s775 chipset with lowest consumption?

kamaleon · Post by **kamaleon** » Tue Jan 12, 2010 2:25 am

Hi all

My mobo is in the process of dying (an MSI with nvidia 7100 chipset). I need to get a new Âµatx to replace it. I'm looking for the lowest consumption motherboard to go with my E4400. I don't need it to have nice graphics because I'll be using a geforce G210 for H.264 acceleration. Which chipset out there will allow me to have the lowest consumption? I haven't done any upgrades since two years ago, I've been happy with my system until this component starting leaving me down, so I'm not in touch with the latest hardware. Will be happy to hear your advice!

Thanks in advance!

Ksanderash · Post by **Ksanderash** » Wed Jan 13, 2010 6:34 am

Any G31 chipset powered board will be a perfect "upgrade" choice. Btw, your current 7100 is still a great low power S775 variant

So you can even remain on your ground, and not change installed software.

Safe vendors, IMHO, are: Biostar, Gigabyte. MSI 7100 is also good, I remeber that board.

flapane · Post by **flapane** » Wed Jan 13, 2010 6:55 am

Drop the gf, save the discrete gpu power draw, and buy a g41.
Sounds reasonable.

kamaleon · Post by **kamaleon** » Wed Jan 13, 2010 9:13 am

Thanks for your input!

So is the G31 more power efficient than G41? If so, that would suit me as there are some cheap G31 mobos around.

IMHO my mobo sucks big time, it doesn't even support dual channel memory. The integrated 7100 graphics can't properly accelerate and deinterlace even SD mpeg 2 content. I'm really not happy with it.

flapane · Post by **flapane** » Wed Jan 13, 2010 9:41 am

The fact is that the g41 is newer (so it's supposed to be more efficient), it is probably made with a better productive process, and I am sure that your ge force+any other matx mobo will override a g41 (whose integrated hd4500 can accelerate h264 streams), in terms of power consumption.

loimlo · Post by **loimlo** » Wed Jan 13, 2010 10:11 am

G41 doesn't support VC1/H264 decoding. Instead, Intel retains VC1/H264 capability for G45. As for power consumption, it's not chipset but motherboard vendor's implementation that counts. Under this circumstance, I'd choose a decent G31 or G41 board that has undervolting options in bios. Take a look at motherboards' manuals on Asrock, Biostar, Gigabyte and MSI's website to find related info.

flapane · Post by **flapane** » Wed Jan 13, 2010 10:18 am

Are you sure? Or are you referring to full hd h264 support?
I was speaking of a general x264 stream, ok for full hd, but that would sound weird if it wouldn't have such kind of a hw support for 720p or less quality streams.
btw: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=364197

ilovejedd · Post by **ilovejedd** » Wed Jan 13, 2010 10:31 am

flapane wrote:Are you sure? Or are you referring to full hd h264 support?
I was speaking of a general x264 stream, ok for full hd, but that would sound weird if it wouldn't have such kind of a hw support for 720p or less quality streams.
btw: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=364197

As far as I'm aware, G41 and G43 don't do hardware acceleration of H.264 or VC-1. That's what differentiates the G41 and G43 chipsets from the G45.

I just checked the specs for that poster's laptop. It uses the GM45 chipset which is the mobile version of the G45.

flapane · Post by **flapane** » Wed Jan 13, 2010 10:41 am

I'm disappointed, seems like I knew wrong data, sorry to the OP

kamaleon · Post by **kamaleon** » Wed Jan 13, 2010 10:45 am

I'm intending on using a pci-e card, geforce G210 for the video part, so I don't really care much about the onboard IGP specs. Which would be my best choice then? G31 or 41 or G45 in strict power consumption issues?

MtnHermit · Post by **MtnHermit** » Wed Jan 13, 2010 10:54 am

OP

You might find this article worthwhile as to power. It demonstrates the importance of the PSU, as in smaller is better.

kamaleon · Post by **kamaleon** » Wed Jan 13, 2010 11:42 am

Thanks

I'm currently using a flex-atx PSU that is rather efficient and extremely quiet. I tried going the picopsu (can't remember exactly if it was the picopsu or another board) way together with an xbox360 PSU but it wouldn't post.

Ksanderash · Post by **Ksanderash** » Thu Jan 14, 2010 5:27 am

kamaleon wrote:G31 or 41 or G45 in strict power consumption issues?

The first one, G31

Simplicity means economy

kamaleon · Post by **kamaleon** » Thu Jan 14, 2010 5:35 am

What do you exactly mean by simplicity? I'm not familiar with the differences between the G31 and G41 chipsets.

Also, do you mean that based on theory or because you have tested it or read some reports?

Ksanderash · Post by **Ksanderash** » Fri Jan 15, 2010 3:34 am

kamaleon wrote:What do you exactly mean by simplicity?

