AMD IGP Chipset and Motherboard Showdown
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Introduction
Introduction
NVIDIA's latest GeForce 9300/9400 series of mGPU motherboards has brought the spotlight back to IGP motherboards. For those who have an interest in these boards, the goals in recent IGP chipsets seem to be on improving the integrated graphics performance and adding features like DirectX 10 support and hardware acceleration for HD video playback. As we saw from our recent Intel CPU platform based comparison between Intel and NVIDIA chipsets, this has been largely achieved for HD video playback, though for the Intel G45, not so much for the graphics performance aspect.
Therefore, each successive generation of IGP chipsets has moved one step closer to becoming the perfect fit for a HD home theater PC (HTPC) setup. At the moment, for the Intel platform, we have to give this accolade to NVIDIA's GeForce 9 series mGPU. But like any other technology, it's temporary and who knows what the next year will bring. As for those looking at the AMD platform, what are the alternatives?
Well you'll find the usual suspects, with the exception of Intel. In fact, earlier this year, NVIDIA had already introduced its AMD IGP boards for this generation, the GeForce 8 series mGPU, using the MCP78S and supporting the latest AM2+ processors. This came in three flavors and we had done a preview of the GeForce 8200 mGPU from Palit. But this wasn't the biggest development of the year for the AMD IGP scene.
What grabbed the headlines was the release of AMD's 780G chipset, which has quickly gained a reputation for its integrated graphics performance and was the underpinning for AMD's mobile platform, Puma. This was followed by a few iterations of the 780 and then the 740G. To find out more about these IGP chipsets, we have gathered 4 retail models using these various chipsets and presented them here in this roundup to figure out how they all fare. Tech specs to follow:-
Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H | Gigabyte GA-MA74GM-S2 | Zotac GeForce 8300 | Zotac GeForce 8100 | |
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CPU Support | Socket AM2/AM2+ processors | |||
Chipset | AMD 780G + SB700 | AMD 740G + SB700 | NVIDIA GeForce 8300 mGPU | NVIDIA GeForce 8100 mGPU |
Memory |
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Storage |
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Audio |
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Networking | Realtek 8111C Gigabit LAN | Realtek 8111C Gigabit LAN | Realtek 8211B Gigabit LAN | Realtek 8201N 100Mbps Ethernet |
IEEE 1394 |
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N.A |
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N.A |
Rear I/O |
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Internal Connectors |
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Expansion Slots |
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Special Features |
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N.A | N.A |
Form Factor | mATX (24.4 x 23.4cm) | mATX (24.4 x 23.4cm) | mATX (24.4 x 24.4cm) | mATX (24.4 x 19.0cm) |
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