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Biostar TPower N750 nForce 750a Motherboard Review
Biostar TPower N750 nForce 750a Motherboard Review - PCSTATS
The Biostar TPower N750 motherboard is based on the single chipset Nvidia 750A SLI MCP, which means this board supports two NVIDIA Geforce videocards in SLI.
 74% Rating:   
Filed under: Motherboards Published:  Author: 
External Mfg. Website: Biostar Jan 17 2009   J. Apong  
Home > Reviews > Motherboards > Biostar TPower N750

nVidia nForce 750a SLI Chipset - Videocard or IGP?

The nVidia nForce 750a SLI chipset is a bit of a curiosity... At its heart beats an IGP, the NVIDA 8200 graphics processor, which is powerful enough that NVIDIA refers to it as an mGPU. This NVIDIA 8200 mGPU is essentially a repackaged and re-purposed Geforce 8400GS graphics card, so it has 16 1.2GHz stream processors and a 500MHz core clock speed.

In addition to the (limited) 3D gaming capabilities of an IGP, the NVIDIA 8200 mGPU also harnesses NVIDIA's Purevideo HD video decoding capabilities. This latest revision of Purevideo supports 100% hardware decoding of H.264, VC-1 and MPEG-2 codecs - basically what your standard HD movie or Blu-Ray disk relies upon.

To further enhance the NVIDIA 8200 mGPU's allure for HTPC builders, the nForce 750a SLI also supports HDMI 1.3a playback with support for 48-bit colour, the ability to display resolutions beyond 1080p as well as Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby True HD and DTS-HS audio.

In contrast to its integrated video capabilities, the nForce 750a SLI can also function in SLI mode. A single PCI Express videocard will receive 16 lanes bandwidth, dual Geforce graphics cards in SLI will each receive 8 lanes of bandwidth. It's sufficient for most videocards, but owners of exotic NVIDIA Geforce GTX 280s might want to consider the nForce 780a SLI chipet's three x16's PCI Express lanes of bandwidth instead.

The Hybrid SLI capabilities of the NVIDIA 8200 mGPU permit and a single Geforce 8400 GS or 8500 GT to be linked with it Hybrid SLI mode, which pairs the IGP with a discrete GPU in order to boost the overall 3D graphics power for games. While this does provide some performance enhancement on its own, it's not powerful eough to play serious 3D games with, and will cost significantly more and perform significantly worse than buying a separate discrete graphics card like a Geforce 9800GT and a basic motherboard without onboard graphics.

The saving grace is Hybrid Power mode, which can disable power to a discrete graphics card and instead use the NVIDIA 8200 mGPU to handle simple 2D rendering tasks. While most videocards do ramp down their power draw when not under load, being able to shut off the card completely along with the power it consumes is still more efficient.

Okay, now for some really interesting power consumption numbers!

Motherboard Power Draw Comparisons

Here's how the Biostar TPower N750 motherboard stacks up in real life against a couple different motherboards. We have no way of directly measuring motherboard power draw, so PCSTATS measures total system power draw and compares that in CPU-loaded (max value recorded in Prime95) and idle states (at Windows Vista desktop). An Extech 380803 AC Power Analyzer and A-PFC compliant PC Power and Cooling 750W power supply were used for these tests.

PCSTATS Benchmark ReportSystem Power Draw Tests: (PCPower 750W PSU)
Desktop Idle (W) Watts Ranking
Intel DG45ID (Intel G45 200/800 C2D E6750 Onboard G45 ) 68
Foxconn A7DA-S (AMD 790GX 200/800 AM2 X2 5000+ GF 8800GTS 320MB) 131
Foxconn A7DA-S (AMD 790GX 200/800 AM2 X2 5000+ onboard HD 3300 video) 61
Biostar TPower N750 (NF 750a SLI 200/800 AM2 X2 5000+ GF 8800GTS 320MB) 110
Biostar TPower N750 (NF 750a SLI 200/800 AM2 X2 5000+ onboard nF 750a video) 45.4
Prime95 Stressed (W) Watts Ranking
Intel DG45ID (Intel G45 200/800 C2D E6750 Onboard G45 ) 121
Foxconn A7DA-S (AMD 790GX 200/800 AM2 X2 5000+ GF 8800GTS 320MB) 192
Foxconn A7DA-S (AMD 790GX 200/800 AM2 X2 5000+ onboard HD 3300 video) 121
Biostar TPower N750 (NF 750a SLI 200/800 AM2 X2 5000+ GF 8800GTS 320MB) 187
Biostar TPower N750 (NF 750a SLI 200/800 AM2 X2 5000+ onboard nF 750a video) 127
3DM06 IGP Stressed (W): Watts Ranking
Intel DG45ID (Intel G45 200/800 C2D E6750 Onboard G45 ) 115
Foxconn A7DA-S (AMD 790GX 200/800 AM2 X2 5000+ GF 8800GTS 320MB) 223
Foxconn A7DA-S (AMD 790GX 200/800 AM2 X2 5000+ onboard HD 3300 video) 124
Biostar TPower N750 (NF 750a SLI 200/800 AM2 X2 5000+ GF 8800GTS 320MB) 226
Biostar TPower N750 (NF 750a SLI 200/800 AM2 X2 5000+ onboard nF 750a video) 118

While the Biostar TPower N750 doesn't draw a lot of power while idle, once its put under heavy load it starts to consume as much electricity as the other motherboards on the PCSTATS test bench (all using the Geforce 8800GTS, so this is no surprise). What's interesting here is not the power consumption of one motherboard vs. another, it's the significant reduction in power consumption relying on just the nVidia nForce 750a SLI allows for.

Okay next up PCSTATS throws Blu-Ray High Definition playback at the nForce 750A to see just what kind of CPU load you can expect from this integrated graphics chipset.

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Contents of Article: Biostar TPower N750
 Pg 1.  Biostar TPower N750 nForce 750a Motherboard Review
 Pg 2.  — nVidia nForce 750a SLI Chipset - Videocard or IGP?
 Pg 3.  Blu-Ray and High Definition Content Playback Benchmarks
 Pg 4.  Motherboard Highlights - Biostar Photo Gallery
 Pg 5.  Overclocking the AMD 750a and the BIOS
 Pg 6.  Motherboard Benchmarks: SYSmark 2007 Preview, SuperPi
 Pg 7.  Motherboard Benchmarks: SiSoft Sandra 2008, PCMark Vantage
 Pg 8.  Motherboard IGP/VGA Benchmarks: 3DMark06, 3DMark Vantage, FEAR
 Pg 9.  DX10 Motherboard IGP Benchmarks: Call of Juarez, Crysis
 Pg 10.  Are SLI + IGP really worth the extra price?

 
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