Gigabyte GA-MA790GP-UD4H Motherboard Review :: Features

• AM3/AM2+ CPU Support
• 140W CPU support
• EC-AOD-ACC Support
• AMD OverDrive Support
• Built-in 128MB DDR3 SidePort Memory
• ATI Hybrid Graphics Technology support
• ATI CrossfireX support
• Ultra Cool
• Ultra Durable Classic
• Dual-Channel DDR2-1200+MHz
• 50,000 Hours Japanese Solid Capacitors
• Gigabyte Easy Energy Saver
• EasyTune6
• DualBIOS
• HDMI 1.3 certification
• Windows Vista Premium Logo Certified

The new AM3 CPUs add support for DDR3 memory and the new AM3 interface. While the AM3 CPUs can and do work on motherboards with the AM2+ interface, the AM2+ CPUs will not work with the AM3 motherboards due to the lack of DDR3 support on the CPU and two missing pins from the new CPU not found on the AM2+ CPU. Note that as long as Socket AM2+ motherboards have updated BIOS options you can buy a Socket AM3 CPU and fit it into an AM2+ motherboard.

Logo

The GA-MA790GP-UD4H motherboard has onboard ATI graphics in the form of the ATI HD 3300 integrated graphics chip. This is similar in most respects to a last generation HD 2600 graphics card with 128MB of onboard DDR3 memory in a SidePort configuration. You can use the 128MB as framebuffer memory with the additional memory required allocated from the system memory. The HD 3300 has a clock speed of 700MHz for the core/shader clock and has 40 Shader Processors.

ATI was bought by AMD a couple of years ago. One of the primary goals of the combined company was to sell platforms with CPU, video card, and motherboard chipset together to the consumer allowing lower pricing for a package deal and integrating the drivers together. ATI's multi-GPU solution is called CrossfireX and the Gigabyte motherboard supports CrossfireX with two ATI video cards.

Gigabyte motherboards with the Ultra Durable 3 moniker indicate features like Japanese Solid Capacitors boasting an operational lifetime of 50000 hours for CPU, VRM, Lower RDS (on) MOSFETs (reducing power consumption and heat dissipation.) Gigabyte's patented DualBIOS technology means that you are assured of a safe BIOS upgrade as there is a additional backup BIOS if the flash is done wrong. Dual BIOSes are safer to update as you can do them one at a time.

Gigabyte has included an Embedded Controller for AMD OverDrive-Advanced Clock Calibration. This feature comes with their SB750 Southbridge chip which is included with this motherboard and allows AMD Black Edition CPUs to be overclocked through the AMD OverDrive utility further than was previously possible. This board also is compatible with AMD's OverDrive utility to overclock the CPU automatically and manually through their OD Control Panel.