Gigabyte & Zotac Socket AM2+ Mobo Roundup --- TheThirdMedia Hardware

Conclusion

Those who have read our review of the GeForce 9300 mGPU will find the GeForce 8300/8100 mGPUs here quite similar. Except for slight differences in clock speeds and the number of shader processors within the IGP, both use the same GeForce 8400 series GPU inside and the limitations of these integrated GPUs are obvious. The latest games like Unreal Tournament 3 are playable only at modest resolutions and settings. Nevertheless, it's a big step forward from past IGP chipsets.

Arguably however, the biggest step was taken by AMD and its 780G chipset. While its graphics performance was generally at the same level as its NVIDIA rivals, we have to give this chipset the edge. Its 55nm manufacturing process gives it a huge advantage in power consumption and heat, all of which are very important issues to the targeted consumers of these boards, e.g. HTPC setups or a home/office desktop PC. NVIDIA's chipsets, whether Intel or AMD have been shown to consume more power and produce more heat and while some of its feature sets are appealing (8-channel LPCM audio output via HDMI for example), the heat and power draw could be its Achilles' heel.

For the Intel platform however, the GeForce 9300 mGPU was clearly able to fend off Intel G45. On the AMD side, the competition is tougher with the AMD 780G justifying its billing as one of the hottest IGP chipset of the year. No doubt, NVIDIA released the GeForce 8 mGPUs earlier in the year, when there was virtually no competition, but as it stands now, it's hard to argue against the AMD 780G for either power/heat or its graphics prowess.

On that same note, the AMD 740G is definitely not for the HTPC enthusiast. HD video playback suffered from the lack of dedicated hardware while the graphics performance was mediocre when compared to the 780G. It's likely to be cheaper than the 780G so that could be its selling point, though even then, we aren't too keen to recommend it - especially not for the HTPC seekers. For example the Gigabyte GA-MA74GM-S2 is selling for around US$54 compared to the US$80 that the Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H will set you behind by.

As for the NVIDIA boards, the Zotac GeForce 8100 going for around US$58 and the GeForce 8300 going for U$85 so one could say that the Gigabyte 780G board represents better value. Between the Gigabyte 740G and the GeForce 8100, it's a tougher choice and frankly, both are not that appealing, but we'll have to say the GeForce 8100 does come out slightly better for both graphics performance and HD video playback. To conclude, we'll recommend paying more for the beefier chipsets like the GeForce 8300/8200 or the AMD 780G for low-cost HTPC fulfillments.

As the IGP market matures, the future will definitely be brighter for this class of motherboards and they are already showing potential in their current form. So look forward to more inexpensive and even more capable IGP chipsets next year. Perhaps next year, these IGP boards might come to support the protected audio path on Blu-ray discs and finally support loseless HD audio formats like Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio.

For now, the HTPC audio perfectionist can still console themselves with uncompressed audio over HDMI via 8-channel LPCM output that's featured on the GeForce 8300/8200 mGPU. Other options are Intel's G35/G45 chipsets as well as NVIDIA's GeForce 9300/9400 mGPUs and the Radeon HD 4000 series graphics cards. The AMD 780G however only supports 2-channel LPCM output.

Our Ratings

Gigabyte & Zotac Socket AM2+ Mobo Roundup

The Gigabyte GA-MA78Gm-S2H (AMD 780G).

The Gigabyte GA-MA74GM-S2 (AMD 740G).

The Zotac GeForce 8300.

The Zotac GeForce 8100.



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