ASRock 890GX Extreme3 Motherboard

Conclusions

This is a “First Look” article, but you can check the performance of AMD 890GX chipset on our ASUS M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 review. Traditionally motherboards based on the same chipset achieve the same performance.

From this review we learned that AMD 890GX is way better than AMD 785G, providing a performance gain between 33% and 37% in games. However, on-board video is still a bad way to play games: a very low-end Radeon HD 3450 with 64-bit memory interface and 256 MB was between 44% and 64% faster than AMD 890GX. Therefore if you are looking for a system to play games, even occasionally, you are still better off buying an add-on video card, even the cheapest one (this Radeon HD 3450 costs USD 35).

But that doesn’t mean that AMD 890GX should be ignored. Motherboard manufacturers will be providing motherboards based on this chipset with very good features, and you may want to pick a motherboard based on this chipset even if you want to install an add-on video card.

Since it natively supports SATA-600 ports, motherboards based on this chipset will probably be cheaper than motherboards that require an extra chip to do the same thing, helping to bring SATA-600 to the mainstream arena. And even if you don’t plan to use a SATA-600 hard drive or SSD, you will have a system ready for this new technology for a future upgrade, which is always desirable.

Now talking specifically about ASRock 890GX Extreme3, it brings several extra features like two USB 3.0 ports, three PCI Express x16 slots (the third one always working at x4 speed) and a high-end voltage regulator circuit, making this motherboard an interesting option to more expensive socket AM3 motherboards.

The price of this motherboard is compatible with the number of features it brings. Of course we’d love if it cost less, but keep in mind that it brings the latest technologies available. Even though it has on-board graphics, you should not see it as a low-end motherboard with integrated graphics, but as a mainstream socket AM3 motherboard with all the latest technologies that happens to give you on-board video "for free.”