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Biostar TA890FXE AMD 890FX Motherboard Review
Biostar TA890FXE AMD 890FX Motherboard Review - PCSTATS
Meet the Biostar TA890FXE motherboard, an AMD 890FX platform that eschews tons of frilly extra's for a core feature set and competitive sticker price.
 77% Rating:   
Filed under: Motherboards Published:  Author: 
External Mfg. Website: Biostar Jul 14 2010   J. Apong  
Home > Reviews > Motherboards > Biostar TA890FXE

Motherboard Benchmarks: FEAR

Sierra FEAR 1.08

Source: Sierra

FEAR is Sierra's latest first person shooter which relies heavily on DirectX 9 features. With its "Soft Shadows" feature enabled, even the fastest videocards run at a crawl, FEAR is definitely the new benchmark for future FPS games to follow.

PCSTATS Benchmark
 ReportSierra FEAR 1.08
Minimum 640x480: Points Ranking
MSI X58 Platinum (X58 133/1066) 646
MSI Eclipse Plus (X58 133/1066) 646
Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD6 (P55 133/1333) 628
Gigabyte GA-P55-UD6 (P55 133/1333) 635
Gigabyte GA-P55-UD5 (P55 133/1333) 656
Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD4P (P55 133/1333) 636
Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3R (P55 133/1333) 637
ASUS P7P55D-E Pro (P55 133/1333) 583
ASUS P7P55D Deluxe (P55 133/1333) 636
ASUS P7P55D Premium (P55 133/1333) 644
ASUS Crosshair IV Formula (AMD 890FX 200/1066 PIIX6 1090T) 587
Biostar TA890FXE (AMD 890FX 200/1066 PIIX6 1090T) 554
MSI 890FXA-GD70 (AMD 890FX 200/1066 PIIX6 1090T) 576
Gigabyte GA-890FXA-UD7 (AMD 890FX 200/1066 PIIX6 1090T) 477
Biostar TA890GXE (AMD 890GX 200/1066) 575
ASUS M4A89GTD-Pro (AMD 890GX 200/1066) 589
Gigabyte GA-MA790FXT-UD5P (790FX 200/1066) 656
MSI 785GM-E65 (785G 200/1066) 572
ASUS M4A785TD-V Evo (785G 200/1066) 580
Gigabyte GA-MA785GMT-UD2H (785G 200/1066) 577
Gigabyte GA-MA785G-UD3H (785G 200/1066) 598
Maximum 1024x768: Points Ranking
MSI X58 Platinum (X58 133/1066) 172
MSI Eclipse Plus (X58 133/1066) 174
Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD6 (P55 133/1333) 171
Gigabyte GA-P55-UD6 (P55 133/1333) 173
Gigabyte GA-P55-UD5 (P55 133/1333) 172
Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD4P (P55 133/1333) 173
Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3R (P55 133/1333) 175
ASUS P7P55D-E Pro (P55 133/1333) 176
ASUS P7P55D Deluxe (P55 133/1333) 174
ASUS P7P55D Premium (P55 133/1333) 174
ASUS Crosshair IV Formula (AMD 890FX 200/1066 PIIX6 1090T) 175
Biostar TA890FXE (AMD 890FX 200/1066 PIIX6 1090T) 173
MSI 890FXA-GD70 (AMD 890FX 200/1066 PIIX6 1090T) 176
Gigabyte GA-890FXA-UD7 (AMD 890FX 200/1066 PIIX6 1090T) 174
Biostar TA890GXE (AMD 890GX 200/1066) 171
ASUS M4A89GTD-Pro (AMD 890GX 200/1066) 172
Gigabyte GA-MA790FXT-UD5P (790FX 200/1066) 172
MSI 785GM-E65 (785G 200/1066) 171
ASUS M4A785TD-V Evo (785G 200/1066) 172
Gigabyte GA-MA785GMT-UD2H (785G 200/1066) 171
Gigabyte GA-MA785G-UD3H (785G 200/1066) 168

Strangely the TA890FXE didn't do so well in FEAR at the CPU-bound resolution of 640X480, with the second lowest score of 554 FPS. However FEAR is a bit fickle when it comes to CPU-bound performance, and the results flatline again when the resolution is bumped up to 1024x768.

