AMD today introduced a new graphics chipset, that promises to as the New York Giants would say, “STOMP OUT” the competition.
I have been testing a system for a little over a week now with the new 780G chipset and the Athlon X2 4850e. I have to say, I am pretty impressed with the system. It’s not the power horse a heavy gamer would want, but for an entry level PC or an occasional gamer, it’s perfect.
But I will get into that more later. First let me tell you a bit about the new chipset and processor.
The 780 chipset comes in two flavors, the 780V (ATI 3100 Radeon HD) which will be the entry level chipset and offered mainly to OEMs and the 780G (ATI 3200 Radeon HD) which offers a bit more power.
The 780 chipset is the fastest chipset ever offered by ATI. It is also the first onboard chipset to support Display Port and will support up to two monitors: one digital port and one analog port and DX 10 support. The chipset is even more power efficient than previous chipsets. It will also bring crossfire to onboard video cards in the form of Hybrid Graphics.
Hybrid graphics, which are only supported by Windows Vista, will allow for a motherboard with the 780G chipset to link its onboard graphics with a card plugged into a PCIe slot.
When your Video card and the onboard graphics link up, you get a performance boost of up to 70%.
Like I said above, I have been testing out the new chipset with the new Athlon X2 4850e, and I played Crysis with Hybrid Graphics on and off.
The two screen shots above are with Hybrid Graphics off. First screen shot is onboard video; the second screen shot is from the ATI Radeon 3850 HD that is installed in the PCI express slot.
As you can see ,according to Fraps, I had 5 and 7 frames per second respectfully.
Now check the two screen shots below, both with Hybrid Graphics enabled and the monitor is plugged into the 3850.
As you can see, I have an increase of over 50% in frames per second. The game even seemed more stable and didn’t lag as much.
I did the same experiment in Roller Coaster Tycoon and saw an increase of over 60% in frames per second with Hybrid Graphics enabled.
The system even ran really cool. In my opinion, It is perfect for someone who isn’t a heavy gamer and perfect for OEMs like HP. Recently at CES, I spoke with HP about their Slimline Desktops, and I was told by one of their product managers that their main concern is heat and bad graphics on those machines. With the 780 Chipset, I think HP could lower the temperature of those systems and offer better gaming.
AMD says the new 780G chipset will evolve the PC like never before, and I agree.
Now let’s not forget to mention the new Athlon X2 4850e, a 65nm chip with a max thermal power output of 45 watts. This makes it extremely energy efficient. At 2.5 Ghz, it’s pretty fast too.
I really like AMDs dual core chips, maybe it’s just me but they seem to be better at multi-tasking than the Intel chips, sure Intel chips may bench better but in real world situations I prefer AMD.
With this chip the System benched in PC Mark Vantage a 5258, which is pretty good even though it seems a bit low. You have to keep in mind that this CPU and Chipset are meant for entry level PCs.
I also ran a 3DMark benchmark and it scored 2741. That’s with Hybrid Graphics enabled. (Crossfire must be checked in Catalyst drivers).
Overall the Chipset and the new CPU are great, and if you are looking to buy a new computer or build one for a relative, look for the 780 Chipset and the 4850e CPU.
Motherboards with the new chipset and the CPU should be available at stores like Newegg.com really soon, maybe even today. Don’t expect to pay an arm and a leg these boards will be affordable.
