Product Listing

ASUS A8R-MVP (ATI CrossFire Xpress 1600)

By Zachary Chan - 15 Apr 2006

Conclusion

Conclusion

ASUS is one of the first manufacturers we've seen to take advantage of ATI's re-branding of the RD480 chipset and the A8R-MVP is the first motherboard to bear the name of the newly christened CrossFire Xpress 1600. Once we worked past the confusion of naming however, we found a typical RD480 motherboard with performance levels to match. The A8R-MVP performs between the MSI RD480 Neo2 and the ECS KA1 MVP in almost every benchmark that we threw against it. It even maintained the status quo in our benchmarking tests. While the ECS KA1 MVP maintained its lead as a powerful all-rounder motherboard, ASUS covered up the slight deficiency in the A8R-MVP's memory subsystem performance with a boost to its graphics capabilities thanks to their PEG Link technology.

With ASUS focusing their attention on big brother A8R32-MVP based on the CrossFire Xpress 3200, the A8R-MVP joins the throngs of mainstream CrossFire enabled motherboards that have invaded the market. The board isn't the most fully featured RD480 implementation we've reviewed, but it does have its distinct advantages. While some of its competitors have to resort to third party controllers to deliver advanced storage functionality, the use of ULi's M1575 Southbridge gives the A8R-MVP native SATA 3.0Gbps and NCQ support with up to four ports available. The downside to ASUS' implementation however is a bandwidth limited PCI Gigabit LAN controller and depending on certain users' preferences, its 6-channel audio interface.

The ASUS A8R-MVP is a well-rounded CrossFire motherboard that will get the job done without too much of a hassle.

As usual with ASUS motherboards, the build quality of the A8R-MVP is top notch and it even comes with a pretty solid peripheral bundle for a mainstream motherboard. While we did nitpick on some minor issues with the overall layout, ASUS has done a good job designing the A8R-MVP the way it is. The board may not stand out in any particular way, but at US$100, it has all the features, performance and rock solid stability that will satisfy the gamer on a budget.

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