Most prebuilt computers one can buy in store run on integrated graphics, which are much cheaper than dedicated graphics cards and are more than enough powerful - if no one runs videogames on it. Or can we? Sure a high-end dedicated graphics card is way better, but can it get the job done? ATI/AMD today releases a new chipset that hopefully will further push the limits of IGPs.
The current ATI GPU generation just made its way to that integrated market - already. We can look at it the other way though. The GPU powering the 4xxx series is on the market since June of last year, so it's already been more than one year. It has now made the move to the new 785G chipset.
The 785G is obviously a better performer than the 780G with the HD 3200 IGP. The question is will outperform the HD 3300, which is the same chip but simply running at a higher frequency? That's what we will investigate in this article, but first, let's take a look at the specifications of each chipset.
Specifications
740G
780G
785G
790GX
Microsoft® DirectX™
9
10
10.1
10
Discrete Graphics Core
RV430
RV610
RV620
RV610
Process
80nm
55nm
55nm
55nm
Transistors
120 million
205 million
>205 million
205 million
Stream Processors
4 shaders
40
40
40
Graphics Core clock
500MHz
500MHz
500MHz
700MHz
Unified Video Decoder (UVD)
N/A
UVD
UVD2
•Accelerated Multiple Streams
•Video Detail Enhancements
Accelerated Video Transcode
N/A
Yes
Yes
Yes
(Optional) Performance cache
N/A
Yes (Up to 10% more performance)
HDMI
1.2
1.2
1.3
1.2
DisplayPort
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
One thing that is sure is that combined with the SB710 southbridge, that mainstream AMD platform will be way better than the Intel G45/ICH10 combo, let alone the G41/ICH7.
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