Although we gave AMD’s 890GX/SB850 a lukewarm reception last week, there’s no denying that a sub $150 price point for a feature laden board such as the ASUS M4A89GTD Pro is deserving of closer inspection.

While most of the boards within a certain price bracket follow a common component formula, ASUS and ASRock have managed to segregate themselves by breaking rank and offering hardware level core unlocking for budget dual/tri-core AMD processors. That means that you can buy a sub $100 CPU and unlock it at your leisure to enjoy 4 core number crunching. The feature itself is not new per se, it’s just that AMD decided to drop support for ACC on series 8 chipsets, leaving vendors to do things on their own accord. ASUS’ workaround is almost certain to have upset AMD, but we think they made the right choice - if moving to the 8-series chipsets meant giving up core unlocking, many enthusiasts wouldn't.

If you take a look over at the blue corner (Intel), you’ll see that sub $150 expenditure almost exclusively limits you to the micro-ATX and mini-ITX form factors on the H55/H57 chipsets. While such motherboards are perfect in the context of small HTPC builds, there are times when users need increased levels of plug-in flexibility and future-friendly upgrade paths, and that’s where a full sized ATX motherboards start to make sense.

We’ve got a couple of AMD board reviews lined up for you this month, kicking-off today with the M4A89GTD Pro, as subjected to our standard test suite. Do note that we’re still in the process of bringing you a meaningful SATA 6G performance comparison – we should have a dedicated article up on this shortly.

Summary/Overview

One of the things that came to light during our first look at the AMD 890GX platform was an issue with our Sharkoon USB QuickPort. After a lot of back and forth, it’s been discovered that the problem lies with Sharkoon’s QuickPort firmware (the controller is made by Lucidport) and not ASUS’ M4A89GTD Pro.

ASUS have since acquired six Sharkoon QuickPort units and have discovered three different firmware releases have been used by Lucidport/Sharkoon at random, while our lab unit contains a fourth. Sadly, none of these firmware versions sit well with the AMD chipsets due to a ‘USB hand-off issue’. ASUS have reported to us that USB 3 drives from BYTECC and KINGWIN work fine with the AMD chipsets, although our advice would be to hold off for a few weeks while we find out which controllers these units contain and if Sharkoon’s problem can be fixed via a firmware update.

That leaves us with a few things on the M4A89GTD Pro that need attention, the first relates to S3 sleep resume. We used the Corsair TX 950 for our testing and found a hit and miss scenario because there are instances where pressing the power button to instigate resume does not work after the board has been in S3 state for 2~3 hours; the only way to get the board to post again is to switch off at the mains, let residual power drain from the PSU and then turn back on. It’s not something that manifests all the time, so tracing it down could prove a little tricky, although we’re told ASUS is working around-the-clock to find the problem.

The other area of operation that needs some tuning relates to how the M4A89GTD Pro handles Elpida Hyper based memory modules for overclocking. When used in conjunction with ASUS’s ‘Core Unlocker’ feature; a failed overclock can result in the need to clear CMOS before the board will post again with 4 cores active. In fact, we found that the Hyper based modules are more stable at CAS 6, than they were at CAS 7 or 8 on this motherboard. We were sent a beta BIOS late last week that improves memory compatibility and although things are a little better, the Elpida Hyper issues are persistent - there’s clearly a need for more work.

Once you work out how to circumvent some of these quirks, the M4A89GTD Pro does overclock quite well – get it dialed in properly and the board is comfortable holding 8GB of memory stable whilst maintaining high memory controller frequencies in tandem. We managed to squeeze a perfectly respectable 4GHz from our Phenom X2 555 processor, unlocked to 4 cores with 8GB of memory running DDR-3 1600MHz 6-7-6-18 timings at a 1T Command Rate using our Corsair Dominator GT modules.

ASUS have also put a lot of work into promoting their automated overclocking routines to us over the past few months so we put this feature to the test. ASUS offers two ways to instigate automated overclocking, the first method is via BIOS, and the second is by using the supplied Turbo V overclocking utility within the OS.

The BIOS level utility was a little hit and miss for us depending upon which memory modules we were using. With Elpida Hyper modules the board has a tendency to select CAS 8 based timing sets which does not sit well with the current BIOS releases, resulting in an unstable overclock. Using more conventional and affordable memory like the Corsair 1600MHz Dominator kits, we obtained an easy 3.6GHz overclock with CAS 9-9-9-27 timings at a 2T Command Rate. 

