AMD’s 785G integrated graphics chipset

As a PC enthusiast, my attention naturally gravitates toward the bleeding edge. I can’t help but want to see what’s new, what’s fast, and what’s coming up next. These days, though, it’s hard to justify lusting after a high-end system. The vast majority of applications are still single-threaded, and even those who multitask can generally get by with an affordable dual-core CPU. Additionally, the prevalence of games designed primarily for the dated hardware underpinning the current generation of consoles has ensured that you don’t need to spend much more than a $150 to enjoy the latest games with all their eye candy enabled on monitors up to 24 inches.

Heck, if you don’t play games, you don’t even need to buy a graphics card. Today’s integrated graphics chipsets are certainly up to the task of handling standard desktop applications, and they’re endowed with high-definition video decoding capabilities. They even sport a couple of digital display outputs, should you wish to run a multi-monitor setup without futzing with analog conversions.

Even the motherboards based on modern integrated graphics chipsets are pretty good. Years ago, it seemed motherboards with integrated graphics were designed exclusively for system integrators and major PC brands looking to crank out budget systems with little flair and only the bare minimum of function. While adequate for mainstream folks, these boards were a little low-rent for enthusiasts. Fast-forward to the present day, however, and you’ll find that the landscape has changed dramatically. You can now get full-featured integrated graphics boards loaded with BIOS tweaking and overclocking options, high-quality electrical components, plentiful I/O ports, and even dual PCI Express x16 slots.

Since enthusiasts have traditionally been gamers, few of us have stripped the discrete graphics cards from our primary desktops. We have, however, expanded the number of PCs in our homes, adding media-centric home theater PCs, closet file servers, and even little systems tucked away in our kitchens. These auxiliary machines tend not to play games, making them perfect candidates for integrated graphics.

Such as those provided by AMD’s new 785G chipset, perhaps.

Descended from the 780G, our favorite integrated graphics chipset for the better part of a year and a half, the 785G’s pedigree is impressive. That’s important, because the 785G is very much like its predecessor.

Despite this strong family resemblance, the 785G is more than a marketing-driven model number uptick to denote support for the latest Socket AM3 processors. The chipset’s north bridge component is all-new silicon, albeit built on the same 55nm node as its forebear, with roughly the same number of transistors. Some 205 million transistors made up the 780G’s north bridge silicon, and AMD says that number hasn’t gone up by much for the 785G.

So what does a modest increase in transistors get you? A new RV620 graphics core otherwise known as the Radeon HD 4200. As its name implies, this integrated GPU has all the enhancements one might expect from the Radeon HD 4000 series, including support for DirectX 10.1. However, the number of stream processors remains the same. Like the Radeon HD 3200 found inside the 780G, the 4200 GPU has 40 stream processors ticking at 500MHz. They don’t run at that speed all of the time, though; the 785G’s PowerPlay energy saving scheme constantly adjusts clock speeds based on GPU utilization, bringing the core down to just 60MHz when idling. Indeed, all the internal clocks inside the 785G scale dynamically to save power, although chipset voltages remain constant.

Rather than having the 785G’s integrated Radeon cannibalize system memory bandwidth and capacity, motherboard makers have the option of pairing it with dedicated “sideport” memory of its own. Sideport memory was an option on the 780G, too, but few mobo makers took advantage of it. AMD says that has changed with the 785G, with more boards expected to sport dedicated video RAM.

Much like its 3D core, the Radeon HD 4200’s Universal Video Decoder (UVD) has also been tweaked. This second-gen UVD block retains the original’s ability to handle the lion’s share of processing associated with Blu-ray playback across all three common formats. Now it can apply that decode acceleration to multiple streams, which is perfect for the picture-in-picture commentary tracks included with some new movies. Also new in the 785G’s UVD is the ability to perform detail enhancements on the fly.

In another nod to the home theater PC crowd, AMD has upgraded the 780G’s HDMI 1.2 support to version 1.3 for the 785G. However, the new chipset retains its predecessor’s inability to pass uncompressed multi-channel LPCM audio over HDMI—a capability competing integrated graphics chipsets possess. The 785G can’t pass TrueHD or DTS-HD audio over its HDMI output, either.

