AMD 780G 125W Processor Support Updated
Written by Chris Tom
Wednesday, 09 April 2008 22:44
Anandtech has additional details about 780G chipset motherboards and their support for the 125W CPUs like the Phenom 9850.
We would like to reiterate that our problems with the AMD 780G motherboards are not chipset related. The problems revolve around the capability of current designs to properly handle the 125W TDP processors at stock settings or when overclocked. As we stated in our first article, the vast majority of users will never install a Phenom 9850BE or Athlon 6400+ X2 in these boards. The motherboard manufacturers designed these particular products for the SOHO, casual gaming, and HTPC audiences with a price target in the $70~$90 range. This market sector typically will utilize a processor such as the LE1600, 3800+ X2, 4850e, or maybe even a 5000+ BE for their needs. As such, the power delivery design and electrical layout on the boards target the 45W~95W TDP processors. We have yet to have a failure utilizing any processor that meets these criteria after a few thousand hours of collective testing on our 780G motherboards. However, we typically step outside the bounds of a given market sector in order to fully test the capabilities of the board and in hopes of finding one of those rare hidden jewels in the budget sector that offers performance equal to the high-end products. That is what leads us down the path of trying AMD’s finest series of desktop processors on their entry-level chipset. Of course, we found that path to be full of obstacles after suffering through several failures. We discussed this with the manufacturers at length and with AMD.
