Our first thought was to test Hybrid CrossFire for our discrete card option. However, the 785G only supports the HD3450/HD3470 video cards and we would not waste our money on either solution for this platform. The good news is that certain models in the upcoming Evergreen DX11 GPU series from AMD will work in Hybrid CrossFire mode on this chipset.

In the meantime, we installed our HD 4770 video card to see what spending an additional $100 would net for the budget gamer. We set our resolution to 1680x1050, enabled High Quality settings, and 2xAA where applicable. Our results surprised us, as either platform would make for an ideal budget gaming system. The Intel G41 system consistently lead the 785G platform, but the actual gaming experience was identical between the two systems.

Left 4 Dead

Gaming Performance - Left 4 Dead

 

Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor

Gaming Performance - Company of Heroes

 

Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War II

Gaming Performance - Dawn of War II

 

Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X.

Gaming Performance - H.A.W.X.

 

The Sims3

Gaming Performance - Sims3

 

IG Gaming Performance Storage Performance (HDD and USB)
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  • MrCommunistGen - Tuesday, August 4, 2009 - link

    I was really curious about that section so I'm glad that I can actually view it. Thanks!
  • fic2 - Tuesday, August 4, 2009 - link

    I find the choice of a 10k RPM VelociRaptor odd for either HTPC or integrated graphic system. I have my doubts that it would be the HD choice of either user profile.
  • b15h09 - Friday, August 7, 2009 - link

    VelociRaptor because it eliminates a potential bottleneck. This isn't a real world system test.
  • Taft12 - Tuesday, August 4, 2009 - link

    Yes, I would expect a WD Greenpower drive or one of those new slow-spinning Seagates.
  • Fox5 - Tuesday, August 4, 2009 - link

    I remember roadmaps putting the 880G launching this month, but we're just getting the 785G. The 880G seems to be the chipset worth waiting for. Virtualized 3d hardware? Yes please.
  • fzkl - Tuesday, August 4, 2009 - link

    A lot of us know that when it comes to an HTPC, Intel is the worst option of the lot. To make things fair, why isn't this a 3-way roundup with the Nvidia GeForce 9300?
  • rtallmansu - Tuesday, August 4, 2009 - link

    Even more odd to me is why you would compare an Intel G41 with a ICH7 and not a G45 chipset with the newer ICH10. G41 buyers are not interested in any of these performance metrics, were as someone might want to know how the G45 compares for HTPC duties in HD playback.
  • Shaffan - Tuesday, August 4, 2009 - link

    Such a pity you did not test the RAID performances : RAID5 in particular. I heard the integrated RAID5 of Intel chipset is much better than the one of AMD, but I can't find a decent comparative test about this !
  • flipmode - Tuesday, August 4, 2009 - link

    SB710 = no RAID 5
  • mybook4 - Tuesday, August 4, 2009 - link

    Gary, you put in a lot of effort into this article, thank you! However, I found one part misleading.

    Most of the application benchmarks are dependent on only cpu, not gpu. It confused me that these benchmarks were in an article that compared 780G vs G41. I understand if you were trying to compare the platforms as a whole, but wouldn't that also constitute a component price match (price an amd 780g system with an equal priced G41 system then compare).

    PS. I am a little sick of people saying that anything under 60fps is unplayable. Most people that frequent this site play Crysis at under 40fps.

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