Hardware Asus Crosshair IV Formula Motherboard Review

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/motherboards/2010/04/27/asus-crosshair-iv-formula-mobo-review/1

AMD's new 890FX chipset gets the Republic of Gamers treatment...

 

Nice board it looks pretty sweet, and nice review too.
Just thought id point out that the picture on page 2 is that of a Rampage III extreme.

:edit: Fixed, lovely!

 

Heads up, the board is available at Scan for £166

 

Can anyone give me a definitive (with link to AMD/board representative) answer that these new 890FX/GX AM3 boards will support Bulldozer when it arrives next year?

Because nobody can give a straight answer. Either it is "Yes", "Yes* = but only in AM3rev2 form", "No" or "Eh?"

If I'm going to plonk down a great wedge of cash for an expensive MB/DDR3 combo to replace my AM2+ MB I'd want an assurance that it'll support Bulldozer next year. If not, I'll wait it out on my still respectable K9A2 Platinum/720BE.

Note: I'm not referring to the Fusion Llano, but the high-end Zambezi (Bulldozer) quads.

 

I'm running one of these with dual 5970s, 4x4GB 1333MHz GSkill Ripjaws @ 8-8-8-20, 1090T @ 4GHz. GPU score of 31k with 20k CPU in 3DMark Vantage. So AMD finally has a CPU that is keeping up with i7 (if not the 980x).

Any board that hits 4GHz on first boot gets my seal of approval.

Phenom II x6 is looking to be a game changer, offering 90% of the benefits of the i7 980x for a fraction of the cost.

 

Adnoctum: I would hazard a guess that it's a no. Given what AMD's next generation brings to the table.

No idea yet. I'll ask around.

Cyberpower-UK - your post is somewhat ironic asking for value then claim you use two 5970s. And with respect to the 980X - what kind of performance does that have a 4.. 4.2.. 4.5GHz? By that argument I can buy a Phenom II X2 555, unlock it to four cores and OC, then have 90% the performance of a 1090T

 

Those cards are getting waterblocked and put in a 980x 12GB system so I'll let you know later. iirc, GTX480 SLi with 980X and 12GB 8-8-8-24 ~ 1900MHz got 30.5K GPU-P.

 

Just got a new BIOS, 706 from ASUS which adds 2000MHz RAM support, 8GHz @ 2GHz vs 16GB @ 1333.

 

Pricing Update
The original price of £190 inc VAT quoted to us for this review was incorrect, the board actually costs £166.72 inc VAT from Scan. As the Crosshair IV Formula is superior to the MSI 890FXA-GD70 and cheaper, we've adjusted the Value score from 3/10 to 6/10, and the overall score from 6/10 to 7/10. Apologies for any confusion.

 

£190 should be for the Crosshair IV Extreme which can support 4 5870s and if the rumours are true may support quad SLi now that nvidia isn't bothering in the motherboard market.

Minor update. 8GB of 2000MHz RAM working at 9-10-9-27, Vantage GPU score up to 32k, probably just noise. But getting benchable 2GHz shows that the Thuban IMC is better than the Deneb C3.

 

Nice motherboard, but I'd really like to see a Crossfire IV Gene please!

 

+1 fibble

I don't see the point in all 3 variants from ASUS. As far as I can tell, gamers are well catered for by the Gene, while the Extreme is the best choice for overclockers. The Gamers board just seems to be stuck in the middle and a little confused.

 

I'm a little bit disappointed by the SATA3 performance, something is wrong with the controller or the board. I was waiting for this to be a killer, a reason to change from my M3A32MVP-Deluxe but I guess I won't change until the new AMD's cpu architecture is out. The new six-core comes with a little bit of disappointment too.

When it's due the new Bulldozer?

 

Couldn't get 8GB @ 2GHz stable on C4E.

Put the 5970s on a R2E with 980x, at Stock it gets 33k overclocked (4.2GHz) 37.4k (Vantage P-GPU) so clearly the cards are held back by the CPU. So if you want Crossfire go for the Intel platform.

 

Gamer's also happen to overclock and one very positive aspect of a stable gaming motherboard is how well it overclocks. This means a solid design and robust BIOS is available, something all gamers will appreciate. The whole discussion about the auto-overclocking tools is overblown as you can use either but not at the same time. ASUS is giving you the one option button without going into the BIOS, the BIOS, or the software depending on which one you feel more comfortable with when going that route. The TurboV software works extremely well.

In regards to the SATA 6G speeds, the author did not comment on whether or not AHCI was enabled or if CnQ/C1E were enabled. CnQ/C1E being enabled will affect performance but not as much as having the wrong drivers loaded. The 10.1 Catalyst driver set does not include the latest AHCI driver that fully enables SATA 6GB operation on the board nor does it include the new USB filter driver. This just shows that the author did not take his time to properly research or test the board and that includes the MSI 890FX. I hope Tim has Clive redo this one as the gaming comments is out of place and the drivers utilized are not the ones designed for these chipsets.

 

Tim is nothing to do with the website now, he has moved on to be online editor of Expertreviews.co.uk

CnQ is always disabled because it affects result consistentcy, and 10.1 is in reference to the 5870 graphics. The driver CD is always used once the OS is installed and Catalyst will recognise not to overwrite newer drivers with old ones. If the company does not provide the right drivers then it's their fault: we test as a consumer would use the product, as a whole.

I haven't seen 8GB @ 2GHz, only 1800. I dont think it's possible with current ICs or without heavy tweaking of the DRAM bus drive strengths etc + a good BIOS. I've only seen 2 sticks/4GB @ 2000 CL7 on the Asus 890FX.

 

What AHCI drivers were used for testing? Also, Intel, AMD, and Nvidia are always updating drivers for improved compatibility, stability, or performance so why not test with the drivers available at launch. It would be difficult to expect a manufacturer to supply launch day drivers when the product needs to be ready weeks before actual launch.

 

Any chance of bit-tech retesting this with the 0707 or 0801 Bios. These were released in a hurry and are supposed to fix a lot of performance issues with the motherboard?

 

This Asus Crosshair IV Formula mobo looks very sweet.

I'm building an AMD/ATI system but this board is about £60 over my budgeted one. But you've got to admire the quality. The trouble is, I'd want a 100% see-through case just to show it off!

 

Some of these ASUS Crosshair IV Formula boards have a Northbridge heatsink that makes no contact whatsoever with the chipset, thus even without overclocking you have a Northbridge that overheats. I haven't seen a single review that mentions this glaring Asus cock-up! (they used the wrong screws to hold down the heatsink) A quick search on google will reveal all.