Although its embedded Radeon is really the star of the show here, the 785G is more than just a GPU. The chipset’s north bridge component also houses a 2GHz HyperTransport link compatible with the latest Socket AM3 processors. It also has 22 second-generation PCI Express lanes split between a single x16 link for graphics and six x1 links for expansion slots and onboard peripherals. The chipset can’t split its x16 link in order to feed a pair of x8 connections, though. That will force motherboard makers to get creative if they want to support CrossFire configs that extend beyond pairing an ultra-low-end Radeon with the integrated GPU. The Radeon HD 4200 can’t participate in CrossFire configs with discrete graphics cards that posses substantially more horsepower.

Like the rest of AMD’s core-logic lineup, the 785G uses PCI Express to link its north and south bridge components. A pipeline offering 2GB/s of bi-directional bandwidth sits between the 785G and its SB710 sidekick.

The SB710 is essentially an SB750 without support for RAID 5 arrays. The chip still has six 300MB/s Serial ATA ports, but they’re limited to RAID 0, 1, and 0+1. AMD also throws in a single ATA channel so mobo makers don’t have to use auxiliary peripheral chips just to provide an IDE port.

A dozen USB ports and a high-definition audio interface round out the SB710. Support for next-gen USB and SATA standards would have been nice here, but keep in mind we’re talking about a budget chipset targeted at sub-$100 motherboards.

Asus’ M4A785TD-V EVO motherboard
Unexpectedly ATX

The first 785G-based motherboard to hit the Benchmarking Sweatshop was Asus’ M4A785TD-V EVO. And it doesn’t look anything like an integrated graphics motherboard. For starters, the EVO is a full-size ATX model with a larger footprint than the Micro ATX designs generally associated with integrated graphics. Asus has put the extra board real estate to good use, dropping in a couple of physical PCI Express x16 slots to support traditional two-way CrossFire configs. The top (blue) slot gets a full 16 lanes of bandwidth, while the bottom (white) slot has to make do with just four. Keep in mind that these are PCIe 2.0 lanes, though; a gen-two x4 link offers just as much bandwidth as a gen-one x8 link.

With careful color-coordination, the EVO is certainly more stylish than most low-end mobos. The blue slots and ports nicely play off the brown PCB, although I can’t help but wish Asus had gone with a different base color. You can call the shade auburn, mocha, or chocolate, but it still looks like poo brown to me. Or worse, Zune brown.

Under the EVO’s brown veneer lurks a circuit board layered with two ounces of copper to reduce impedance and aid heat dissipation. Fancy solid-state capacitors are used throughout, as well. That’s a given on mid-range and high-end motherboards, but it’s considerably less common among the EVO’s sub-$100 rivals. The EVO’s 8+2-phase power solution is also considerably more robust than we’re used to seeing on budget fare. Curiously, though, the board only has a four-pin auxiliary 12V power connector.

The EVO capitalizes on the 785G’s Socket AM3 aspirations with four DDR3 memory slots and the necessary BIOS multipliers to run 1600MHz DIMMs without overclocking the system’s CPU or base clocks. As with most AMD-based motherboards, the DIMM slots are close to the socket, which can create clearance problems for those looking to pair tallish memory modules with aftermarket CPU coolers that fan out from the socket.

Otherwise, the EVO is devoid of niggling layout or clearance issues. Lengthy PCI Express graphics cards won’t obscure access to the IDE or Serial ATA ports, and you can even pop a longer expansion card into the top x1 slot without interfering with the north bridge cooler.

Although it might have been nice to get a DisplayPort output, I can find little fault with the EVO’s port complement. There’s a little something for everyone here, including a PS/2 keyboard port that, despite its purple hue, also works with mice. However, I’m not crazy about the fact that the audio outputs are powered by a VIA audio codec that doesn’t support real-time DTS or Dolby Digital Live encoding. Bummer.

As one might expect from an Asus motherboard, the EVO’s BIOS is loaded with tweaking and overclocking options. There’s plenty of range for the sort of modest overclocking one might attempt with an integrated graphics board, and Asus makes setup easy by allowing users to enter most clock speeds and voltages manually rather than forcing them to scroll through expansive lists of available options.

Somewhat disappointingly, the BIOS doesn’t include independent control over the processor’s north bridge multiplier. Asus makes up for this omission by offering more robust fan speed controls than we’re used to seeing. The automatic fan speed control options on Asus motherboards are generally limited to three pre-defined profiles. With the EVO, however, one has control over not only the starting CPU fan voltage, but also the temperature triggers that dictate when the fan spins up and when it’s cranked to full speed.

