Six A75-Based Motherboards For AMD’s A8 And A6 APUs

Advanced on-board graphics put AMD’s Llano-based APU far ahead of Intel’s Sandy Bridge architecture, at least when it comes to 3D apps. But you’ll still need a new motherboard to support the Socket FM1 platform. Today we test six affordable contenders.


Never before has the term “adequate” sounded so good.
Following years of what we were expected to recognize as groundbreaking advances in integrated graphics (which were almost always completely insufficient for gaming, mind you), the Llano APU’s Radeon HD 6500-series graphics processors are the first to actually support a minimum level of playability across many popular 3D titles. While we discovered that fast DDR3 memory plays a role in improving graphics performance, this is incidentally what we were led to expect from Intel's HD Graphics 3000, but never actually saw.

Going head-to-head against Intel’s low-cost second-gen Core i3 lineup, AMD's solution doesn't just have a better graphics processor. Its accompanying A75 chipset also features integrated USB 3.0, potentially cutting motherboard cost. The APU also sports four additional PCIe 2.0 lanes, and AMD wouldn’t want us to forget its often-forgettable support for Dual Graphics.

These capabilities join up to enable a low-cost, low-energy platform with far better 3D performance than the competition offers. If that's the combination you're looking for, the hardest decision is going to be picking the right motherboard. And that's where we step in to help. Our first A75-based round-up consists of six contenders from as many manufacturers.

A75 Motherboard Features
ASRock A75M Asus F1A75-M Pro ECS A75F-M2
PCB Revision 1.02 1.02 1.0
Chipset AMD A75 FCH AMD A75 FCH AMD A75 FCH
BIOS P1.40 (07/21/2011) 8630 (07/10/2011) A752B720 (07/20/2011)
100.0 MHz Clock 99.8 (-0.2%) 100.0 (+0.0%) 99.8 (-0.2%)
Internal Interfaces
PCIe x16 1 (Full x16) 2 (x16/x4) 1 (Full x16)
PCIe x1/x4 1/0 1/0 2/0
Legacy PCI 2 1 1
USB 2.0 3 (six ports) 4 (eight ports) 2 (four ports)
USB 3.0 None 1 (two ports) 1 (two ports)
IEEE-1394 None None None
Serial Port 1 1 1
Parallel Port 1 None 1
SATA 6.0 Gb/s 5 6 6
SATA 3.0 Gb/s None None None
4-Pin Fan 2 3 1
3-Pin Fan 1 1 1
FP-Audio 1 1 1
S/PDIF I/O Output Only Output Only Output Only
I/O Panel Connectors
P/S 2 2 1 1
USB 3.0 4 4 2
USB 2.0 2 2 6
IEEE-1394 None None None
Network 1 1 1
eSATA 1 None None
Digital Audio Out Optical Optical HDMI Only
Digital Audio In None None None
Analog Audio 5 6 3
Video Out VGA, HDMI HDMI, VGA, DVI-D VGA, HDMI
Mass Storage Controllers
Chipset SATA 5 x SATA 6Gb/s
1 x eSATA 6Gb/s 6 x SATA 6Gb/s 6 x SATA 6Gb/s
Chipset RAID Modes 0, 1, 10 0, 1, 10 0, 1, 10
Add-In SATA None None None
USB 3.0 FCH Integrated FCH Integrated, ASM1042 PCIe FCH Integrated
IEEE-1394 None None None
Networking
Gigabit LAN RTL8111E PCIe RTL8111E PCIe RTL8111E PCIe
Audio
HD Audio Codec ALC892 ALC892 ALC662
DDL/DTS Connect None None None


A75 Motherboard Features
Gigabyte A75M-UD2H Jetway TA75MG MSI A75MA-G55
PCB Revision 1.0 1.0 1.0
Chipset AMD A75 FCH AMD A75 FCH AMD A75 FCH
BIOS F3 (07/12/2011) A02 (07/19/2011) V1.2 (07/05/2011)
100.0 MHz Clock 100.0 (+0.0%) 99.8 (-0.2%) 99.8 (-0.2%)
Internal Interfaces
PCIe x16 2 (x16/x4) 1 (Full x16) 2 (x16/x4)
PCIe x1/x4 1/0 2/0 1/0
Legacy PCI 1 1 1
USB 2.0 2 (four ports) 2 (four ports) 2 (four ports)
USB 3.0 1 (two ports) 1 (two ports) 1 (two ports)
IEEE-1394 1 None None
Serial Port 1 1 1 (Mini)
Parallel Port 1 None 1 (Mini)
SATA 6.0 Gb/s 5 4 6
SATA 3.0 Gb/s None None None
4-Pin Fan 2 1 2
3-Pin Fan None 1 1
FP-Audio 1 1 1
S/PDIF I/O Output Only Output Only Output Only
I/O Panel Connectors
P/S 2 1 2 1
USB 3.0 2 2 2
USB 2.0 4 2 4
IEEE-1394 1 None None
Network 1 1 1
eSATA 1 None None
Digital Audio Out Optical HDMI Only HDMI Only
Digital Audio In None None None
Analog Audio 6 3 6
Video Out VGA, DVI-D, HDMI, DisplayPort VGA, DVI-D, HDMI HDMI, VGA, DVI-D
Mass Storage Controllers
Chipset SATA 5 x SATA 6Gb/s
1 x eSATA 6Gb/s 4 x SATA 6Gb/s 6 x SATA 6Gb/s
Chipset RAID Modes 0, 1, 10 0, 1, 10 0, 1, 10
Add-In SATA None None None
USB 3.0 FCH Integrated FCH Integrated FCH Integrated
IEEE-1394 VT6308P PCI None None
Networking
Gigabit LAN RTL8111E PCIe RTL8111E PCIe RTL8111E PCIe
Audio
HD Audio Codec ALC889 VT1705 ALC892
DDL/DTS Connect None None None


source : http://www.gigabyte.com/products/main.aspx?s=42