ASUS M4A785TD-M EVO Motherboard Review

Last year ASUS introduced the 785G chipset, one of their latest chipset with integrated graphics. This comes on the back of other recently successful chipsets with integrated graphics such as the 780G and 790GX. In true AMD fashion, we can tell a lot about the chipset by its numbering. The 785G is an upgraded version of the 780G and keeps a lot of the same features. Many motherboard manufacturers have been making products with the new chipset and, of course, ASUS is one of the top names. In this article, Benchmark Reviews will be examining the ASUS M4A785TD-M EVO Micro-ATX AM3 Motherboard. We will be specifically looking at the differences between this board, with the 785G chipset, and the similar 780G and 790GX chipsets. The ASUS M4A785TD-M EVO is being marketed as great combination for the Athlon-II line of processors because of its budget price-point. For this reason, Benchmark Reviews will be testing the ASUS M4A785TD-M EVO against older equipment in order to provide an idea of the upgradeability offered by this motherboard.

AMD has been stepping up their game over the last few years by releasing stable and effective chipsets that motherboard manufacturers have decided to use in their products. The recent trend for these valuable chipsets is to integrate them with graphics. The 780G and 790GX chipsets recently showed that AMD is serious about their products. In similar fashion, the release of the 785G chipset shows that they are taking steps to keep in line with product requirements. The recent adoption of DDR3 memory and the even more recent drop in DDR3 prices means that new chipsets need to incorporate this standard. The 785G improves on the 780G by supporting DDR3 memory.

The 785G chipset can pair with either the SB710 or SB750 southbridges, offering RAID 0, 1, and 10 compatibility. The SB750 has RAID 5 compatibility also, but we will be focusing on the SB710, since that is the southbridge used in the ASUS M4A785TD-M EVO. Additionally, the 785G chipset gets a facelift where the integrated graphics are concerned. The 780G chipset touted the Radeon HD 3200 graphics core, and even the 790GX, with the Radeon HD 3300, only really upgraded the clock speed of the graphics. The 785G now offers up the Radeon HD 4200 chipset, a prominent upgrade from the previous designs that still allows motherboard manufactures to keep a low price point. The HD 4200 graphics core The ASUS M4A785TD-M EVO uses the full spectrum of the 785G chipset and adds a lot of excellent features. ASUS is on top of the motherboard world and consistently provides quality products. I will be extremely surprised if the M4A785TD-M EVO is any different.

About ASUSTek Computer Inc.

ASUS comes from the last four letters of Pegasus, the winged horse in Greek mythology that represents the inspiration of art and learning. ASUS embodies the strength, creative spirit and purity symbolized by this regal and agile mythical creature, soaring to new heights of quality and innovation with each product it introduces to the market.

ASUS is a leading company in the new digital era, with an extensive product portfolio that includes notebooks, netbooks, motherboards, graphics cards, optical drives, desktop PCs, servers, wireless solutions, mobile phones and networking devices. Driven by innovation and committed to quality, ASUS designs and manufactures products that perfectly meet the needs of today's digital home, office and person. ASUS won 3,056 awards in 2008, and is widely credited with revolutionizing the PC industry with the Eee PC. With a global staff of more than ten thousand and a world-class R&D design team, the company's revenue for 2008 was 8.1 billion U.S. dollars. ASUS ranks among BusinessWeek's InfoTech 100, and has been on the listing for 12 consecutive years.

ASUSTeK Computer Inc., also known as ASUS, a technology-oriented company blessed with one of the world's top R&D teams, is well known for high-quality and innovative technology. As a leading provider of 3C (computers, communications and consumer electronics) total solutions, ASUS offers a complete product portfolio to compete in the new millennium.

To succeed in this ultra-competitive industry, great products need to be complimented by speed-to-market, cost and service. That's why all 100,000 over employees of ASUS strive for the "ASUS Way of Total Quality Management" to offer the best quality without compromising cost and time-to-market while providing maximum value to all customers through world-class services.

AMD 785G Chipset and SB710

AMD has been busy in recent years creating good chipset options that motherboard manufacturers actually want to use. The 785G chipset is another step in a line of successful chipsets with graphics integration. AMD's original graphics chipset, the 690G, was surprisingly competent. It was followed later by the 780G and 790GX chipsets. All of these chipsets have been designed to offer good productivity and a decent graphics interface at a price that appeals to mainstream users. Though the 780G and 790GX chipsets have been very successful at meeting these goals, recent upgrades to computer hardware and performance have necessitated the creation of a newer chipset that offers compatibility with upcoming technologies.

We have previously mentioned some of the details of te 785G chipset, but here we will go over them in more detail. The 785G is truly an upgrade for home theater PC enthusiasts. It offers all the great features of the 780G chipset while upgrading a lot of the video and audio functions. First, the 785G offers support for HDMI 1.3 standards, while the old chipset only supported 1.2 standards. Initially, AMD had considered offering 8-channel LPCM audio over HDMI as well, but that has been put aside for the 785G chipset. Another improvement not offered with the 785G chipset but undoubtedly planned for the future would be TrueHD or DTS-HD audio streaming capabilities. Additionally, in the graphics arena, the 785G updates the integrated GPU to a Radeon HD 4200 over a 3200 on the 780G and 3300 on the 790GX. The new GPU is nearly identical to the Radeon HD 3200 found on the 780G chipset with some minor changes.