Gigabyte’s GA-MA785G-UD3H motherboard
Clinging to DDR2

Like the Asus EVO, Gigabyte’s MA785G-UD3H is a full-size ATX board with dual PCIe x16 slots for CrossFire. The UD3H’s slots even share the same x16/x4 lane configuration as the Asus board. And that’s not all. Like the EVO, the UD3H has two ounces of copper spread between its circuit board layers. Solid-state capacitors carrying the same 50,000-hour rating as those on the Asus board can be found throughout, as well.

The UD3H is a little cheaper, though. At Newegg, it’s currently selling for $10 less than the EVO.

A lower price tag suits the UD3H in part because it’s equipped with DDR2 rather than DDR3 memory slots. This makes the board compatible with a range of older Socket AM2 and AM2+ processors that lack DDR3 memory controllers. DDR2 is slower than DDR3, of course, and the BIOS only supports memory DIMMs up to 1066MHz before you have to start cranking on the system’s base clock. System memory speed is particularly important here because available memory bandwidth must be shared with the board’s integrated Radeon. Unlike the EVO, which packs 128MB of DDR3-1333 sideport memory, the UD3H’s graphics component doesn’t have dedicated memory of its own.

I suppose since I called out the EVO for being brown, I should chime in on the UD3H’s rather garish color scheme. The turquoisey-blue board is a given here, but the Technicolor array of nearly neon expansion ports and slots looks horribly tacky next to the more tasteful palettes used on some of Gigabyte’s recent mid-range and high-end mobos. A little restraint goes a long way.

Those who prefer to treat their motherboards’ integrated graphics components as backups rather than primary GPU options will be pleased to know that it’s easy to pop one or two discrete graphics cards into the UD3H. However, if you’re going to run two, be aware that longer double-wide cards installed into the bottom (orange) x16 slot can compromise access to two of the board’s SATA ports. Double-wide CrossFire configurations probably won’t be common in systems built around a $90 integrated graphics board, but it nonetheless irks me to see an avoidable clearance issue rear its ugly head, especially since the rest of the board is so well laid out.

At least the UD3H has plenty of expansion slots on offer, including one more than the EVO. Gigabyte also biases the board’s expansion capacity toward PCI Express rather than PCI slots—a smart move given the growing number of PCIe peripherals on the market.

Unfortunately, Gigabyte hasn’t seen fit to grace the UD3H with eSATA connectivity. The UD3H does have a hybrid PS/2 port that can handle either mice or keyboards, though. That isn’t much consolation, but then eSATA probably won’t hit its stride until the next-gen standard arrives with built-in power.

Gigabyte has done better on the audio front by endowing the UD3H with Realtek’s flagship ALC889A codec chip. We don’t normally get excited about crab-flavored codecs, but this one supports real-time Dolby Digital Live encoding, allowing users to pass multi-channel game audio unfettered by analog conversions over a single digital cable to a compatible receiver or speakers.

Dual BIOS chips are something of a tradition with Gigabyte, and the UD3H can easily fall back onto its reserve chip should corruption foul the primary one. The BIOS itself is well organized, and like the EVO, there are plenty of overclocking and tuning options to explore. Gigabyte’s BIOS isn’t quite as easy to use as Asus’, though. One cannot input voltages and clock speeds arbitrarily, so most options must be selected from lists or flipped through by hammering the + and – keys. Only the base clock speed can be keyed in manually.

Since BIOS-level fan speed controls are a pet peeve of mine, I should also point out that the UD3H offers little in the way of fan speed tuning. You can enable automatic fan speed control and tell the BIOS whether you’re using a three- or four-pin fan, but that’s it. Unlike with the EVO, there’s no way to define fan voltages or temperature triggers.

The devil’s in the details
This wouldn’t be TR motherboard coverage without a painstakingly detailed assessment of each board’s BIOS options and specifications. These details don’t exactly lend themselves to eloquent prose, but you should be able to find what you need in the tables below.

The multiplier options listed above are what’s presented with an Athlon II X2 250 processor. Expect support for higher multipliers if you’re using a Black Edition CPU with an unlocked upper multiplier.

Our testing methods
The two 785G boards we’re looking at today are already selling for an affordable $90-100, but that’s apparently a little richer than AMD expects for the platform. Typical 785G boards will be Micro ATX models that AMD says should sell for closer to $80, or possibly even less.

