ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO @ [H]

ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO - The ASUS’ latest offering for the AMD crowd does not have all the bells and whistles of the flagship offerings. The M4A785GTD-V EVO does however offer a mix of good performance and HTPC friendly integrated add-ons.

In 48 hours of Torture Testing, I tried my best to kill the motherboard. After running 100% CPU, GPU, and RAM for 24 hours I incubated the board. I managed to insulate it well enough after 12 hours to bring the ambient temperature up to a sweltering 56 degrees C for another 12 hours. The M4A785TD-V EVO never faltered. When I removed the incubator, I used an infrared thermometer to check some surface temps. Our Patriot Venom RAM was at 63C. The northbridge cooler surface was at 68C. And the chokes on the CPU power supply components were at 76C. WOW! But the fact of the matter is that the M4A785TD-V EVO was still running rock solid at 3.2GHz/1600MHz.

No Newegg links seeping out of the conclusions? Nice.

It is refreshing to see prices from different vendors in the reviews.

While we don’t in any way suggest it, you can actually play some less demanding games on the integrated graphics core inside the 785G chipset.

What better way to wait until the next gen GPU arrives

Just wanting to add that this review reminds me on how application specific rigs are built for these days, and a AMD rig is perfectly viable amongst all the Intel builds floating around.

Great review by Morry Teitelman, at least we can see the platform being compared at stock speed within the same price bracket. Most DanD reviews are done without any stock speed comparison.

Great review, I have one thing that keeps bugging me with the reviews do... might be a reason that I don't know but I think there would be an advantage to get a real game play comparison in the way of full all out with the same gpu, since most if not all... of us will be gaming with an high end GPU it would be nice to know if there is a difference in between these motherboard, I may be way out there and there might be an obvious answer to this but I would appreciate an aswer so I can stop wondering. Thanks for the great reviews as always

Originally Posted by SoulHunter

Great review, I have one thing that keeps bugging me with the reviews do... might be a reason that I don't know but I think there would be an advantage to get a real game play comparison in the way of full all out with the same gpu, since most if not all... of us will be gaming with an high end GPU it would be nice to know if there is a difference in between these motherboard, I may be way out there and there might be an obvious answer to this but I would appreciate an aswer so I can stop wondering. Thanks for the great reviews as always

I do not understand exactly what you are asking. Can you give me a specific question?

I think he was asking if the motherboard makes a difference for gaming FPS/smoothness. However, I believe it doesn't make a difference what motherboard you use.

Originally Posted by Jospeh

I think he was asking if the motherboard makes a difference for gaming FPS/smoothness. However, I believe it doesn't make a difference what motherboard you use.

Yes that's what I was asking, if this is the case then my question is answered, if there is actually a difference in between boards with FPS/smoothness it would be nice to know

Originally Posted by SoulHunter

Yes that's what I was asking, if this is the case then my question is answered, if there is actually a difference in between boards with FPS/smoothness it would be nice to know

With system CPU at 2.8 to 3GHz on AMD and Intel systems you are not likely to see gaming bottlenecks that are not GPU related until you start crossing into hi end SLI/CFX configurations. We have a recent article specific to this.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2009/...y_cpu_scaling/

The fact of the matter is that gaming is mostly GPU limited as you an see today in this gaming article.

http://hardocp.com/article/2009/11/0...rformance_iq/9

Originally Posted by Kyle_Bennett

With system CPU at 2.8 to 3GHz on AMD and Intel systems you are not likely to see gaming bottlenecks that are not GPU related until you start crossing into hi end SLI/CFX configurations. We have a recent article specific to this.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2009/...y_cpu_scaling/

The fact of the matter is that gaming is mostly GPU limited as you an see today in this gaming article.

http://hardocp.com/article/2009/11/0...rformance_iq/9

The think that I'm asking is the fact that you use an ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO or an ASUS Crosshair III Formula, for example, will it make a difference in the fps department, or does the board rely make no difference on that side.

Originally Posted by SoulHunter

The think that I'm asking is the fact that you use an ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO or an ASUS Crosshair III Formula, for example, will it make a difference in the fps department, or does the board rely make no difference on that side.

Absolutely NONE with the same CPU and same RAM clocked at the same speeds.

I have some jackass beating on me now telling me the review is worthless because we did not compare it next to another equally equipped AMD board. The fact is that it just does not matter any more. You can find some statistical differences, or synthetic benchmarks differences, but the fact is that those will amount to NOTHING in real world usages.