The functionality you don't need eating additional energy -- you can avoid this.

I'm not familiar with the differences between the G31 and G41 chipsets.

AFAIK, there is not a one crucial difference to tell about. Even mainboards look absolutelly the same.

Also, do you mean that based on theory or because you have tested it or read some reports?

Yeah, I had a G41 Gigabyte board for a day. And it was hotter than G31 of the same manufacturer, so I switched back.

And now I'm on Biostar, just for fun

Gigabyte are very good cheap boards nowadays.

kamaleon · Post by **kamaleon** » Fri Jan 15, 2010 5:57 am

Thanks a lot for your input

I just came back from the shop with a passive Gainward G210 video card. I'm gonna see if the mobo I have still lasts me some time before swapping it. I haven't had the same weird errors I was having last week so I might push it a little bit still!

washu · Post by **washu** » Fri Jan 15, 2010 6:31 am

ilovejedd wrote: As far as I'm aware, G41 and G43 don't do hardware acceleration of H.264 or VC-1. That's what differentiates the G41 and G43 chipsets from the G45.

The G41 and G43 do partial H.264 and VC-1 acceleration, just not full decode like the G45. It still helps reduce CPU use a fair bit over the G31 if you are using the IGP. They are also much faster than the G31 in 3D.

Also if you want to use lots of RAM for whatever reason the G4X are better. The G41 supports 8 GB and the G43 and G45 support 16 GB of RAM. The G31 only supports 4 GB.

If you are not using the IGP or more than 4 GB of RAM then the G31 is better for reasons others have pointed out.

loimlo · Post by **loimlo** » Fri Jan 15, 2010 7:24 am

washu wrote:
ilovejedd wrote: As far as I'm aware, G41 and G43 don't do hardware acceleration of H.264 or VC-1. That's what differentiates the G41 and G43 chipsets from the G45.
The G41 and G43 do partial H.264 and VC-1 acceleration, just not full decode like the G45. It still helps reduce CPU use a fair bit over the G31 if you are using the IGP. They are also much faster than the G31 in 3D.

Also if you want to use lots of RAM for whatever reason the G4X are better. The G41 supports 8 GB and the G43 and G45 support 16 GB of RAM. The G31 only supports 4 GB.

If you are not using the IGP or more than 4 GB of RAM then the G31 is better for reasons others have pointed out.

I kind of doubt G41's VC1/H264 offloading from my experience, but G31 wouldn't be better in this regard, either. But G41's 8GB RAM support is a moot point given only 2 DIMM slots on almost every budget mATX motherboard. Unless 4GB stick price drops by a great margin, 4GB is the realistic value for G31/G41 boards.

That said, G41 boards should not draw more power compared to G31 boards considering the fact that they are very similar in terms of chipset TDP and VRM designs(3 phases across the boards). If there's a significant power consumption difference, that's board vendor's mistake. In theory, we ought to find consistent power figures between G31 and G41. In fact, who knows! Get a board that has decent CPU undervolting options in bios is the suggestion for OP. After all, G31/G41's info are very scarce, especially in power respect as vendors are reluctant to send the most cheap boards for review.

washu · Post by **washu** » Fri Jan 15, 2010 8:42 am

loimlo wrote: I kind of doubt G41's VC1/H264 offloading from my experience, but G31 wouldn't be better in this regard, either. But G41's 8GB RAM support is a moot point given only 2 DIMM slots on almost every budget mATX motherboard. Unless 4GB stick price drops by a great margin, 4GB is the realistic value for G31/G41 boards.

Well both Intel and Wiki say that the G41/G43 support motion compensation and deblocking for VC1/H264. I've run the DXVA checker tool on my HTPC with a G41 and it does list some VC1/H264 support, but I don't remember the specifics as I'm at work now. It has no issues with playing 1080P H.264 files. With the same CPU (E2180) on the G31 I had in there before it sometimes would skip frames and CPU use was higher.

I ran the DXVA checker on one of the G31 machines here at work and it lists nothing except MPEG2 support.

You are right about the RAM support probably being moot due to only 2 slots.

flapane · Post by **flapane** » Fri Jan 15, 2010 8:47 am

My informations weren't all that wrong, then.
I'm happy because I am going tobuy a g41 mobo.

kamaleon · Post by **kamaleon** » Sat Jan 16, 2010 12:09 am

I really appreciate these infos

Since we're speaking of chipsets... how power-efficient are the integrated 9300 and 9400 chipsets from nvidia?