To take advantage of Hybrid Graphics and to unlocks quad- and triple-GPU performance ATI released Catalys 8.3. (available tomorrow March 5th)
Specs for System used in test:
• Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H powered by AMD’s 780G chipset
• AMD Athlon X2 4850e dual-core processor
• Radeon HD3450 graphics card (sent along to test Hybrid Graphics technology)
• 2 GB of DDR2 memory
For those really geeky, here are the Processor Specs:
Processor: energy efficient AMD Athlon™ X2 4850e dual-core processor
OPN: ADH4850IAA5DO
CPU Core Count: 2
Operating Frequency: 2.5GHz
L1 Cache Size: 64K - L1 instruction + 64K - L1 data cache per-core (256KB total L1)
L2 Cache Size: 512KB L2 data cache per-core (1MB total dedicated L2 cache)
Manufactured: Fab 36 / Dresden, Germany
Process Technology: 65-nanometer DSL SOI (silicon-on-insulator) technology
Packaging: Socket AM2 (940-pin organic micro PGA)
HyperTransport Spec: One 16-bit/16-bit link @ 2.0GHz (1GHz DDR) full duplex (up to 8.0 GB/sec bandwidth)
Memory Controller: One integrated 128-bit dual-channel memory controller (up to 12.8GB/sec bandwidth)
Supported Memory Speeds: DDR 2 memory up to and including PC2 6400 (DDR2-800) unbuffered
Total Processor bandwidth: Up to 20.8 GB/sec
Approximate Transistor count: 221 million
Approximate Die Size: 118 mm2
Nominal Voltage: 1.15/1.20/1.25 V
Max Thermal Power: 45W
Max Ambient Case Temp: 78o Celsius
Max Processor Current: 36.5 A
Min P-State (power management): 1.0 GHz
o Nominal Voltage @ min P-state: 1.0 V
o Max Thermal Power @ min P-state: 18.1 W
o Max Current @ min P-state: 15.1A
Comments: (26)
Crysis_Fan on Tue, Mar 04th, 2008 at 10:07 AM
Man, I can’t get crysis to go 3 Frames per Second on my piece of shit rig.
Michael on Tue, Mar 04th, 2008 at 10:41 AM
Yeah Crysis is a resource intense game, most system I have can’t even get it to load lol.
Michael on Tue, Mar 04th, 2008 at 12:22 PM
Some videos by AMD
Part 1
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Part 2
<object width="425" height="355"></param></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Kd0Of4PnpQk" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>
Michael on Tue, Mar 04th, 2008 at 12:22 PM
Josh on Tue, Mar 04th, 2008 at 02:23 PM
I liked the videos
Michael on Tue, Mar 04th, 2008 at 10:42 PM
You know the more I think about it, I can’t believe I got Crysis almost playable on this rig.
18 FPS for crysis isn’t great its not playable I won’t lie but to get it almost playable is amazing to me. Considering how resource intense crysis is.
WTF on Wed, Mar 05th, 2008 at 01:14 PM
is he ok ??? He didn’t have a dual core AMD to test that at hand????
Come on AMD you can do better. Fire the guy. Compare two similar configurations..
Show us what it can really do, don’t try to give us bs
sudo nihm on Wed, Mar 05th, 2008 at 02:21 PM
Errr - your two screen grabs are at 1024 x 768. Not even my grandmother plays Crysis at such a low rez.
Michael on Wed, Mar 05th, 2008 at 02:27 PM
Neither would I, but the screen shots were meant to demonstrate how much the hybrid graphics can improve game play.
18 Frames per Second for crysis isn’t playable IMO. But being able to get it to 18 Frames per second (on medium settings), on a 40 dollar video card with the help of onboard graphics in my opinion shows the power of hybrid graphics.
Gamers need not apply for this chipset as it is not meant for gamers. But for your kid sister who likes the Sims 2 and Roller Coaster Tycoon it’s perfect.
Another reason I used crysis, was to show that such a resource intense game could be somewhat playable on a system with hybrid graphics.
Michael on Wed, Mar 05th, 2008 at 02:28 PM
By the way I agree in the Videos AMD should have shown it side by side with an Intel System.
But I guess they wanted to avoid a we are better then they are type situation, as when visiting with AMD during CES the demo they gave out performed Intels chipset.
Tom on Wed, Mar 05th, 2008 at 04:21 PM
Your comparison of crossfire vs. not-crossfire is faulty. The non-crossfire-screenshots show antialiasing is enabled, the others don’t. Look at the jaggy edges of the hud. Well this doesn’t necessarily mean that all of what you’re saying is wrong, but it means your framerate comparison (5 and 7 fps vs. 16 and 18 fps) is bollocks.
