MSI K9AGM2-FIH

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MSI K9AGM2-FIH

Sudeep Naik, May 16, 2007 1730 hrs IST

Last week we promised you a more affordable version of a mobo based on AMD 690G. Here we go. But does its performance match up to that of the Sapphire board?

Good build, Feature rich, Capability to support 10 USB ports, 4 SATA II ports, HDMI, 8 channel sound, Value For Money, Decent onboard display, Stable board.

USB and FireWire brakcets not included in the bundle, Only two memory slots, Only one IDE Channel.

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Last time we reviewed a 690G chipset Mainboard, it was the Sapphire PI-AM2RS690MHD HDMI, which turned out to be a good performer but at a high price. Today we have another motherboard that sports the same AMD 690G chipset and all the bells and whistles that come with it. Yes, even HDMI. But this MSI offering comes with a promise of affordability. We'll see what it has to offer.

These days a lot of manufacturers are looking at HDMI as a default port and not a luxury as against the case a year or so back. This is really paying off, and since most LCD TVs are just about within the reach of the masses these days, maybe in a few more months they could well become common in most households and that's exactly where the USP of such boards lies. You can easily make a budget HTPC fit well within the already very low budgets that we have.

Chipset

Although a lot has been written about the AMD 690G, I feel one more time won't really hurt, will it now? So here goes.

This chipset series consists of two primary variants: the 690G and the 690V. The difference between the 690G and 690V is that the 690G supports on-board DVI and HDMI interfaces while the 690V does not. The big difference is the integrated graphics core, with the 690G including the higher-end ATI Radeon X1250 and the 690V using the Radeon X1200. Let's see what the 690G offers.

It features the RS690 Northbridge and SB600 Southbridge and supports the full range of Socket AM2 processors, including the Athlon 64 FX/X2, Athlon 64, and Sempron. Basic features include a 1GHz HyperTransport link, a unified memory architecture, PCI Express x16 graphics and x1 peripheral support, support for memory speeds up to DDR/800, up to 10 USB 2.0 sports, and Serial ATA.

Although specs like these are pretty common these days, the USP of the 690G is its Integrated Graphics Module; the AMD 690G's ATI Radeon X1250 is the higher-end chipset, with the best mix of features and performance. It supports 2D acceleration, OpenGL and DirectX 9.0 support, MPEG-2/4 and WMV9 decode acceleration, and TV-out, along with dual-display support and DVI/HDMI output to the mix. As it turns out, this onboard graphics module is also certified to run the Windows Vista Aero interface.

Talking more about the X1250, it's a scaled down version of the Radeon X700. Though they have the same architecture, the X1250 is clocked a little lower and has a few shaders less than the X700.