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Gigabyte GA-A75-UD4H AMD A75 Socket FM1 Motherboard Review
Gigabyte GA-A75-UD4H AMD A75 Socket FM1 Motherboard Review - PCSTATS
First and foremost, the Gigabyte GA-A75-UD4H motherboard features extensive onboard graphics ports, excellent connectivity and of course, DX11 integrated graphics capabilities.
 90% Rating:   
Filed under: Motherboards Published:  Author: 
External Mfg. Website: Gigabyte Jun 29 2012   Max Page  
Home > Reviews > Motherboards > Gigabyte GA-A75-UD4H

In the world of AMD Fusion motherboards, the Gigabyte GA-A75-UD4H is the flagship model. Built around the AMD A75 chipset and socket FM1 processor, the GA-A75-UD4H is a slightly beefier version of the microATX GA-A75M-UD2H board PCSTATS recently tested, but with more expansion slots and a whack of extra USB 3.0 ports. The question is, are these extras really needed on what's essentially an entry-level computing platform? Find out as PCSTATS slices and dices its way through every facet of this fascinating Gigabyte motherboard!

First and foremost, the Gigabyte GA-A75-UD4H motherboard features extensive onboard graphics ports, excellent connectivity and of course, DX11 integrated graphics capabilities. This board marries the standard AMD A75 feature set with better than average electrical components, four video outputs and two Etron USB 3.0 controllers. Being a budget-oriented platform, the Gigabyte GA-A75-UD4H does not support nVidia SLI or AMD Crossfire, but does support AMD Radeon Dual Graphics - a sort of hybrid Crossfire set up between the Fusion IGP and Radeon HD 6000-series videocards (SEE: AMD ). Realistically, you're better off installing a faster physical videocard if the IGP Radeon HD 6550D proves insufficient for your tasks.

Most office PC users will find the AMD Fusion integrated graphics core better than competing Intel IGPs. The platform is quite capable for both HTPC and run of the mill office work. The Gigabyte GA-A75-UD4H motherboard can be found online for around a $130 dollars.

When it comes to packing in value, AMD always manages score one over Intel. The AMD A75 Fusion Controller Hub (FCH) features six native SATA III ports and four native USB 3.0 ports, whereas Intel has only just recently brought USB 3.0 into the fold. Socket FM1 CPUs like the AMD A8-3850 CPU PCSTATS selected for this review, contain a Radeon HD 6550D integrated graphics core which is DX11 capable. The slightly less powerful AMD A6-series Fusion processors also support DX11. Comparable Intel IGP platforms have until recently only been available with DX10.1 integrated graphics, although the Intel Ivy Bridge CPU has corrected that oversight.

Top of the list of features for the Gigabyte GA-A75-UD4H motherboard is onboard graphics. Setting aside IGP clock speeds because these are dependent on the FM1 CPU, the GA-A75-UD4H motherboard offers users DVI-D, DisplayPort, HDMI and Analog VGA video output. Resolutions of up to 2560x1600 are supported with all but the HDMI port (1920x1200). Up to two monitors can be connected to the onboard graphics ports if you want to expand the desktop across two displays.

Gigabyte GA-A75-UD4H Motherboard


INCLUDES: User's Manual, Driver DVD, (4) SATA cables, I/O shield.

Chipsets: AMD A75 Northbridge
CPU Support: AMD Socket FM1 (905-pin)
Memory Type: Dual Channel DDR3
Max Videocard Support: (2) PCI Express x16 2.0 (x16/x8)
Integrated Graphics: Yes (HDMI, DP, DVI, Analog VGA)

Cost: $130 USD

The GA-A75-UD4H's four memory slot accommodate up to 32GB of dual channel DDR3-1066/1333/1600/1866 memory. The board offers up two PCI Express 2.0 x16 slots, one at 16-lanes and one at 8-lanes bandwidth for discrete videocards. Further expansion consists of three PCI Express x1 and two legacy 32-bit PCI slots. The PCI Express slots are 2.0 compliant, but not 3.0.

Storage options are limited to the six native 6Gb/s SATA III ports supplied by the AMD A75 chipset. One of these SATA channels is routed to the rear I/O pane as an eSATA port. The SATA ports can be configured to RAID 0, 1, 10 and JBOD modes. The GA-A75-UD4H board provides users with two Firewire connections, four USB 2.0 and two USB 3.0 headers (with not a single bracket provided!). Around back there are four USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0 ports, one Firewire, one eSATA III, a gigabit networking jack and the usual assortment of 7.1 channel audio (optical SP/DIF and 1/8" headphone) jacks and display connections (DVI-D, DisplayPort, HDMI and Analog VGA). The audio system is Dolby Home Theatre compliant and based around the Realtek ALC889 codec. The additional USB 3.0 comes via a pair of Etron EJ168 controllers.

Expect to find the Gigabyte GA-A75-UD4H motherboard for less than $130 CDN, ($110 USD, £55 GBP) online (ie. NCIX.com ). An AMD A8-3850 CPU will run you about $100CDN/USD, so a complete system is very economical to put together.

Integrated Graphics

The Gigabyte GA-A75-UD4H does support dual-displays from the integrated graphics ports, but only over combinations of analog+digital ports such as; Analog+DVI-D, Analog+DisplayPort, HDMI+DVI-D or HDMI+DisplayPort. The onboard graphics ports are not hot swap capable, if you want to add a second monitor or switch displays you'll must hook up the cables and restart the PC.


Video outputs: Analog VGA, DVI-D, HDMI, DislayPort.

While the AMD A8-3850's IGP (a Radeon HD 6550D) proves itself capable of light DX11 gaming as you'll shortly see in PCSTATS extensive benchmarks, it can't keep up with even mainstream graphics cards. The same can be said of Intel's socket LGA1155 Core i5 processors which have quite bland IGP graphics too.

With a discreet Radeon HD 6670/6570/6450 PCI Express graphics card AMD "Dual Graphics" can be configured, personally we at PCSTATS wouldn't bother going down that route.

Now it's time to go in for a closer look at Gigabyte's GA-A75-UD4H motherboard, but first a quick look at what the AMD A75 chipset and Socket FM1 Fusion CPU processors bring to the table.

© 2023 PCSTATS.com Next Page >

 

Contents of Article: Gigabyte GA-A75-UD4H
 Pg 1.  — Gigabyte GA-A75-UD4H AMD A75 Socket FM1 Motherboard Review
 Pg 2.  AMD Fusion Platform - AMD A75 Chipset
 Pg 3.  360-Degree Motherboard Gallery: Gigabyte GA-A75-UD4H
 Pg 4.  Overclocking, BIOS, Test Specs
 Pg 5.  Sysmark 2007 Motherboard Benchmarks
 Pg 6.  SiSoft Sandra: CPU Motherboard Benchmarks:
 Pg 7.  Sandra: Memory Motherboard Benchmarks
 Pg 8.  PCMark Vantage Motherboard Benchmarks
 Pg 9.  3DMark 11 Motherboard Benchmarks
 Pg 10.  3DMark Vantage, 3DMark06 Motherboard Benchmarks
 Pg 11.  IGP vs. IGP DX11 Gaming: 3DMark 11, Stalker, Heaven 2.0
 Pg 12.  IGP vs. IGP Synthetic Gaming: 3DMark 06, 3DMark Vantage Benchmarks
 Pg 13.  IGP vs. IGP Synthetic Gaming: Call of Juarez, Crysis, FEAR
 Pg 14.  IGP vs IGP Motherboard Benchmarks: PCMark Vantage
 Pg 15.  System Power Draw and Final Conclusions

 
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