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Since this is mainboard review #100 on LostCircuits, I wanted to do something like a Special Edition and what would be more suitable than the AMD MPX platform. I know, I could have stretched it out into several reviews but the fact is that here are three boards that are very similar on the surface but at close look, they are quite different regarding what they offer in terms of features and performance. This said, let's get moving.

Summary

With the AMD MPX chipset finally being available to the broad audience, a number of mainboard manufacturers have committed to the Dual Athlon platform. For most users, there is really no reason to go with a dual setup, in fact, most standard users are better off with a high performance single processor board, however, there are exceptions, particularly in the CAD and 3D rendering business as well as in the entry level server market.

The MPX chipset combines the established AMD 762 SMP North Bridge with the 768 "Opus" South Bridge. Compared to the earlier MP chipset, the MPX offers 4 x the interconnect bandwidth between the AGP/memory and the I/O controller. There are some caveats regarding limited use of the 66 MHz PCI slots that are not compatible with any standard 33 MHz PCI card.

We have taken the Tyan Tiger MPX, the MSI K7D-L and the ASUS A7M266-D (in descending alphabetical order) and checked what each board has to offer that would offset it from a very strong competition. The differences are quite compelling, especially under the surface.

With the release of the AMD 768 Opus South Bridge, the dual Athlon platforms have finally gone mainstream. The earlier Athlon MP design remained a privilege of Tyan who were partners with AMD in developing the first incarnation of the dual AMD platform. However, this exclusivity arrangement between AMD and Tyan did not extend in to the new chipset revision and there are several boards available now, differing to some extent in their features as in BIOS and hardware. Manufacturers pushing into the MPX market are amongst others, in alphabetical sequence, ASUS, MSI and Tyan and even though the general configuration of the boards is rather similar, the differences between the individual brands are there.

AMD MPX Chipset and Athlon MP

The 762 North Bridge is the same as used as in the MP chipset but the 768 "Opus" South Bridge has replaced the 766 I/O controller used in the MP chipset. Picture courtesy of AMD

There are some features and peculiarities of the MPX chipset, including some of the bugs that have been found in several reviews but in order to understand them, it is necessary to take a look at the earlier MP chipset first. The MP chipset connects the AMD 762 North Bridge to the remaining system via a 32/64 bit data path running at 33 MHz. This leaves a total bandwidth of 266 MB /sec to the 64 bit PCI slots, however, the interconnect to the AMD766 South Bridge is only 32 bits and, thus, the equivalent of the standard PCI bandwidth or 133 MB/sec. In other words, the primary PCI bus with its 64 bit width branches off the main system interconnect before the latter, in form of a 32 bit interconnect further extends to the South Bridge.

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