It’s the OS level Turbo-V utility where ASUS have really nailed automated overclocking, there are a variety of tuning options which can result in overclocks right on the hilt and beyond where we’d setup our components manually. ASUS have done a great job in simplifying what can be a complex process for many users.

Had the random S3 resume issue not have been present, we’d have been hard pushed not to give this board an award for catering to every type of user and providing a feature set that belies its price. What we'll do for now while ASUS polishes the M4A89GTD Pro, is encourage you to put it at the top of your shortlist as one to watch...

The gaming/performance figures tell a familiar story:

Power Consumption

Our power consumption testing utilizes the same batch of components under similar circumstances in a bid to monitor variances between idle and CPU load conditions. We install the vendor supplied power saving utilities on each board and enable power saving modes that don't involve any kind of underclocking or CPU core frequency modulation in order to run an apples to apples comparison.

ATX PSU switching losses are absent from our figures because we monitor power consumption directly at the DC rails of the PSU. Total system power consumption will vary depending upon the efficiency of your PSU.

While AMD processors can’t keep up with Intel’s for power consumption, the M4A89GTD Pro turns in a respectable performance against ASUS’s ATX sized Intel equivalent P7H57D-V Evo. The X2 555 falters slightly in these tests due to a high stock VID of 1.35V. The soon to be released X4 910e operates at 2.6GHz with 4 cores with a 65w TDP hence the lower consumption numbers.

You can under-volt the X2 555 somewhat to reduce its power draw, although we found our sample was not capable of running at 3.2GHz at a VID lower than 1.25V. As a quick experiment, we overclocked the 910e to 3.2GHz whilst maintaining a 1.15V VID and it came through our benchmark suite without a problem - whilst pulling only a few extra watts of power. The X4 910e is definitely a superlative bin.

DPC Audio Latency

We’re often asked to include a DPC latency screenshot by audio enthusiasts, here’s what the M4A89GTD Pro manages:

Overclocking

Although we managed to hit target frequencies with all of our processors, the most exciting processor to overclock out of the bunch was the X2 555. Unlocked to 4 cores, we ended up with a stable 301 base clock; a shade over the 4GHz mark running 8GB of our Corsair Dominator GT’s @ CAS 6-7-6-20 1T DDR3-1604MHz:

For those that like to benchmark and chase numbers for fun, base clocks up to 390MHz are possible if you use Turbo-V to increase bus speed within Windows (POST maximum up appears to be limited around 370 MHz).

It’s a pretty good show from ASUS considering the Hyper modules are rather picky about operating parameters on this motherboard. Using more ‘realistic’ modules, expect to see 4GB maximums fall in the region of DDR3-1800~1900 MHz at CAS 8, while good 8GB kits should hit the DDR3-1800MHz mark on the 0402 BIOS.

The M4A89GTD Pro will set you back a cool $149 at various online retailers:

ASUS offers a full spread of components on the M4A89GTD Pro, you get Realtek’s 8111E LAN (PCIe), Realtek ALC 892S audio (complete with the DTS Surround Sensation package) and a couple of NEC fired USB 3.0 ports.

Included with the board you get the following items:

1 x User Guide

1x Support DVD

2x SATA 6Gb/s cables

2x SATA 3.0Gb/s cables

1x UDMA 133/100/66 cable

1x Rear I/O plate

1x VGA switch card

1x Front Panel quick connector

It’s an adequate bundle, but we’d like to have seen a USB bracket added to make use of the internal USB headers.

Software

On the bundled software side, all of the regular ASUS tools are supplied with the M4A89GTD Pro; Express Gate (Linux based OS), AI Suite (overclocking and fan control), PC Probe II (temperature and voltage monitoring) and ASUS Update (OS level BIOS flashing). We’re told ASUS is looking at combining some of these tools into a single package in the near future – it’s a change that’s long overdue.

Most of the software tools that manufacturers provide with boards these days are nothing more than bloatware that serve little purpose. In fact, we’d prefer it if vendors fed us less fluff and spent more R&D time on motherboard functionality rather than creating another source of potential problems.

There is one tool in the ASUS line-up that’s good though - its Turbo-V’s built in overclocking routine:

We were introduced to this tool earlier this year when we reviewed the P7H57D-V Evo, and we liked it a lot. You get the same thing here on ASUS’s AMD board, delivering no-fuss overclocking with a decent level of flexibility. Users can set tuning criteria to suit their system and will find the automated routines end up at bus frequencies that are well aligned for 24/7 use most of the time. There’s also the option to push further if you’re components/cooling allow by selecting the extreme preset. The software runs a quick stability preset, hikes the bus frequency by a few MHz and then prompts you for approval before continuing – the whole package is put together very well by ASUS.

