Post Cards from the Edge - AMD 780G, NVIDIA 790i, Gigabyte 680i
by Gary Key on April 5, 2008 12:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
AMD 780G Motherboards
It has been an agonizingly slow process dissecting seven boards and trying to devise a set of benchmarks that satisfy the home theater, casual gaming, and home office crowds all at once. We think our roundup will come close but there are sure to be a few bumps in the road. We await your comments on the upcoming video analysis and roundup articles over the coming days.
However, we almost did not finish our testing (we actually still have some Phenom benchmarks to complete) as we lost four of our seven boards during final benchmark sessions this past week. It very easily could have been seven out of seven, but we stopped the killing spree after verifying why our boards seemed content to go to digital heaven without Kevorkian assistance. We could stop here and say wait for the article, but that would be sensationalist journalism, right?
Our normal course of testing has us installing a wide variety of processors in each board, regardless of the target market. We do this to ensure compatibility, and at times (like now) we wish this was not the case. This week, we tested the 780G boards with the LE1600, 4400+ X2, 4850e X2, 6400+ X2, Phenom 9600BE, Phenom 9900, and now the 9850BE.
We discovered quickly that running the 9900/9850BE or 6400+ X2 on these products resulted in the loss of the board, in a matter of a few seconds to a few minutes. Granted, it will probably be rare that a user will purchase a 9850BE to run on this platform, but in case you were considering that course of action, we highly suggest you do not. Let’s get this out of the way quickly; it is not a 780G chipset problem. In fact, it is not strictly a board problem either, but rather a design issue.
This design issue can just as easily occur on NVIDIA or Intel chipset boards, so while we are talking about the 780G product line, just be aware that it can happen on any board with any chipset. In fact, our last GeForce 8200 has already experienced a painful demise. The design issue comes down to the manufacturer trying to balance performance requirements and costs when providing a product in this market sector. The budget sector is very price sensitive, and for the most part users will typically use a lower-end processor.
The vast majority of the 780G boards have a three-phase or four-phase PWM circuitry design. These designs are completely acceptable for the 45W, 65W, 89W, and 95W TDP rated processors; however, drop in a 125W TDP processor such as the Phenom 9850e or 6400+ X2 and you are asking for trouble. Trouble is exactly we found, as each board we tested eventually succumbed to the greater power requirements of these 125W TDP processors.
The four-phase motherboards held out longer and seemed to run fine at stock speeds for a short period. Trying to overclock these boards even slightly resulted in almost immediate board failure. The three-phase boards did not fare as well since we blew MOSFETS on power-up, or they failed after a short OCCT load. We have returned the failed boards for analysis. However, we are comfortable with our statements after spending the past two days on the phone with the board manufacturers and AMD.
Now for the kicker. Although we were testing with a Phenom processor, that does not mean the manufacturer had qualified the board with this particular CPU. So while those front page ads and marketing information list all the processor families that will theoretically run on a board, users need to read the fine print or search for the suppliers' QVL/CPU support lists to ensure the desired processor has been qualified. We also plan to provide this information in the review process.
We searched each vendor’s website to find out if we were “running” the board out of spec with the 9850BE/9900 processors. What we found was very interesting, and we are having spirited discussions with the motherboard companies and AMD at this time.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
81 Comments
View All Comments
haplo602 - Monday, April 7, 2008 - link
Geee thanks for the 780G board info. I was just heading into the same disaster with my next platform upgrade ... thanks for the warning .... I will watch the amd board compatibility list and not the manufacturers specs ...perzy - Monday, April 7, 2008 - link
Seems like power problems is THE mobo problem today.I recently bought a AMD 5000+ Black edition for my MSI K9N Neo.
It was supported said the MSI webpage.
But, the bios have no multplier! I'm guessing the mobo cant take the power increase.
This must have happened to a lot of ppl that bought some black edition CPU's.
Mr Fox - Monday, April 7, 2008 - link
NVIDIA controls the content of the "COLATTERAL" that is put on these boxes this is another example of NVIDIA tieing their partners hands and insulating themself from the "Voice of the customer".Every NVIDIA Chipset that has been introduced has had Data Corruption Issues.
It amazes me that a Company can Engineer such fine video cards can put out such Fecal Matter when it comes to Core Logic Chipsets.
Now I'm beginning to belive that the Marketing Department has run Amok when they Re-PCB (G92)-400-A2 crank the price $150.00 and call it 9800 GTX.
Just another example how lost their leadership is when this kind of activity is perpetrated upon your customer base.
nRollo made the bold statement to me about a month ago that nVIDIA was making record profits, and I reminded him that so was AMD Three Years ago.
Never a Dull Moment !!!
nubie - Monday, April 7, 2008 - link
Ouch, I just want to run a tri-core Phenom in my DFI Infinity II M2, I don't really know if that is going to happen now.I also was planning on running a heavy overclock on my P5N-E SLi with a 45nm Dual Core, I guess it should be fine for that. (currently it is hosting a Celeron430 @3.17Ghz 33°C stable Prime95 loaded, haven't got enough fans on the HR-05 chipset cooler yet to try going higher, and I honestly can't see how to with this Sycthe Infinity hogging all the space, but it was booting fine at around 3.6Ghz before the NB was too hot, it doesn't help that there is no mention of the stock NB voltage, just 4 settings :?, and no granularity :( )
KillaKittie - Sunday, April 6, 2008 - link
This is the first time ive heard of these problem's before and it sounds like your just mad and ranting which you are but let's keep it at that.Im running the Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H 780G motherboard with a 125w X2 6000+ just fine and have been for the last 2 month's with zero problem's. Not only that but im also running 2 hardrives and an 8800GT with 6 80mm fan's sometimes running at 100%.
Ive had no problem's with system instability and have had no crashes and i play games like Crysis for very long period's of time.
Zap - Monday, April 7, 2008 - link
KillaKittie writes:"Im running the Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H 780G motherboard with a 125w X2 6000+ just fine and have been for the last 2 month's with zero problem's."
In the article:
"Interestingly enough, Gigabyte has qualified the 125W TDP 6400/6000+ X2 processors on this board."
The review board died with a Phenom, not a 6000+ which according to Gigabyte is explicitly supported. Also, are you overclocking? That seemed to be what broke the Gigabyte board.
Glenn - Sunday, April 6, 2008 - link
Perhaps Killa Kittie needs to let us know how much he has maxed out that configuration. After all it is an "Enthusiast" board! And BTW, I thought this was 2008, not 1998! Who has 6 80mm fans in one system nowadays?KillaKittie - Sunday, April 6, 2008 - link
I have no plan's to max any configuration i have here it's just fine how it sit's.I got the impression throwing any 120w processor will fry this board in minutes so im here to tell you mine has worked very well for what it is.2x 80mm on the PS
3x 80mm in the back with an adjust screw
1x 80mm in the front wired to adjust screw in back.
Jedi2155 - Sunday, April 6, 2008 - link
And, all those fans are powered through the motherboard headers?TrueSport - Sunday, April 6, 2008 - link
Re: KillaKittie,post it on the AT forum,
before anybody is going to trust you!