880G?
Let's talk about the 880G chipset first. Bringing out the table, we line it up alongside AMD's recent IGP solutions, as well as a couple of Intel alternatives.
| Chipset | AMD 890GX | AMD 880G | AMD 785G | AMD 780G | AMD 790GX | Intel H55 | Intel G45 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Manufacturing process | 55nm | 55nm | 55nm | 55nm | 55nm | 45nm | 65nm |
| CPU support | AMD AM3 | AMD AM3 | AMD AM2/AM2+/AM3 | AMD AM2/AM2+ | AMD AM2/AM2+/AM3 | Intel LGA1156 | Intel LGA775 |
| Six-core Phenom II X6 support | Yes | Yes | On some models | No | On some models | N/A | N/A |
| IGP core | Radeon HD 4290 | Radeon HD 4250 | Radeon HD 4200 | Radeon HD 3200 | Radeon HD 3300 | HD Graphics | X4500 HD |
| DirectX support | 10.1 | 10.1 | 10.1 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
| GPU clock speed (MHz) | 700 | 560 | 500 | 500 | 700 | 900 | 800 |
| Shaders | 40 | 40 | 40 | 40 | 40 | 12 | 10 |
| GFLOPs | 56 | 44.8 | 40 | 40 | 56 | 32 | 24 |
| Memory type | DDR3 | DDR3 | DDR2/DDR3 | DDR2 | DDR2/DDR3 | DDR3 | DDR2/DDR3 |
| Video-processing tech | AVIVO HD (UVD 2.0) | AVIVO HD (UVD 2.0) | AVIVO HD (UVD 2.0) | AVIVO HD (UVD 1.0) | AVIVO HD (UVD 1.0) | ClearVideo HD | ClearVideo HD |
| Blu-ray PiP support (Profile 1.1) | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Native output support | DVI, VGA, DisplayPort, HDMI (v1.3) | DVI, VGA, DisplayPort, HDMI (v1.3) | DVI, VGA, DisplayPort, HDMI (v1.3) | DVI, VGA, DisplayPort, HDMI (v1.2) | DVI, VGA, DisplayPort, HDMI (v1.3) | DVI, VGA, DisplayPort, HDMI (v1.3) | DVI, VGA, DisplayPort, HDMI |
| Hybrid GPU support | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes (no CF for discrete cards) | Yes | No | No |
| Discrete CrossFire support | Yes | No* | No | No | Yes | No | No |
* some manufacturers may enable this out-of-spec feature.
Discussion
Given that 890GX was an evolutionary step up from AMD's 7-series chipsets, it's no surprise to find 880G continuing a familiar trend.
The IGP remains a derivative of the Radeon HD 3000-series RV620 core, and clocked at 560MHz it slots in neatly between 890GX and 785G. Like the 890GX, a 128MB on-board "SidePort" frame-buffer is provided as standard, but there's no official support for discrete CrossFire configurations, although some manufacturers may well get around this by adding in the necessary x16 mechanical slot and routing PCIe lanes on high-end 880G boards
As per usual, don't expect miracles from the IGP, then, and don't let it be a deciding factor, either. Most modern IGPs offer similar feature sets - including the likes of simultaneous video acceleration and hardware upscaling - leaving little to choose between them in terms of day-to-day media use.