With an eye towards the 785G’s budget target, we’ll be testing the Asus and Gigabyte boards against an LGA775 platform powered by Intel’s G41 Express integrated graphics chipset. A cut below the G45 Express, the G41 can be found on cheaper motherboards whose prices should be closer to AMD’s expected norm for the 785G. The Pentium E6300 processor we’re using for testing on the Intel side is slightly more expensive than the Athlon II X2 250 that’s running the show for the 785G configs, which should even things out some.

Because the EVO and UD3H have very different memory configurations, we’ve elected to use each to highlight a different aspect of the 785G’s performance potential. We’ve taken advantage of the EVO’s support for DDR3 memory by loading it up with 1600MHz DIMMs to see what the 785G can do with sideport video RAM and loads of system memory bandwidth. Since Gigabyte has taken a budget-minded approach with the UD3H, we’ve equipped that system with DDR2-800 memory to see how the 785G fares in a more modest configuration that’s also a better foil for the G41 Express.

We’ve made these configuration choices to explore the impact of memory speed on the 785G performance. Obviously, this gives the Asus board at an advantage, so we’ll be referring to the configurations by chipset when discussing memory, application, gaming, and video performance. The graphs have also been color-coded to make the DDR2-800 and DDR3-1600 785G results easy to pick out.

Although the OS isn’t yet available for sale, we’ve elected to use the Windows 7 RTM build for testing. Windows 7 supports the 785G’s dynamic power saving tech and AMD already has WHQL-certified drivers ready to go for the chipset.

All tests were run at least three times, and their results were averaged.

Our test system was powered by an OCZ PowerStream 520W power supply unit.

We’d like to thank Western Digital for sending Raptor WD1500ADFD hard drives for our test rigs.

We used the following versions of our test applications:

• TCD Labs HD Tach 3.01
• RightMark Audio Analyzer 6.2.3
• Call of Duty: World at War 1.4
• NTttcp
• Intel IOMeter v2006.07.27
• Far Cry 2 1.03
• Race Driver: GRID 1.2
• Left 4 Dead
• CPU-Z 1.41
• CyberLink PowerDVD Ultra 9 build 1719a
• The Panorama Factory 5.3 x64
• x264 HD benchmark 2.0 with AviSynth 2.58
• 7-Zip 4.65
• Stream 5.8 64-bit

The test systems’ Windows desktop was set at 1280×1024 in 32-bit color at an 85Hz screen refresh rate. Vertical refresh sync (vsync) was disabled for all tests.

All the tests and methods we employed are publicly available and reproducible. If you have questions about our methods, hit our forums to talk with us about them.

Memory performance
While it doesn’t define system performance, memory bandwidth can play an important role, particularly with integrated graphics platforms that must share bandwidth with an onboard GPU.

Thanks to the Athlon II’s on-die memory controller, the 785G configs have much higher memory bandwidth and much lower access latencies than the G41 Express. The difference between the two 785G setups isn’t as striking as one might expect given the 800MHz gap in memory clock speed, though.

The following graphs are a little indulgent, but they paint the latency picture in three dimensions, across multiple block and step sizes. I’ve arranged the graphs in order of highest latency to lowest. Yellow represents L1 cache, light orange is L2, and dark orange is main memory.

Yup, the 785G access latencies are impressively low, even with pedestrian DDR2.

Application performance
WorldBench usually fills in as our application test suite for chipsets and motherboards, but it doesn’t get along with Windows 7. Instead, we’ve used a small collection of application tests that cover three of the most demanding tasks encountered by modern PCs: video encoding, file compression and decompression, and image processing.

The 785G configs have meaningful edge over the G41 Express in the first pass of our x264 encoding test. And as one might expect, the DDR3 785G config is also faster than the DDR2 setup, although not by much.

Our x264 benchmark doesn’t take advantage of the potential general-purpose computing power housed within the Radeon HD 4200’s stream processors, so the results above are more a test of CPU and memory performance. We’ve yet to see applications designed to leverage GPU power for video transcoding match the output quality of traditional encoding software, though. GPU-accelerated transcoding currently seems more appropriate for converting video for playback at low resolutions on handheld devices.

Memory bandwidth plays more of a role in 7-Zip compression than it does with decompression. In both cases, however, the 785G system outruns the G41 rig.

The tables turn when we stitch together a four-photo panorama shot of Damage Labs. Here the G41 system performs the stitch operation a few seconds faster than the quickest 785G config.