The Radeon HD 4200 is built on the RV620 graphics core, which is about the same as the RV610 core for the 3200. We still have the 55nm node and around 205 million transistors and there are still 40 stream processors. The graphics upgrades actually come in video playback capability. In addition to the new HDMI 1.3 standards, the Radeon HD 4200 on the 785G chipset supports UVD2 now and also supports DirectX 10.1 just like the 780G chipset, the 785G offers the ability to pair another video card with the Radeon HD 4200 in crossfire mode. The drawback to this is that you can't pair it will another 4000 series card. In fact, the best card you can pair it with is the Radeon 3450, which should help boost performance slightly. However, since the 785G chipset does offer one PCIe 2.0 x16 link, you would probably be better off getting a higher end graphics card if you really need an improvement over the HD 4200.

As I mentioned earlier, the 785G chipset also adopted the newer DDR3 standard of memory, while the 780G and 790GX chipset primarily focused on DDR2 memory. Of course, the 785G keeps the 500MHz clock speed found on the 780G which is slower than the 700MHz found on the 790GX. The chipset is, of course, backwards compatible with DDR2 memory, so you won't have to upgrade everything all at once. ASUS offers a motherboard very similar to the M4A785TD-M EVO that is a DDR2 memory board rather than DDR3. The M4A785TD-M EVO motherboard pairs the 785G chipset with the SB710 Southbridge.

Basically, the SB710 is almost the same as its predecessor, the SB700, and it is also very comparable to the SB750, the other southbridge that can be paired with the 785G chipset. The SB710 offers Advanced Clock Calibration, a nice feature that, among other things, will allow users to manually unlock Deneb cores that have been disabled during manufacturing. This is a nice feature to have for users of the Phenom-II X2 and X3 series that are built on Deneb cores that didn't meet manufacturing standards. Of course, to meet production quotas, sometimes perfectly good quad-core processors have a couple of cores disabled. These can sometimes be reactivated with the ACC feature.

The SB710 brings 6 SATA ports to the table and support for 12 USB ports, in addition to the traditional PATA port. There is no support, unsurprisingly, for the new USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gb/s ports. ASUS does offer a motherboard with the 785G chipset that comes included with an add on card for those ports, but the M4A785GTD-M EVO does not come with that card. The SB710 offers RAID 0, 1, and 10 support, but not RAID 5 support like the SB750. I highly doubt that there are many users considering the 785G chipset that will be discouraged by the fact that RAID 5 is not supported. While the SB710 does not offer native GbE support, its rich feature set still poses an extreme threat to the competition, Intel's ICH7. The ICH7 offers up only 4 SATA and 8 USB ports. Additionally, the ICH7 lacks a PATA port and any RAID support at all. Overall, the SB710 is a much better fit for most users than the Intel alternative at this point.

ASUS M4A785TD-M EVO Features

AMD Phenom-II/Athlon-II/ Sempron 100 Series Processors (socket AM3)

This motherboard supports AMD Socket AM3 multi-core processors with unique L3 cache and delivers better overclocking capabilities with less power consumption. It features dual-channel DDR3 1333 memory support and accelerates data transfer rate up to 5200MT/s via HyperTransport 3.0 based system bus. This motherboard also supports AMD CPUs in the new 45nm manufacturing process.

DDR3 1800(O.C.) support

The motherboard supports DDR3 memory that features data transfer rates of 1800+(O.C.)/1600(O.C.)/1333/1066/800 MHz to meet the higher bandwidth requirements of the latest operation system, 3D graphics, multimedia, and Internet applications. The dual-channel DDR3 architecture doubles the bandwidth of your system memory to boost system performance, eliminating bottlenecks with peak bandwidths of up to 25.6 GB/s. Furthermore, the supply voltage for the memory is reduced from 1.8 V for DDR2 to just 1.5 V for DDR3. This voltage reduction limits the power consumption and heat generation of DDR3 which makes it an ideal memory solution.

SidePort Memory

This motherboard features SidePort Memory, an individual onboard DDR3 memory serving as memory buffer for integrated graphics. With low CPU usage, the SidePort Memory provides integrated graphics acceleration and effectively boosts graphics performance.

HDMI Support

High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) is a set of digital video standards that delivers multi-channel audio and uncompressed digital video for full HD 1080p visuals through a single cable. Supporting HDCP copy protection such as HD DVD and Blu-ray Discs, HDMI provides you with the highest-quality home theater experience.

AMD 785G / SB710

AMD 785G / SB710 Chipset is designed to support up to 5200MT/s HyperTransport 3.0 (HT3.0) interface speed and PCI Express 2.0 x 16 graphics. It is optimized with AMD´s latest AM3 and multi-core CPUs to provide excellent system performance and overclocking capabilities.

Hybrid CrossFireX Support

ATI Hybrid CrossFireX technology is a unique hybrid multi-GPU technology. It takes your gaming experience to the next level boosting PC performance by enabling the chipset's integrated graphics processor and a discrete GPU to operate simultaneously with combined output for blisteringly-fast frame rates unleashing the graphics performance * Visit www.amd.com for the Hybrid CrossFireX selected GPUs.

PCIe 2.0 support

This motherboard supports the latest PCIe 2.0 devices for double speed and bandwidth which enhances system performance.

EPU

The ASUS EPU (Energy Processing Unit) provides total system power management by detecting current PC loadings and intelligently moderating power in real-time. It automatically provides the most appropriate power usage for the CPU, VGA card, hard drives, and CPU/chassis fans- helping save power and money!

GPU NOS

GPU NOS technology intelligently detects graphic loading and automatically boosts performance for the most demanding tasks. Unlike other dynamic overclocking techniques, GPU NOS reacts much faster to satisfy your need for graphic power.

*GPU NOS does not take effect under Hybrid CrossFireX mode.

