RS780 board availability

Spare Tire · Post by **Spare Tire** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 5:25 am

In the anandtech article it is said the first iteration of hybrid crossfire will not support powering down the discrete video card at idle. Have we reports that it does or does not now that the boards are shipping? And if it doesn't, is it something that will be enabled later with driver updates or is this something that will be requiring a silicon revision later?

frank2003 · Post by **frank2003** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 4:02 am

Newegg is now selling the Gigabyte board for $100:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 0&Tpk=780g

Note they have the wrong product images.

Spare Tire · Post by **Spare Tire** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 6:08 am

directcanada.com has them for 86$:

http://www.directcanada.com/products/?s ... e=GIGABYTE

So finally, can anyone know if the hybrid crossfire can turn off the discrete card at idle or in 2D (no thanks aeroglass).

Tzupy · Post by **Tzupy** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 6:54 am

Found this review at THG, they cover many aspects of the new 780G:
http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/03/04/ ... g_chipset/
Hmm, overclocked the GPU from 500 to 950 MHz. I wonder how mcuh a TR HR-05 IFX would add...

Mariner · Post by **Mariner** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 7:00 am

Blog entry from Anandtech:

http://www.anandtech.com/weblog/showpost.aspx?i=404

Sounds as though they'll be having some interesting reviews there shortly including looks at video quality/performance etc.

It doesn't look as though the NVidia stuff will be out for another month or so though.

Edit:

And another pretty decent review/comparison to an Intel platform:

http://www.techreport.com/articles.x/14261

Mikael · Post by **Mikael** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 9:32 am

That review at Toms Hardware almost sold me on the 780G, but I'll still wait for Anandtech's review.

EDIT: Tom's ramblings about the 780G's power consumption don't really tell the whole story. My guess is that the 780G easily consumes more than its predecessor when decoding video or running 3D graphics. Which is okay, as long as it doesn't cause problems in less ventilated cases. I'm hoping Anandtech will be more thorough in this regard.

EDIT: Hmm... Techreport has a review up and while it's generally very positive, it seems AMD still hasn't designed a solid southbridge. The SB700 has a few problems that really shouldn't be there.

http://www.techreport.com/articles.x/14261/1

frank2003 · Post by **frank2003** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 3:12 pm

To see 780G offerings at a glance, check this link periodically:

http://products.amd.com/en-us/Motherboa ... =False&f8=&

AMD just updated it today to coincide with CeBit opening day.

maxPower · Post by **maxPower** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 3:43 pm

For those of you that have a board with this NB:

Which processor did you use? Did you go for one of the 45W BE chips or one of the Phenom's? What are some of your processor percentages when viewing/decoding HD?

oberbimbo · Post by **oberbimbo** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 1:41 am

According to the review at Tom's, you get by with a Sempron 3500+ for bluray. It peaks at about 90% though. (Tho I'd wish they had gone for BBC Planet Earth, that's about the worst you can throw at a bluray player I believe)

frank2003 · Post by **frank2003** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 4:30 am

Newegg has added offerings from ECS and ASUS. The ECS board is a full ATX version. Compared to the Gigabyte board, the ASUS board has no firewire, but it has a more hefty NB heatsink so it's something to consider if the heat issue in the production Gigabyte board is a concern for you.

EDIT: link to the three 780g boards: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi ... 0g&x=0&y=0

frank2003 · Post by **frank2003** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 4:39 am

According to the newegg specs for the ASUS board it comes with only a 10/100Mbps LAN. How could ASUS screw up so badly???

Mikael · Post by **Mikael** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 5:01 am

The GeForce 8200 equipped ASUS M3N78-EMH HDMI is now available here in Sweden. I was just about to order it when I found out that the board doesn't seem to offer any [BIOS] CPU voltage control whatsoever. It's quite baffling that ASUS never seem to get CPU voltage options just right. Either they're missing completely or they're limited. What harm would it cause them to just enable the damn setting in the BIOS and provide a good range?

