AMD 780G: Best Ever Integrated Mainstream Chipset? A close look at AMD’s DX10 IGP chipset through the amazingly full-featured Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H micro-ATX board along with a new speed-bumped (2.5 GHz) 45W AMD A64 X2 processor, the 4850e.
March 6, 2008 by Lawrence
Lee
Product | Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H AM2/AM2+ motherboard |
Manufacturer | Gigabyte |
Street Price | US$95 |
When AMD purchased ATI, it was a controversial move that led many nay-sayers
to proclaim their demise. Others applauded the decision, predicting
that it would pave the way for an integrated CPU/GPU which would allow AMD to
remain competitive. While this positive outcome has yet to come to pass, the acquisition has
been paying other dividends. AMD’s 690G chipset was a resounding success, and
after a full year, it’s time for a refresh. The 780G chipset supports DirectX
10 and Shader Model 4.0, bringing it in line with Intel’s G35 chipset. It also
promises better 3D performance, superior high definition playback, and lower
power consumption.
The 690G chipset introduced SurroundView, which allows users to use leave the
X1250 IGP enabled for extra displays when a discrete graphics card is installed.
The 780G chipset supports SurroundView as well, and a new feature which takes
it in a whole different direction. "Hybrid Graphics" enables its integrated
HD3200 graphics processor to work in tandem with a separate video card in a
pseudo-CrossFire mode to increase 3D performance. So whether you want extra
displays or better performance, the onboard video will never go to waste.
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To help us investigate this feature and the chipset as a whole, AMD graciously
provided us with one of their new energy efficient processors, the X2 4850e,
some Corsair memory, and the star of the show, a 780G motherboard, the Gigabyte
GA-MA78GM-S2H.
Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H: Specifications (from the product web page) | |
CPU | 1. Support for Socket AM2+/ AM2 processors: AMD Phenom™FX processor/ AMD Phenom™ processor/ AMD Athlon™ 64 FX processor/AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core processor/AMD Athlon™ 64 processor/AMD Sempron™ processor |
Hyper Transport Bus | 1. 5200/2000 MT/s |
Chipset | 1. North Bridge: AMD 780G 2. South Bridge: AMD SB700 |
Memory | 1. 4 x 1.8V DDR2 DIMM sockets supporting up to 16 GB of system memory (Note 1) 2. Dual channel memory architecture 3. Support for DDR2 1066 (Note 2)/800/667 MHz memory modules |
Audio | 1. Realtek ALC889A codec 2. High Definition Audio 3. 2/4/5.1/7.1-channel 4. Support for DTS (dts NEO:PC) 5. Support for S/PDIF In/Out 6. Support for CD In |
LAN | 1. Realtek 8111C chip (10/100/1000 Mbit) |
Expansion Slots | 1. 1 x PCI Express x16 slot (The PCI Express x16 slot conforms to PCI Express 2.0 standard.) 2. 1 x PCI Express x1 slot 3. 2 x PCI slots |
Storage Interface | South Bridge: 1. 1 x IDE connector supporting ATA-133/100/66/33 and up to 2 IDE devices 2. 5 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors (SATAII0, SATAII1, SATAII2, SATAII3, SATAII4) supporting up to 5 SATA 3Gb/s devices 3. 1 x eSATA 3Gb/s port on the back panel supporting up to 1 SATA 3Gb/s device 4. Support for SATA RAID 0, RAID 1 and RAID 10 iTE IT8718 chip:
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IEEE 1394 | T.I. TSB43AB23 chip 1. Up to 2 IEEE 1394a ports (1 on the back panel, 1 via the IEEE 1394a |
USB | Integrated in the South Bridge 1. Up to 12 USB 2.0/1.1 ports (4 on the back panel, 8 via the USB brackets |
Internal I/O Connectors
| 1. 1 x 24-pin ATX main power connector 2. 1 x 4-pin ATX 12V power connector 3. 1 x floppy disk drive connector 4. 1 x IDE connector 5. 5 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors 6. 1 x CPU fan header 7. 1 x system fan header 8. 1 x front panel header 9. 1 x front panel audio header 10. 1 x CD In connector 11. 1 x S/PDIF In/Out header 12. 1 x IEEE 1394a header 13. 4 x USB 2.0/1.1 headers 14. 1 x parallel port header 15. 1 x Trusted Platform Module (TPM) header 16. 1 x serial port header 17. 1 x chassis intrusion header 18. 1 x power LED header |
