Review: ASUS M4A89GTD PRO/USB3: ushering in AMD's 890GX chipset

Gaming and overclocking

Due to the limited performance of integrated graphics, we're testing our trio of games at just 1,024x768 with the lowest available image quality settings.

No surprises here, taking into consideration the specification and frequencies of AMD's Radeon HD 4290 IGP, we were expecting 790GX-like performance, and that's exactly what he have.

With a core clock speed of 700MHz - 200MHz more than the Radeon HD 4200 integrated on 785G - the Radeon HD 4290 manages to raise performance by 30 per cent on average across all four benchmarks.

Intel's latest IGP almost holds its own, but let's not forget the key point here; at these resolutions, with ultra-low image quality, these games simply don't look as good as they should. The addition of a cheap(ish) graphics card - say a £70 Radeon HD 5670 - would provide a far more rewarding gaming experience.

Overclocking

Increasing all voltages by a relatively safe 10 per cent, we were able to easily raise the GPU's clock speed from 700MHz to 958MHz. We reckon IGP speeds of 1GHz should be attainable with the use of custom coolers.

With the overclock in place, performance in the Company of Heroes DX10 benchmark rose from 22.5fps to 28.9fps - a reasonable boost of around 28 per cent.

From a motherboard perspective, we were able to crank the HTT clock up to an impressive 347MHz, up from 200MHz