AMD's 785G - You can buy it now...
by Gary Key on July 15, 2009 6:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Gary's First Looks
Even though the formal release of the AMD 785G is not set to occur until the last week of August, the first 785G motherboards on the market are now available for sale at Newegg. They are from Gigabyte as it appears their GA-MA785GM-US2H uATX and GA-MA785G-UD3H ATX motherboards were released for purchase earlier today. Exactly why, we do not know yet. We believe it is probably an error but stranger things have occurred with new product releases. However, we did take advantage of the opportunity to purchase these particular boards early.
The GA-MA785GM-US2H features DDR2 memory support, Realtek ALC 889a HD audio, Realtek RTL8111C Gigabit LAN, IEEE 1394a support, 12 USB 2.0 ports, 5 3Gb/s SATA ports, eSATA port, DVI/VGA/HDMI output, PCIe x16 slot, PCIe x1 slot, and two PCI slots wrapped up in a uATX format. The ATX based GA-MA785G-UD3H ships with DDR3 support, Dolby Home Theater support, 6 3Gb/s SATA ports, two PCIe x16 (dual x8 for multi-GPU) slots, three PCIe x1 slots, and two PCI slots. The rest of the peripherals match the US2H board.
We just completed a very early look at the GA-MA785GPMT-UD2H motherboard that is Gigabyte's top of the line 785G uATX offering featuring full AM3 support along with 128MB of Sideport memory for improved IG performance. Unfortunately, we could not complete a review of the product due to the early nature of the drivers that were missing several key Avivo features along with performance optimizations.
Once our retail boards arrive from Newegg, we will verify if the drivers shipping in the kits match our early 8.63.0 driver set (9.7 betas). If so, we expect some disappointed users. The 785G chipset shows tremendous potential at this point, but its full potential is predicated on production level drivers.
We are still working with Gigabyte on memory performance tuning and optimized auto settings. This along with some minor C1E problems that could be driver and not BIOS related are about the only problems we have encountered in early testing of the GA-MA785GPMT-UD2H. Whether the two boards currently available will need additional tuning is something we will answer shortly. Otherwise, Gigabyte is offering a terrific set of features along with great performance for a variety of users.
7/16 update - It appears the boards will be pulled from sale at Newegg later today.
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BernardP - Thursday, July 16, 2009 - link
I know there is currently little performance difference between DDR2 and DDR3, but a newly-launched AM3 mobo with only DDR2 support is disappointing. It gives the impression that the manufacturer is simply patching up an existing AM2+ mobo.Visual - Saturday, July 18, 2009 - link
What do you mean by "only DDR2"?There are boards that use DDR3 and boards that use DDR2 with this chipset, but not both at once. Do you want a board with both types of slots? Why would you? That would be quite pointless, especially on a micro-ATX board where space is quite precious already.
StormyParis - Thursday, July 16, 2009 - link
You seem to say there's 4 expansion slots (PCIEx16, PCIEx1, 2xPCI). I see anoly 3 on the photo. No PCIEx1 I think ?faxon - Thursday, July 16, 2009 - link
check above the northbridge heatsink. the heatsink is shaped as such that you can just fit a card in over it if you're lucky, but still, it's there, and replacing the sink with something else isnt hard if you really need to and the card you want doesnt fit.DeepThought86 - Thursday, July 16, 2009 - link
Can you test these with the highest power CPU they officially support for a 24 hour CPU +GPU burnin like bit-tech.net does (and use a closed case like actual consumers would)? Really need to see if AMD mobo makers are still skimping on the VRMhaplo602 - Thursday, July 16, 2009 - link
well one dealer in Slovak Republic is listing the ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO board in the online shop with availability from 23.7.2009 ... I thought that was a mistake, it seems it's not :-)MadMan007 - Thursday, July 16, 2009 - link
If there's one thing I have to nitpick or say I'm dissapointed with on the mATX board it's the expansion slots. 2 PCI in this day and age? Ok, some might have multiple PCI cards (sound and TV tuner are about all I can think of) but there are better new options available for both in PCIe. Put one PCIe x1 in place of the fourth PCI slot. Unless it's a chipset PCIe lane limitation it's less than ideal.