Back Panel Connectors | 1. 1 x PS/2 keyboard port 2. 1 x PS/2 mouse port 3. 1 x D-Sub port 4. 1 x DVI-D port (Note 3) 5. 1 x HDMI port 6. 1 x optical S/PDIF Out connector 7. 1 x eSATA 3Gb/s port 8. 1 x IEEE 1394a port 9. 4 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports 10. 1 x RJ-45 port 11. 6 x audio jacks (Center/Subwoofer Speaker Out/Rear Speaker Out/Side Speaker Out/Line In/Line Out/Microphone) |
I/O Controller | 1. ITE IT8718 chip |
H/W Monitoring | System voltage detection 1. CPU/System temperature detection |
BIOS | 1. 1 x 8 Mbit flash 2. Use of licensed AWARD BIOS 3. PnP 1.0a, DMI 2.0, SM BIOS 2.4, ACPI 1.0b |
Unique Features | 1. Support for @BIOS 2. Support for Download Center 3. Support for Q-Flash 4. Support for EasyTune (Note 5) 5. Support for Xpress Install 6. Support for Xpress Recovery2 7. Support for Virtual Dual BIOS |
Bundle Software | 1. Norton Internet Security (OEM version) |
Operating System | 1. Support for Microsoft Windows Vista/ XP |
Form Factor | 1. Micro ATX Form Factor; 24.4cm x 24.4cm |
Remark | 1. Due to different Linux support condition provided by chipset vendors, please download Linux driver from chipset vendors’ website or 3rd party website. 2. Due to most hardware/software vendors no longer offer support for Win9X/ME. If some vendors still has Win9X/ME drivers available, we will publish on website. |
Note | (Note 1) Due to Windows XP 32-bit operating system limitation, when more than 4 GB of physical memory is installed, the actual memory size displayed will be less than 4 GB. (Note 2) Whether 1066 MHz memory speed is supported depends on the CPU being used. (Note 3) The DVI-D port does not support D-Sub connection by adapter. (Note 4) Whether the CPU/system fan speed control function is supported will depend on the CPU/ system cooler you install. (Note 5) Available functions in Easytune may differ by motherboard model. |
The MA78GM has a long list of features. A few things caught our eye:
1. 5 SATA ports, eSATA, FireWire, HDMI – this board must cost a fortune!
Actually the MA78GM’s projected street price is only $95US. The feature-set
exceeds that of the much more expensive Asus
P5E-VM HDMI we reviewed a few months prior.2. Though the DVI port on the back panel appears to be DVI-I (both digital
and analog), it’s in essence a DVI-D port as Gigabyte warns that it can’t
be used to convert to an analog signal.3. The SB700 southbridge chip only supports RAID 0, 1 and 10 (as did the
SB600 before it). If you require RAID 5 support look for a board with the
SB750 southbridge..
LAYOUT & ACCESSORIES
A cursory observation of the layout reveals no critical flaws. The IDE port
is in a somewhat unusual spot — we’re used to seeing it flush with the board
edge. There is ample clearance around the socket and the power connectors are
out of the way.
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VGA, DVI (digital only), HDMI, eSATA, Firewire, optical out are available on
the back panel.
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Both the northbridge and southbridge chips are cooled with low profile heatsinks
to avoid interfering with any PCI express expansion cards. To make use of the
space they do occupy, the fins are thin and numerous.
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BIOS
The MA78GM’s advanced BIOS tweaks are housed in the poorly named
"MB Intelligent Tweaker" menu. It’s a bit spartan, but that’s how
we like it. It offers everything one needs to get the most of out of their
system without getting extravagant. A few boards we’ve looked at in the past
had a maze of settings with strange terminology undecipherable by all but
the most accomplished enthusiasts.
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CPU frequency and voltage are given free reign with their extremes
values likely never to be used. The maximum memory voltage of +0.3V (2.1V)
is very low when you consider that a good number of high speed DDR2 memory
kits require 2.2V to run at their specified speeds/timings. Fortunately we
later found that the memory is slightly overvolted.
