GIGABYTE GA-790FXTA-UD5 (rev. 1.0) Pro Reviews

The Gigabyte 790FXTA-UD5 is a great addition to the 790 FX series of motherboards. It adds new technologies like USB 3 and SATA 6 GB/s which future proof it a bit. Of course this board lacks AMD's new SB850, which technically puts it behind the times. However, the SB750 is certainly not old technology. With the addition of a USB 3 and the SATA 6 GB/s controller, the SB750 can easily keep up with the SB850 in terms of performance. The FX itself is better than the 890 GX as far as multi GPU configurations go. Not only does the 790 FX support three graphics cards, but it runs two in full 16x mode. The 890 GX however can only do 8x CrossFire. The difference between 8x and 16x Crossfire is marginal most of the time, so the 890 GX may be a better route to take. If you want to run three cards though, the 790 FX is the only way to go.

This ATX board does almost everything, but it’s expensive and we’d have preferred more SATA3 ports at this price.

In terms of features the GIGABYTE MA790FXTA-UD5 motherboard is second to none on the AMD market right now with support for SATA 3, USB 3, AM3 CPUs, 3-way CrossfireX and more. The inclusion of so many new features can cripple the functionality of other features such as CrossfireX on the P55 chipset, but the 790FX chipset is built with more than 36 PCI Express lanes in mind for 4-way Crossfire, meaning there is plenty of headroom for using the PCI Express lanes for SATA 3 and USB 3.0 with the Marvell and NEC controller chips. Performance was pretty good on this system. This board falls just under our Editors Choice, but is a solid motherboard nonetheless.