BIOS

This is where ASUS get things spot-on for our liking, the BIOS is well laid out, easy to navigate and comes crammed with a multitude of performance options for every type of usage scenario. Voltage options for all primary rails are very granular and also allow direct-entry so you don’t have to scroll up and down through most of the voltage table to select the setting you want.

Another area where ASUS get it right is in the area of memory sub-timings and drive strengths, every option has its own AUTO setting allowing users to fall back on defaults when necessary.

The one area we’ve found to be a little wanting is overclock recovery, we had to switch off at the PSU quite often to encourage ‘safe mode’ to engage during overclocking. We’ve come to expect a little better from ASUS in this department over the years, but it looks like BIOSTAR have the upper-hand in this area at present on their boards.

BIOS flashing is made easy via a built-in routine that allows upgrading from a USB drive, HDD or DVD. ASUS have also gone to the length of ensuring that the BIOS flash software only runs if the system is at default settings and not overclocked, which should prevent a few corrupt BIOS flashes when users are a little careless.

We’re often asked by users to provide information about motherboard fan-control when we discuss board features. Its pleasing to report that ASUS offers very comprehensive fan speed control via BIOS for three onboard fan headers. Most boards at this price point struggle to provide you with anything more than control for the CPU fan header, so we have to commend ASUS on going a step further - we’d like to see more of this please!

Board Layout

Board layout is good, with most slots and connectors placed for easy access. It looks like ASUS have not skimped on the CPU VRM for this board as it's rated for 180 amps, which is good news with Thuban on the horizon.

The IGP and CPU FET heatsinks are connected via a heatpipe, which provides the GPU a little extra mass to dissipate heat. The CPU FET portion of the heatsink is attached to the board with push-pins; it’s a long assembly so a back plate with screw fittings would ensure better contact for the central FETs when the PCB bows from the pressure of some CPU coolers. Operating temperatures are good though, needing little cross-flow when overclocking to keep things cool.

There’s always a design oddity somewhere on a motherboard and the picture above is the M4A89GTD Pro’s unsightly wart. ASUS have not used PCIe lane switches on this board, which means you have to insert that little PCB to enjoy 16x bandwidth to the central PEG slot. The top (white) PEG slot runs on an 8x lane allocation at all times, regardless of slot loading.

Underneath the lone DIL socket-mounted BIOS chip, four SATA ports are placed “head-on” in the bottom right corner of the board, the other two are ports right angled and situated at the bottom right hand corner. The BIOS jumper is located between the forward facing SATA ports and the USB headers. While there is the possibility of access to this jumper within a cramped PC case, we’d have preferred placement somewhere along the rear I/O panel.

The action zone on this board is near the DIMM slots; hardware level core unlocking at the flick of a switch. To the right you’ve got a Turbo switch which applies an instant overclock much like MSI’s OC Genie.

The rear I/O panel contains all audio/visual outputs, six USB ports (two are USB 3.0), 1 x RJ45, 1x eSATA, 1x 1394 and PS/2 for Keyboards.

Test bed Setup and Power Consumption

We utilized memory kits from Corsair and G.Skill to verify memory compatibility on our test boards. Our OS and primary applications are loaded on the OCZ Vertex 120GB SSD drive and our games operate off the WD Caviar Black 1TB drive. We did a clean install of the OS and applications for each motherboard. We COrsair's Integrated H50 water-cooling setup for stock and overclocked prcoessor speeds. For graphics duty, MSI’s GTX 275 Lightning GPU was used to provide performance comparisons between boards during gaming benchmarks.

For our test results we set up each board as closely as possible in regards to memory timings. Otherwise all other settings are left on auto. The H55/H57 platforms utilized 8GB of memory where possible. The H55/H57 DDR3 timings were set to 7-7-7-20 1T at DDR3-1333 for the i3-540 and i5-661 processors at stock frequency. At 4GHz we used DDR3-1280MHz on the same processors because some boards are not stable at 1600Mhz using our 8GB memory kits.

For the AMD setup, we used DDR3-1333MHz with CAS 7-7-7-20 1T timings using 8GB of memory for the stock frequency compares. The 4GHz numbers were provided in conjunction with 8GB of memory running at DDR3-1600MHz at CAS 8-8-8-24 1T timings.