Turbo Key

ASUS Turbo Key allows the user to turn the PC power button into an overclocking button. After the easy setup, Turbo Key can boost performances without interrupting ongoing work or games - with just one touch!

Express Gate

Taking only 5 seconds to bootup, Express Gate is the one-stop gateway to instant fun! It´s a unique motherboard built-in OS. You can utilize the most popular Instant Messengers (IM) like MSN, Skype, Google talk, QQ, and Yahoo! Messenger to keep in touch with friends, or quickly check on the weather and e-mails just before leaving your house. What's more, the user-friendly picture manager lets you view your pictures without entering Windows at anytime! * The actual boot time is subject to hardware configurations and product models.

EZ Flash2

EZ Flash is a user-friendly BIOS update utility. Simply press the pre-defined hotkey to launch this tool and update BIOS from a floppy disk before entering the OS.

Uses 100% All High-quality Conductive Polymer Capacitors!

This motherboard uses all high-quality conductive polymer capacitors onboard for durability, improved lifespan, and enhanced thermal capacity.

CrashFree BIOS 3

The ASUS CrashFree BIOS 3 allows users to restore corrupted BIOS data from a USB flash disk containing the BIOS file. This utility saves users the cost and hassle of buying a replacement BIOS chip.

ASUS Q-Fan

ASUS Q-Fan technology intelligently adjusts CPU fan speeds according to system loading to ensure quiet, cool and efficient operation.

MyLogo2

You can convert your favorite photo into a 256-color boot logo for a more colorful and vivid image on your screen.

SATA on the Go

The motherboard supports hard drives based on the Serial ATA (SATA) 3Gb/s storage specification, delivering enhanced scalability and doubling the bus bandwidth for high-speed data retrieval and saves. The external SATA port located at the back I/O provides smart setup and hot-plug functions. Easily backup photos, videos and other entertainment contents on external devices.

S/PDIF-out on Back I/O Port

This motherboard provides convenient connectivity to external home theater audio systems via coaxial and optical S/PDIF-out (SONY-PHILIPS Digital Interface) jacks. It allows to transfer digital audio without converting to analog format and keeps the best signal quality.

High Definition Audio

The onboard 8-channel HD audio (High Definition Audio, previously codenamed Azalia) CODEC enables high-quality 192KHz/24-bit audio output, jack-sensing feature, retasking functions and multi-streaming technology that simultaneously sends different audio streams to different destinations. You can now talk to your partners on the headphone while playing a multi-channel network games. All of these are done on one computer.

IEEE 1394a interface

IEEE 1394a interface provides high speed digital interface for audio/video appliances such as digital television, digital video camcorders, storage peripherals & other PC portable devices.

GreenASUS

The motherboard and its packaging comply with the European Union´s Restriction on the use of Hazardous Substances (RoHS). This is in line with the ASUS vision of creating environment-friendly and recyclable products and packaging to safeguard consumers´ health while minimizing the impact on the environment.

The product (electrical , electronic equipment, Mercury-containing button cell battery) should not be placed in municipal waste. Check local regulations for disposal of electronic products.

• All specifications are subject to change without notice. Please check with your supplier for exact offers. Products may not be available in all markets.
• PCB color and bundled software versions are subject to change without notice.
• Brand and product names mentioned are trademarks of their respective companies.

M4A785TD-M EVO Specifications

Closer Look: ASUS M4A785TD-M EVO

In fairly unsurprising fashion, the ASUS M4A785TD-M EVO Motherboard greets us from a familiar green box. ASUS has a recent standard of green boxes for AMD motherboards, blue for Intel. The box is pretty common as far as motherboard boxes go, and it touts clearly on the front a lot of the important features to be found on the board within. The box for the ASUS M4A785TD-M EVO clearly boasts its "Extreme Design", the compatibility with overclocked DDR3 memory up to 1800MHz, and its readiness to function with Windows 7. It also sports a logo for the GPU NOS feature that we will discuss a little later.

Located within the box are the bare essentials needed to function with the motherboard. Given that the ASUS M4A785TD-M EVO is designed to be a budget motherboard that is still loaded with features, it is not surprising that it comes with pretty much the minimum. The M4A785TD-M EVO comes with 2 SATA locking cables, and IDE cable, the motherboard manual, and a CD containing drivers and a few programs. Interestingly enough, you don't often see the locking cables on budget level boards. It's a small concession, but one that most buyers will appreciate. While some of the programs on the driver CD, like the ASUS Green program, are pretty useless, there are some, such as the Audio program, that I found to be pretty worthwhile. I'll get into the useful programs later on in the Detailed Features section.

The layout of the M4A785TD-M EVO initially looks pretty normal, but upon further inspection, we can notice that there are subtle differences with this board. First, the ATX power connector is located a little differently than normal, closer to the back of the board rather than the I/O panel. The SATA ports, normally along the backside somewhere in the vicinity of the IDE port, are moved to the bottom of the board between the front panel connections and additional USB connections. While a floppy port is absent, a fact that I am a big fan of, there is a COM port connection near the top back corner of the board.

The coloring scheme on the M4A785TD-M EVO, with its mix of dark and light blues and black, is another landmark feature of ASUS. Even the recent Intel boards have gone to this coloring layout, and it looks really good. Another ASUS typical feature is the interesting heatsink designs. The fanned fins on the Northbridge heatsink are similar in fashion to other recent ASUS heatsinks, but slightly different. It is always fun to check out the new ASUS boards just to see what kind of heatsink designs they have come up with. The Southbridge heatsink on the M4A785TD-M EVO is a pretty standard low-profile heatsink, due to the unlikely event of the SB710 chipset getting overly heated, but ASUS has even managed to flare it up a bit by alternating the heights of the fins.

