Monday, March 16th 2009
Sapphire Pure CrossFireX 790GX AM3 Motherboard Spotted
Apart from being a major add-in board (AIB) partner for AMD's ATI Radeon and FirePro lines of graphics products, Sapphire is also a notable motherboard manufacturer that has been using chipsets by ATI for several generations of platforms now. Its latest offering is the DDR3-supportive Pure CrossFireX 790GX AM3 motherboard. It has been spotted at a Japanese store, where it was priced at 18,980 JPY (around 192.5 USD).
Based on the AMD 790GX + SB750 chipset, the motherboard features an AM3 CPU socket. Four DDR3 DIMMs provide support for up to 16 GB of DDR3 memory. A 5+1 phase CPU power circuit is present. Heatpipe based cooling spreads heat between the northbridge and VRM heatsinks. The southbridge gets its own small heatsink. Two PCI-Express x16 slots are provided, which arrange as electrically x8, x8 when both are populated. The motherboard lacks onboard lane switching logic, and relies on a switch card that has to be installed on the second PCI-E x16, for the first one to provide all its 16 lanes to the installed graphics card. The motherboard features a Radeon HD 3300 class IGP with dedicated 128 MB of DDR3 sideport memory. Audio-routed HDMI, DVI and D-Sub connectors are provided onboard.
Source:
Akiba PC Hotline
Based on the AMD 790GX + SB750 chipset, the motherboard features an AM3 CPU socket. Four DDR3 DIMMs provide support for up to 16 GB of DDR3 memory. A 5+1 phase CPU power circuit is present. Heatpipe based cooling spreads heat between the northbridge and VRM heatsinks. The southbridge gets its own small heatsink. Two PCI-Express x16 slots are provided, which arrange as electrically x8, x8 when both are populated. The motherboard lacks onboard lane switching logic, and relies on a switch card that has to be installed on the second PCI-E x16, for the first one to provide all its 16 lanes to the installed graphics card. The motherboard features a Radeon HD 3300 class IGP with dedicated 128 MB of DDR3 sideport memory. Audio-routed HDMI, DVI and D-Sub connectors are provided onboard.
32 Comments on Sapphire Pure CrossFireX 790GX AM3 Motherboard Spotted
If it was mATX, sure... but not ATX.
editt: it feels like a timwarp back to the DFI nforce 4 days - using a video card in either slot blocks smaller ones (why isnt the PCI-E 1x above the top PCI-E slot?) and extra molex power needed to the board (see above top video slot)
This board just seems weird, its like the latest tech with an outdated board design.
Such a beautiful name for a mobo yet so basic :(.
I don't get why they put the PCI Express right under each other? They never consider that people have dual slot cards? It would definitely block up a new wireless pcie card or soundcard.
it was either that or pay £40 extra for a decent dfi mobo
EDIT: what is the point in sideport memory?
Sure in more cases its not necessary but I like safety nets. Plus Iv been really happy with my board. I don't know why its not more popular. :confused:
and probably adds $50 to the boards cost... i hardly see it as a great move.
id prefere another slot to that, especialy when most motherboards with the 790gx chipset all have sideport memory and all those features
I now have radeon 3200 crossfire with 128MB of ram!
I've tried crossfire on my 780G with a supported card, it actually got slower.
needless to say without a dedicated graphics card the sideport memory is usefull and probly goot on matx or pico but not full sized atx wich has crossfire as a feature meaning the intend you to have 2 dedicated cards
i thought the gpu could use the memory in game or i could see it being usefull if you only wanted the onboard to run and the graphics card could shut down to save power and noise/heat
Edit: I'm not doubting you. I just find it odd.