Notable Available BIOS Adjustments | |
Setting | Options |
CPU/HT/FSB Speed | 200Mhz to 500Mhz in 1Mhz increments |
Memory Speed | DDR 400/533/667/800 (depends on the processor used) |
Memory Timings | Numerous, various |
CPU Voltage | 0.8000V to 1.5500V in 0.025 increments, 1.5500V to 1.9000V in 0.05 increments |
Memory Voltage | Normal (1.8V), +0.1V, +0.2V, +0.3V |
Northbridge Voltage | Normal (1.1V), +0.1V, +0.2V, +0.3V |
Video Memory Size | AUTO, 128MB, 256MB, 512MB |
The "PC Health" menu is also fairly straight forward. CPU and System
fan control can be enabled or disabled — no target temperatures or ramp up
thresholds and can be designated here.
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FAN CONTROL
The Smart Fan feature supports both 4-pin and 3-pin fans, so we connected one
of each to the two available fan headers — the X2 4850e heatsink stock fan
(650 to 3200RPM) and a Scythe
Kaze-Jyu 100mm case fan (SY1025SL12H, 700 to 2100RPM). We then stressed
the system with CPUBurn
K7 and monitored the relationship between Core temperature and fan speed
via SpeedFan.
Core Temp. | Fan Speed (RPM) | |
CPU_FAN | SYS_FAN | |
25°C | 850 | 1400 |
30°C | 1100 | |
35°C | 1350 | |
40°C | 1700 | |
45°C | 1950 | |
50°C | 2250 |
The Scythe fan connected to the SYS_FAN header remained at a steady 1400RPM
through out. The fan connected to the CPU_FAN header on the otherhand had an
almost linear relation to the Core temperature, following it very closely, increasing
gradually in a nice, steady, gentle curve. We found its behavior to be pleasant
— there were no sudden, jarring ramp ups in speed. We assume that beyond
50°C, the fan speed continues to increase in the same manner until it hits
whatever the maximum threshold temperature is.
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For those looking to fine tune Smart Fan’s behavior, Gigabyte’s EasyTune utility
offers some additional control, in that you can set minimum and maximum CPU
fan speeds as well as threshold temperatures. The downside is that the EasyTune
GUI is horrific looking. While we believe the intention was to make it look
like the controls of a commercial airliner we can’t help but notice its resemblance
to an uterus.
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If you choose to bypass Gigabyte’s Smart Fan control, SpeedFan would be an
excellent choice as it provides full customizable control over both fan headers.
Change PWM mode 1 and 2 to "Software Controlled" in the Advanced menu
and you’re ready to go.
OVERCLOCKING
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The bundled overclocking utility in Gigabyte’s EasyTune worked properly, allowing
us to overclock the board from the Vista desktop without rebooting. Our past
experience with such programs have usually ended in disappointment so this was
a nice surprise. Unfortunately, the CPU frequency can only be increased in 1Mhz
increments — you can’t enter in values manually. It took a lot of mouse clicks
to bring it up from 200 to 300Mhz.
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Using EasyTune we increased the CPU frequency by 5Mhz until we encounted instability.
ATITool’s artifact scanner was run briefly to verify there was no corruption
of the integrated graphics. The maximum CPU frequency the board was stable at
was 330Mhz, which is very impressive for an AM2+ mATX board. Note that we decreased
the CPU multiplier to 5x and the HT Link frequency to 600Mhz as we were trying
to max out the bus speed, not the processor itself. The maximum clock speed
the processor is capable of is irrelevant.
At 335Mhz, we began to see yellow artifacts in ATITool’s artifact scanner,
and at 340Mhz the system crashed (or wouldn’t boot up when overclocking via
the BIOS). Disabling the onboard video and using a discrete graphics card did
not help this result, nor did any additional chipset cooling. During testing,
the northbridge heatsink reached a balmy 68°C as measured by an infrared
thermometer.
HDMI OUTPUT
Connecting the board’s HDMI output to our BenQ FP94VW LCD monitor was a relative
success. It allowed for resolutions of 800×600, 1152×648, 1280×720 and 192×01080,
but not the native resolution of 1440×900. 1152×648 was the closest without
the desktop going off the edge of the screen. The audio output worked properly
without any issues — a first for us.