One feature I was a little disappointed with on the M4A785TD-M EVO was the location of the 4-pin CPU power connector. I am big fan of cases with bottom mounted power supplies for a number of reasons that really don't apply to a motherboard review. However, with my bottom mounted PSU, I had to really stretch the cable on my Mid-Tower case to reach up to the CPU power connector. I was almost certain I wasn't going to make it after I installed a Video Card. The cable did reach, but just barely. Moving the CPU power connector down a little lower on the board would solve any issues with cabling. Another tiny issue is the lack of more fan power connectors on the motherboard. There are only 2 connectors on the entire board, the CPU fan power connector, and a 3-pin connector near the COM port connection. There are lots of adapters for existing fans, or you can buy fans that fit Molex connectors, so this issue is really a minor one. However, it would be nice to see a few more fan power connectors on the M4A785TD-M EVO.

ASUS M4A785TD-M EVO Detailed Features

ASUS has maintained a high standard with the M4A785TD-M EVO by once again including 100% Solid Polymer Capacitors throughout the board. The solid capacitors are quite a bit higher quality than the traditional ones, and should last quite a bit longer.

One oddity of the M4A785TD-M EVO that I might like to see changed is the lack of a heatsink for the MOSFET. I get that this is a budget level motherboard and so it makes sense that it wouldn't be there. But with the overclocking capabilities that this board has to offer, the likelihood of more power being funneled to components through the MOSFET is high. A heatsink could be a good addition. While we are in the area, you'll notice that the four DDR3 DIMM slots are color coded and not alternating. If you are using a dual channel kit, you'll want to put them right next to each other, rather than skipping one between the two like you would on a lot of motherboards. The DIMM slots are located perilously close to the CPU. This is a necessity, really, on a mATX motherboard, but it did cause some issues for me.

I am using 2 x 2GB of Patriot Gamer Series DDR3 1600MHz memory in the M4A785TD-M EVO. The memory is very tall due to the heat spreaders. I am also using the Scythe Mugen 2 SCMG-2000 CPU cooler. The cooler is pretty large and the setup puts my CPU cooler fan right on top of the RAM. There isn't a lot of space there and the fan actually rests on top of the RAM. This shouldn't cause any issues, except that I lose a little bit of heatsink surface area that is covered by the fan.

Taking a look at the rear I/O panel, we can see that ASUS has provided us with everything we need and even a lot we probably don't on the M4A785TD-M EVO. The first port is a now rare PS2 port, just in case. Under that are the first two USB ports. Moving to the right we have an HDMI port and an S/PDIF audio port. This is a great feature to have, but one that probably won't be used by a lot of standard PC users. HTPC users, however, may have a much higher interest in the S/PDIF port. Also for HTPC users, you can set the HDMI port to pass audio as well in the BIOS. After the D-Sub and DVI ports there are two more USB ports, a 1394a port and an eSATA port. Two more USB ports under a Gigabit Ethernet port round out the six total on the rear I/O panel. You'll remember I mentioned that SB710 doesn't support native GbE. Asus uses the Realtek RTL8112L PHY as the 10/100/1000Mbps controller onto the M4A785TD-M EVO.

To finish up the I/O panel, we have the 8 channel audio ports. ASUS doesn't stick with Realtek for the audio on the M4A785TD-M EVO. In a trend they keep with a lot of their recent products, they use VIA to provide the CODEC. Specifically, they VIA Vinyl VT7108S is used. I must admit that I was impressed with the VIA audio CODEC when used with the HDAudio program that comes bundled with the M4A785TD-M EVO motherboard. I use a 5.1 channel setup on my computer, but most of my music only uses 2 channels. I have tried various configurations of the speaker fill effect within the driver section of the Realtek audio CODECs in Windows. The result is a horrible, abusive sound from the rear speakers. The HD-Audio program has its own speaker fill function that works extremely well and sounds really good. Overall, the I/O port on the M4A785TD-M EVO is very full-featured for a board at this price.

The Radeon HD4200 Integrated graphics on the M4A785TD-M EVO comes with 128 MB of side-port memory, located right next to the northbridge. It actually a lie under the northbridge heatsink, but it's not touching the heatsink, so don't expect any help cooling if you decided to overclock the GPU memory. It's quite impressive that ASUS offers the side-port memory on a motherboard with a price this low, as many manufacturers have foregone this option. The memory is DDR3 and runs at 1333MHz.

ASUS offers the GPU NOS feature with the M4A785TD-M EVO motherboard. The program is specifically designed to overclock the Radeon HD4200 and lets you do it while still in Windows. The GPU NOS program is extremely easy to use and works fairly well. It lets you have the option of manually overclocking the GPU or the program will do it automatically for you. This gave me a much better performance in a number of the benchmarks. The most impressive part about the GPU NOS program, however, is that when I set it to AUTO overclock mode, it had nearly the same performance as when I manually overclocked it as high as I could stably get it. For a real boost in power, without worrying about overclocking too much, stick with the AUTO mode.

Motherboard Testing Methodology

At the start of all tests, the previous display adapter driver is uninstalled and trace components are removed using Driver Cleaner Pro. We then restart the computer system to establish our display settings and define the monitor. Once the hardware is prepared, we begin our testing. We conducted the tests at the resolution of 1280x1024 (19" Standard LCD), a very standard and highly used resolution for both games and other normal uses. Each benchmark test program begins after a system restart, and the very first result for every test will be ignored since it often only caches the test. This process proved extremely important in the Resident Evil 5 benchmarks, as the first run served to cache maps allowing subsequent tests to perform much better than the first. Each test is completed five times, with the average results displayed in our article.

