Jetway 939GT4-SLI: Gem with a New SLI Twist

Our Take

Surprises are one of the things that can turn the routine of testing computer components into a few moments of excitement. We confess that we were totally surprised to find the Jetway at least the equal of any enthusiast AMD 939 board that we have tested. Who would have even considered before this review that the Jetway 939GT4-SLI-G would benchmark in the same league as the top 939 boards that we have tested, and overclock in the same league as the legendary DFI LANParty nF4 SLI. But benchmarks are benchmarks and the Jetway equaled the best Socket 939 boards we have tested, and then went on to top performance in stock ratio overclocking and reduced ratio overclocking.

There is a lot to like about the Jetway 939GT4-SLI, starting with a near ideal board layout. There is also the elegant simplicity of the 3 PCIe video slots with a dedicated x16 single video slot and an additional pair of x8 Dual/SLI video slots. The 3 slots are not overkill or a waste of board space, since even the most basic SLI board uses 3 slot spaces for the SLI video slots. The Jetway uses the same space, but the 3 dedicated slots do away with any need at all for paddles, jumpers, or switches for SLI. This simplicity probably contributes to the excellent performance that we found with the Jetway in these tests.

Add to this: processor voltages to 1.9V, memory voltage to 3.25V, a wide 200 to 400 range for CPU clock, and a complete range of memory adjustments and chipset/LDT voltages, and you have the legitimate makings of an AMD enthusiast board. The diagnostic LEDs and momentary switches are just the icing on the enthusiast cake. We've seen other boards all decked out with everything but performance, but that is certainly not the case with this Jetway - it performed as well in all our tests as we hoped that it would. Our only real complaint is that the tested BIOS did not implement the added memory ratios (433, 466, 500, 533) available with the Rev. E Athlon64 processors. However, we have asked Jetway for an updated BIOS to fix this oversight.

Some will be screaming and flaming with our recommendation here, but at a $129 web price, you should really include this Jetway on your short shopping list for Socket 939 AMD enthusiast motherboards. This Jetway delivers great value and performs very well, no matter how you measure the performance. It's nice to see a real surprise once in a while, and this Jetway will open the eyes of any buyer who approaches it with an open mind.

A great job, Jetway, and we hope that you can really get behind this board with the kind of support that it deserves. We highly recommend the 939GT4-SLI to both the non-overclocking AMD user and the AMD Enthusiast looking to reach new heights in overclocking with their new Athlon 64.