790FX, Where do we stand ?

**S1nn3r** · 12-10-2007, 09:09 PM

As people who read my Gigabyte thread will be aware I gave up on that board as it was a PITA and got a refund, that refund is now done.

DFI,Asus and MSI now have 790FX boards out in the wild so im wondering what the consensus is on those boards ..

I am left with a 5000+ BE,HD3870,Corsair HX620 and 4GB of DDR2 with no home and this situation realy needs to be delt with very soon.. i.e in the next 24/48hrs.

I am left wondering Is it worth me giveing 790FX another go at this time ?, or has DAMMIT screwed the pooch on this one for now and i should firmly retreat to Nforce terrority as far as AMD mobos go..

**duploxxx** · 12-10-2007, 10:02 PM

don't know what happened with you're board but the msi k9 platinum board i have and also several others here on the forum seem to have no issues

**Brother Esau** · 12-10-2007, 11:19 PM

I will be doing a review on the DFI 790FX-M2R by this weeks end with crossfire hang put as I am waiting on another board

**S1nn3r** · 12-11-2007, 07:24 AM

Originally Posted by duploxxx

don't know what happened with you're board but the msi k9 platinum board i have and also several others here on the forum seem to have no issues

I had huge memory issues namely Prime blend would fail at stock/recommend timeing/volts with my 2GB Mushkin Kit, and also the board would not boot at all with boath sticks of the 4GB G.skill kit I had installed regardless of timeings/voltages.

**BadNizze** · 12-11-2007, 08:21 AM

Just got my DFI 790FX upp and running, I don´t have much experience yet but first impressions are good. Running my Ballistix great! Will have more tests soon

**S1nn3r** · 12-11-2007, 10:30 AM

The DFI i cant do as there is noone in the UK selling them. Am kinda tempted to try the MSI though..

**GunterFalstaff** · 12-11-2007, 11:14 AM

does anyone know the difference between the msi platinum and the cf-f? i know it just has 2 pcie slots but other than that... whats the diff? do the they perform the same? if i was only ever planning on going crossfire (2x) would i be ok with just getting the cf-f for about half the price?

**madfaze** · 12-12-2007, 07:00 AM

Originally Posted by GunterFalstaff

does anyone know the difference between the msi platinum and the cf-f? i know it just has 2 pcie slots but other than that... whats the diff? do the they perform the same? if i was only ever planning on going crossfire (2x) would i be ok with just getting the cf-f for about half the price?

what procie are gonna put on it?i was planning to get this one too..hehe

have you found any review?

**Cloud76** · 12-12-2007, 02:35 PM

Originally Posted by GunterFalstaff

does anyone know the difference between the msi platinum and the cf-f? i know it just has 2 pcie slots but other than that... whats the diff? do the they perform the same? if i was only ever planning on going crossfire (2x) would i be ok with just getting the cf-f for about half the price?

Some differences:
-The Platinum has 790FX chipset, the CF-F the 790X.
-The Platinum has 5 phase pwm design, CF-F has 4 phase PWM design (it seems that the CF-F doesn't support 125W CPU...Phenom 9700 for example... while 9500 and 9600 (95W) works, SEE HERE: you see that the 125W CPU like Athlon 64FX FX62, Athlon 64 x2 6400+ and Athlon 64 x2 6000+ are not supported on this mobo). Maybe with the B3 Phenom stepping (if it will lower the TDP of the CPU with higher clock) there will be no problems (or with the future 45nm CPU).
-the CF-F has no eSATA port and IEEE1394 Port in the back panel (optional)

Ciao!

**Blacklash** · 12-12-2007, 03:19 PM

Originally Posted by Cloud76

Some differences:
-The Platinum has 790FX chipset, the CF-F the 790X.
-The Platinum has 5 phase pwm design, CF-F has 4 phase PWM design (it seems that the CF-F doesn't support 125W CPU...Phenom 9700 for example... while 9500 and 9600 (95W) works, SEE HERE: you see that the 125W CPU like Athlon 64FX FX62, Athlon 64 x2 6400+ and Athlon 64 x2 6000+ are not supported on this mobo). Maybe with the B3 Phenom stepping (if it will lower the TDP of the CPU with higher clock) there will be no problems (or with the future 45nm CPU).
-the CF-F has no eSATA port and IEEE1394 Port in the back panel (optional)

Ciao!

Dumb question about the link you provided. I just noticed it says the K9A2 CF supports the Agena 9600 since BIOS 1.1. Is it possible it wouldn't post with the shipping BIOS? I have one installed with a 9600 that seems dead. It won't fire up at all. Perhaps I need an older chip to update the BIOS? Right now it does nothing. I don't have another chip to try and thought it would support the 9600 out of the box.

