Coverage for the ugly step-child

[OldGeek]

Is anyone out there using AMD? Had been a fan since the Athlon XP 3200+ and now with the Phenom II x4 955 BE, feel sort of alone. Couldn't be happier with the performance. Am OC'ing at 3.774GHz at 1.35V. Just received the latest(? for at least a week until it's obsolete..probably is already?) GA-MA790FXTA-UD5 that besides being an AM3 board, has everything INCLUDING the kitchen sink. Am waiting for the DDR3 memory to arrive tomorrow. Soon maybe a 5850?

Wondering if anyone has used the AMD OC'ing utility Overdrive? What was your experience. How did it work out for you?

BTW, I had no choice but to use Intel for years until there was AMD which provided affordability. Then AMD went stagnant and had to go back to the...for me..dark side for a taste of the E6420 and later Q6600. Now that AMD is back with a processor that most all think is inferior to the I7...it is given the benchmarks...yet many wish they had saved the bucks as I did when I went back to AMD with their Phenom II x4. Boy does it ever run Flight Simulator nicely with ALL the sliders maxed out.

For the price of an I7, was easily able to buy the Phenom and a decent MB and memory. Now about to take the Phenom about as far as it will go on current Gigabyte boards. This new board has USB 3 and the SATA 3 on a pure AM3 board. Can I really make use of all this? Probably not, but the 790FX is supposed to be a better NB than the 790X.

I'm writing this as it is lonely over in AMDville and hoping someone out there in Gigabyte land is using AMD so we can discuss BIOS's and other interesting things, you know...timings and voltages. Yes AMD has all that too. At least Gigabyte has one confirmed AMD loyal user. Any others? I didn't find any while searching...but I miss plenty. Seems the board has changed since I was last here too. Nothing like keeping an old man confused. Oh well....

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: Coverage for the ugly step-child

Hey buddy!

Yes, still only a few AMD Users here and some even hide their status when online

Hopefully someone will chime in and offer you some thoughts on this, I just thought I would drop by and say hello and of course give your thread a bump

[OldGeek]

Re: Coverage for the ugly step-child

Thanks Lsdmeasap. I realize the "wonderfullness" of the Intel, but the frugal rebel in me wants competition. Even if it is between two companies, e.g. Intel vs AMD or nVidia vs ATI. Competition keeps it all going in a positive direction. It's also fun to try to prove that less is more. In many ways the AMD is proving that. You remember all the help you gave me with the Q6600? Well I've taken that over to AMD and am enjoying the chance to learn a different way of doing things. Really wish to compare notes on Overdrive and other OC'ing topics for the AMD.

Am still saving for a 58xx series card, though may try another 4890 while I can still get one as they are far less expensive (shorted out a Gigabyte 4890 two weeks ago...major ouch). And after all Flight Simulator only puts so much strain on the beast (30% of total CPU), but it is a long term "strain" with flights of up to 14 hrs real time while mildly OC'd and using stock voltage. OK, the temps are helped by the V8, but does that ever make a difference over my old Xigmatek. Lots of calculating in flight sim and am now experimenting with processor affinity. It is so satisfying to run Flight Sim with every feature running to the max. Maybe someone will come out of the woods here. My new MB is something to behold, even if it is JUST an AMD running on a AM3 Gigabyte uber board. At least now I've been pushed into DDR3 for the ten seconds before something faster takes its place. Again thanks for stopping by Lsdmeasap!

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: Coverage for the ugly step-child

I hear ya, everyone has their own opinion on which is better. Ya, I do remember helping you out, always enjoyed your posts actually too. That's why I commented on this one, even though I could not help I always enjoyed having a little chat with you.

I can direct you to some forums with AMD specific sections with much more traffic, if you like and are unaware of any.

I am using 4890 myself, I don't game so it's great for me. I do have a large monitor (MS238H) and benchmark often so it does what I need it too. I'd like a 5xxx card, but only the 5770 cards are acceptable price and those will be half that in a year so I can't see myself buying one now based on that and they are the low end of the series. I'l wait for 5870 or 5890 to get to an acceptable price before I upgrade to one. WOW, you fly in your sim for 14 hours, that's a long time!

Well enjoy your new board, and let me know if you need directed to an AMD Specific forum section anywhere. Yeap, I do think DDR4 will be out sometime in the near future, we all hope anyway.

[OldGeek]

Re: Coverage for the ugly step-child

Today installed the GA-790FXTA-UD5. Oh my. It is all good. Add a couple 4890's or 5850's and it would be smokin' in the AMD world. Gigabyte really did put the kitchen sink in this board. It's going to take some time to sort it all out and get the max from it. I was able to OC to 3.8GHz for the first time on stock voltage, something I wasn't able to do with the GA-M790X-UD4P.

In the next couple of days I want to try the AMD Overdrive and see where it takes me while maintaining a 55C max temp. 60C is the max but want to leave some wiggle room. Although the SATA3 hasn't set the world on fire, perhaps the USB 3.0 will. First have to find something to use it on. My backup is on eSATA so USB is out for now.

It was a breeze to install. Booted first time without installing any drivers except had to install the LAN to get to the Internet. If I can get enough $$$ from my tax return, will shoot for maybe two 4890's as they each get 16 lanes on the 790FX chip. Don't have a need for DX11 so that would be a bit of a waste.

If you are running AMD, let's hear from you. Want to compare notes! I've got the poor mans I7 on probably the most powerful AM3 board with the new DDR3-1600 from G.Skill, it definitely a step up . Far from the ultimate but did give a nice bounce to the system.

[mv2devnull]

Re: Coverage for the ugly step-child

Non-GA board, Phenom X4 9750, and no OC hardly is a note to contribute. Sorry.

But we have someone on the forum knowledgeable about the AMD side. Was it artdivers?

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: Coverage for the ugly step-child

Yeap, Artdrivers is the AMD guy around here.

Nice to see you like the board, and didn't have any setup issues! I always love to hear success stories, glad you were able to get it all setup without a hitch, and love the board too that always make for a bonus.

[GaryS]

Re: Coverage for the ugly step-child 8 gb edition

I have the GA-MA790FXTA and made the mistake of buying OCZ Back Edition DRAM. The intent was to run 8 gb under Windows 7 Pro X64. WRONG! 4 gB of memory is not totally stable under any settings I can find, and 8 gb usually won't even start. Blue screen crashes, corrupted data, the whole list. The CPU is a Phenom II X2 555, not overclocked.

I posted a negative review on Newegg, and OCZ replied with some song about "tested and guaranteed at 4 gb", thereby more or less admitting their memory won't work at 8 gb. I should have known better, I had limited success with OCZ twice before.

Anyway, can anybody recommend any memory that will definitely run four 2 gb modules at 1333 MHz in this motherboard? Looks like I'm out the $250 or so for the OCZ, but I'd like to avoid a second expensive mistake.

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: Coverage for the ugly step-child

Did you underclock the memory or try looser timings? Were you using the latest BIOS?

You were of course increasing the NB Vid and Freq right? Sorry I know very little about AMD, but I do know you need to do this for 4GB so I am sure it would need that plus some for 8GB.

I'd suggest you head over to Mushkin Forums and ask Sean if he knows what set they offer that will run 8GB for sure on your board, he should know