Gaming
A lack of GPU horsepower confined us to relatively low resolutions and detail levels for our gaming tests. That’s the price you pay for integrated graphics. We used built-in benchmarking functions to test Left 4 Dead and Far Cry 2 before switching to FRAPs for the remainder of our gaming tests. When using FRAPs, we recorded five 60-second gameplay sessions to ensure that our results were consistent and repeatable. Average and median low frame rates have been reported for the games we, er, FRAPsed.

Although the G41 isn’t all that far behind in some games, it’s clearly in a different league than the 785G. And while the 785G didn’t exhibit any compatibility problems or visual anomalies, the G41 suffered from both. GRID simply wouldn’t run on the G41 Express, and in Battlefield Heroes, in-game grass was obviously rendered incorrectly.

The 785G obviously fares better with sideport DRAM and faster system memory, but it’s only notably faster in a couple of games. In fact, the performance gaps are greatest with older game engines, suggesting that GPU power more than memory bandwidth bottlenecks the Radeon HD 4200’s performance with newer titles.

Blu-ray playback
We conducted our Blu-ray playback tests across three high-bitrate movies covering the major formats available on the market. 28 Days Later was used to represent the H.264 camp, Nature’s Journey for VC-1, and Click (which it pains me to even admit that we purchased on Blu-ray) for MPEG2. The latest version of PowerDVD, which supports the decode acceleration built into both the 785G and G41 Express, was used for testing.

Playback was run full-screen over HDMI at 1080p resolution, a setup that initially proved a little problematic for the 785G configs and my Dell 2408WFP LCD monitor. At 1080p, the video output of both the Asus and Gigabyte boards was a little discolored, with blurry text to boot. All was crystal clear at 1920×1200, however. That’s the native resolution of the display, but the G41 Express had no problems outputting a sharp picture at 1080p on the same monitor.

It appears this problem is specific to the 2408WFP. I just took delivery of a Dell S2409W LCD, and at its native 1080p resolution, 785G output over HDMI looks good.

Intel may support decode acceleration for all three Blu-ray formats on its more expensive G45 Express chipset, but the G41’s decode assist is limited to MPEG2 content. At least it’s quite effective there, delivering lower CPU utilization than either 785G config.

The 785Gs have lower CPU utilization with VC-1 and H.264 playback, with the latter proving particularly demanding of the G41 config. It appears that additional memory bandwidth helps to lower the 785G’s CPU utilization during Blu-ray playback, as well. This difference is most pronounced with Nature’s Journey, a 1080i title that we’ve previously seen be very CPU-hungry on systems with pokey memory bandwidth.

Of course, I should note that all three systems had no problems smoothly playing back all of the movies we tested. Even today’s budget dual-core processors can handle HD video playback without the assistance of dedicated decode acceleration logic.

Serial ATA performance
Now begins our look at peripheral performance. Since the Asus and Gigabyte boards share the same SB710 south bridge component, there’s no need to present results for both of them, especially since memory bandwidth tends not to play a role in targeted peripheral performance tests. The 785G results on the following pages were obtained with our DDR3 config.

The Serial ATA disk controller is one of the most important components of a modern core logic chipset, so we threw each platform a selection of I/O-intensive storage tests using a Western Digital VelociRaptor.

IOMeter
We’ll begin our storage tests with IOMeter, which subjects our systems to increasing multi-user loads. We used IOMeter’s workstation and database test patterns, since those are more appropriate for desktop systems than the file or web server test patterns. This particular test makes good use of the Native Command Queuing capability built into the AHCI specification. However, the G41 Express’ ICH7 storage controller doesn’t support AHCI, putting it at a bit of a disadvantage, at least in theory. AMD has a history of horrible AHCI drivers that, as recently as two months ago, were essentially broken in Windows Vista.

And they’re apparently broken in Windows 7, too. After seeing the 785G barely outpace the NCQ-less G41 Express, we tested the AMD platform again using Windows 7’s integrated AHCI drivers. As you can see, they deliver much higher transaction rates than AMD’s own drivers.

The Windows 7 drivers do consume more CPU cycles, but that’s to be expected under the circumstances. They’re doing more work, after all.

HD Tach
We used HD Tach 3.01’s 8MB zone test to measure basic SATA throughput and latency.

The G41 Express fares a little better than the 785G in HD Tach’s burst speed test. There’s no difference in sustained transfer rates between the two, though.

Given HD Tach’s +/- 2% margin of error in the CPU utilization test, it looks like the 785G and G41 are on essentially equal footing here.

