Help choosing Gigabyte 890GPA or 890FXA

Hi everyone, new to the forum and seeking a little advice. I am currently in the process of building a new system, first one in about 3 years. Currently running an ASUS M2NSLI-Deluxe, obviously a little out of the loop with the newer AM3 versions and all the little tweaks and whistles some of the new motherboards come with. I have decided to try a Gigabyte and was hoping someone or a few could lend some feedback on if the 890FXA is really worth the extra 45-50 dollars compared to the 890GPA.

I plan on getting the T1090 BE CPU, along with Mushkin Radioactive ram 4gb (unless someone happens to know anything better for the same price point) along with one of these motherboards if this has any relevancy to my original question.

Thanks in advance, this forum has been very helpful in the short time I've been looking around.

You aren't being specific enough on the exact model but the 890FX boards will give you better Crossfire and SLI setups due to its 32 lanes of bandwidth compared to 16 for the other board. The 890FX are the highest end are usually better in a lot more aspects so $50 would be worth it especially with a high end CPU.

My bad, these are two models I was currently looking at.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128435

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128441


I just wanted to make sure that the price was worth it before I order. Thank you!

If it was my money I'd go with the 890GX. It's forty bucks cheaper, it will probably overclock the 1090T every bit as well as the 890FX, and I like the three-slot spacing of the PCIe16 slots better than the two-slot spacing on the 890FX. With that spacing it allows for better cooling if you go Crossfire, especially if you decide to add aftermarket air cooling to both Crossfired cards. I don't think you can go wrong with the 890GX.

The 890fx is better by a mile. The GPA uses an optional integrated GPU already signaling that it isn't an enthusiasts board. The FX has much better multi GPU future proofing and overclocking. It's a mid range board vs. a high end board. Whether you need those nice high end features like better overclocking and better Crossfire will be up to you. Since you only upgrade the board ever so often, I say splurge a little extra to get a whole lot more.

890FX 16x-16x crossfire. usefull if your planning crossfire setup.
890GX 8x-8x crossfire. negligible difference to the 16x lanes in crossfire setup. Unless your using eyenifity with 3 or more monitors.

So Id go for the 890GX.

In his post in the General Hardware section it shows that he's planning on using an NVidia card, so unless he decides to go with AMD/ATI the Crossfire question is moot.

There is no documented advantage in OC'ing performance to one or the other but the premium mobos tend to have a better vcore power supply circuit design to the CPU resulting in less power noise and ripple. This may or may not change how your CPU OC's.

There is simply no way to tell as every single mobo/CPU/VID/RAM/PSU is slightly different. If you have the means to buy the more expensive mobo I'd go with it but if not I wouldn't lose any sleep as there is no way to know if it has any influence on OC'ing. Even if it does will you life really be changed if one mobo OC's less than another?

Whatever RAM you chose I would confirm that it has been tested and confirmed compatible with your AMD Phenom II CPU as not all RAM works well on both AMD and Intel PCs.

Thanks everyone. I'll go ahead with the 890FX. Appreciate your input and I will check on the ram compatibility.

BigTerminator said:

You aren't being specific enough on the exact model but the 890FX boards will give you better Crossfire and SLI setups due to its 32 lanes of bandwidth compared to 16 for the other board. The 890FX are the highest end are usually better in a lot more aspects so $50 would be worth it especially with a high end CPU.

Click to expand...

The 890FX chipset, in fact all AMD chipsets, are for Crossfire only with one exception - the Crosshair Extreme with it's Hydra technology. If you want to run SLI you'll need an AMD board with an nVidia chipset.

Any single PCI/PCIe card will run on any board ...