Six Socket FM2 Motherboards For AMD’s Trinity APUs ( Photos )

After just one generation, Socket FM1 is dead. We test six Socket FM2-based motherboards able to take AMD’s newest APUs built using the Trinity architecture. Can any of these platforms, armed with AMD A85X Fusion Controller Hubs, get us to upgrade?
Once upon a time, processor reviews were simpler. Isolating x86 performance made it easy for us to draw comparisons. Today, though, we have on-board graphics, integrated memory controllers, and ISA extensions to look at. The benchmarks we run play a huge part in exposing the benefits of each piece of a modern host processor, and we’re naturally very careful about testing as thoroughly as possible.
In those stories, we discovered that AMD’s Piledriver-based modules are faster than their predecessors based on the Bulldozer architecture. But because AMD never released a Bulldozer-based APU, we also had to face the fact that, in some cases, older Llano-based parts were as quick or quicker. Hardly a reason to toss your old Socket FM1 motherboard and upgrade to Socket FM2, right?
Fortunately, the new APUs do manage to nudge graphics performance forward. And because AMD’s on-die graphics engines are already significantly faster than Intel’s best effort, the extra speed only served to hammer that point home.
And so, you’re faced with an interesting conundrum. On one hand, we wouldn’t mind a Trinity-based APU specifically for its 3D capabilities. On the other, we’re still compelled to build with an add-in graphics card in mind. Really, then, the ideal customer for an APU is someone able to enjoy the cost savings of an A10 or A8, who won’t be stymied by the chip’s limitations, and who won’t then go get frustrated and buy a discrete GPU. At that point, you’re just watering down the platform’s value and compounding its power consumption.

With that in mind, we’re curious about AMD’s latest driver optimizations. We also wonder if motherboard vendors have any graphics performance-optimizing tricks up their sleeves. So, rather than dropping some unrealistically-expensive discrete board into today’s test beds, we’re evaluating six Socket FM2-equipped platforms using an AMD A10-5800K operating all on its own.

Socket FM2 Motherboard Features
	ASRock FM2A85X Extreme6	Asus F2A85-V Pro	ECS A85F2-A GOLDEN
PCB Revision	1.04	1.01	1.0
Chipset	AMD A85X FCH	AMD A85X FCH	AMD A85X FCH
Voltage Regulator	Ten Phases	Eight Phases	Five Phases
BIOS	P1.30 (10/12/2012)	5104 (09/14/2012)	10/12/12
100.0 MHz RCLK	Variable	Variable	Variable
Internal Interfaces
PCIe 3.0 x16	None	None	None
PCIe 2.0 x16	3 (x16/x0/x4 or x8/x8/x4)	3 (x16/x0/x4 or x8/x8/x4)	2 (x16/x0 or x8/x8)
PCIe x1/x4	2/0	2/0	3/0
USB 2.0	3 (6-ports)	4 (8-ports)	3 (6-ports)
USB 3.0	1 (2-ports)	1 (2-ports)	1 (2-ports)
SATA 6.0 Gb/s	7	7	7
SATA 3.0 Gb/s	None	None	None
4-Pin Fan	2	5	1
3-Pin Fan	4	None	2
FP-Audio	1	1	1
CD-Audio	None	None	None
S/PDIF I/O	Output Only	Output Only	Output Only
Internal Buttons	PWR, RST	BIOS Flash, MemOK, DirectKey	None
Diagnostics Panel	Numeric	None	None
Legacy Interfaces	2 x PCI, Serial	2 x PCI, Serial	2 x PCI, Serial
I/O Panel Connectors
P/S 2	1	1	None
USB 3.0	4	4	4
USB 2.0	2	2	2
IEEE-1394	None	None	None
Network	1	1	1
eSATA	1	1	1
CLR_CMOS Button	Yes	No	Yes
Digital Audio Out	Optical	Optical	Optical
Digital Audio In	None	None	None
Analog Audio	5	6	5
Video	VGA, DVI-D, DisplayPort, HDMI	HDMI, DisplayPort, VGA, DVI-D	VGA, DVI-D, DisplayPort, HDMI
Other Devices	None	None	None
Mass Storage Controllers
Chipset SATA	7 x SATA 6Gb/s 1 x eSATA 6Gb/s	7 x SATA 6Gb/s 1 x eSATA 6Gb/s	7 x SATA 6Gb/s 1 x eSATA 6Gb/s
Chipset RAID Modes	0, 1, 5, 10	0, 1, 5, 10, JBOD	0, 1, 5, 10
Add-In SATA	None	None	None
USB 3.0	ASM1042 PCIe (2-ports) A85X Integrated (4-ports)	ASM1042 PCIe (2-ports) A85X Integrated (4-ports)	ASM1042 PCIe (2-ports) A85X Integrated (4-ports)
IEEE-1394	None	None	None
Gigabit Ethernet
Primary LAN	RTL8111E PCIe	RTL8111F PCIe	RTL8111E PCIe
Secondary LAN	None	None	None
Audio
HD Audio Codec	ALC898	ALC892	VT1819S
DDL/DTS Connect	Not Specified	Not Specified	Not Specified
Warranty	Three Years	Three Years	Three Years