Question 1... did you just call me a jackass, and answer, and I never said it was worthless, I was wondering if it would actually make a difference... you know asking questions because I wan't to be informed,

Good review, it seems that this weekend was a lot of [H]ard work for you!

I have the microATX version, and its been pretty solid, I havent read all the reviewl but was crossfire included? I know this mobo gives x16 and a x4 pci express in crossfire mode and I was thinking of getting it, though at the end I decided for the small one mATX.

I just built a box for my dad with the microATX M4A785 and a X2-240. Nice easy build and pretty inexpensive with all the upgrade potential he will ever need.

nice review.. thought most of the benchmarks i really wouldn't blame the motherboard out right.. its more so the platform its self.. the phenom II's just dont compete with the i5's and i7's.. but for the price of the platform.. who can really complain about lossing a few seconds in a synthetic benchmark or a few FPS in a game that would be gpu driven anyways..

btw 2.7ghz on the northbridge and stable is insanely good.. thats well beyond what the upper limit of the phenom II is suppose to be capable of.. the avg NB overclocks usually around 2.5-2.6ghz if your lucky.. i think thats whats really hurting the FSB overclocking on the phenom II.. but then again its a black edition processor and most of us would be using multiplier overclocking anyways..



also kyle is correct.. while we are all use to having to deal with seeing multiple socket LGA-775 boards being compared to each other we no longer need that with the i7 and never needed it with the AMD boards.. there is just no difference between chipsets when it comes to board and cpu performance.. the reason we got use to it so much with the LGA-775 boards is that there was an obvious difference between northbridges since they all had different memory controls.. since AMD uses an IMC and along with the i7.. you no longer need to compare chipsets since they all perform statistically the same.. minus the differences between the 790FX and 790GX and lower boards.. since the 790FX has the ability to use 4 PCI-e slots with 2 x16 and 2 x8 or 4 x16 or 2x16 1x8.. or what ever configuration you can think of.. since that is the only chipset that allows you to do that it sits off in its own league when it comes to motherboards.. really the only thing at this point with amd motherboards that you could show number differences with are the south bridges.. be it the sb700, 710, or 750.. but we all pretty much know the differences by now and know which one is better.. so it comes down to if you want to see the differences between boards then they would have to add GPU comparisons between the boards to show the difference in chipset performance.. but the difference is so slight due to the lack of games that can actually push gpu's to the point where the chipset becomes the bottleneck that its a waste.. not to mention how many different variables it would add to the reviews..


oh yeah forgot to ask.. would there be any chance of a comparison between say the 785 using media playback and comparing it to say the nvidia 8200 IGP, 780g and maybe intels version? just to see if the HD4200 IGP makes any difference in cpu load? or maybe just comparing it to the 780g since i believe you guys did a review on a 780g board before showing bluray playback..

Originally Posted by SoulHunter

Question 1... did you just call me a jackass, and answer, and I never said it was worthless, I was wondering if it would actually make a difference... you know asking questions because I wan't to be informed,

Didnt think Kyle was directing that at you. Just some people who might still be sticking to ye olde ways of reviews.

IMO the trend that we are seeing these days are more build quality or layout of the boards and how well they overclock rather than minor differences between two of boards at stock settings.

Originally Posted by jubbie

IMO the trend that we are seeing these days are more build quality or layout of the boards and how well they overclock rather than minor differences between two of boards at stock settings.

As it should be. Overclocking means less to me than seeing a board with a decent layout and build quality worth the price. This board can take two double slot GPU cards and STILL has one slot of each type free for expansion. Excellent!

An ATX board as HTPC friendly?

Hmm I'd prefer M-ATX myself.

Originally Posted by SoulHunter

Question 1... did you just call me a jackass, and answer, and I never said it was worthless, I was wondering if it would actually make a difference... you know asking questions because I wan't to be informed,

Are you the same guy verbally abusing me via email explaining that the review is worthless like I explained above? If the answer to that is yes, then yes I did. If your answer is no, then no I did not.

Originally Posted by sirmonkey1985

oh yeah forgot to ask.. would there be any chance of a comparison between say the 785 using media playback and comparing it to say the nvidia 8200 IGP, 780g and maybe intels version? just to see if the HD4200 IGP makes any difference in cpu load? or maybe just comparing it to the 780g since i believe you guys did a review on a 780g board before showing bluray playback..

These new systems do not have issues with this. VIA's new processor can pull it off easily. And if you have a player that will offload to the GPU, you are surely in the gravy.