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TEST RESULTS
Our test system is fairly basic, featuring an ODM 80Plus power supply, notebook
hard drive and Blu-ray drive. The CPU is a X2 4850e, a mid-level dual core 45W
processor. It is cooled by a stock AMD heatpipe cooler with PWM fan connected
to a variable DC fan controller (so the fan's power draw does not come into
play).
vs. Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H
Posted in the table below are the test results for the Asus M3A78 Pro board
compared to the earlier 780G Gigabyte board we reviewed some months ago with
exactly the same system components.
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Test Results: 780G vs. 780G
|
|
Test State
|
Asus M3A78 Pro
|
Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H
|
|
Mean CPU Use
|
Peak CPU Use
|
System Power
|
Mean CPU Use
|
Peak CPU Use
|
System Power
|
|
Off
|
N/A
|
2W
|
N/A
|
8W
|
|
Sleep (S3)
|
N/A
|
3W
|
N/A
|
9W
|
|
Idle
|
1%
|
2%
|
39W
|
1%
|
2%
|
38W
|
|
Rush Hour
|
6%
|
12%
|
64W
|
2%
|
8%
|
~53W
|
|
Coral Reef
|
42%
|
57%
|
65W
|
28%
|
39%
|
~65W
|
|
Flight Sim.
|
71%
|
85%
|
69W
|
47%
|
68%
|
~69W
|
|
Drag Race
|
73%
|
90%
|
69W
|
N/A
|
|
CPUBurn
|
100%
|
82W
|
100%
|
101W
|
|
CPUBurn + ATITool
|
100%
|
94W
|
100%
|
109W
|
The power consumption at idle was similar to the Gigabyte
GA-MA78GM-S2H despite the fact that CPU-Z reported the CPU voltage to be
approximately 1.00V — a full 0.10V less than normal. Strangely when we
set the Cool-n-Quiet speed/voltage manually to 1.0Ghz/1.00V, the system only
drew only 33W when idle, so either CPU-Z was wrong, or something was preventing
CnQ from fulfilling its full potential. We ran into another quirk during playback
of the Rush Hour H.264 clip — once it began playing, CnQ became disabled,
forcing the CPU to run at 2.5Ghz when normally it would stay underclocked for
such a light task, which saw CPU load peaks of just 12%. Afterwards, Vista's
CPU power management settings had to be reset to default to re-enable Cool-N-Quiet.
The rest of the video playback was pretty much on par except for CPU usage,
which was significantly higher on the Asus board, but this did not make its
power consumption higher than the Gigabyte. The M3A78 turned out to be much
more efficient at heavy load — measuring 15-21W lower than the MA78GM.
It is difficult to account for these differences as many factors could be at
play. Since we last tested the MA78GM, Vista Service Pack 1 came out, as well
as several sets of ATI drivers, all of which could give the Asus an unfair advantage.
To complicate matters, our MA78GM board was a very early sample, not a retail
model and a bad BIOS flash bricked the board, which meant we were unable to
retest it. And of course Asus is a completely different manufacturer, and the
M3A78 has a slightly different feature-set and form factor.
vs. Asus M3N78 Pro
|
Asus M3A78 Pro vs. M3N78 Pro @ 2.5Ghz
|
|
Test State
|
Asus M3A78 Pro
|
Asus M3N78 Pro
|
|
Mean CPU Use
|
System Power
|
Mean CPU Use
|
System Power
|
|
Off
|
N/A
|
2W
|
N/A
|
2W
|
|
Sleep (S3)
|
N/A
|
3W
|
N/A
|
4W
|
|
Idle
|
1%
|
39W
|
1%
|
37W
|
|
Rush Hour
|
6%
|
64W
|
7%
|
~44W
|
|
Coral Reef
|
42%
|
65W
|
32%
|
~53W
|
|
Flight Sim.
|
71%
|
69W
|
48%
|
~67W
|
|
Drag Race
|
73%
|
69W
|
58%
|
~65W
|
|
CPUBurn
|
100%
|
82W
|
100%
|
93W
|
|
CPUBurn + ATITool
|
100%
|
94W
|
100%
|
102W
|
Compared head to head against the Asus nVidia-based equivalent M3N78
Pro, the results were surprising. When idle and playing video, the M3N78 Pro
had an advantage in terms of power efficiency, especially when playing back
less demanding clips. CPU usage was also significantly lower, making it a better
choice for multitasking. Once heavy load was applied however, the M3A78
Pro pulled ahead dramatically, drawing 10W less power. From these results one
could deduce that nVidia's IGP is actually more efficient, but the power regulation
is not as good at high load, resulting in high power consumption when the CPU
is pushed to its limit.
|
Test Results: Asus M3A78 Pro vs. M3N78 Pro @ 1.5Ghz
|
|
Test State
|
Asus M3A78 Pro
|
Asus M3N78 Pro
|
|
Mean CPU Use
|
Peak CPU Use
|
System Power
|
Mean CPU Use
|
Peak CPU Use
|
System Power
|
|
Idle
|
1%
|
2%
|
34W
|
1%
|
2%
|
43W
|
|
Rush Hour
|
8%
|
13%
|
40W
|
9%
|
12%
|
~47W
|
|
Coral Reef
|
52%
|
64%
|
46W
|
41%
|
50%
|
~47W
|
|
Flight Sim.
|
87%
|
96%
|
50W
|
73%
|
92%
|
~50W
|
|
Drag Race
|
87%
|
98%
|
50W
|
78%
|
88%
|
~50W
|
|
CPUBurn
|
100%
|
54W
|
100%
|
54W
|
|
CPUBurn + ATITool
|
100%
|
64W
|
100%
|
62W
|
|
X2 4850e @ 1.5Ghz undervolted to 1.100V, Cool-N-Quiet
disabled
|
When the CPU speed was dropped to 1.5Ghz, our test setup could no longer play
the two most challenging VC1 clips in our test suite. Accompanied by high CPU
usage, the audio in the Flight Simulator video began to clip, and skipping was
evident during the Drag Race clip. The M3N78 Pro had no problems with our test
suite at 1.5Ghz. Underclocked, the M3N78 Pro was much closer to the M3A78 Pro's
load power consumption, indicating once again that the M3N78 is "greener"
at lighter load.
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