Of all the AMD 8-series chipsets, the AMD 890FX is the one specifically designed for performance enthusiasts and hardcore gamers. Here's why; the first AMD 800-series chipsets linked together an integrated graphics processor (IGP) with support for add-in (discrete) graphics. The AMD 890FX chipset on the other hand is dedicated to discrete videocards only. Instead of the Radeon HD 4290 IGP the 890FX features 42 lanes of PCI Express 2.0 bandwidth.

If you've been looking for an AMD setup to handle high-end quad-CrossfireX configurations, your prayers have just been answered.

AMD 890FX-based motherboards will have two major configurations: the more common configuration will have a pair of PCI Express 2.0 x16 slots, each with x16 lanes of bandwidth. Variant versions will have four PCI Express 2.0 slots which can run in (x16/x16/x0/x0) mode, or in (x8/x8/x8/x8) mode for four-way CrossFireX configurations.

All of this PCI Express 2.0 bandwidth comes in handy because today's graphics cards are pushing ever-more amounts of bandwidth along the PCI Express bus. Top-end enthusiast videocards like the dual-GPU Radeon HD 5970 can be bottlenecked by the limited bandwidth of a PCI Express 2.0 x8 connection, with significant drop-offs in peak performance and lower overall frame rates. This performance penalty gets even worse if you're trying to run a pair of high-end videocards in CrossfireX mode, the videocards will completely saturate the (x8/x8) PCI Express, and you'll never get the most out of your expensive eye candy generators.

AMD 700 and 800-series Chipsets AMD 790FX AMD 870 AMD 880G AMD 890GX AMD 890FX CPU Socket AM2 Socket AM2/ Socket AM3 Socket AM3 Socket AM3 Socket AM3 Memory 1066MHz DDR2 1066Mhz DDR2/ 1333MHz DDR3 1333MHz DDR3 1333MHz DDR3 1333MHz DDR3 Graphics Expansion 2x16 PCI Express 2.0 1x16 PCI Express 2.0 1x16 PCI Express 2.0 1x16 PCI Express 2.0, 2x8 PCI Express 2.0 2x16 PCI Express 2.0, 4x8 PCI Express 2.0 Peripheral Expansion 6x1 PCI Express 2.0 6x1 PCI Express 2.0 6x1 PCI Express 2.0, 2x1 PCI Express 2.0 on SB850 6x1 PCI Express 2.0, 2x1 PCI Express 2.0 on SB850 6x1 PCI Express 2.0, 2XPCI Express 2.0 on SB850 IGP - Radeon HD 4250 Radeon HD 4290/RV620 - Process 65nm 65nm 55nm 55nm 65nm TDP 10W 12.5 18W 25W 19.6W IOMMU 2.0 - - - - Yes Southbridge SB600 SB710 SB710 SB850 SB850 Storage 4xSATA 3Gb/s 6xSATA 3Gb/s 6xSATA 3Gb/s 6xSATA 6Gb/s 6xSATA 6Gb/s USB 10x USB 2.0, 12x USB 2.0 12X USB 2.0, 2 USB 1.1 14x USB 2.0, 2x USB 1.1 14X USB 2.0, 2x USB 1.1

Like AMD's 890GX chipset, the AMD 890FX northbridge had an extra pair of PCI Express 2.0 x1 lanes which manufacturers can dedicate to SuperSpeed USB 3.0 ports (not in the Biostar TA890FXE's case though).

IOMMU 2.0 support also makes its debut with the AMD 890FX chipset. IOMMU is a memory allocation and isolation technology that can benefit virtualization and data integrity. Devices can take advantage of IOMMU to use native drivers in a virtualized environment, improving overall performance. IOMMU can also prevent devices from erroneously overwriting critical data, like kernel pages. IOMMU is currently a feature that hasn't made its way into consumer operating systems yet, but you can find if in certain Linux distros.