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TEST RESULTS
First, a quick comparison between the Gigabyte MA78GM-S2H and
the Asus M2A-VM HDMI
to see how the chipsets compare. In our M2A-VM review we used a X2 BE-2400,
so the X2 4850e was underclocked to the same clock speed (2.3Ghz) to make a
more fair comparison. They are both 65nm processors with a thermal design power
of 45W. We also used Windows Media Player for playback (we've since acquired
a Blu Ray drive and are now using PowerDVD to take properly take advantage of
ATI's UVD/AVIVO and nVidia PureVideo technology) — the last time we will do
so, just for comparison purposes. The rest of the hardware was the same, with
1GB of RAM and 128MB assigned to video memory.
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Comparison: 780G vs. 690G Chipset
(Gigabyte MA78GM-S2H vs. Asus M2A-VM HDMI)
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Test State
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MA78GM
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M2A-VM
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Mean CPU Use
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System Power
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Mean CPU Use
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System Power
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Off
|
N/A
|
8W
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N/A
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2W
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Sleep (S3)
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N/A
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9W
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N/A
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3W
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Idle (C&Q)
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1%
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36W*
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1%
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35W
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H.264
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22%
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~61W
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25%
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~57W
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WMV3
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36%
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~64W
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29%
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~58W
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WVC1
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52%
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~71W
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52%
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~65W
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CPUBurn
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100%
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94W
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100%
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84W
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CPUBurn + ATITool
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100%
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102W
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100%
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87W
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1GB of system RAM and 128MB of VRAM were used during
testing.
Blu Ray drive not installed and both CPUs clocked at 2.3Ghz
* Arrived at by manually underclocking and undervolting. Underclocking
disables C&Q by default.
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As far as power consumption goes, we weren't impressed. The 780G chipset seemed
to use between 5W and 15W more than 690G at various loads. The difference was
even evident when the system was powered down or in standby. Stressing the the
HD3200 GPU drew an extra 8W compared to 3W for the X1250, indicating the newer
IGP has a lot more horsepower.
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Test Results: Gigabyte MA78GM-S2H
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Test State
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X2 4850e @ 2.5Ghz
|
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Mean CPU Use
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Peak CPU Use
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System Power
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Idle
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1%
|
2%
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38W
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H.264
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2%
|
8%
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~53W
|
|
WMV3
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28%
|
39%
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~65W
|
|
WVC1
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47%
|
68%
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~69W
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Blu Ray
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23%
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31%
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~70W
|
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CPUBurn
|
100%
|
101W
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CPUBurn + ATITool
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100 %
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109W
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In our main test, using PowerDVD, we found that the HD3200 IGP and X2 4850e
was more than up to the challenge of playing back our test clips. Surprisingly,
the WVC1 clip was more demanding than an actual Blu Ray disc, presumably because
it was encoded with a monsterous 60 frames per second. PowerDVD may also be
more optimized for playing back Blu Ray titles rather than VC-1 clips encoded
by some smuck. Though the CPU usage is lower, the Blu Ray drive's motor and
laser made the power draw slightly higher.
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