Intel LGA775 Test System 1

• Motherboard: MSI P965 NEO LGA775 (P965 NB and ICH8 SB)
• Processor: Intel E6300 Core 2 Duo 1.8 GHz
• System Memory: Corsair 2x2GB DDR2 800Mhz
• GPU: MSI NVIDIA GeFORCE 9800GTX+
• Disk Drive: Seagate Barracuda 1.5TB SATA
• Optical Drive: ASUS DRW-24B1ST 24X DVD-RW
• Enclosure: NZXT Gamma
• PSU: 650W
• Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium x64

Intel LGA775 Test System 2

• Motherboard: Intel BOXDG41MJ LGA775 (G41 NB and ICH7 SB)
• Processor: Intel E5300 Pentium Dual Core 2.6Ghz
• System Memory: Corsair 2x2GB DDR2 800Mhz
• GPU: Intel GMA X4500 On-Board
• Disk Drive: Western Digital Caviar 320Gb SATA
• Optical Drive: Panasonic 8X DVD-RW
• Enclosure:
• PSU: 650W
• Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium x64

AMD AM3 Test System

• Motherboard: ASUS M4A785TD-M EVO (785G NB and SB710 SB)
• Processor: AMD Athlon-II X2-255 AM3 3.1Ghz
• System Memory: Patriot Gamer Series 2x2GB DDR3 1600Mhz
• GPU: ATI Radeon HD 4200 On-Board
• Disk Drive: Western Digital Caviar 400Gb SATA
• Optical Drive: ASUS DRW-24B1ST 24X DVD-RW
• Enclosure: NZXT Gamma
• PSU: 650W
• Operating System: Windows 7 Professional x64

Benchmark Applications

• 3DMark Vantage Advanced Edition
• Maxon Cinebench R11.5
• PCMark Vantage v1.0
• Passmark Performance Test
• Resident Evil 5 Benchmark

PCMark Vantage Benchmark Results

Using synthetic benchmarks to compare one product to another has some distinct advantages when testing similar hardware, yet I have never found myself completely satisfied by the process. I have come to understand that they're important for comparing "apples to apples", and that the results are usually very consistent. But as with any synthetic benchmark, the numbers can often mean very little more than just numbers. We don't take a high score on a synthetic benchmark to mean that a product will/should perform well, and neither should you. The difference between projected performance and actual performance is the difference between fire and the fire-fly.

PCMark Vantage is the first objective hardware performance benchmark for PCs running 32 and 64 bit versions of Windows Operating Systems. PCMark Vantage is perfectly suited for benchmarking any type of Microsoft Windows Vista or 7 PC from multimedia home entertainment systems and laptops to dedicated workstations and hi-end gaming rigs.

Regardless of whether the person benchmarking is an artist or an IT Professional, PCMark Vantage shows the user where their system soars or falls flat, and how to get the most performance possible out of their hardware. PCMark Vantage is easy enough for even the most casual enthusiast to use yet supports in-depth, professional industry grade testing.

TV and Movies Suite

The tests in the TV and Movies Suite have been selected to represent the Windows Vista TV and Movies Consumer Scenario. The combination of test sets covers the common TV and Movies usage. The TV and Movies Suite gives a separate PCMark TV and Movies Score which does not affect the overall PCMark Score. TV and Movies Suite include the following tests:

• TV and Movies 1
  • Two simultaneous threads
  • Video transcoding: HD DVD to media server archive
  • Video playback: HD DVD w/ additional lower bitrate HD content from HDD, as downloaded from net
• TV and Movies 2
  • Two simultaneous threads
  • Video transcoding: HD DVD to media server archive
  • Video playback, HD MPEG-2: 19.39 MBps terrestrial HDTV playback
• TV and Movies 3
  • HDD Media Center
• TV and Movies 4
  • Video transcoding: media server archive to portable device
  • Video playback, HD MPEG-2: 48 Mbps Blu-ray playback

Gaming Suite

The tests in the Gaming Suite have been selected to represent the Windows Vista Gaming Consumer Scenario. The combination of test sets covers the common Gaming usage. The Gaming Suite gives a separate PCMark Gaming Score which does not affect the overall PCMark Score. Gaming Suite includes the following tests:

• Gaming 1
  • GPU game test
• Gaming 2
  • HDD: game HDD
• Gaming 3
  • Two simultaneous threads
  • CPU game test
  • Data decompression: level loading
• Gaming 4
  • Three simultaneous threads
  • GPU game test
  • CPU game test
  • HDD: game HDD

Music Suite

The tests in the Music Suite have been selected to represent the Windows Vista Music Consumer Scenario. The combination of test sets covers the common Music usage. The Music Suite gives a separate PCMark Music Score which does not affect the overall PCMark Score. Music Suite includes the following tests:

• Music 1
  • Three simultaneous threads
  • Web page rendering - w/ music shop content
  • Audio transcoding: WAV -> WMA lossless
  • HDD: Adding music to Windows Media Player
• Music 2
  • Audio transcoding: WAV -> WMA lossless
• Music 3
  • Audio transcoding: MP3 -> WMA
• Music 4
  • Two simultaneous threads
  • Audio transcoding: WMA -> WMA
  • HDD: Adding music to Windows Media Player

As you can see, the M4A785TD-M EVO motherboard paired with the X2-255 processor has the clear advantage in the PCMark Vantage tests.The 785G Chipset, with its support for DDR3 memory, easily outpaces both of the older system configurations.While much of the difference here is due to the different hardware involved, it is most interesting that the M4A785TD-M EVO system easily outperforms Core 2 Duo machine by almost double in the Gaming benchmarks even when the on-board Radeon HD 4200 is competing against a 9800GTX+ graphics card.The increase in system bandwidth, processing power, and memory bandwidth certainly give us a clear winner with the M4A785TD-M EVO system.

