I'd say with i430FX it's all a matter of context. On release in 1995 is offered a MASSIVE increase in performance over older or competing designs, mainly due to the memory controller. It was Intel's first EDO chipset, but it also beat SiS and Via contemporary EDO chipsets hands down. That performance gained another boost later in its lifecycle as it supported PLB cache. Once that became available it increased performance still further. From mid 1995 to early 1996, unless you had some corner-case requirements (VLB support, >64MB RAM etc), i430FX was without doubt the best chipset - by far - to have.
In retrospect though, if you also have i430VX, HX and TX to choose from, not to mention later, excellent Via and ALi chipsets, there's not a whole lot to recommend i430FX for. If you're not wanting to be period correct, there's no reason to choose it over any of its successors - all are (slightly) faster, i430HX allows more RAM and can cache it too with second tag, i430VX and TX support SDRAM, TX also gives you a much newer southbridge. Later Via and ALi chipsets give you similar performance with more flexibility in terms of timing. etc.
So, i430FX: go for it for best period correct performance 1995-1996, or if you just need a reliable, unfussy So5/7 platform and don't really care about performance (i.e. DOS-only stuff).