Viewing page 5 of 8 pages.
Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Next
TEST RESULTS
Our test system is fairly basic, featuring a X2 4850e, a mid-level dual core
processor with a low 45W TDP cooled by a stock AMD heatpipe cooler connected
to a variable DC fan controller so the fan's power draw does not come into play.
The rest of the system consists of a single stick of Corsair memory, an Asus
Blu-ray drive, a 5400RPM notebook hard drive and an OEM Seasonic 400W power
supply. The operating system used is Vista Home Premium SP1 (32-bit).
|
Test Results: X2 4850e @ 2.5GHz (C&Q)
|
|
Test State
|
Mean
CPU
|
Peak
CPU
|
System Power
|
|
Off
|
N/A
|
1W
|
|
Sleep (S3)
|
N/A
|
2W
|
|
Idle
|
N/A
|
33W
|
|
Rush Hour
(H.264)
|
58%
|
80%
|
63W
|
|
Coral Reef
(WMV-HD)
|
42%
|
50%
|
61W
|
|
Drag Race
(VC-1)
|
75%
|
82%
|
70W
|
|
Disturbia*
(Blu-ray H.264)
|
97%
|
100%
|
79W
|
|
CPU Load
|
N/A
|
91W
|
|
CPU + GPU
Load
|
N/A
|
101W
|
|
*2GB of system memory required for Blu-ray playback.
Grey boxes indicate test failure.
|
Video playback on the KA760GM was disappointing due to what may be a complete
lack of hardware decoding/acceleration. CPU usage and power consumption were
a lot higher than we are used to seeing. The Drag Race clip failed to render
properly, exhibiting audio clipping and dropped frames. We did manage to get
Blu-ray playback functioning, but only when an additional 1GB of system memory
was added. Our test movie, the H.264 encoded Disturbia, played surprisingly
smooth despite very high CPU utilization. It appears that the CPU alone is enough
for H.264, but we suspect playback would have been problematic if we used a
VC-1 encoded Blu-ray disc.
|
Comparison: MSI (760G) vs. Gigabyte (740G)
|
|
Test State
|
KA760GM
|
GA-MA74GM-S2
|
|
Mean
CPU
|
System Power
|
Mean
CPU
|
System Power
|
|
Idle
|
N/A
|
33W
|
N/A
|
31W
|
|
Rush Hour
(H.264)
|
58%
|
63W
|
42%
|
58W
|
|
Coral Reef
(WMV-HD)
|
42%
|
61W
|
37%
|
58W
|
|
Drag Race
(VC-1)
|
75%
|
70W
|
69%
|
66W
|
|
CPU Load
|
N/A
|
91W
|
N/A
|
92W
|
|
Grey boxes indicate test failure.
|
Despite AMD's claims that the 760G chipset features ATI Avivo, the KA760GM
performed noticeably poorer compared to Gigabyte's 740G board (which also features
Avivo). The GA-MA74GM-S2
managed to render the Drag Race VC-1 clip which the KA760GM failed to play properly,
and also posted better CPU usage and power consumption figures.
Phenom II Power Consumption
Performance with a 45W chip is only half the story. To get the other side,
we upgraded the test system with a 125W Phenom II, 2GB of RAM, and a ZEROtherm
Zen CPU cooler.
|
Power Consumption: Phenom II X4 940
|
|
Test State
|
790GP-DS4H
|
KA760GM
|
|
Idle
|
57W
|
79W
|
|
VC-1
|
79W
|
105W
|
|
CPU Load
(2 cores)
|
122W
|
126W
|
|
CPU Load
(4 cores)
|
166W
|
173W
|
|
CPU + GPU
Load
|
176W
|
190W
|
|
Systems configured with 2GB of RAM and 256MB IGP
memory.
|
When paired with a Phenom II X4 940, the KA760GM was very inefficient compared
to a premium board like the 790GX-powered Gigabyte
GA-MA790GP-DS4H. We suspect that its power regulation was designed to
be optimal for cheaper, low TDP chips as 760G is meant for entry-level systems.
Phenom II does work out of the box, but it's not an ideal combination if power
consumption is an issue.
| Help support this site, buy from one of our affiliate retailers! |
|