Everest Benchmark Results

Lavalys EVEREST is an industry leading system diagnostics and benchmarking solution for enthusiasts PC users, based on the award-winning EVEREST Technology. During system optimizations and tweaking it provides essential system and overclock information, advanced hardware monitoring and diagnostics capabilities to check the effects of the applied settings. CPU, GPU and memory benchmarks are available to measure the actual system performance and compare it to previous states or other systems. Furthermore, complete software, operating system and security information makes EVEREST Ultimate Edition a comprehensive system diagnostics tool that offers a total of 100 pages of information about your PC.

Both the Queen and the PhotoWorxx tests rely on basic x86 instructions, and consume very low system memory while also being aware of HyperThreading, multi-processors, and multi-core processors. While the EVEREST CPU tests really only compare the processor performance more than it measures platforms, it still offers a glimpse into what kind of power each platform possesses.

Queen and Photoworxx tests are synthetic benchmarks that operate the function many times over and over-exaggerate by several magnitudes what the real-world performance would be like. The Queen benchmark focuses on the branch prediction capabilities and misprediction penalties of the CPU. It does this by finding possible solutions to the classic queen problem on a chessboard. At the same clock speed theoretically the processor with the shorter pipeline and smaller misprediction penalties will attain higher benchmark scores. The Queen test scores show that the M4A785TD-M EVO system with the AMD X2-255 CPU outperforms the closest competitor, the Intel Pentium Dual Core CPU on the Intel G41 platform, by 39%.

Like the Queen benchmark, the Photoworxx tests for penalties against pipeline architecture. The synthetic Photoworxx benchmark stresses the integer arithmetic and multiplication execution units of the CPU and also the memory subsystem. Due to the fact that this test performs high memory read/write traffic, it cannot effectively scale in situations where more than two processing threads are used. The EVEREST Photoworxx benchmark performs the following tasks on a very large RGB image:

• Fill
• Flip
• Rotate90R (rotate 90 degrees CW)
• Rotate90L (rotate 90 degrees CCW)
• Random (fill the image with random colored pixels)
• RGB2BW (color to black & white conversion)
• Difference
• Crop

The PhotoWorxx test gives the M4A785TD-M EVO system a 41% boost over the G41 system and an amazing 139% increase in performance over the P965 NEO platform. As was stated, the two CPU tests do a pretty good job of isolating CPU performance, but it is important to note that, even with the similar L2 cache sizes on the Athlon-II X2-255 and the Pentium Dual Core E5300, the AMD system fares much better than the Intel alternative. System performance cannot be completely taken out of the mix, and it is clear that the M4A785TD-M EVO platform is superior to the G41 system in the Everest CPU tests.

The memory tests are included for illustration, since the system memory bandwidth offers a very minor impact on gaming performance and real-world experience. Nevertheless, it's evident from the results that not all motherboards are created equal, and that the increased bandwidth provided by the M4A785TD-M EVO with its support for DDR3 memory is impressive. The faster memory more than doubles the performance of the P965 NEO machine in nearly every test, and the increase over the G41 platform is also very apparent. Since the same RAM was used in both the Intel systems with the same settings, the difference the motherboard provides can be inferred from the results.

Cinebench Benchmark Results

Maxon Cinebench is a real-world test suite that assesses the computer's performance capabilities. Cinebench is based on Maxon's award-winning animation software, Cinema 4D, which is used extensively by studios and production houses worldwide for 3D content creation. Maxon software has been used in blockbuster movies such as Spider-Man, Star Wars, The Chronicles of Narnia and many more. Cinebench Release 11.5 includes the ability to more accurately test the industry's latest hardware, including systems with up to 64 processor threads and the testing environment better reflects the expectations of today's production demands. A more streamlined interface makes testing systems and reading results incredibly straightforward.

The Cinebench R11.5 test scenario uses all of a system's processing power to render a photorealistic 3D scene, "No Keyframes" the viral animation by AixSponza. This scene makes use of various algorithms to stress all available processor cores. The OpenGL graphics card testing procedure uses a complex 3D scene depicting a car chase with which the performance of your graphics card in OpenGL mode is measured. During the benchmark tests the graphics card is evaluated by way of displaying an intricate scene that includes complex geometry, high-resolution textures, and a variety of effects to evaluate the performance across a variety of real-world scenarios.

There are really no surprises in the Cinebench tests as the M4A785TD-M EVO system easily outpaces the two Intel platforms. The real stunner here is the raw increase in CPU power provided by overclocking the Athlon-II X2-255 CPU. The ASUS M4A785TD-M EVO really makes it easy to overclock the CPU, RAM, and even the onboard GPU. The BIOS is setup in a convenient and understandable manner that is easy to use. Any computer user interested in an inexpensive way to embark on the journey of overclocking should take a good look at the M4A785TD-M EVO. As you can see, the performance boost offered by some simple overclocking of the CPU can really be beneficial to the system.

Resident Evil 5 Benchmark Results

Built upon an advanced version of Capcom's proprietary MT Framework game engine to deliver DirectX 10 graphic detail, Resident Evil 5 offers gamers non-stop action similar to Devil May Cry 4, Lost Planet, and Dead Rising. The MT Framework is an exclusive seventh generation game engine built to be used with games developed for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and PC ports. MT stands for "Multi-Thread", "Meta Tools" and "Multi-Target". Games using the MT Framework are originally developed on the PC and then ported to the other two console platforms.