TEST METHODOLOGY
Test Setup:
- AMD
Athlon X2 4850e processor – 2.5Ghz, 2x512KB L2 cache, 65nm, 45W - Gigabyte
GA-MA78GM-S2H motherboard – F3C BIOS, 128MB allocated to integrated
graphics - Corsair
XMS2 memory 1GB - Seagate Momentus 5400.2
notebook hard drive – 120 GB, 5400RPM, SATA - Asus
BC-1205PT Blu Ray drive – SATA - Seasonic
SS-400ET power supply - Microsoft
Windows Vista operating system – Home Premium, 32-bit - ATI
Catalyst 8.2 IGP/graphics driver - QuickTime
Alternative 1.81 codec package
Measurement and Analysis Tools
- Cyberlink
PowerDVD 7
to play video. - CPUBurn
K7
processor stress software. - ATITool
0.26 artifact scanner to stress the integrated GPU. - Seasonic
Power Angel AC power meter, used to measure the power consumption
of the system.
Our test procedure is designed to determine the overall system power consumption
at various states (measured using a Seasonic Power Angel), and to test the integrated
graphics’ proficiency at playing back high definition videos. Standard HD-DVD
and Blu Ray discs can be encoded in three different codecs by design: MPEG-2,
H.264/AVC and VC-1. MPEG-2 has been around for a number of years and is not
demanding on modern system resources. H.264 and VC-1 encoded videos on the other
hand, due to the amount of complexity in their compression schemes, are extremely
stressful and will not play smoothly (or at all) on slower PCs, especially with
antiquated video subsystems.
We use a variety of H.264/VC-1 clips encoded for playback on the PC as well
as one actual Blu Ray title. The clips are played with PowerDVD 7 and a CPU
usage graph is created by the Windows Task Manger for analysis to determine
the approximate mean and peak CPU usage. High CPU usage is indicative of poor
video decoding ability on the part of the integrated graphics subsystem. If
the video skips or freezes, we conclude the board’s IGP (in conjunction with
the processor) is adequate to decompress the clip.
Cool’n’Quiet was enabled and Aero Glass, the Vista Sidebar, and the Superfetch
service were disabled during testing.
Video Test Suite
H.264: Rush Hour 3 Trailer 1 is encoded in H.264 with Apple Quicktime. |
WMV3: Coral Reef Adventure trailer is encoded in VC-1 using the WMV3 codec (commonly recognized by the moniker, "HD WMV"). |
WVC1: Microsoft Flight Simulator X trailer is encoded in VC-1. It’s a compilation of in-game action from a third person point of view. It is encoded using the Windows Media Video 9 Advanced Profile (aka WVC1) codec — a much more demanding implementation of VC-1. |
Blu Ray: Terminator 2: Judgement Day is a minute and thirty second clip from the Blu Ray version of the film. |
TEST RESULTS
First, a quick comparison between the Gigabyte MA78GM-S2H and
the Asus M2A-VM HDMI
to see how the chipsets compare. In our M2A-VM review we used a X2 BE-2400,
so the X2 4850e was underclocked to the same clock speed (2.3Ghz) to make a
more fair comparison. They are both 65nm processors with a thermal design power
of 45W. We also used Windows Media Player for playback (we’ve since acquired
a Blu Ray drive and are now using PowerDVD to take properly take advantage of
ATI’s UVD/AVIVO and nVidia PureVideo technology) — the last time we will do
so, just for comparison purposes. The rest of the hardware was the same, with
1GB of RAM and 128MB assigned to video memory.
Comparison: 780G vs. 690G Chipset (Gigabyte MA78GM-S2H vs. Asus M2A-VM HDMI) | ||||
Test State | MA78GM | M2A-VM | ||
Mean CPU Use | System Power | Mean CPU Use | System Power | |
Off | N/A | 8W | N/A | 2W |
Sleep (S3) | N/A | 9W | N/A | 3W |
Idle (C&Q) | 1% | 36W* | 1% | 35W |
H.264 | 22% | ~61W | 25% | ~57W |
WMV3 | 36% | ~64W | 29% | ~58W |
WVC1 | 52% | ~71W | 52% | ~65W |
CPUBurn | 100% | 94W | 100% | 84W |
CPUBurn + ATITool | 100% | 102W | 100% | 87W |
1GB of system RAM and 128MB of VRAM were used during testing. Blu Ray drive not installed and both CPUs clocked at 2.3Ghz * Arrived at by manually underclocking and undervolting. Underclocking |
As far as power consumption goes, we weren’t impressed. The 780G chipset seemed
to use between 5W and 15W more than 690G at various loads. The difference was
even evident when the system was powered down or in standby. Stressing the the
HD3200 GPU drew an extra 8W compared to 3W for the X1250, indicating the newer
IGP has a lot more horsepower.
