Re: Amd 785g Sb710 Driver Download
Elpidio Murray
It seems that in our rush to secure this motherboard that we overlooked onevery important aspect during our investigation.It turns out the driver set we were privy to for testing is an earlybeta set missing several important driver features while AMD is stilloptimizing performance. We encounteredno stability problems running a multitude of benchmarks, but the lack offeatures and optimizations preclude us from publishing a meaningful first look,especiallyfor those looking to use this new platform in an HTPC or SFF gamingsystem. Of course, there were discussions with AMD explaining some ofthe early problems we ran into during testing.As such, AMDrequested that we wait until the drivers are mature and based on earlytest results we will heed their requests.
What we can do today is discuss some early observations and provide acouple of results that are indicative of the board's capability with an earlyBIOS and a quick look at Blu-ray playback results. First off, even with lessthan stellar drivers, the board's performance was equal to or better than thecurrent 780G/790GX motherboards and it will only improve. How much is up for discussion as AMDdesignated the new chipset just a half point higher for a reason.
What does all this mean? Forone, thanks to the HD4200, AMD finally offers multi-channel LPCM audio outputplus additional hardware video accelerated functions. As far as performance isconcerned, expect a 5% 15% performance increase in games. That sounds impressive, but playing the Sims3at 1024x768 with medium quality settings resulted in an average framerateincrease from 23.9fps on the 780G to 26.1fps on the 785G with alpha level drivers.The biggest difference occurred in minimum frame rates with an increase from12fps on the 780G to 15fps on the 785G. Otherwise,the GPU capabilities are fine for casual gaming (Plants vs Zombies) and flashbased games.
When paired with the Athlon II X2 250processor we utilized in earlytesting, this platform is an extremely compelling alternative to the IntelG41/E6300 combination. Considering thenumber of features and platform performance that AMD provides with the785G/SB710 chipset compared to the G41/ICH7, we have to wonder why one go theIntel route, even this early in the game.Our original plans called for a direct comparison between the twoplatforms but that will have to wait until the official release next month withproduction ready drivers. AMD will have an official release candidate readyshortly and we expect the boards to ship with the 9.8 Catalyst driver set.
In our only test today we see very good results in the Blu-rayplayback capabilities of the 785G. So much so, that unless something drastichappens in the next driver release, we will stop recommending the purchase of adiscrete video card on the AMD chipset platforms. We did not have any HDMIincompatibilities, no repeater issues to report, the 785G justworked and we think it will only get better.
For the AMD 790FX chipset, the CrossFire X technology allows up to 4 video cards to be connected, made possible as the chipset supports four physical PCI-E x16 slots.[9] The PCI-E lanes can be configured for 4 slots at x8 bandwidth or 2 slots at x16 bandwidth (16x-16x, 8x-8x-8x or 8x-8x-8x-8x CrossFire X setup). Reports indicate 2.6 times the performance with triple-card CrossFire than that of a single card,[36] and more than 3.3 times the performance increase for quad-card CrossFire. Gigabyte have revealed in a leaked product presentation that the four card CrossFire X setup does not require CrossFire connectors; the data will be exchanged among the PCI-E slots which is monitored and controlled by Catalyst drivers.
Three variants were reportedly available for HyperFlash modules, with capacity of 512 MiB, 1 GiB and 2 GiB respectively, with expected DVT samples in November 2007 and mass-production expected in December 2007 (supported by Beta motherboard drivers) and official motherboard driver support planned in February 2008.[50] However, it was reportedly cancelled.[51]
In a comparison against the GeForce 8200, Anandtech considered the 780G "a better balanced chipset offering improved casual gaming performance, equal video quality, similar power requirements, greater availability, and better pricing."[55] The 8200, however, was preferred as a single-purpose HTPC solution. Both chipsets were considered superior to Intel's G45/X4500HD, which was cited for a lack of driver quality and features, and a higher price.[55]
With that in mind, we have configured a new 785G board from Gigabyte, the GA-MA785GPM-UD2H with similar hardware configuration used for our previous AMD IGP shootout and will be comparing the 785G directly against those older motherboards. (While there are DDR3 models available, ours is a DDR2 AM2+ board). Of course, the drivers for the AMD 785G are newer and different; from what we can tell, their version numbers (8.63RC1) are similar to that found in the current Catalyst 9.7 drivers (version 8.632). When do embark on the detailed motherboard reviews, we'll be sure to keep comparisons more comparable, but for now in this article, we're giving you a quick glimpse of what to expect.
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