**Zytek_Fan** · 12-12-2007, 04:09 PM

790FX will get better once the southbridge is replaced with SB700

(I <3 AMD's naming. So easy to remember

)

**muzz** · 12-12-2007, 04:13 PM

No wonder the CF is so cheap.................
Bah

**Blacklash** · 12-12-2007, 04:19 PM

It would help if they had put the BIOS rev somewhere on the board.

The link says 1.1 was released on 11-15 so it's possible I got a board with 1.0. Guess I can buy the cheapest AMD chip I can find that is supported under 1.0 and test it.

**KTE** · 12-12-2007, 04:38 PM

I was supposed to be testing the DFI 790FX-M2R today. It wouldn't even boot up with Phenom installed. It was mainly my RAM, because it has LEDs you can see if they start up or not and in this case they were not siwtching on. I dropped it back off again 2 hours later. Far worse than the K9A2, at least it runs and benches OK.

**informal** · 12-12-2007, 10:32 PM

Planet3Dnow updated their Phenom benchmarks with the GB 790FX board with latest BIOS(previously they used MSI K9A2 Platinum) and managed to make 1066 memory working on this board with Phenom.Quite the difference in a number of tests(look at Xmpeg+Xvid;Cinebench9.5 gained 10% in 2.4Ghz 1066 Vs 2.4Ghz 872,in a single core test;3Dmark01 gains 1500 points going from OCed to 2.4Ghz DDR2-872 system to stock 2.4GHz DDR2-1066 system with new Gigabyte board;there are many more examples at the links below):

link

Note how poor Spider numbers(ES 2.4Ghz,DDR2-800) look when compared to the Phenom in GB board,not pretty for Spider platform at all(who assembled those systems anyway

**KTE** · 12-12-2007, 11:10 PM

What's wrong with those Spider platform scores? They are lower than most quad core scores.

It seems they might have labelled things incorrectly? For example, two exact same labels on the Crysis bench for Q6600 while the highest looks like it should be "DDR2-1066" instead of "DDR2-800". They have two Q6600 runs at same settings on the same graphs. Why is this?
And what do the different colors denote?

ES seems to be slower than B2 overall. Gigabyte board is tighter?

Which wPrime verson do they use? That looks like v1.54 but it's 1sec slower than what I get stock with loose 4-4-4-12-24 2T timings.

Thanks for links though.

**Cloud76** · 12-13-2007, 01:42 AM

Originally Posted by Blacklash

Dumb question about the link you provided. I just noticed it says the K9A2 CF supports the Agena 9600 since BIOS 1.1. Is it possible it wouldn't post with the shipping BIOS? I have one installed with a 9600 that seems dead. It won't fire up at all. Perhaps I need an older chip to update the BIOS? Right now it does nothing. I don't have another chip to try and thought it would support the 9600 out of the box.

First to buy another CPU you should contact MSI and ask these questions.
I do not trust much of this mobo... it seems almost an old AM2 board adapted for AM2+ CPU (new chipset but old PWM)... it's strange that it doesn't support old 125W CPU (and AM2+ requirements needs 125W, the same requirements of AM3).
However it's not possible that thay sell an AM2+ board with a BIOS that doesn't work with the low level Phenom CPU like 9500 and 9600 (also because there are only these Phenom at the moment!). It seems to me absurd. Are you sure that the system is all ok? I believe the system should boot and not recognizing the cpu as has always happened...

On the other hand BIOS 1.0 is for "all" the dual core CPU... and 1.1 support the new quad core... you know that the new Phenom are very different compared to the X2...it might be possible that the system does not start... but this fact is really absurd and stupid on the part of MSI.

**justapost** · 12-13-2007, 04:11 AM

Originally Posted by KTE

What's wrong with those Spider platform scores? They are lower than most quad core scores.

It seems they might have labelled things incorrectly? For example, two exact same labels on the Crysis bench for Q6600 while the highest looks like it should be "DDR2-1066" instead of "DDR2-800". They have two Q6600 runs at same settings on the same graphs. Why is this?
And what do the different colors denote?

About the colors:

green: K8-CPU auf Gigabyte GA-MA69G-S3H, DDR2-800
light blue: Intel Core 2-CPU auf Asus P5K Deluxe, DDR2-800
red: K10-CPU auf MSI K9A2 Platinum, DDR2-800 bzw. DDR2-872
orange: K10-CPU auf Gigabyte GA-MA790FX-DQ6, DDR2-800 bzw. DDR2-1066
dark blue: Spider-Plattform (K10, Gigabyte GA-MA790FX-DQ6, DDR2-1066, Radeon HD 3850)
You can find the specs for the test platforms here.
The two Q6600 runs differ in the number of cores (Kerne).