Test Results: Gigabyte MA78GM-S2H | |||
Test State | X2 4850e @ 2.5Ghz | ||
Mean CPU Use | Peak CPU Use | System Power | |
Idle | 1% | 2% | 38W |
H.264 | 2% | 8% | ~53W |
WMV3 | 28% | 39% | ~65W |
WVC1 | 47% | 68% | ~69W |
Blu Ray | 23% | 31% | ~70W |
CPUBurn | 100% | 101W | |
CPUBurn + ATITool | 100 % | 109W |
In our main test, using PowerDVD, we found that the HD3200 IGP and X2 4850e
was more than up to the challenge of playing back our test clips. Surprisingly,
the WVC1 clip was more demanding than an actual Blu Ray disc, presumably because
it was encoded with a monsterous 60 frames per second. PowerDVD may also be
more optimized for playing back Blu Ray titles rather than VC-1 clips encoded
by some smuck. Though the CPU usage is lower, the Blu Ray drive’s motor and
laser made the power draw slightly higher.
MORE TEST RESULTS
Comparison: CPU Scaling | ||||||
Test State | CPU @ 2.5Ghz | CPU @ 1.5Ghz | ||||
Mean CPU Use | Peak CPU Use | System Power | Mean CPU Use | Peak CPU Use | System Power | |
Idle (C&Q) | 1% | 2% | 38W | 1% | 2% | 38W* |
H.264 | 2% | 8% | ~53W | 5% | 12% | ~42W |
WMV3 | 28% | 39% | ~65W | 38% | 52% | ~48W |
WVC1 | 47% | 68% | ~69W | 70% | 96% | ~53W |
Blu Ray | 23% | 31% | ~70W | 32% | 44% | ~56W |
CPUBurn | 100% | 101W | 100% | 58W | ||
CPUBurn + ATITool | 100% | 109W | 100% | 65W | ||
1GB of system RAM and 128MB of VRAM were used during testing * Arrived at by manually underclocking and undervolting. Underclocking |
Just how slow of a processor can one use? Gradually underclocking the CPU,
we found that the Blu Ray disc began to stutter at about 1.1Ghz, while audio
glitches were detected in the WVC1 clip at 1.4Ghz. 1.5Ghz was the lowest clock
speed that would smoothly play back all our clips. This was a fantastic result
as the lowest clocked X2 on the market is 2.0Ghz. We also undervolted the CPU
to 1.0V (the same voltage as Cool-N-Quiet) resulting in Blu Ray playback only
requiring 56W from the wall — we wonder how much juice a commercial Blu Ray
player uses.
Comparison: Assigned Video Memory | ||||||
Test State | 128MB VRAM | 256MB VRAM | ||||
Mean CPU Use | Peak CPU Use | System Power | Mean CPU Use | Peak CPU Use | System Power | |
Idle | 1% | 2% | 38W | 1% | 2% | 38W |
H.264 | 2% | 8% | ~53W | 2% | 8% | ~53W |
WMV3 | 28% | 39% | ~65W | 28% | 41% | ~66W |
WVC1 | 47% | 68% | ~69W | 43% | 73% | ~70W |
Blu Ray | 23% | 31% | ~70W | 17% | 28% | ~70W |
CPUBurn | 100% | 101W | 100% | 101W | ||
CPUBurn + ATITool | 100% | 109W | 100% | 109W | ||
1GB of system RAM was used during testing |
AMD recommended that we use the 256MB of video memory, 2GB of system memory,
and to disable Cool-N-Quiet to get optimal Blu Ray playback. Increasing the
amount of video memory garnered some slight improvement during Blu Ray playback,
but it wasn’t really necessary. Alos, despite Cool-N-Quiet being enabled, even
when CPU usage was low as during the H.264 clip, we noticed that the CPU throttled
up regardless.