As this is our first full AMD 890GX motherboard review, we’re a little thin on baseline figures from older platforms to compare against our current test hardware. We’ve got a couple more AMD reviews lined up for the coming weeks so should be able to paint a better overall picture of how things stand on multiple fronts in due course. For a quick overview of the basics like USB 3, LAN performance and IGP compares please check our platform launch article here.

Power Consumption

Our power consumption testing utilizes the same batch of components under similar circumstances in a bid to monitor variances between idle and CPU load conditions. We install the vendor supplied power saving utilities on each board and enable power saving modes that don't involve any kind of underclocking or CPU core frequency modulation in order to run an apples to apples comparison.

ATX PSU switching losses are absent from our figures because we monitor power consumption directly at the DC rails of the PSU. As such, total system power consumption will vary depending upon the efficiency of your PSU.

While AMD processors can’t keep up with Intel’s for power consumption, the M4A89GTD Pro turns in a respectable performance against ASUS’s ATX sized Intel equivalent P7H57D-V Evo. The X2 555 falters slightly in these tests due to a high stock VID of 1.35V. The soon to be released X4 910e operates at 2.6GHz with 4 cores with a 65w TDP hence the lower consumption numbers.

You can under-volt the X2 555 somewhat to reduce its power draw, although we found our sample was not capable of running at 3.2GHz at a VID lower than 1.25V. As a quick experiment, we overclocked the 910e to 3.2GHz whilst maintaining a 1.15V VID and it came through our benchmark suite without a problem - whilst pulling only a few extra watts of power. The X4 910e is definitely a superlative bin.

Gaming and 3D performance

Far Cry 2

Featuring fantastic visuals courtesy of the Dunia Engine, this game also features one of the most impressive benchmark tools we have seen in a PC game. For single GPU results we set the performance feature set to Very High, graphics to High, and enable DX10 with 2xAA.

Not a great show here from AMD in comparison to the Intel counterparts, but playable nevertheless.

Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War II

We are big fans of the Warhammer franchise, especially Dawn of War II. One of the latest RTS games in our library is also one of the more demanding titles on both the CPU and GPU. We crank all options to Ultra, enable AA, and then run the built-in performance benchmark for our result.

Things are a bit better in Warhammer, with AMD a shade behind the standard.

AutoCAD 2010 x64—Cadalyst 2008

We utilize AutoCAD 2010 x64 and the Cadalyst Labs 5 benchmark.

We were expecting a bit of a better standing for AMD’s HD 4290 IGP in the Cadalyst benchmark but it appears Intel’s processor crunching advantage and bus I/O performance keeps things on a near even keel with the i3 540.

System Benchmarks

Sorenson Squeeze 6

We are using Sorenson Squeeze to convert eight AVCHD videos into HD Flash videos for use on websites. This application heavily favors physical core count and processor clock speed.

WinRAR 3.9 x64

This benchmark compresses our AT workload consisting of a main folder that contains 954MB of files in 15 subfolders. The result is a file approximately 829MB in size.

Bibble 5.0

We utilize Bibble Labs' Bibble 5 v2 to convert 50 RAW image files into full size JPEG images with the program's default settings. This program is fully multi-threaded and multi-core aware.

Conclusion

Although there are areas that ASUS need to work on with the M4A89GTD Pro, what they’ve managed to do is set a paper baseline around the $150 mark that is going to be hard for any vendor to compete against. We think ASUS are bang on the money with BIOS layout, automated overclocking, fan control and core unlocking features.

The only thing we see as a potential hindrance at this stage is the random S3 resume behavior we experienced with our Corsair TX950 PSU. As it stands, out of every ten sleep mode resume attempts, you might find one that requires an AC power cycle to reboot. We know of one other person who has encountered this thus far, and that was after going out to find it on purpose at our behest by using the same components. Given the scarcity of the problem, we could probably live with it if we had to, but these things should work properly and it’s our job to point out when they don’t.

Most of the issues we’ve encountered during the course of this review may not affect you at all depending upon component choices and how you intend to use the board. In fact, a lot of what we’ve pointed out relates to Elpida Hyper memory modules, which many of you won't be pairing with a $150 motherboard. If you fall into that category, then we have no hesitation in recommending the M4A89GTD Pro to you. However, if you’re looking for a little more certainty all round, we’ll repeat a familiar mantra at this point and urge you to wait another month before laying down dollars on this platform.