Guess I'm back to waiting for Gigabyte's GF8200 board before I choose either that or the GA-MA78GM-S2H.

frank2003 · Post by **frank2003** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 5:38 am

ZZF lists the ASUS board at a modest price of $399.99:
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDe ... e=10008049

This must a limited edition with gold-plated everything

ryboto · Post by **ryboto** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 7:23 am

Spare Tire wrote:In the anandtech article it is said the first iteration of hybrid crossfire will not support powering down the discrete video card at idle. Have we reports that it does or does not now that the boards are shipping? And if it doesn't, is it something that will be enabled later with driver updates or is this something that will be requiring a silicon revision later?

I'd also like to know if anyone has any other input on this. Granted, the HD3870 can be undervolted, and will probably use as much power in idle as the integrated video would, still, I'm curious as to whether this feature is available.

winguy · Post by **winguy** » Thu Mar 06, 2008 6:10 am

Anyone noticed the new 4850E processor consumes a good few watts less at idle according to tom's? Seems like a good CPU...

tutu · Post by **tutu** » Thu Mar 06, 2008 7:41 am

Any info posted about 45nm transition or ATX boards?

practal · Post by **practal** » Thu Mar 06, 2008 12:29 pm

Any word on boards that are going to support sidebar memory yet? And when is the 790GX suppose to launch?

Ive been waiting for these to launch for some time. I was hoping to get one right out of the gate but I dont see to much of a selection so far. Glade to see the reviewers are liking it.

frank2003 · Post by **frank2003** » Thu Mar 06, 2008 4:52 pm

frank2003 wrote:According to the newegg specs for the ASUS board it comes with only a 10/100Mbps LAN. How could ASUS screw up so badly???

I downloaded the Asus manual and it appears newegg.com had it wrong. According to the manual the board does have a gigabit LAN.

I'm disappointed at the lack of availability of other 780G boards after all the hype. It's been days after the official announcement at CebIT and the only real choices we have are Gigabyte and Asus. Anyone have words on other board makers?

dragmor · Post by **dragmor** » Thu Mar 06, 2008 5:11 pm

frank2003 wrote:
frank2003 wrote:According to the newegg specs for the ASUS board it comes with only a 10/100Mbps LAN. How could ASUS screw up so badly???
I downloaded the Asus manual and it appears newegg.com had it wrong. According to the manual the board does have a gigabit LAN.

I'm disappointed at the lack of availability of other 780G boards after all the hype. It's been days after the official announcement at CebIT and the only real choices we have are Gigabyte and Asus. Anyone have words on other board makers?

Theres tons of Jetway boards in Oz.

loimlo · Post by **loimlo** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 8:46 am

frank2003 wrote: I downloaded the Asus manual and it appears newegg.com had it wrong. According to the manual the board does have a gigabit LAN.

I'm disappointed at the lack of availability of other 780G boards after all the hype. It's been days after the official announcement at CebIT and the only real choices we have are Gigabyte and Asus. Anyone have words on other board makers?

If Anandtech blog is right, we would have wait to till the end of March for the likes of abit, Asrock, Foxconn, and MSI (in alphabet order). Be patient, they are coming!

But, where's the Biostar now? In my opinion, Biostar & abit made top-notch mATX boards beating most BIG guys in AM2 690G/7050 days.

ryboto · Post by **ryboto** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 9:00 am

loimlo wrote: If Anandtech blog is right, we would have wait to till the end of March for the likes of abit, Asrock, Foxconn, and MSI (in alphabet order). Be patient, they are coming!

But, where's the Biostar now? In my opinion, Biostar & abit made top-notch mATX boards beating most BIG guys in AM2 690G/7050 days.

But in one of those articles there's a list of all the planned 780g/v boards that are going to be available, and there wasn't a single Abit board on the list...was the list wrong?

Moogles · Post by **Moogles** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 9:55 am

Does 780G support dual-link DVI? One review said it does, but "under condition" and never bothered to point out what the condition was.