Comparison: System Memory | ||||||
Test State | 1GB RAM | 2GB RAM | ||||
Mean CPU Use | Peak CPU Use | System Power | Mean CPU Use | Peak CPU Use | System Power | |
Idle | 1% | 2% | 38W | 1% | 2% | 41W |
H.264 | 2% | 8% | ~53W | 2% | 8% | ~54W |
WMV3 | 28% | 41% | ~66W | 24% | 39% | ~68W |
WVC1 | 43% | 73% | ~70W | 43% | 61% | ~72W |
Blu Ray | 17% | 28% | ~70W | 17% | 21% | ~73W |
CPUBurn | 100% | 101W | 100% | 103W | ||
CPUBurn + ATITool | 100% | 109W | 100% | 115W | ||
256MB of VRAM was used during testing |
Increasing the amount of system memory also did very little. We saw some minor
improvement in Blu Ray and WVC1 playback but at the cost of higher overall power
consumption due to the extra stick of DDR2. Even with Vista being an infamous
memory hog, using 1GB of RAM with 256MB assigned to the IGP didn’t cause us
any issues.
RADEON HD3450 & HYBRID GRAPHICS
To test the Hybrid Graphics feature, we used a low-profile Radeon HD3450 256MB — something you’d see in a multimedia center. It’s an ideal candidate as it
is a low-end part so any increase in performance provided by the IGP would be
more dramatic.
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Comparison: HD3200 IGP (256MB) vs. Radeon HD3450 256MB | ||||||
Load | HD3200 IGP | HD3450 | ||||
Mean CPU Use | Peak CPU Use | System Power | Mean CPU Use | Peak CPU Use | System Power | |
Idle | 1% | 2% | 41W | 1% | 2% | 53W |
H.264 | 2% | 8% | ~54W | 6% | 11% | ~57W |
WMV3 | 24% | 39% | ~68W | 31% | 41% | ~69W |
WVC1 | 43% | 61% | ~72W | 47% | 64% | ~77W |
Blu Ray | 17% | 21% | ~73W | 31% | 47% | ~76W |
CPUBurn | 100% | 101W | 100% | 116W | ||
CPUBurn + ATITool | 100% | 109W | 100% | 129W | ||
2GB of system RAM was used during testing |
We never could have predicted these results… the HD3200 IGP was actually
superior to the HD3450 for video playback. Higher CPU usage, higher power consumption,
and more heat (the card’s heatsink reached 67°C according to our infrared
thermometer) — unless you require more than two displays or want to play video
games, adding a discrete card seems folly.
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We used a set of beta drivers (Catalyst 8.47) provided by AMD to test the Hybrid
Graphics. Once installed, it was fairly simple to get started — we
had to enable the SurroundView option in the BIOS and enable CrossFire mode in
the Catalyst Control Center. Note, Hybrid Graphics is a Vista-only feature.
XP users lament.
Comparison: HD3200 IGP vs. Radeon HD3450 vs. Hybrid Graphics (HD3200+HD3450) | |||||||||
Test State | HD3200 IGP | HD3450 | Hybrid Gfx. | ||||||
Mean CPU | Peak CPU | System Power | Mean CPU | Peak CPU | System Power | Mean CPU | Peak CPU | System Power | |
Idle | 1% | 2% | 41W | 1% | 2% | 53W | 1% | 2% | 53W |
H.264 | 2% | 8% | ~54W | 6% | 11% | ~57W | 5% | 13% | ~56W |
WMV3 | 24% | 39% | ~68W | 31% | 41% | ~69W | 33% | 46% | ~68W |
WVC1 | 43% | 61% | ~72W | 47% | 64% | ~77W | 51% | 65% | ~77W |
Blu Ray | 17% | 21% | ~73W | 31% | 47% | ~76W | 48% | 63% | ~75W |
CPUBurn | 100% | 101W | 100% | 116W | 100% | 116W | |||
CPUBurn + ATITool | 100% | 109W | 100% | 129W | 100% | 130W | |||
2GB of system RAM and 256MB of VRAM were used during testing |
Using Hybrid Graphics mode, it appears playback actually became even worse.