USB performance
Our USB transfer speed tests were conducted with a USB 2.0/Firewire external hard drive enclosure connected to a 7,200-RPM Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 hard drive. We tested with HD Tach 3.01’s 8MB zone setting.

The 785G proves a little slower than the G41 when reading, but it’s faster with writes. Of course, the AMD chipset also consumes more CPU cycles. Even with HD Tach’s margin of error in the CPU utilization test factored in, the G41 is still more efficient.

PCI Express performance
We used NTttcp to test PCI Express Ethernet throughput using a Marvell 88E8052-based PCI Express x1 Gigabit Ethernet card.

PCI performance
To test PCI performance, we used the same NTttcp test methods and a PCI Intel GigE NIC.

Although the G41 Express offers consistently higher throughput and lower CPU utilization with both PCI and PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet cards, the performance gaps are pretty narrow, all things considered.

Power consumption
That covers the chipset-specific portion of today’s festivities. Now it’s time to switch gears to exploring variables more dependent on motherboard attributes than core-logic components. First up we have power consumption tests. Here we measured system power consumption, sans monitor and speakers, at the wall outlet using a Watts Up Pro power meter. Readings were taken at idle and while playing back an H.264 Blu-ray movie, 28 Days Later. Results that fall under “No power management” were obtained with Windows 7 running in high-performance mode, while those with power management enabled were taken with the OS in its balanced performance mode.

While the G41 Express system pulls the fewest watts at idle, the difference in power consumption between the two 785G boards is actually more interesting. The UD3H proves more frugal with and without Windows 7’s balanced power plan enabled, making me wonder if the Asus board’s extra power phases might be the culprit.

With a Blu-ray movie playing, the G41’s power consumption jumps into the same ballpark as the others. That platform’s higher CPU utilization during H.264 playback is certainly a factor here, nicely illustrating the benefit of decode acceleration even if you have enough CPU horsepower to handle the task without it.

Interestingly, the EVO consumes slightly less power than the UD3H here, at least under the balanced power profile. For what it’s worth, Asus does have EPU software that’s supposed to lower system power consumption. However, we found that this app only produces meaningful reductions in power consumption if you allow it to cap the CPU’s clock speed below its default value, costing precious performance in the process.

Overclocking
If you’re going to get an AMD-based system, we generally recommend Black Edition processors because their unlocked upper multipliers facilitate easy overclocking. The Athlon II X2 250 CPU we used for testing has its multiplier capped at 15X, forcing us to resort to ramping up the system’s base clock to increase the CPU speed.

Since our focus is on motherboards here, we first lowered the CPU and memory multipliers to take those components out of the equation. Next, we cranked the base clock, testing stability along the way with Prime95.

The EVO managed to hit a 230MHz base clock with little fuss, but it wasn’t comfortable above that speed. We tried increasing various system voltages and even fiddling with the HyperTransport multiplier, but neither ensured stability under load.

Gigabyte’s UD3H was more comfortable when pushed, sailing up to a 290MHz base clock without the need for voltage or multiplier tweaks. However, the board wouldn’t post with a 300MHz base clock, and it even corrupted the BIOS in the process. Thanks to Gigabyte’s DualBIOS system, the board automatically fixed itself and was up and running again in no time.

Motherboard peripheral performance
Core logic chipsets integrate a wealth of peripherals, but they don’t handle everything. Firewire, Ethernet, and audio are farmed out to auxiliary chips, for example. To provide a closer look at the peripheral performance you can expect from the motherboards we’ve tested today, we’ve compiled Ethernet, Serial ATA, USB, Firewire, and audio performance results below.

The EVO’s VIA Firewire controller is painfully slow when compared with the Texas Instruments chip on the Gigabyte board. You don’t see the G41M-ES2H listed here because it doesn’t have Firewire onboard.

As one might expect, the Asus and Gigabyte 785G boards are closely matched in our USB performance tests.

They’re within striking distance of each other when we switch to a Serial ATA drive, as well.

There’s quite a gap when we look at Gigabit Ethernet CPU utilization, however. The Gigabyte 785G board’s RTL8111C GigE chip has a history of higher CPU utilization, while the Asus board makes use of an apparently more frugal RTL8112L. At least both offer competitive throughput.

Thanks to its real-time encoding capabilities, the UD3H’s integrated audio implementation is already superior to that of the EVO for multi-channel digital output. According to a 24-bit/192kHz RightMark Audio Analyzer test looped from each board’s front-channel output to its line input, the Gigabyte offers better analog signal quality, as well.