Introduction
SAPPHIRE PURE Innovation PI-A9RX480 mainboard
Think of mainboards based around AMD's S939 processors. Now think of the chipsets on which they're based upon. We bet that NVIDIA and VIA would be on the top of most people's lists, and with good reason, as both companies have a well-established heritage in designing chipsets for AMD CPUs.ATI has tried hard to break into the world of mainboard chipsets. It should do well, simply because it knows how a) to design complex chipsets for its range of VPUs and b) mainboard with integrated graphics tend to be high-volume sellers, and who better than ATI/NVIDIA to launch an all-in-one mainboard core logic?
ATI's various attempts at S939 core logic has met with muted success thus far. Without mincing words, performance hasn't always been as good as its rivals', and the feature-set has lagged behind the times. What's more, ATI core logics haven't historically overclocked well, making ATI-based mainboards something of a non-issue for the savvy, informed enthusiast.
SAPPHIRE and ATI hope that's all about to change now. SAPPHIRE's launching a S939 mainboard with all the enthusiast-orientated bells and whistles, and performance, it says, is, well, class-leading. The SAPPHIRE PURE Innovation PI-A9RX480 arrives with a lot to prove to naysayers and doubters. Let's see if it can turn S939 mainboard hierarchy upside down. Read on to find out...