On the PC version of Resident Evil 5, both DirectX 9 and DirectX 10 modes are available for Microsoft Windows XP and Vista Operating Systems. Microsoft Windows 7 will play Resident Evil with backwards compatible Direct3D APIs. Resident Evil 5 is branded with the NVIDIA The Way It's Meant to be Played (TWIMTBP) logo, and receives functionality enhancements. NVIDIA and Capcom offer the Resident Evil 5 benchmark demo for free download from their website, and Benchmark Reviews encourages visitors to compare their own results to ours.

As we can see, neither the M4A785TD-M EVO, paired with the Radeon HD 4200, nor the Intel G41 motherboard, paired with the GMA4500 GPU, can run Resident Evil 5 at frame rates that are playable. This is not surprising, as both of the on-board graphics devices are targeted more toward video playback and multi-media then gaming. The PCMark Vantage test gave us a good idea of how these components compare to each other in those areas, but it is a synthetic benchmark. It is nice to see the performance difference on a gaming benchmark even if the scores are low. The Resident Evil 5 test does show, however, that the M4A785TD-M EVO with the Radeon HD 4200 outperforms the GMA4500 graphics by 25% in the more taxing area #3, and by 17% in area #4. The same trend has been continuous throughout our testing.

When overclocked using the automatic overclock settings within the GPU NOS program provided with the M4A785TD-M EVO motherboard, the Radeon HD 4200 improves significantly. The performance gain over the stock settings is 69% in area #3 and 48% in area #4. While these frame rates are still not high enough to play the game without a lot of difficulty, it is enough to show that the overclock utility in GPU NOS can greatly improve the performance of the Radeon HD 4200 on the M4A785TD-M EVO. Without any surprise, the 9800GTX+ (used in the M4A785TD-M EVO in this test) performs much better than either of the onboard graphics and illustrates the ability of the M4A785TD-M EVO to play modern games when paired with even a decent discrete video option.

Whatever you are looking for as far as graphic prowess, whether it be an HTPC for streaming flash video, a PC to play older, less GPU intensive games, or a even just a basic working computer for word processing and internet browsing, the Radeon HD4200 on the M4A785TD-M EVO does a much better job than the GMA4500. It should also be noted that the M4A785TD-M EVO comes equipped with a PCIe x16 port that can be used for a much better discrete graphics card if you need to use the computer for highly GPU intensive games or projects. The comparison motherboard, the Intel DG41MJ does not offer this option, even though it only costs about $15 less than the M4A785TD-M EVO.

Passmark Benchmark Results

PassMark PerformanceTest is a PC hardware benchmark utility that allows a user to quickly assess the performance of their computer and compare it to a number of standard 'baseline' computer systems. The Passmark PerformanceTest CPU tests all benchmark the mathematical operations, compression, encryption, SSE, and 3DNow! instructions of modern processors.

In our tests there were several areas of concentration for each benchmark, which are combined into one compound score. This score is referred to as the CPU Mark, and is a composite of the following tests: Integer Math, Floating Point Math, Find Prime Numbers, SSE/3DNow!, Compression, Encryption, Image Rotation, and String Sorting. For this review, we've also decided to run the memory benchmark, which results in a composite score based on the following tests: small block allocation, cached read, uncached read, write performance, and large block allocation.

The Passmark CPU test is the only one of the benchmarks we used to test the M4A785TD-M EVO that it didn't outperform the the G41 platform. For some reason, the D41, paired with the Pentium Dual Core 2.6GHz processor, outperformed the M4A785TD-M EVO with the Athlon-II X2-255 at 3.1GHz. I am not quite sure why this is, and I ran the test several times to see if I was missing something. The average score always came out under the G41 system. In the memory marks, even with the DDR3 memory, the M4A785TD-M EVO comes out only slightly ahead of the G41 platform. I can only assume that the Passmark tests prefer the Intel chipset over the AMD. The memory test results are pretty standard for Passmark, which rarely fluctuates much in score based on the increase in RAM speeds. Something interesting here, while not related to the M4A785TD-M EVO, is the difference in memory marks between the G41 and the P965 Intel systems, even when using the same RAM, running at the same speeds and latency.

ASUS AMD 785G Final Thoughts

As newer, faster technology pours into the market, an interest in upgrading our computers to make them more compatible with the latest gadgets, games, and other programs is inevitable. While hardcore enthusiasts and gamers may have nearly unlimited resources to spend on the latest and greatest components, most users don't fall into that category. In fact, most gamers don't even fall into that category. Taking a look at Steam's hardware survey, we can see that a lot of users that are playing games have a lot of room to upgrade and improve their systems. Since this is the case, it is likely that these users, like most of us, will be operating on tight budgets.

AMD has been known for quite a while now as a value based brand. Intel's top of the line equipment outperforms most of that provided by AMD, but it comes at a price. Budget minded users have long looked to AMD for refuge from the prices, while still expecting great performance and value. The 785G Chipset released by AMD continues a recent trend of excellent performance in their graphics integrated chipsets. ASUS has used the 785G chipset in their entry level motherboard, the M4A785TD-M EVO that Benchmark Reviews has looked at today.

The ASUS M4A785TD-M EVO AM3 Motherboard is an excellent showcase of the availability of great products offering awesome features, yet still maintaining a low price. The M4A785TD-M EVO will only set you back $90, but it rewards buyers with opportunities normally limited to a higher cost bracket. The overclock settings in the BIOS of the M4A785TD-M EVO give entry level users a chance to try their hand at pushing the limits of their hardware.

