Reviews - Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD9 motherboard meets four-way Radeon HD 5870 CrossFire

[HEXUS]

Gigabyte's most extreme motherboard promises "blazing-fast frame rates" from four-way GPU configurations. We put the claim to the test.

Read more.

[nnunn]

Thanks for the intro. A good next test would be to see if you get "blazing-fast frame rates" from 4 dual-GPU cards in a numerical simulation. The question is whether the two NF200 switches help 4 dual-GPU cards talk at full speed to the 24 GB a user will put into this board. Any chance you can load CUDA 3.1 and try 4 x GTX 295s? Or 4 Fermis?

Keep up the good work!

[jim]

How does the overclocking compare to other boards? Do all of the extreme features actually amount to anything in the CPU overclocking game?

And what happens if you put 4 5870s into a cheaper board that doesn't have x16 in every slot?

Interested to know how many of their premium features actually amount to anything useful.

[Rob_B]

What was the power draw with 4 GPUs when overclocked then? Ouch for your electricity bill...

[ik9000]

Shame the article doesn't compare 2 and 3-way crossfire performance with the Asus board. The P6X58D supports cards in x16 x16 x1 and x16 x8 x8 3-way crossfire/SLI. I wonder why this wasn't included.

Given the scant difference between the two boards elsewhere would the cheaper ASUS board show up the uber-expensive Gigabyte board here too?

[kalniel]

Wot, no 4x5970 test?

[Percy1983]

Any chance you can load CUDA 3.1 and try 4 x GTX 295s? Or 4 Fermis?

4 Fermis! surely the whole world would melt!

[sammorris]

Now test properly with 2GB 5870s please
Expecting games like those to run properly on 1GB cards at that res with 4xAA in CF is madness.