(btw: I got the G210 yesterday, I'm not entirely sure how high my power draw went but live DVB-S H.264 isn't stuttering anymore now

)

loimlo · Post by **loimlo** » Sun Jan 17, 2010 12:44 am

washu wrote:
loimlo wrote: I kind of doubt G41's VC1/H264 offloading from my experience, but G31 wouldn't be better in this regard, either. But G41's 8GB RAM support is a moot point given only 2 DIMM slots on almost every budget mATX motherboard. Unless 4GB stick price drops by a great margin, 4GB is the realistic value for G31/G41 boards.
Well both Intel and Wiki say that the G41/G43 support motion compensation and deblocking for VC1/H264. I've run the DXVA checker tool on my HTPC with a G41 and it does list some VC1/H264 support, but I don't remember the specifics as I'm at work now. It has no issues with playing 1080P H.264 files. With the same CPU (E2180) on the G31 I had in there before it sometimes would skip frames and CPU use was higher.

I ran the DXVA checker on one of the G31 machines here at work and it lists nothing except MPEG2 support.

You are right about the RAM support probably being moot due to only 2 slots.

Well, motion compensation and deblocking are image quality enhancement, not decoding-related function. Maybe in the past the H264 file that I threw to G41 was too demanding so I can't tell the difference. Anyway, that's also a moot point for OP given the GT210 superiority.

As for 9300/9400, kamaleon, you've jumped from one end of pricing spectrum to the other end of spectrum. I think you've emphasized too much on power consumption, to say the least. The most voracious board and most stingy board might be differed up to 5W at idle, but your discrete VGA at least would draw additional 10W at idle. I really don't understand your logics here. If I were to purchase 9300, I'm happy to ditch discrete VGA and use integrated VGA in order to reduce power consumption. After all, 9300 supports VC1/H264 decoding. That's where the ION really shines -- it strikes a good balance between energy-efficiency and features.

kamaleon · Post by **kamaleon** » Sun Jan 17, 2010 1:19 am

I'm just trying to understand where mobos stand power-consumption-wise and how they compare to each other.

I'm not going to buy a 9300/9400 since, as you've understood, I have no use for them now, as the G210 is superior in video-acceleration. But since we were talking about mobos, I was curious to know how the recent nvidia IGPs compared to the intel chipsets. Just for my own knowledge.

One fact that is interesting for me and that I would like to confirm: 5W is that all? The differentce between a power efficient and a voracious board will be 5W at idle, not more?

flapane · Post by **flapane** » Sun Jan 17, 2010 2:57 am

That would mean less than 5$ of power saving a year, for a 24/7 box (assuming my local energy prices)

loimlo · Post by **loimlo** » Sun Jan 17, 2010 3:26 am

kamaleon wrote:I'm just trying to understand where mobos stand power-consumption-wise and how they compare to each other.

I'm not going to buy a 9300/9400 since, as you've understood, I have no use for them now, as the G210 is superior in video-acceleration. But since we were talking about mobos, I was curious to know how the recent nvidia IGPs compared to the intel chipsets. Just for my own knowledge.

One fact that is interesting for me and that I would like to confirm: 5W is that all? The differentce between a power efficient and a voracious board will be 5W at idle, not more?

I have only used 2 G31 boards(Gigabyte, Asrock) and 1 G41 board(ASUS), and the power difference was 4W at idle. Chances are that I haven't yet met the most energy-efficient budget board on Intel side. But as I said a few times before, board vendor's implementation is more important than chipset TDP rating.

Also, there's SPCR's comparison: G41 vs G45 vs 9300. *65W E7200
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article960-page5.html
On AMD side for reference. *95W X3 720.
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1003-page6.html

kamaleon · Post by **kamaleon** » Sun Jan 17, 2010 4:31 am

Word up, thanks for sharing your knowledge. It don't make much difference then, that's good to know!

washu · Post by **washu** » Sun Jan 17, 2010 9:22 am

I just ran DXVA checker on both a G45 and a G41 board. Both running the latest Intel drivers on Windows 7 x64.

The only differences were that the G45 had these two decoders that the G41 did not:

One mode listed as a GUID, googling indicates it is the VC-1 decoder
The other is "ModeH264_VLD_NoFGT-ClearVideo"

The rest of the decoders are the same on both. This includes an IDCT decoder for WMV9, VC-1 and H264. This would indicate that even the G41 does some HD decoding.

flapane · Post by **flapane** » Sun Jan 17, 2010 10:52 am

I'd check cpu load, too.

washu · Post by **washu** » Sun Jan 17, 2010 12:03 pm

flapane wrote:I'd check cpu load, too.

I'd have to take them apart and swap CPUs to make a fair comparison. The G41 has an E5200, the G45 only has an E1200. I may do that at some point.

I did have the E5200 in a G31 before and the CPU load was higher than the G41, but I don't have any hard numbers.

Wilhelm-Tell · Post by **Wilhelm-Tell** » Wed Jan 27, 2010 2:16 pm

My Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L with a E1200 (1,6GHz -- Dual Core) and 2,5 GB RAM plays 720 just fine, but not 1080p.