ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO - 785G Preview
by Gary Key on July 24, 2009 12:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Gary's First Looks
We recently previewed the 785G chipset and had to stop testing as the early beta drivers were not mature enough to provide a full performance analysis. We have since received two updated sets of drivers and are glad to report that significant progress has been made in enabling a variety of features missing in the first set. However, a full NDA is in effect on the chipset now so that is about as far as we can take it today.
In the meantime, AMD is allowing limited press coverage (pictures with just a few words of text) on the 785G motherboards. We still have boards from MSI, Biostar, ECS, and ASRock coming along with additional models from Gigabyte and ASUS that we hope to provide a quick glimpse at before the NDA lifts next month.
The star of today's show is ASUS' M4A785TD-V EVO that features AMD's 785G/SB710 chipset combination along with 128MB of DDR3 SidePort memory. The AMD 785G features the updated HD 4200 graphics engine that adds DirectX 10.1 and UVD 2.0 features along with multi-channel LPCM audio output to the mix compared to the previous generation HD 3200 on the 780G chipset. This particular board is part of ASUS' new EVO lineup that features improved cooling (StackCool 3), components, software, and specific BIOS options to provide additional performance over their entry level products.
The SB710 Southbridge provides IDE support, five 3Gb/s SATA ports with RAID 0, 1, 0+1 options, and a 3Gb/s eSATA connection on this board.
This particular board features DDR3 support which means an AM3 based processor is required. The four DIMM slots support up to 16GB of memory.
The CPU area is open and we were able to squeeze a Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme in and still utilize the first DIMM slot with low rise memory modules. ASUS implemented a 8+2 phase power design on this board along with upgraded capacitors. The 785G and MOSFET heatsinks work surprisingly well, especially with radial cooling devices.
The slot arrangement offers a variety of options and spacing is decent. We are not sold on the need for three PCI slots, but otherwise this layout works well. There are two PCIe 2.0 x16 slots (x16, x4), one PCIe x1 slot, and three PCI slots. ATI Hybrid CrossFireX support is featured on this board.
The I/O panel contains a PS/2 combo mouse port, optical S/PDIF out port, HDMI/DVI-D/D-Sub ports, eSATA port, IEEE 1394a port, Gigabit Ethernet LAN port, six USB 2.0 ports (total of 12 on the board with the headers) , and the audio panel. LAN support is via the Realtek RTL8112L controller, IEEE 1394a support comes by the VIA VT6308P chipset, and audio output is provided by the VIA VT1708S 8-channel HD audio codec.
We will be back in August with a full review of the 785G chipset along with several motherboards based on this new chipset.
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AlB80 - Saturday, July 25, 2009 - link
Nothing, just dust."The patented AI NOS (Non-delay Overclocking System) technology."
Gary Key - Saturday, July 25, 2009 - link
I know, that is a palms on the face event. I let ASUS know a couple of days ago that these silkscreened phrases just need to be dropped off the board. That feature will auto overclock the GPU by a few percent based on load conditions.The latest P55 board has "ProbeIT" in one inch letters below the memory slots among other things, well, I had to tell them that it appears they are trying to corner the proctologist market with that slogan.
It appears it will only get worse as a couple of boards from other manufacturers just arrived with even larger non-descriptive slogans plastered all over their boards.
steelicon - Saturday, July 25, 2009 - link
Maybe similar to this: ASUS AI NOS (Non-delay O/C System)steelicon - Saturday, July 25, 2009 - link
I wish they'd release a true Quad CrossfireX PCI-e x16 (electronic+physical) with Hybrid CrossfireX support motherboard soon... just in time for the HD5XXX series. Is it really that hard to do or unfeasible? c",)lopri - Friday, July 24, 2009 - link
I was thinking of mATX or even smaller form factor for 785G, since 785G is rumored to be the first chipset that'll provide flawless HD playback. I assume there will be a chopped down version of this board, but I have to say this board looks a little awkward.785G launch is an interesting one in that it brings a conflict of interest within the same company. If the chipset is too successful, AMD can jeopardize its low-end GPU sales. But on the other hand, this chipset can be a big help for AMD's CPU division since there is no equivalent on Intel platform.
I'm looking forward to its performance. Thank you for sharing the info and insight.
Gary Key - Saturday, July 25, 2009 - link
There will be plenty of uATX motherboards based off this chipset with both DDR3 and DDR2 options. Right now I have three uATX boards and four ATX boards in-house. Pricing should start around $85 and go up to $115 at launch, expect those to drop by $10 or so later on in the fall. If a couple of remaining driver problems are fixed, this will be a great HTPC platform, equal to the NV9300 or better in some areas.cghebert - Wednesday, July 29, 2009 - link
Gary,Any mini-ITX 785g boards on the horizon? I think they would sell like hotcakes.
snakeoil - Friday, July 24, 2009 - link
last time you ''kind of'' reviewed the motherboard as you said.i hope this site doesn't become a ''kind of'' review place.
yes - Friday, July 24, 2009 - link
right, is this supposed to be a computer babes site?Gary Key - Saturday, July 25, 2009 - link
As stated in the blog, we are under an NDA now and cannot provide test results until that lifts, which will be in early August. ;) Believe me, we asked numerous times to provide a short update to the original article with the new driver set.