We’ll chalk this up to drivers that aren’t quite ready.
HYBRID GRAPHICS: 3D PERFORMANCE
Normally we don’t get into the realm of game benchmarking, but we wanted to
see whether AMD’s impressive claims of increased performance using Hybrid Graphics
was valid. According to AMD, a 780G board running in Hybrid mode with a HD3450
results in an 80% increase in 3DMark06, and a 50% increase in 3DMark05.
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Futuremark Comparison: HD3200 IGP vs. HD3450 vs. Hybrid | |||
Test | HD3200 IGP | HD3450 | Hybrid |
3DMark05 | 2293 | 3705 | 3679 |
3DMark06 | 1116 | 1716 | 2055 |
2GB of system RAM and 256MB of VRAM were used during testing |
Our tests showed only a 20% improvement in 3DMark06 and none in 3DMark05. We
benchmarked twice and averaged the result, using 2GB of system memory and 256MB
of video memory (if applicable). While we used a dual core rather than a quad
core CPU, it shouldn’t have made that much difference. 3DMark weights very heavily
on the GPU.
EDITOR’S NOTE – March 7, 2007 – by Mike Chin Apparently, our assumption about the performance of dual core versus quad core in 3DMark was incorrect. Adam Kozak of AMD emailed to say…
Thank you for the clarification, Mr. Kozak. My comment on this is simple: Does the smart casual gamer choose a >$200 quad-core 95W TDP Phenom and $50 for an ATI HD3450 for this <$100 IGP motherboard, or a <$100 45W A64 X2 with a $150 PCIe 16x graphics card? |
CATALYST CONUNDRUMS
The lackluster results in our 3DMark testing and the puzzling playback numbers
could easily be a result of immature drivers. We had a tough time with both
the latest offical Catalyst 8.2 and beta 8.452 IGP drivers. Here is a list
of issues we encountered:
1. Both sets of drivers failed to install something called the "Northbridge
Filter Driver."2. Our LCD monitor’s native resolution was occasionally not detected properly
after a fresh driver install, resulting in the system only offering 4:3 or 5:4
resolutions up to 1600×1200 instead. Sometimes rebooting or changing the amount
of video memory in the BIOS fixed this.3. The 8.2 version of Catalyst scored higher in the Vista Experience Index
test than the beta 8.452 version we were instructed to use (3.4 vs 2.6). For
this reason, we used the 8.2 drivers for the non-Hybrid portion of testing.4. Using Hybrid graphics, PowerDVD, Windows Media Player, and 3DMark06 would
sometimes crash before initially loading.5. Sporadic problems with Vista’s CPU power management settings. Occasionally
after playing a clip with Windows Media Player, or our Terminator 2 Blu Ray
disc with PowerDVD, the minimal processor state would be set to 100% instead
of the default 5%, effectively disabling Cool-N-Quiet.
FINAL THOUGHTS
So what can we say about the 780G chipset? It’s pretty solid as far as 3D performance
goes, but at the cost of higher power consumption. HD playback was very impressive
and we managed to bring the CPU speed down to 1.5Ghz without compromising playback
ability. The Hybrid Graphics feature left us underwhelmed and unsatisfied,
especially having read AMD’s claims. How much impact does an extra 200 points
in 3DMark06 give a system? Not a whole lot in the grand scheme of things. It’s
a novel idea, but in reality it doesn’t live up to its hype… at least not with the current drivers and our sample board
As far as the actual motherboard goes, on paper, the MA78GM has no equal —
it’s so feature-laden that it presesnts an unprecidented value. In real life,
it’s an excellent overclocker and the CPU fan control is well implemented. Unfortunately
it’s also somewhat buggy and the driver issues we experienced cast a shadow
over our experience; it could have been the best IGP motherboard we’ve ever tested.
Once these problems are hammered out, we expect 780G chipset boards will become the defacto choice for
AM2 users for HTPCs, media extenders, and simply for a small, full-featured
jack-of-all-trades system. This Gigabyte is perhaps a driver or BIOS update away from true
glory.
PROS * Ridiculous feature-set | CONS * Driver issues and other bugs |
Our thanks to AMD,
Corsair, and Gigabyte
for the product samples.
* * *
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