The AMD reference mainboard and the Gigabyte GA-7IX performed within 1% of each other on the system level tests we ran, similar to how we've seen various mainboards based on identical 440BX chipsets run.
Until chipsets based on third party manufacturers debut on Athlon mainboards, we likely won't see much performance variation from board to board since AMD is supplying the initial 750 core logic sets.
The Gigabyte GA-7IX is a very competent mainboard that, while not breaking new ground, delivers consistent and stable levels of performance.
To Athlon buyers who can't possibly wait until important feature support in the form of AGP 4X and 133MHz SDRAM (to go along with 133MHz FSB-supporting Athlon CPUs) are available, we can easily recommend the GA-7IX. It allows for good peripheral support, and can be considered a great Athlon foundational system component.
For those users who CAN wait until the end of this year before upgrading their system, they will likely reap large rewards for their patience. The purchase options at that time will include full public knowledge of the capabilities of not only Intel's upcoming Coppermine/i820 machines, but also the performance differences between current 100MHz based AGP 2X Athlon PCs, and the second generation 133MHz AGP 4X Athlon PCs.
- Good performance, good stability
- Strong base features like 768MB SDRAM support and five PCI slots.
- UDMA/66 support.
- No potential to manually control CPU settings.
- No possibility of upgrading to AGP 4X standard later this year.
Craig "Mako" Campanaro
Hardware Director
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