I'd like an IGP that can do 2560*1600. I know Asus' 690G board does this, but very poorly and with many issues. Will 780G be any better?

loimlo · Post by **loimlo** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 4:46 am

ryboto wrote: But in one of those articles there's a list of all the planned 780g/v boards that are going to be available, and there wasn't a single Abit board on the list...was the list wrong?

Abit A-S78H, a mATX 780G board being spotted in Cebit. 780G does amazingly on off-loading Blu-rays, pretty impressive low-cost HTPC platform. The problem is, when will Biostar & Abit boards come to market?

frank2003 · Post by **frank2003** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 7:18 am

SPCR has an excellent detailed review of the Gigabyte board, with comparsion to the Asus 690G board. Link here: http://www.silentpcreview.com/article807-page1.html

To me the big surprise is the increased power consumption for Blu-Ray playback over the 690G software solution.

thejamppa · Post by **thejamppa** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 2:41 pm

Seems like 780G would be excellent choice. I might think that combined with upcomming cheap Quadcore AMD e-series. less than 90$ from mobo and less than 150 $ for 45W Quadcore. Now that would be excellent HTPC combo.

frank2003 · Post by **frank2003** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 2:43 pm

frank2003 wrote:To see 780G offerings at a glance, check this link periodically:

http://products.amd.com/en-us/Motherboa ... =False&f8=&

AMD just updated it today to coincide with CeBit opening day.

AMD has just added the Asus board to the list. Comparing the Gigabyte and Asus boards, I see the only differences are 1. the Gigabyte board has firewire, and 2. the gigabyte has 5 SATA2 + 1 eSATA, whereas the Asus has 6 SATA2. Link here: http://products.amd.com/en-us/Motherboa ... d=80&id=86

What you won't see is the larger NB heatsink on the Asus as has aleady been mentioned. Tough call which one is better...

line · Post by **line** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 11:50 pm

Well if the Tech Report's note on AHCI issues with the SB700 southbridge is correct, and it, unfortunately, does not work out-of-the-box in Vista, Asus may have wisely avoided a pitfall there. AHCI is essential for the hot plugging part of the eSATA spec, and if users are going to face problems with it, who are they going to blame?

The NB heatsink is nice.

Another difference to note is that the Asus board has an inferior audio codec (ALC883 vs. ALC889A w/ DTS Connect) and lacks a back panel S/PDIF connector.

Mikael · Post by **Mikael** » Sun Mar 09, 2008 2:55 am

line wrote:Another difference to note is that the Asus board has an inferior audio codec (ALC883 vs. ALC889A w/ DTS Connect) and lacks a back panel S/PDIF connector.

Another difference may be the support for CPU vcore control. If the ASUS RS780 board is like its brother, the GeForce 8200 equipped Asus M3N78-EMH HDMI, it lacks any sort of vcore control. Whether ASUS will remedy this or not is another question. I wouldn't simply assume it, though.

frank2003 · Post by **frank2003** » Sun Mar 09, 2008 4:53 am

Good points on the additional differences between the asus and gigabyte. Here's another: Asus uses AMI BIOS and Gigabyte uses Award BIOS. I'm not sure if one is better than the other.

I read through the Asus manual, and here's what I found:
- It supports S/PDIF out but only through an optional adapter and it takes up a back panel slot.
- It supports CPU voltage control in 0.025V increments. I'm not sure if this applies only to overvolting only, though.
- It supports AHCI and has software for creating driver disk for different Windows OSes (Vista32/64, XP/XP64).
- On virtualization (a subject discussed in another thread), the Asus has a setting for SVM (Secure Virtual Machine mode). I assume it's the same as the Virtualization setting in the Award BIOS used on the gigabyte.

I don't quite understand why Asus tried to cut corners by requiring additional slots to get all the outputs. Their 690G was a good contender but it turned me off because it required a slot for HDMI output.

Dexx · Post by **Dexx** » Sun Mar 09, 2008 9:39 pm

What would a Sempron LE-1100 be like on one of these boards?