Ongoing HTPC Motherboards with HDMI (1 Viewer)

[kszabo]

780G NB Temperature

It looks like there is a confusion about how hot the Northbridge of the 780G chipset (NB, where the onboard IGP is) can become. Some search results of mine:

- the 780G is the only chipset on the market with 55 nm production technology. It means lowest thermal production compared to Intel or nVidia -> they must be even hotter
- there are overclock reports of +90% GPU frequency without instability issues -> stock speed should mean no heat problems at all
- read this thread: The Official Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H RS780 mATX Thread - Page 26 - AVS Forum
side 26-27-28: people are reporting incorrect temperature readings with AMD overdrive (82 °C). Some even measured the NB temperature with infrared and mercury thermometer (35-40°C). A guy measured NB=ambient_temperature+11 °C watching 1080 HDTV with EasyTune5 Pro utility.

I guess the NB temperature is not an issue of the Gigabyte board.

 

[Spragleknas]

Regarding 780G-chipset.

thx seal, it works!

@Spragleknas

no freezing until now ;-)

Waiting for confirmation from a XP user (Vista + 690G has always been OK).

 

[kszabo]

Since today there are several new 780G mainboards listed in Germany!!! Gigabyte is not alone at last:
ABIT AS78 (no information at all)
ASRock A780FullDisplayPort (µATX, with HDMI adapter, has Firewire)
MSI K9A2GM-F V2 (no HDMI port, ATX <- bad)
Elitegroup A780GM-A (has HDMI port but ATX form factor)
ASUS M3A78-EMH HDMI (HDMI, µATX but no Firewire)

But the online shops still don´t have them in stock (say matter of few days or weeks).

So opimal HTPC Board for me remains the Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H and the new Asrock A780FullDisplayPort (µATX, Firewire, HDMI port). BUT we should wait for the MCP78 chipset from nVidia. It could have the advantage that it works with XP (the AMD solutions work only with Vista currently) and have better audio through HDMI. The Asus M3N78-EMH looks promising but needs a Firewire PCI extension

 

[Spragleknas]

I have the Gigabyte 690G mobo + nVidia8500 - but have now gotten myself a ATi HD3450 (not unpacked yet).

This combo does not cost much more than a 780G mobo - and I would think that it should perform better? (although there is no HDMI).

 

[kszabo]

I would think that it should perform better?

I guess so. Because of the dedicated graphics RAM.

Very interesting: check this out AMD RS780 VS NVIDIA MCP78! Benchmarks Leaked - Cebit 2008 coverage, AMD 780G,790GX, NVIDIA 9800GX2, 9800GTX, 9600GT at OCWORKBENCH

adding rediculous 64 MB video RAM to the motherboard (Onda A78GT) nearly doubles the 3D performance of the 780G (e.g. 3DMark2005 1382 pts vs. 2328 pts)!!!

So I ask myself why HybridCrossFire? You get same boost with only one GPU if you have dedicated video RAM. I guess the main effect of adding an extra HD3450 as HybridCrossfire is the benefit of the dedicated VideoRAM of the card.

As you see the nVidia MCP78 chipset has slightly better 3D performance than the 780G. And supposedly works with XP also And supports trueHD through HDMI. I am really thinking about switching to nVidia.

 

[Justchill]

What is meant by "3D performance"? Does it give better results for watching HD content?

 

[mascot]

News... back to the gigabyte board for me. ordered it now..

Nvidia geforce 8200 (MCP78) don't support DTSHD and dolby trueHD HDMi throughput as first announced (confirmed by nvidia) ONLY 7.1 LPCM.

I'm going analogue with the Gigabyte board GA-MA78MG-S2H that just recieved HDMI 1.3 certification in revision 2.0 it seems.

So, maybe it will handle the HDMI audio when drivers issues are solved... who knows, I'll stick with analogue.

Got an Antec fusion case and just waiting for the Gigabyte board, scythe mini ninja, 2 gb of ram and a 5000+ black edition, allthough a 65w phenom 9150e x4 1.8ghz or 4850e CPU would be nice... can't wait anymore now.

It will do everything I need anyway.

 

[kszabo]

What is meant by "3D performance"? Does it give better results for watching HD content?

I meant 3D performance by it = gaming. This has not too much common with HD picture quality. There are no really good reviews about nVidia MCP78 HD picture quality because 1. there are still no boards on the market 2. there are no rape drivers for the chipset (same true for the AMD 780G chipset).

Tests show that the 780G has better HD picture quality if coupled with an HyperThread 3.0 capable CPU (Phenom, 80 pts from 100) than with a normal X2 with HT2 (50 pts from 100). Not very logical, I would not expect that. I thought the GPU does everything, not the CPU. Look here: AnandTech: AMD 780G: Preview of the Best Current IGP Solution so to understand the whole picture is VERY difficult.

In the same test the nVidia MCP78 did not do very well, but maybe because of bad early stage driver (35 pts from 100).

We must wait 3-4 months to be able to choose wisely. But till then comes the new 780G with better northbridge....

 

[Justchill]

News... back to the gigabyte board for me. ordered it now..

Nvidia geforce 8200 (MCP78) don't support DTSHD and dolby trueHD HDMi throughput as first announced (confirmed by nvidia) ONLY 7.1 LPCM.

I'm going analogue with the Gigabyte board GA-MA78MG-S2H that just recieved HDMI 1.3 certification in revision 2.0 it seems.

So, maybe it will handle the HDMI audio when drivers issues are solved... who knows, I'll stick with analogue.

Got an Antec fusion case and just waiting for the Gigabyte board, scythe mini ninja, 2 gb of ram and a 5000+ black edition, allthough a 65w phenom 9150e x4 1.8ghz or 4850e CPU would be nice... can't wait anymore now.

It will do everything I need anyway.

interesting!
Can you hear the difference between analog and digital? I'm not sure what to think of those audio outputs..
What is so special at HDMI 1.3?
Your hardware sounds... familiar

What OS will you run?

 

[funkstar]

What is so special at HDMI 1.3?

High-Definition Multimedia Interface - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The two things that make 1.3 interesting ar optional. 30-bit, 36-bit, and 48-bit colour spaces and output of Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio streams.