Socket FM2 Motherboard Features
	Gigabyte F2A85X-UP4	MSI FM2-A85XA-G65	Sapphire Pure Platinum A85XT
PCB Revision	1.0	1.1	1.0
Chipset	AMD A85X FCH	AMD A85X FCH	AMD A85X FCH
Voltage Regulator	Eight Phases	Eight Phases	Eight Phases
BIOS	F3g (10/03/2012)	V1.1 (10/09/2012)	0.40 (09/12/2012)
100.0 MHz RCLK	Variable	Variable	Variable
Internal Interfaces
PCIe 3.0 x16	None	None	None
PCIe 2.0 x16	3 (x16/x0/x4 or x8/x8/x4)	2 (x16/x0 or x8/x8)	3 (x16/x0/x4 or x8/x8/x4)
PCIe x1/x4	3 (1 shared with x4) / 0	3/0	2/1
USB 2.0	4 (8-ports)	3 (6-ports)	2 (4-ports)
USB 3.0	1 (2-ports)	1 (2-ports)	1 (2-ports)
SATA 6.0 Gb/s	7	8	7
SATA 3.0 Gb/s	None	None	None
4-Pin Fan	5	3	1
3-Pin Fan	None	2	5
FP-Audio	1	1	1
CD-Audio	None	None	None
S/PDIF I/O	Output Only	None	Input andOutput
Internal Buttons	PWR, RST, CLR	PWR, RST, CLR, OC Genie	PWR, RST, CLR, ROM selector
Diagnostics Panel	Numeric	None	Numeric
Legacy Interfaces	PCI, Serial	2 x PCI, Serial (mini)	2 x PCI, Serial
I/O Panel Connectors
P/S 2	1	1	2
USB 3.0	4	2	2
USB 2.0	2	4	4
IEEE-1394	None	None	None
Network	1	1	1
eSATA	1	None	None
CLR_CMOS Button	No	No	No
Digital Audio Out	Optical	Optical	Optical
Digital Audio In	None	None	None
Analog Audio	6	6	6
Video	VGA, DVI-D, HDMI, DisplayPort	VGA, DVI-D, HDMI, DisplayPort	HDMI, DisplayPort, VGA, DVI-D
Other Devices	None	None	Bluetooth Transceiver
Mass Storage Controllers
Chipset SATA	7 x SATA 6Gb/s 1 x eSATA 6Gb/s	8 x SATA 6Gb/s	7 x SATA 6Gb/s 1 x mSATA 6Gb/s
Chipset RAID Modes	0, 1, 5, 10, JBOD	0, 1, 5, 10	0, 1, 5, 10
Add-In SATA	None	None	None
USB 3.0	EJ168A PCIe (2-ports) A85X Integrated (4-ports)	A85X Integrated	A85X Integrated
IEEE-1394	None	None	None
Gigabit Ethernet
Primary LAN	RTL8111F PCIe	RTL8111E PCIe	RTL8111F PCIe
Secondary LAN	None	None	None
Audio
HD Audio Codec	ALC892	ALC892	ALC892
DDL/DTS Connect	Not Specified	Not Specified	Not Specified
Warranty	Three Years	Three Years	One Year