**PhilDoc** · 12-13-2007, 10:37 AM

From what I could see, it looks like its not that 1066 is so much quicker, but that the Gigabyte board is quicker than the MSI board. Makes me wonder if the MSI already has the bug patch in place.

**Blacklash** · 12-13-2007, 11:28 AM

Originally Posted by Cloud76

First to buy another CPU you should contact MSI and ask these questions.
I do not trust much of this mobo... it seems almost an old AM2 board adapted for AM2+ CPU (new chipset but old PWM)... it's strange that it doesn't support old 125W CPU (and AM2+ requirements needs 125W, the same requirements of AM3).
However it's not possible that thay sell an AM2+ board with a BIOS that doesn't work with the low level Phenom CPU like 9500 and 9600 (also because there are only these Phenom at the moment!). It seems to me absurd. Are you sure that the system is all ok? I believe the system should boot and not recognizing the cpu as has always happened...

On the other hand BIOS 1.0 is for "all" the dual core CPU... and 1.1 support the new quad core... you know that the new Phenom are very different compared to the X2...it might be possible that the system does not start... but this fact is really absurd and stupid on the part of MSI.

I am going to try once more. If it has the 1.0 BIOS installed it won't work with the Agena 9500 or 9600. I bought a cheap Orleans 3000+ for 32usd from Newegg and am going to try again when they send me another board. That one was simply brick dead. It wouldn't work with just a single stick of ram, the cpu and a graphics card installed either. I tried it in the case and on the box it came in. I am not upset with MSI as all their other products I have used have been problem free.

I do think if a mobo is listed to support a certain CPU it ought to do so right out of the box. I can't say this is the first time I have seen this though.

I thought 790X and 790FX would support Phenom without issues right out of the box and it seems that isn't always the case. At least with the Orleans 3000+ I will be able to flash the BIOS if I get a board with 1.0.

Anyway it will be straightened out by next week. Thanks for the feedback.

**THEGAME304** · 12-14-2007, 01:11 AM

i have a asus 790fx board>>>m3a32-mvp deluxe wifi-ap edition, with a 6400+BE on it with 4 gigs of corsair, and this thing rocks.clocked to 3.5 right off the bat. not a hiccup or any problems what so ever.i have a 8800gts and i can play crisis without any problems. this is my 3rd asus board and this is definately the best..going to try to clock higher but temps are kind of high at 3.5ghz. running it now at 3.3ghz. im looking into a watercooling setup to get better temps, and ill bet that it can clock to at least 3.7-3.8 if i get water cooling. this susus board is definately worth getting,if i had it to do again, id buy the same board . when amd gets phenom bios straightened out they will be back on top again. next step? crossfire!!!!!!!!

**Brother Esau** · 12-14-2007, 01:16 AM

thats about all the love on the 6400+ that you will be getting more than likely mine does not do much more than that but the DFI 790FX-M2R is a Monster gaming machine and with a stellar chip with allot of O.C Head room I shudder to think of the p[otencial

**blargman** · 12-14-2007, 03:52 AM

@op what were the issues with the Gigabyte? I have a MSI k9a2 platinum here with 2x2gb sticks of Geil. Getting this thing to recognize all the ram is impossible and it won't run at anything higher than 800mhz. I want to stab something. I guess this is what was happening with the Gigabyte? I'm real close to sending the board and chip back and buying a q6600. I'm just not sure what i'll do with 2 of my 4 3870s!

**Cloud76** · 12-15-2007, 02:32 AM

Originally Posted by Blacklash

CUT

Ok, when you will do these test please can you update me on this fact?
It would be useful to know whether this K9A2 CF really needs the new bios to boot with a Phenom installed

Have good tests!

Ciao

**mAJORD** · 12-15-2007, 03:05 AM

The gigabyte 790FX is still the one of the best boards I have ever owned. both Intel an AMD. The problems we are experiencing with Phenom are no fault of the boards, or the chipset. This chipset is capable of running K8 at levels an Nforce 5 would dream of, with effortless 400+ HTT, (up to 430 for me) 2000Mhz Hypertransort, and of course it's stable.

throw K8 in one of these boards and you'll know what I mean, not to mention many others.

the topic is misleading, it's not 790FX where do we stand, it's Phenom where do we stand.

Cheers!

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