Conclusions
AMD's 790GX is the fastest integrated graphics chipset on the market. Period. The 780G's Radeon HD 3200 was already faster than the best the competition had to offer, and with a 200MHz core clock boost and the addition of performance cache memory, the Radeon HD 3300 offers even better frame rates. Throw in Blu-ray decode acceleration and HDMI output and you have the recipe for the ultimate integrated graphics platform, right?

Not quite.

The 790GX may have the best integrated graphics component on the market, but it's also only available on $150 motherboards. The 780G has the exact same video decoding block and (albeit slower) graphics core, but it can be had on motherboards that cost less than $90. That $60 price difference is just enough to score a Radeon HD 3650 that even AMD admits offers better performance than the combination of the 790GX and a Radeon HD 3470 in Hybrid CrossFire. If you want better game performance, then, you're better off spending your money on a discrete graphics card. In the absence of something akin to the HybridPower tech available on Nvidia's nForce 750a SLI chipset, which can power down discrete graphics cards and switch to the motherboard GPU at idle, the Radeon HD 3300's appeal is largely irrelevant if you're using a standalone graphics card.

At least the 790GX is more than just a hopped up integrated graphics processor. The most interesting element of the chipset for enthusiasts may be the Advanced Clock Calibration capabilities built into the new SB750 south bridge. AMD's ATI acquisition pays big dividends here, allowing the SB750 to reprogram internal Phenom processor timings to improve overclocking. With our X4 9850 Black Edition, ACC is good for a 300MHz clock speed boost, and that's not bad at all.

ACC isn't going to be unique to the 790GX, either. Some motherboard makers will be pairing the SB750 with AMD's existing 790FX north bridge chip, which lacks integrated graphics but packs enough PCI Express lanes for dual-x16 CrossFire implementations (and four-way-x8 configs). To me, that pairing makes a lot more sense than the 790GX—it's tuning a sports car for the track rather than what feels like an all-things-to-all-people crossover subcompact.

And that neatly brings us to the crux of the problem with the 790GX. The chipset's components parts have impressive qualities, but when combined together, they pull it in opposite directions. $150 is going to be too expensive for most folks who are looking at running integrated graphics, particularly when better gaming performance can be had for less, and the Radeon HD 3300 with its fancy performance cache will essentially be waste for anyone running a discrete graphics card.

The 790GX's appeal for enthusiasts may ultimately hinge on how many 790FX boards pick up the SB750, and more importantly, how much they cost. If 790FX/SB750 combos tip up in the $180-200 range, 790GX mobos like Gigabyte's GA-MA790GP-DS4H will be good mid-range options for Phenom overclockers looking to get their hands on ACC. The DS4H has everything you'd want in a mid-range enthusiast board, including support for 140W Phenoms, digital audio output with Dolby Digital Live encoding, and CrossFire compatibility. It just also happens to have a swanky integrated graphics core that looks a little out of place.