System setup and notes
| Motherboard | ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO | Gigabyte GA-MA790GP-DS4H | Intel DG45ID |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | £71.30 |
£113 |
£80 |
| Chipset | AMD 785G + SB710 | AMD 790GX + SB750 | Intel G45 + ICH10 |
| CPU | AMD Phenom II X2 550 BE (3.1GHz, 1MB L2, 6MB L3, dual-core) | Intel Core 2 Duo E7500 (2.93GHz, 3MB L2 cache, dual-core) | |
| BIOS revision | 0201 (08/07/2009) |
F4 (04/07/2009) | IDG4510H.86A.0107.2009.0624.1357 |
| Mainboard software | Standard Vista drivers + AHCI 3.1.1540.127 | Intel Inf 9.0.0.1008 + IMSM 8.7.0.1007 | |
| Memory | 4GB (2 x 2GB) Crucial DDR3-1,333 | 4GB (2 x 2GB) Corsair PC8500 DOMINATOR DDR2-1,066 | |
| Memory timings and speed | 9-9-9-24 1T @ DDR3 1,333.4 | 5-5-5-15 2T @ DDR2-1,070.8 | 5-5-5-15 2T @ DDR2-800 |
| Integrated graphics | ATI Radeon HD 4200 @ 500MHz/1,333MHz | ATI Radeon HD 3300 @ 700MHz/1,333MHz | Intel GMA X4500 HD @ 533MHz/800MHz |
| Integrated Graphics driver | 785G press driver (8.634-090717a-085165E-ATI) | 15.13.4.64.1829_PV
(7.15.10.1829) |
|
| Discrete graphics | None. IGP-based. | ||
| Disk drive(s) | Seagate 500GB SATAII (ST3500320AS) | ||
| Operating system | Windows Vista Business x64 SP1 | ||
Tests
| Benchmarks |
SiSoft SANDRA SP1b v15.72 memory bandwidth HDTach - SATA average read speed Company of Heroes: OF v2.400, DX9 - 1,024x768 low-detail Power-consumption tests |
|---|
Testing notes
The faster AMD 790GX is represented by a well-specified Gigabyte board that's rather expensive at £113. It should win the IGP benchmarks by dint of its faster core that operates at 700MHz. Both the £70 785G and 790GX support SidePort memory.Intel's very own DG45ID is currently priced at £80 and provides a good example of the chipset. We've tried to be even-handed with the CPUs and used dual-core models that etail for around £80 each - the kind that would probably be specified with motherboards such as these.
The ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO is the only board to interface with DDR3 memory, operating at 1,333MHz, and the current price premium over 4GBs of high-quality DDR2 is not much more than £10 or so.
2D benchmark performance will be determined largely by the ability of the processor, storage performance will fall on the southbridge, and gaming is the domain of the IGP, unless bottlenecked by other system components.
Issues
The GPU NOS feature looks promising but wouldn't work on the sample board; the frequencies remained the same, irrespective of whether the board was put under 3D load. We had to manually increase the frequencies for the overclocking tests.