Power Consumption - 42 Watts when Idle at System Level

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AMD 780GAMD 780G

Although the 780G northbridge (left) uses a smaller production process than the 690G northbridge (right), its die is larger, as it contains 133 million more transistors.

Although the transistor count has almost tripled, growing from 72 million on the 690G to 205 million on the 780G, the northbridge heatsink is only slightly larger. This is possible because AMD has switched to a smaller production process, using 55 nm structures instead of 80 nm ones. This has allowed AMD to lower the power dissipation from 1.4 Watts to 0.95 Watts while simultaneously integrating a more powerful graphics unit.

AMD 780G

AMD 780G

AMD 780G

We compared the power consumption of our 780G board (Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H) to that of a 690G board (Gigabyte GA-MA69GM-S2H) using identical hardware:

Power Consumption Test - Hardware Configuration
ComponentType
Processor:Athlon X2 4850E
Memory:2GB A-DATA DDR2-800
CPU Cooler:Box
Graphics Card:Onboard
Blu-Ray-ROM:LG GGC-H20L
HDD:WD3200AAJS

AMD 780G

All measurements were taken using a Voltech PM3000A power measuring device with the processor idle and running at a reduced clock speed of 1000 MHz.

AMD 780G

Although the transistor count of the Northbridge has increased from 72 million to 205 million, the 780G chipset draws about 2.37 Watts less than its predecessor, the 690G. That translates to a 5.37% reduction in power consumption.

AMD 780G

Our wattmeter verified that the 780G-based system achieved a new power consumption record. Previously, only our own Solar Powered PC had been this frugal in our lab.


Talkback
paradigital 05/03/2008 09:53
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paradigital

Page 2 - "HD3400 in the northbridge"... "The 780G comes with a Radeon HD3200 chip"

mi1ez 05/03/2008 10:59
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mi1ez

Why were there gaming benchmarks in this review? Surely nobody is going to use this solution for gaming? HTPC is it's forté.

waxdart 05/03/2008 11:12
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waxdart

Encryption increases load on the CPU!
Thus it uses more power; some will have to upgrade causing needless waste.

DRM/Encryption is bad for the environment. I say ban it.

Flakes 05/03/2008 02:24
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Flakes

I think its a brilliant little GPU, and should increase the competition on the integrated front which will only be good for PC gaming, after all everyone that doesnt like PC gaming says its because its complicated or doesnt want to spend over odds for a GFX card... this way even the little guy will be able to stick in a game and play the recent titles at low-mid settings, unlike current chips which can only play older games at low-mid.

americanbrian 05/03/2008 02:47
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americanbrian

I would like to see the benchmarks done with the dedicated memory slot for the GFX used. I think its a brilliant wee feature, assuming it can actually affect performance in any significant way.

Any chance of that please.

Can you add faster ram than the main system uses? Is it DDR2 or 3 let me know.

benkraft 05/03/2008 05:20
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benkraft

paradigital :
Page 2 - "HD3400 in the northbridge"... "The 780G comes with a Radeon HD3200 chip"



What the author meant to say that the 780G incorporates an HD3200 GPU, which is an HD3400-class graphics processor.

mi1ez :
Why were there gaming benchmarks in this review? Surely nobody is going to use this solution for gaming? HTPC is it's forté.



The gaming benchmarks serve as a point of reference, letting you compare the performance of the 780G to dedicated graphics cards. Also, casual gamers may use this board in their main system. And let's face it - considering this is an integrated GPU, the performance is really pretty amazing.
Remember Nvidia's first nForce? Yeah, just saying... ;)

americanbrian :
I would like to see the benchmarks done with the dedicated memory slot for the GFX used. ...



Trouble is that none of the motherboard companies have actually announced produccts that will take advantage of this feature. Thus, the lab team weren't able to test this feature. Let's hope for such a product in the future, though.

Cheers,
BEN

grnrg 06/03/2008 08:29
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grnrg

Everybody sais it supports bluray and VC1, AVC etc...
Does anybody has an idea if it can support HD-audio as well?...
At least as bitstream through hdmi...
Is it HDMI 1.1? 1.2? 1.3a,b?
Its new generation chipset... so, does it FULLY supports the new formats?...

Nobody knows, and the reviewers are too busy to say that it gives 14fps in quake with 320% performance gain (wich is useless) than to fully test it in HD content...

TiddlyPom 17/03/2008 05:49
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TiddlyPom

I have been using AMD processors all the way through since Socket-A and although Intel have a performance advantage at the moment, I strongly believe that AMD have got their architecture correct. Having said all that I run Linux (Ubuntu - http://www.ubuntu.com and Mythbuntu - http://www.mythbuntu.org) and have to stick with NVidia cards at the moment due to dire support from AMD/ATI for TV-Out support under the Linux FGLRX driver (AMD Proprietry). Once CrossFire is supported under Linux (http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=NjM3Mw) then I'll switch back.

Apodo 30/03/2008 01:50
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Apodo

Will be some form of reviews of the upcoming motherboard that use this new chipset?.

David345 15/04/2008 05:50
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David345

does anyone else think its a shame that you cant match the intergrated HD3200 with something more powerfull such as a HD3870? That way this chipset would have a significant advantage over Intel's intergrated option, as well as increasing the apeal of ATI cards

0minous 14/07/2008 08:40
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0minous

There is a JW-RS780UVD-AM2+ with 64M dedicated GDDR www.jwele.com/motherboard_detail.php?225

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