Installation & Testing:
 

 

CPUZ

Mainboard

SPD

Test Timings

The motherboard had no problems booting up correctly the first time. It's BIOS is the current one on the Abit website, so there isn't anything new to report in this respect. The BIOS setup is very similar to motherboards with the 975X chipset. In case you aren't familiar or are  aware, many of the latest top Abit boards have similar BIOS layouts. It's kind of a nice thing to see a BIOS layout used across the board that is a bit more unique to the manufacturer and chipset. Sporadic layouts and settings may all be very similar in function, but it does get old having to keep track of where everything is as terminologies and designs change. In short, the layout is very similar to the IN9 32X-MAX, AW9D-MAX, FP-IN9 650SLI Fatality, and F-190HD Fatality motherboard's BIOS.

OC GURU

Abit EQ

Temps

Voltages

I personally like inspecting the BIOS to answer the questions of function and stability. This usually reveals any issues or problems that shouldn't be present in the finished product. The Quad-GT's BIOS isn't at all confusing and is easy to work with. During the entire test procedures, no problems were encountered. Even when an over zealous change was made whether it be overclocking or memory timings, powering down for 10 seconds and restarting seemed to bring the system back up so the BIOS corrections could be made. When the changes were just too drastic for the BIOS to recover automatically from, I simply reset the rear CMOS switch. This is one current characteristic with Abit's flagship motherboards line up that has been very handy. This should be an industry wide standard from here on. All in favor, say "Aye!"

AB9 Quad GT vs. NVidia 650-SLI

Stock performance of the AB9 Quad GT is nothing to snuff at all. It outpaces the reference 650-SLI motherboard at stock performance. As soon as you start to overclock both platforms, the Quad GT quickly pulls away at the 383MHz CPU Bus Speed. The 650-SLI wasn't stable enough to do many benchmarks at this speed and was quickly left in the Quad GT's wake the higher the system was overclocked. These speeds carry the Quad GT well in to the realm of the 680i platform benchmarks. Where the 680i and 975x chipsets stand to rise above are in regards to triple PCI-Express graphics slots. The AB9 Quad GT is short the one PCI Express slot and a couple of other minor amenities.

Battlefield 2142 (V1.25) @ 98 FPS Average

Overclocking the AB9 Quad GT is simply a pleasure. The platform is extremely stable from the start and bares no oddities in performance or BIOS interaction. The platform was completely reliable and proved a 100 percent stable when the BIOS was left to its default Auto settings in the voltage area. Only when the platform reached the memory's default 1150MHz maximum did it become necessary to begin manually altering voltages and memory settings. Overclocking the system "by CPU" or "by SPD" yielded nearly identical results topping out where the OCZ PC2-9200 memory reaches its default frequency. And again, this is pretty much all accomplished using the motherboard's default BIOS CPU, Memory, and Voltage settings which are set to Auto.

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