IGPs have come a long way and have become almost comparable to the discrete graphics of today. One such example is the AMD’s 780G chipset, that features ATi’s HD3200 Graphics integrated into the Northbridge.
The motherboardGA-MA78GM-S2H from Gigabyte is based on the 780G chipset. Apart from the obvious feature of it being one of the first ever IGP supporting DX 10 and Hybrid Crossfire support, it has a plethora of connectivity options, that’ll be keeping most of the customers happy. This board has the standard
PCIe x16 2.0, PCIe x1 2 X PCI 1 IDE (supporting 2 IDE devices) 5 X 3Gb/s connectors 1 X eSATA 3Gb/s on the back panel SATA RAID 0, 1, 10, JBOD 1 X
Floppy drive connector 2 IEEE 1394a ports ( 1 on back panel + via header) 12 USB 2.0 ports
The IGP supports the Displays in DVI-D, D-SUB & HDMI. It supports dual displays except for the DVI-D + HDMI config. Being a micro ATX form factor board, it measures 24.3 cm X 24.3 cm, easy to fit into any HTPC case.
The board is majorly targeted towards the HTPC segment. It has lower power consumption. There are heat sinks on both the North Bridge as well as the South Bridge, although the Voltage regulators are left open to air cooling. But this should not put up gamers as this motherboard is competent enough for an entry-level to mid-level gaming. Although the high-end gamers would prefer the 790 chipset based motherboard.
This board supports both AM2 and AM2+ processor sockets, allowing you to fit the latest Quad-cores from AMD as well as supporting the older Dual-cores. It also supports (H)yper(T)ransport 3.0 that gives this board a higher bandwidth than the previous HT 2.0. Apart from this the board supports upto 16 GB of DDR2 667/800/1066 MHz RAMs in Dual-Channel mode through 4 RAM slots. The Unique Features of this boards includes:
The most mentionable features from among these are the Virtual Dual-BIOS. It is essentially backup BIOS that kick in when the main BIOS is corrupt due Virus or incorrect Flashing. The other features are the flashing utilities: Q-Flash the flashing utility embedded in the BIOS chip. It can Flash the BIOS from reading the new BIOS from FAT32 USB Drive or HDD. The other is the @BIOS: a flashing utility that helps you in flashing the BIOS through the comfort of Windows, optionally allowing you to download the BIOS from the Internet through that utility itself.
Now coming to the looks, the motherboard is neatly arranged, with the SATA ports at the lower right corner and the expansion card slots at the lower left corners. The IDE and Floppy drives at the edges on the right side. The design allows a nice airflow and thus keeps system temperatures from soaring.
Now coming to the performance, the board boasts of being able to play 1080p HD contents, and it does keep on that promise. The board played back the HD contents thrown at it pretty easily without stressing out the system. The HD3200 should make for an excellent HTPC. The BIOS allows the IGP to share a maximum of 512MB, but also allows for an Auto feature that allocates the required RAM automatically. Vista Ultimate installs flawlessly and Aero runs smoothly without ever showing any lags.
Coming to gaming performance, don’t expect it to run Crysis at the highest resolution. It is well suited for casual gamers, as it easily plays all the latest games with Low to Medium settings, and full effects for games released 2-3 years back or earlier. The most promising feature of the board for entry-level to lower mid-level game is the support of Hybrid CrossFire, which is running two GPUs essentially, one the on-board HD3200, and the other the HD 3xxx series entry-level to mid-range cards. Pairing it with an high-end HD3870 card won’t result in any performance gain as the card would be too powerful for the IGP. This Hybrid CrossFire, boosts the performance of the Board by about 20-25%.
So, at the end of it, given the price and the features, it’s the best deal you’ll get at this price segment for an AMD based system. It can be the base of a very flexible system that could be gradually upgraded to a powerful system in the future. It’s also a nice overclocker, and should satisfy the not too hardcore techies. Also, it can be made into an extremely small form-factor HTPC.
So, if you need an urgent upgrade to your failing rig, but don’t have the dough for a powerful system, invest your money on this gem of a board. The future-proof of it is the most promising aspect, as you can easily turn it into a powerful gaming rig, with the inclusion of a powerful a CPU, GPU and RAMs.
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