So where does that leave the Biostar TA890FXE motherboard, is it a good platform to consider, or better avoided? PCSTATS has the final word....

Biostar's No-Nonsense Approach

Biostar's TA890FXE is a no-nonsense approach to AMD's 890FX chipset that removes most of the bells and whistles found on competitor's products in favor of focusing on a lower price rate. If you're shopping around for a low-cost approach to a high-end AMD chipset, you'll find a pretty good match with the TA890FXE motherboard... although there are a few omissions to be aware of.

What the Biostar TA890FXE does have in abundance is a bare set of overclocking features. Items like the Port 80 card and physical power/reset switches make the no-frills TA890FXE motherboard easy enough to overclock. In PCSTATS own overclocking tests we pushed this board with a set of Corsair DDR3 memory to 260MHz Bus speed.

Most boards have some form of AMD core unlocking technology, but not every motherboard does. In that sense the Biostar TA890FXE provides some added value without adding to the bottom line, by enabling the potential to turn on working cores within AMD socket AM3 triple-core processors and "Thuban"-based quad-core processors... potentially to full six-core CPUs.

Most notably is the lack of USB 3.0 support, which can hurt the expansion options for a chipset with so much growth potential. With a flood of USB 3.0 products slated to arrive towards the end of 2010, it's a little difficult to recommend a motherboard that doesn't support such a major new standard even though there is little use for USB 3.0 right now.

Biostar doesn't throw in quite as many extra PCI expansion slots as some other AMD 890FX-based motherboards either, but for most the dual PCI Express x16 slots and additional PCI Express (x4) and (x1) slots should be enough. The layout of the expansion slots will make it a little difficult for ATI Radeon owners using a CrossfireX configuration to use add-in sound cards or put in their own USB 3.0 support, however.

AMD's SB850 southbridge also gets a little bit of clipping, since Biostar has turned one of its SATA 6Gb/s ports into an eSATA port on the I/O panel. Fortunately the remaining five SATA 6Gb/s ports remain intact, and can still be configured in RAID 0, 1 5 and 10 modes for your enjoyment.

If you're looking for an affordable AMD 890FX-based motherboard that gives you the ability to go CrossfireX with full bandwidth, you might find the Biostar is good for meeting your immediate needs and a budget of around $155 CDN, ($150 USD, £100 GBP). However if you have the extra $45 to spare you'd be better off going with MSI's 890FXA-GD70 instead, which gives you USB 3.0 support, more USB 2.0 ports, more SATA storage ports and more peripheral expansion options. Just something to consider.

Discuss this motherboard in the PCSTATS Forums. Find out about this and many other reviews by joining the Weekly PCstats.com Newsletter today! Catch all of PCSTATS latest reviews right here.

Related Articles
Here are a few other articles that you might enjoy as well...
- Biostar TA890FXE AMD 890FX Motherboard Review
- ASUS P7P55D-E Pro Intel P55 Express Motherboard Review
- Biostar TA890GXE AMD 890GX Motherboard Review
- MSI 890FXA-GD70 AMD 890FX Motherboard Review
- Gigabyte GA-890FXA-UD7 AMD 890FX Motherboard - FIRST LOOK
- ASUS M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 AMD 890GX Motherboard Review
- Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD4P Intel P55 Express Motherboard Review

< Previous Page © 2023 PCSTATS.com Motherboards Reviews...»

 

Contents of Article: Biostar TA890FXE
 Pg 1.  Biostar TA890FXE AMD 890FX Motherboard Review
 Pg 2.  AMD 890FX Core Logic
 Pg 3.  Motherboard Highlights Photo Gallery
 Pg 4.  Overclocking and BIOS Features
 Pg 5.  Power Draw and Test System Specs
 Pg 6.  Motherboard Benchmarks: Sysmark 2007
 Pg 7.  Motherboard Benchmarks: Sandra 2009 Processor
 Pg 8.  Motherboard Benchmarks: Sandra 2009 Memory
 Pg 9.  Motherboard Benchmarks: PCMark Vantage
 Pg 10.  Motherboard Benchmarks: 3DMark06, 3DMark Vantage
 Pg 11.  — Motherboard Benchmarks: FEAR

 
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