Update: AMD notified us of some slower scores on IGP, sent us a new BIOS to flash our Foxconn board with which helped with some performance issues in addition to setting Sideport memory to "Auto" from a 1:1 interleave ratio. With that fix our 3DMark score jumped 500 points and other game performance improved from 5-15%. Our conclusion remains the same, the 790GX is the fastest integrated graphics on the market and AMD has done a great job with it. If we can see more boards at $100 it should take off quite well.

Earlier this year in March AMD set off a bang with the AMD 780G chipset complimented nicely by the Southbridge SB700 bringing DX10 to integrated graphics in addition to good performance, HD decoding, great overclocking, low power consumption, and more. Nvidia followed it up with not one but two chipsets which while good could not compete with the integrated graphics of the 780G chipset. Intel's G35 wasn't even on the map and just now somewhat released the G45 succesor. ATI's purchase has suddenly seemed to again be the right move and at the very least the brightest spot for the company until it can get it's CPU business together. AMD has not rested though and are back again for another round and the follow up to the 780G, the 790GX.

To pre-face this review we'll let you know we were quite short on time as our board arrived just as we left for QuakeCon and have only had Monday and Tuesday to do all testing. That said taking a sneak peak at other reviews out on the net in the early AM hours we can say without a doubt no one goes as far in testing the integrated graphics performance in games as us in any review we've seen so far. We even have G45 and Hybrid Crossfire numbers to go along with the 790GX to give you a broad picture of what's out there. We did test other features such as AMD's Advanced Clock Calibration and the SB750 chipset but didn't get to test all boards thoroughly and thus will re-visit this at a later time. But these game benchmarks are quite tasty so let's cut to the chase.

The 790GX isn't the revolutionary shift that the 780G chipset was but instead is a new spin on the 780G. The number of stream processors remains the same and the core architecture but you do get a nice 200MHz bump from 500MHz to 700MHz in addition to a number of other tweaks and refinements. Sideport memory that was optional with the 780G is now a requirement also for the 790GX which should free up any memory bandwidth and capacity problems that you might run into with this board. The other major refinement is that Crossfire is now supported in dual 8x modes which lets the 790GX reside in between the 780G and the 790FX Northbridge chipsets quite nicely.

The new SB750 Southbridge sees some fundamental shifts from the SB700 which cured USB woes of previous ATI Southbridge chipsets. As mentioned earlier AMD's new Advanced Clock Calibration is supported by the new SB750 which allows for much better overclocking when it is paired with a Phenom processor. AMD hasn't given the deepest of details on this unfortunately and again we are pressed on time to go over even what we do know but in short in our overclocking experience it seems to work well. We bested our overclocking records we achieved with Nvidia's 780a reaching 3.2GHz on the Phenom 9850BE and 3.4GHz on the 9950BE. Any more was a non-possibility and as always results may vary with overclocking. Here are our CPU-Z screenshots.

The 9950 gave us an 800MHz overclock with the new SB750 and the 9850 700MHz. We'll keep tweaking as time goes on and watch any ACC developments.

AMD's 690 chipset doesn't stop turning heads. The way it was introduced, as a low-priced alternative to Intel, with budget trim and no enthusiast options, belittled its raucous performance. It looked like a stopgap, especially since AMD had little to do with its design and released it as a last foray before the new AMD could re-group. It's not likely that even ATI expected the chipset to be the thin edge of the wedge. 690's ripples keep on growing. As it turns out, people seem to like motherboards with complete multimedia support, great onboard graphics, insignificant power envelopes, unparalleled performance, and low prices.

Testing the Phenom 9600 has been interesting. The BIOS and CPU-Z agreed on the speed of the processor, but AMD's Overdrive utility showed the "actual" speed as being roughly 5% faster than what the processor was set for. Regardless, at either 2.65GHz nor 2.75GHz the Phenom turned in some decent numbers, but frankly it could not touch the overclocked Intel results. The office results for Phenom were outstanding, however Phenom is not at this point capable of matching Intel parts clock-per-clock in performance. There is no doubt that it is an interesting piece of technology; and AMD's initial pricing for it does give it a chance for some market penetration. Personally, I would not hesitate to recommend a Phenom 9600 to someone who could use it to upgrade an existing Socket AM2 system. Getting a quad core processor for around $250-$280 for an existing single or dual core Socket AM2 system - without having to change anything else except updating the BIOS - is an excellent deal (provided such a BIOS update were available).

The Black Box package holds the CPU and the warranty information. Maybe even a sticker (though I really don’t know because I received the bare processor from AMD). No fan is included, so that particular unit needs to be purchased separately. Which is probably a good thing for enthusiasts as I myself am overflowing with stock fans that I do not use. AMD is pricing these products very competitively, and they are attempting to establish a niche with budget enthusiasts. Now that we have that prolonged (and most likely unnecessary) introduction to AMD’s X2 5000+ Black Box, let’s dig in and see what happened.