Our testing methods
We actually began G45 testing with Intel's DG45ID motherboard, but ran into an odd issue with our Pentium E2180 that seems to be related to a Core Multiplexing BIOS option. We've notified Intel about the issue, but since we've yet to receive a fix, we switched to the MSI board for testing.
The Pentium E2180 is the sort of CPU one might expect to find in a budget integrated graphics system. However, because it won't plug into Socket AM2 motherboards powered by the latest IGPs from AMD and Nvidia, another CPU must be used with those systems. We've opted for the Athlon X2 4850e, which has a 500MHz clock speed advantage over the E2180, but sells for virtually the same price.
Gigabyte's GA-MA780GM-DS2H
Asus' M3N78 PRO
We've trotted out a couple of new motherboards representing the 780G and GeForce 8300 chipsets today. For the former, we've called upon Gigabyte's new GA-MA78GM-DS2H, which includes 128MB of "Sideport" graphics memory soldered right onto the motherboard. Even with the extra RAM, the DS2H still rings in at around $100. Asus' M3N78 PRO will represent the green team today, situating the GeForce 8300 in a full-sized ATX board loaded with an HDMI output plenty of expansion slots for, say, a stack of tuner cards for your home theater PC.
All tests were run three times, and their results were averaged.
| Processor | AMD Athlon X2 4850e 2.5GHz | Intel Pentium E2180 2.0GHz | |
| System bus | 1GHz HyperTransport | 800MHz (200MHz quad-pumped) | |
| Motherboard | Asus M3N78 PRO | Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-DS2H | MSI G45M-FIDR |
| Bios revision | 0403 | F1 | 1.1 |
| North bridge | Nvidia GeForce 8300 | AMD 780G | Intel G45 Express |
| South bridge | AMD SB700 | Intel ICH10R | |
| Chipset drivers | ForceWare 15.24 | Catalyst 8.9 |
Chipset: 9.0.0.1011 Graphics: 15.2 |
| Memory size | 2GB (2 DIMMs) | 2GB (2 DIMMs) | 2GB (2 DIMMs) |
| Memory type | Corsair TWIN2X2048-8500C5 DDR2 SDRAM at ~800MHz | ||
| CAS latency (CL) | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| RAS to CAS delay (tRCD) | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| RAS precharge (tRP) | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| Cycle time (tRAS) | 12 | 12 | 12 |
| Audio codec | Realtek ALC1200 with 2.04 drivers | Realtek ALC889A with 2.04 drivers | Realtek ALC888 with 2.04 drivers |
| Hard drive | Western Digital Raptor WD1500ADFD 150GB SATA | ||
| OS | Windows Vista Ultimate x86 with Service Pack 1 | ||
Thanks to Corsair for providing us with memory for our testing.
All of our test systems were powered by OCZ GameXStream 700W power supply units. Thanks to OCZ for providing these units for our use in testing.
Finally, we'd like to thank Western Digital for sending Raptor WD1500ADFD hard drives for our test rigs.
We used the following versions of our test applications:
- SiSoft Sandra Standard 2008 13.12
- WorldBench 6.0 Beta 2
- TCD Labs HD Tach 3.01
- Call of Duty 4 1.4
- RightMark Audio Analyzer 6.06
- NTttcp
- CASE Lab Euler3d CFD benchmark multithreaded edition
- Intel IOMeter v2004.07.30
- Crysis 1.21
- Enemy Territory: Quake Wars 1.4
- Half-Life 2: Episode 2
- CPU-Z 1.41
- CyberLink PowerDVD Ultra 8 build 2021a
The test systems' Windows desktop was set at 1280x1024 in 32-bit color at an 85Hz screen refresh rate. Vertical refresh sync (vsync) was disabled for all tests.
All the tests and methods we employed are publicly available and reproducible. If you have questions about our methods, hit our forums to talk with us about them.
