785G Review roundup:
Hexus.net:
AMD's new 785G chipset is an updated version of the popular 780G model that debuted well over a year ago. The graphics portion of the chipset, Radeon HD 4200, has been upgraded by pulling DX10.1 and UVD2.0 features from a discrete Radeon HD 3000-series card, but the core speed, at 500MHz, remain the same. CPU support is present for the very latest AMD Socket AM3 chips, and that means the use of DDR3 modules on most boards. Keeping costs low-ish, we'll see the majority of motherboards pair up the RS785G northbridge with the SB710 RAID5-less southbridge.
The chipset makes sense if building a low-cost PC that's good for (very) casual gaming and multimedia usage. A case in point is the system setup used for evaluation, replete with a Phenom II X2 550 BE chip and 4GB of DDR3 memory. Add in a £65 785G board and you'll have decent change from £200.
AMD's 785G is an incremental upgrade from 780G and we can recommend it to readers looking for a new system that doesn't break the bank. If you can live with integrated graphics and want a no-nonsense, solid system, it's as good as any.
Hardwarezone:
Our quick test on the graphics and HD playback capabilities of the AMD 785G has shown a significant improvement over its predecessor. While the overall verdict on its 3D gaming performance remains a resounding nay for hardcore gamers, casual or older games should find the AMD 785G decent, especially if you pair it with a newer and more powerful processor than our example.
pcperspective:
AMD is still on a roll when it comes to integrated graphics. With NVIDIA concentrating on ION, and Intel still producing inferior integrated graphics, AMD really still stands at the top of the integrated hill. While it is debatable if that is actually a badge of merit to some, the engineering behind such a solution is still impressive. It cannot be denied that the integrated market is the largest single market in the PC world, and AMD has again staked its claim at having one of the best all around solutions. Now that AMD actually has processors that are competitive with Intel, it is a further advantage for AMD.
The gaming performance of the 785G is “good enough” for most people. It will play older games at higher resolutions and quality settings, but still can play more modern titles at lower resolutions and quality settings. Casual games such as Sims 3 should have no issues with running on the 785G. AMD’s recent driver support has been very good, and while they may not put in CrossFire profiles for the latest games until a month or two after release, we can rest assured that even newer titles will work without problem on the 785G. If there is one area where Intel is consistently criticized for, it is compatibility with many gaming titles. While Intel has improved that with the G4x series of integrated chipsets, the promise of care free gaming from Intel is still a ways off.
I found very few negatives in the testing that I was able to do, and since it is more of an evolution than revolution, the 785G has a lot of software and driver support as is. The only real issue that I found was that we still suffer from the AHCI issues in Vista with the SB710 southbridge. In fact, AHCI performance in all OS’s is pretty lackluster at best, and it is usually a better idea just to stick with IDE functionality. Hopefully the upcoming SB800 that is supposed to show up early next year will fix these problems.
The Tech Report:
The 785G is undoubtedly an important integrated graphics chipset, particularly as we enter the back-to-school season and anxiously await Windows 7's launch, but I'm finding it hard to muster what feels like an appropriate level of excitement. Yes, the 785G will find its way into droves of budget systems powered by Microsoft's latest operating system. And yes, enthusiasts will probably snap up a good number of boards to build home theater PCs for themselves or basic desktops for friends and family. But the 785G isn't a radically new product. The integrated Radeon HD 4200 isn't much of an upgrade over the old 3200, and it's still woefully inadequate if you want to play the latest games at reasonable resolutions and detail levels. AMD also hasn't fixed its south bridge AHCI drivers, allowing the plague of poor Vista and XP performance scaling to infect Windows 7. Really, beyond some new features for the UVD and support for Socket AM3 processors, little has changed since the 780G.
hothardware:
Throughout our benchmarks, the new AMD 785G chipset performed very well. Compared to other AMD chipsets, it certainly performs well considering its price point, even keeping up with the premium priced 790FX for the most part. Compared to competing chipsets in the Intel camp, the AMD 785G looks like a very good value. In the general performance tests, the 785G kept pace with the whole field, and in gaming tests, the 785G showed that its IGP was clearly superior to Intel's GMA X4500. The GeForce 9300 outperforms the 785G in some games, but not by a wide margin and the 785G was able to come out on top in Half-Life 2.
Overall, AMD has produced one of the more flexible chipsets currently available for any platform. With the exception of top-end discrete multi-GPU gaming and serious server builds, the 785G can be configured to handle just about anything you want and you won't even need to sell your organs to afford it. With a sub-$100 debut price range, the 785G based motherboards are some of the best values around and they will be an excellent choice for nearly everyone in the market for a mainstream AMD motherboard.