And I’m wondering why you’re only showing night sceenshots where you can’t really see much…
Michael on Wed, Mar 05th, 2008 at 04:28 PM
The settings were set to Medium for both. No other settings were changed. everything was set to medium, no other settings were changed.
And as for the night shots, I have no answer for that but I will post more soon.
Tom on Wed, Mar 05th, 2008 at 04:40 PM
Maybe Antialiasing is disabled automatically in the crossfire-scenario, or there are separate settings for crossfire. Anyway, you could check out the framerate of the two non-crossfire with manually disabled antialiasing, to have some valid numbers to compare. Maybe it will not get much better, then that’ll be a point FOR the efficiency of crossfire.
sudo nihm on Wed, Mar 05th, 2008 at 05:19 PM
Tom’s comment is correct - the fact that you can see the effects of antialising in the first, renders the comparison invalid. Regardless of whether you thought the settings were identical, clearly the rendering settings are not.
Tom on Wed, Mar 05th, 2008 at 05:24 PM
Here is another page that has benchmarks that compare the 780G against the Radeon HD3450 and the 780G+HD3450 crossfire. Provided they didn’t also overlook the antialiasing detail, I’d say crossfire does a very good job of leveraging the power of both cards. http://techreport.com/articles.x/14261/8
Michael on Wed, Mar 05th, 2008 at 05:28 PM
Hey Tom,
This zip file is for you, a screenie of my settings and 2 folders Hybrid On and Hybrid Off.
I had to rush these as I need to pick the kids up from school but I hope they give you a better idea what hybrid graphics can do or can’t do.
Tom on Wed, Mar 05th, 2008 at 06:02 PM
What a service, thanks!
But it confirms what the already available screenshots hinted at: even though you’re using the same crysis settings, the rendering is different, either because of the driver settings, or internal driver issues. Antialiasing clearly is off in hybrid mode, and the shadows also seem to be off. Until you can get the game to run in similar quality on both hybrid and non-hybrid, the resulting framerates are not comparable.
Michael on Wed, Mar 05th, 2008 at 06:08 PM
I need to check the settings in catalyst after I switch from hybrid off to Hybrid on to see if anything has changed.
I have been assuming that since I am just checking unchecking crossfire everything would remain the same.
Also new drivers out today so let me see if those change anything.
Will post more screens tonight.
Michael on Thu, Mar 06th, 2008 at 02:18 AM
I kind of fudged the system lol not sure what the hell I did but she won’t boot.
Going to take it apart tomorrow and figure out what went wrong.
Ken on Thu, Apr 03rd, 2008 at 12:26 PM
I have a M2A-VM board and it plays most games fine with my 8800GTS.
I’m really looking forward to this chipset and CPU for my Media Center PC. My current old 2.6ghz is unable to keep up with the HDTV bandwidth. CPU is pegged at 95-99%.
Now if they would only announce when I can pick this combo up.
CasCad on Tue, May 20th, 2008 at 11:47 AM
Is than can combined with Spuder platform?
what is outsourcing on Fri, May 30th, 2008 at 01:57 PM
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Alam on Tue, Sep 09th, 2008 at 11:00 AM
The AMD HD 4850 is sweet!
AMD on Tue, Sep 09th, 2008 at 11:04 AM
The 780 chipset from AMD is cool technology but i still think it will be a while before we see onboard graphics being able to compete with pci-express cards.
Wess Wilson on Mon, Sep 15th, 2008 at 08:35 PM
My opinion is to get this board especially for the hybrid graphics. Low price for high power. These fps measurements are good, but if you know how to overclock the CPU, onboard graphics and the hd3470, then you’ll get at least 10 more fps and that’s pretty much as high as I would go. I’m an online gamer and I really don’t worry about graphics since I’m the only one looking at my screen most of the time, the other players can have high-end graphics, but they won’t see my graphics settings. But if I wanted realistic graphics and stuff, then I would blow all my rent money on the nVidia 8800 and all that, but I would still be living at mom’s house now if that happened. This board and Hybrid Crossfire are good deals for those who just want to PLAY current and future games smoothly (not realistic looking, but smooth).
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