Digital-Daily : Motherboard Reviews : ecs_gf8200a_nvidia_geforce_8200

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ECS GF8200A (NVIDIA GeForce 8200) with integrated graphics

Author: Date: 03.08.2008

The release of the AMD 780G chipset has become a remarkable event in the IT industry. The speed of its integrated graphic core has proved to be very fast, and the functionality so vast that we had to test four boards to examine the chipset from all the aspects. We also note that this product has immediately turned popular, and all the leading manufacturers have represented at least one motherboard based on the AMD 780G chipset. And what about the major competitor of AMD - NVIDIA? All this time, it has been coping with various technical issues, and the first products on new chipsets have appeared quite recently.

Therefore, we are testing a motherboard based on the integrated chipset NVIDIA GeForce 8200. But before that we note that NVIDIA has expanded the assortment of chipsets with the integrated graphics and included hi-end products (e.g., nForce 780a). All that is due to the latest Hybrid SLI technology which includes two important features: GeForce Boost, and HybridPower. The former is an analog to the Hybrid Crossfire and is aimed at value systems. Its idea is simple: if the user installs a value external video card (GeForce 8500 GT or GeForce 8400 GS) and enables the GeForce Boost, the computational resources of the external video card and the integrated video core are consolidated. Thus, the user gets some speed gain in 3D applications. The latter feature (HybridPower) is a tribute to modern fashion for power-saving. Assume that the user has a high-end system with two, three or four video cards merged into an SLI array. That results in an unparalleled high speed in the most advanced games and 3D applications. But once the user quits Crysis and launches a web browser (or solitaire), all these four video cards put quite a high load uselessly (of course, unless there is winter outside) and add to the electricity bills. This situation is fixed by the HybridPower feature which seamlessly disables all the external video cards thus switching the load to the integrated video core. Needless to say, the HybridSLI technology is rather complicated from the viewpoint of developers and programmers, which explains the delay in releasing new chipsets.

We now examine the GeForce 8200 chipset (code name - MCP78S) aimed at value systems. To start with, in terms of functionality this chip is not inferior to AMD 780G, it decodes and plays HD video as easily. The graphic component of the core as well has been improved substantially. In particular, there is support for DirectX 10.0, with the speed of running 3D applications has been substantially increased.

What else? The chipset implements support for the PCI Express v2.0 bus and also supports one x16 slot. Since the bandwidth of v2.0 is twice as much as the previous specification, some dodgy engineers can implement two slots having eight lanes each and thus get a SLI system on par with previous high-end chipsets (although these are merely our assumptions).

Now on to the expansion options. In this regard, engineers at NVIDIA have gained some progress as compared to the capabilities of nForce 630a. The most essential improvement is about the increase in the number of SerialATA links from four to six. The remaining improvements are minor and (at first glance) unnoticed.

Another important point to note: engineers at NVIDIA have merged one powerful and functional graphic core, the new PCI Express v2.0 controller, and the improved south bridge within one chip. Therefore, the heat emission of GeForce 8200 is quite at a high level and according to some rumors the delays with releasing this chipset are caused just by that. Indeed, during the tests the radiator on ECS GF8200A was heating up quite immensely but we did not come up against any issues or operational failures.

In conclusion, we bring in a comparative table of specifications for the GeForce 8200 chipset versus the specifications of the previous generation of NVIDIA integrated chipsets.

* - The maximum memory frequency depends on the CPU used.

In this review, we also included the motherboard abit A-N68SV (NVIDIA GeForce 7025) to find out the performance boost in the integrated graphic core GeForce 8200.

Specifications

Retail boxes

Package bundle

The package bundles of both the motherboards is almost identical.

Both the boards lack power supply adapters for SerialATA devices. Therefore, the buyer will either have to buy matching adapters or make sure the PSU has the right connectors.

Although the package bundle is too scarce, we don't think it is a shortcoming because that is made up for by the retail price.

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	Content:
	Page 1 - Specifications, package bundle Page 2 - Layout and Features; Expansion options Page 3 - BIOS, monitoring, overclocking tools Page 4 - Performance and conclusions Top Stories: MoBo: ECS X58B-A (Intel X58) ASUS Rampage II Extreme (Intel X58) MSI DKA790GX and ECS A780GM-A Ultra MSI P7NGM (NVIDIA GeForce 9300) Intel X58 and ASUS P6T Deluxe MSI P45 Neo2 (Intel P45) Foxconn A7GMX-K (AMD 780G) VGA Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295 – a new leader in 3D graphics! ECS HYDRA GeForce 9800GTX+. Water-cooled and SLI "all-in-one" Radeon HD 4830 CrossFire - better than Radeon HD 4870! XFX GeForce GTX 260 Black Edition in the SLI mode Leadtek WinFast PX9500 GT DDR2 – better than GeForce 9500GT DDR-3 Palit Radeon HD 4870 Sonic: exclusive, with unusual features Palit HD 4850 Sonic: almost Radeon HD 4870, priced as HD 4850 CPU & Memory: GSkill high-capacity memory modules CPU Intel Core i7-920 (Bloomfield) DDR3 memory: late 2008 CPU AMD Phenom X3 8750 (Toliman) AMD Phenom X4 9850 – a top-end CPU at affordable price CPU Intel Atom 230 (Diamondville) Chaintech Apogee GT DDR3 1600