The Radeon HD 4200 integrated graphics solution that comes on the M4A785TD-M EVO sports a dedicated 128 MB of DDR3 1333MHz RAM. ASUS has even included the GPU NOS utility to aid users in overclocking the Radeon HD 4200. While the on-board graphics solution for the M4A785TD-M EVO won't play the latest and most graphics intensive games (as we have seen in our tests), it offers an excellent multi-media experience without the added cost of another component. HDMI 1.3 and DirectX 10.1 are both supported with the 785G chipset. If you need more graphics power, the M4A785TD-M EVO offers a PCIe X16 2.0 slot that can be used to take your PC to the next level of gaming performance. I was particularly impressed with the VIA Audio CODEC found on the M4A785TD-M EVO, as well as the addition of a GbE port.

The great part about the M4A785TD-M EVO is that, even at it's entry level price, it doesn't hold you back from turning your machine into whatever you need. While you are limited to a single PCIe X16 GPU, that won't stop you from playing the latest games. The AM3 platform offers the opportunity to buy small (like the inexpensive Athlon-II X2-255 we used in our testing) and upgrade to pretty much anything. The M4A785TD-M EVO supports DDR3 RAM up to 1800MHz, meaning there is almost no limit to what you can do with your Dual-Channel RAM kit. The ACC function will let you upgrade to a Phenom-II X2 or X3 CPU and give a shot at unlocking the disabled cores. Paired with something along the lines of 965BE Processor, good 1800Mhz RAM, and a Radeon 5000 series video card, the M4A785TD-M EVO could be the basis of that gaming rig you are planning on slowly upgrading to one piece at a time.

We have seen that the M4A785TD-M EVO provides a much better solution for most budget minded users than it's Intel equivalent, and we have shown the benefits of upgrading from an early Core 2 Duo machine that is in need of a facelift. After seeing just what the ASUS M4A785TD-M EVO AM3 Motherboard is capable of, I would highly recommend it to any user looking for an upgrade that is affordable yet still offers the distinct possibility of further upgrades in the future without having to spend an arm and a leg.

ASUS M4A785TD-M EVO Conclusion

ASUS is very consistent about producing excellent products that top the charts in terms of performance against similarly priced and comparable products. The M4A785TD-M EVO is no different and easily outperforms the G41 based platform that it was pitted against in this article. Marketed as a low-priced alternative for budget minded consumers, the M4A785TD-M EVO really shines by offering many features that increase its performance to a level not expected by its price. The addition of 128 MB of sideport memory to the Radeon HD 4200 video card makes it a great performer in terms of multi-media usage, though performance in modern games was less than impressive.

The black and blue colors of the ASUS M4A785TD-M EVO are typical of ASUS and provide the motherboard with comfortable feel. ASUS has recently been inventive with their heatsink patterns, and this is no different on the M4A785TD-M EVO. Both the north and southbridge heatsinks have interesting designs that are somewhat subdued compared to many of the ASUS's upper end motherboards. While the layout of the M4A785TD-M EVO strays a bit from the accepted norm, it certainly doesn't distract from the appearance of the board in any way. Overall, the appearance of the M4A785TD-M EVO, and even its box, is relatively conserved, while maintaining a subtle amount of flashiness that promotes its features.

ASUS is again consistent with the M4A785TD-M EVO when it comes to the sturdy, meant-to-last construction. The 100% solid capacitors attest to that fact. The M4A785TD-M EVO comes packaged securely, so there is no fear of jostling during shipping causing any problems. A solid metal CPU slot backplate offers more piece of mind than the sometimes plastic backplates that I have seen used on other boards. The ASUS name is not spoiled in any way by the solid construction of the M4A785TD-M EVO.

In terms of functionality, the ASUS M4A785TD-M EVO provides features that are rarely found on entry level motherboards. The Radeon HD 4200 has 128 MB of sideport memory, an option overlooked on many 785G entry level boards. Rather than sticking with the 10/100 LAN option only, ASUS adds a GbE controller to offer 10/100/1000 LAN on the M4A785TD-M EVO. Also, though the Realtek Audio CODEC is almost an industry standard, ASUS breaks away again with the VIA CODEC, which I found to be very intuitive and functional, especially when dealing with the speaker fill function for my 5.1 surround system. With DirectX 10.1, HDMI 1.3, UVD2, RAID support, the M4A785TD-M EVO offers functionality that can't be beat by the competition.

Available at NewEgg for $90, the ASUS M4A785TD-M EVO fits right in the middle as far 785G motherboards go. Of course, when you look at the added 128 MB of sideport memory and the compatibility with DDR3 RAM up to 1800MHz overclocked, the ASUS M4A785TD-M EVO actually sits at the bottom of the price scale for 785G motherboards. If you consider the ASUS reputation and quality construction, the M4A785TD-M EVO is a great deal, and still represents a very entry level price at only $90.

Any user looking for an inexpensive upgrade to an older system, such as the Core 2 Duo machine used in this article, would be well advised to take a look at look at the M4A785TD-M EVO paired with a low end AMD Athlon-II processor. For that matter, any multi-media user, low-end overclocker, or casual gamer would be able to find a great use for the M4A785TD-M EVO. Under $100, feature rich motherboards are sometimes difficult to find. The ASUS M4A785TD-M EVO provides features, functionality, and great performance at an entry level price.

Pros:

Cons:

Ratings:

• Performance: 9.50
• Appearance: 8.50
• Construction: 9.00
• Functionality: 9.25
• Value: 8.75

Final Score: 9.0 out of 10.

Excellence Achievement: Benchmark Reviews Golden Tachometer Award.

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