249 MB / s Random Read speed on Intel SSD). Thus, we find that Storage Controller on the chipset is good. Memory performance remains consistent in the criteria that emphasize the memory, when using discrete graphics, and using the IGP. We could overclock the processor by default 3415 MHz to 3825 MHz (15x255), despite the limitations of bus HT, CPU cooler is used and voltage RAM modules. All these are good signs.

The second half consisted of synthetic tests. These goals and to give firm numbers, which can be played on demand and will be used to compare performance. We take into account the different tests, ranging from simple (Windows Experience Index), a standard testing system (World Bench 6, PC Mark), who spend a lot of tests, including video encoding. Seeing how this fee includes the IGP, we included in the games, as well (Crysis, Far Cry 2, Unreal Tournament 3).

For a complete list of control results, see our tab "Performance". For those eager to see the numbers rightaway, here are some performance results, two numbers for each test. The first figure was obtained using the discrete Radeon 4870 graphics card, to check the motherboard, and the second number was obtained using a Radeon 4290 (onboard integrated graphics) to check the IGP. Unless otherwise indicated, all the following tests were performed with default settings.

Windows Experience Index: 7 Rate (graphical component alone, on a scale of 1 to 7,9): 6,9, 4,3
Crysis (1024x768 0xAA Ultra High) frames per second: 47.58, 4.18
Cinebench R10 OpenGL: 7244, 3598
PC Mark 05: 15032, 10732
PC Mark Vantage: 9954, 9388
3D Mark 06: 18992, 2125
3D Mark Vantage: P14584, P407

Suffice it to say that the performance seen with the IGP was better than any other IGP there. Graphics included on the Intel Core I5-661 did somewhat better in some tests, but the 890GX still beats it in general. Plus point in favor of AMD is that the platform (motherboard + processor) can be bought at a lower price than a similar combination of camp Intel.

Let us only disappointment is that we wanted to give 890GX included DirectX 11 IGP. Well, even with the DX11 performance would not be sufficient to play the latest games with eye candy turned in any event. In terms of overall features and performance, we have not seen huge changes between the previous generations of 790GX motherboards, with current 890GX board. possibly other upcoming 800-series chipsets may be at variance - 890FX on high-end may offer a more Goodies and 880G for budget users can sell at a lower price, but we do not know the details of those who just yet.