EvaluationThe 890GX certainly is an improvement over the older 785G and 790GX chipsets, but it's not a shockingly big difference. The main reason why you opt for a 890GX powered board for a new build is to future proof your system with Sata 6Gbps and USB 3.0 capabilities, if you are own a 785G/790GX system the question is whether you should upgrade or not, since those two features are exploited by current generation hardware.
When it comes to 3D performance, the HD4290 is actually exactly what we expected from AMD: an increase in clock frequency to match the Intel GMA HD performance. Nothing more, really ... no DX11, no increase in sideport memory size, so again we have to ask ourselves the question: is it worth to upgrade from 785G to 890GX?
Another problem with the 890GX is that the price is 30~40% higher than the one of a regular 785G. Ok, agreed, it's probably because there's only a very select amount of boards available, but the price difference is a lot. Looking at the H55 products, we notice a difference of roughly 10 to 15%, in favor of the H55. I think it's quite easy to jump to the right conclusion?
Now, concerning the 890GXM-G65 mainboard. To be honest, every time a new mainboard lands on my desk, I expect it to have huge flaws. In the recent past, I've done a lot of troubleshooting and beta-testing for boards and I do understand better how difficult it is to get a board just right from the absolute beginning ... sometimes it all goes well, but sometimes the flaws are innumerable. Now, in this case, I have to say that I was surprised about the quality of the bios and the board in general. No, I did not have to spend an entire night prowling through the bios to find the right combination to get 8GB working ... no, first boot everything worked perfectly stable. The test sessions with this board went smoothly and I have no reason to complain about anything.
MSI 890GXM-G65
Conclusive thoughtsNo award? Not for the board or the chipset or the this particular model? First of all, in contrary to some other hardware reviewing websites, we prefer to only hand out awards when a product really stands out against the competition. And for that to work, we need to test similar products and make the actual comparison. Now, having tested 0 other 890GX mainboards, I can't tell if the 890GXM-G65 stands out against the rest, but unless the other boards give me 6GHz on air cooling or a 1500MHz IGP, I'm quite confident that this is a solid product and certainly worth to consider when going for an AMD-based HTPC.
Speaking of HTPC ... is the 890GX worth to consider? Well ... yes and no. No, because at the moment the mainboards are a tad too expensive and don't offer any features, performance or anything else that justifies the higher price. Do note, however, that the 890GX is actually released for something else than the current Deneb: the 6-core'd Thuban, which will be released end of April.
Since Intel's hexacore is priced a rather 'conservative' €1000, building a small yet powerful HTPC or desktop PC will have to be using one of those Thubans, coming at < €300 for the most high-end product. Actually, it's probably a pity that these 890GX's were released so long before the arrival of the Thuban since it doesn't make sense to buy one now for your quadcore. So, if you have one month left, I seriously recommend you to hold off the purchases for the HTPC and wait for the arrival of Thuban. And then you can buy a brand-new 890GX as well ...
When Thuban arrives, we'll re-evaluate the HTPC capabilities of the 890GX for sure.
To end with, I'd like to thank the following people for providing the hardware and support. Without these people Madshrimps (and I) would never be able to provide you this content.
AMD (Steeve): for providing the Phenom II X4 965
Corsair (Gareth): for providing the Dominator memory
MSI (Nick): for providing the MSI 890GXM-G65
OCZ Technology (Tobias): for providing the batch of OCZ Freeze cooling paste
TONES (Manu): for always being ready to provide hardware where necessary