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

Gigabyte GA-MA74GM-S2 (AMD 740G)

Replicating the design of its 780G board, Gigabyte has a lower-end AMD 740G chipset based board, the GA-MA74GM-S2. Unlike the new Northbridge on the 780G with Radeon HD 3200 graphics, the onboard graphics here for the 740G is known as the Radeon HD 2100. This is only a DirectX 9 part and pertinently for the entry-level HTPC users as it comes with no UVD for full hardware decode acceleration for HD videos. Frame buffer can go up to a maximum of 512MB. In short, the 740G is like a rebranded 690G chipset.

The HyperTransport link is only 2.0 and hence capped at 1GHz, so the faster Phenoms will have its advantage curtailed, while the PCIe x16 is the older version 1.1 and not version 2.0 (not that there will be significant real-world difference). The Southbridge however is a similar SB700, so one gets the same number of USB and SATA 3.0Gbps ports. With a 55nm manufacturing process hopefully leading to lower temperatures, the 740G looks to be for the budget user who does not mind the slower and less powerful integrated graphics.

Gigabyte's implementation of it appears to follow the same layout as its 780G. Physically, the locations of the various features and ports are similar. Even the two heatsinks don't look that different. There is however only 2 DIMM slots supporting up to 8GB of DDR2-800 memory (if you stock it with 4GB memory modules). The storage options are also predictably similar, due to the same SB700 used, though this 740G board has no eSATA port. Audio however has been slightly degraded to the Realtek ALC888 from ALC889. Other changes include removing extras like FireWire but Gigabyte has commendably kept with the broad display output support, including HDMI which the chipset supports natively. Just like the AMD 780G brother, the AMD 740G chipset supports the HDMI standard 1.2a with HDCP just like its 780G brother.

So overall while Gigabyte's own implementation of the AMD 740G chipset is decent, some of its design decisions (like the Audio CODEC type) and that of the integrated graphics engine's own capabilities (which are similar to the last generation AMD 690G), the GA-MA74GM-S2 isn't a good board for modern day HTPC needs. As you'll see in our testing, it fares bad in the graphics and video decoding performance and is looking more like a renamed and rebranded AMD 690G platform.

There are only 2 DIMM slots (8GB max) but compared to the 780G Gigabyte, the number of connectors and ports are roughly equal.

Except for the slightly reduced number of audio jacks (though there's S/PDIF), we have no complaints about the amount of outputs available on this board.



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