Print
Discuss
Send to friend
The Asus M2A-VM motherboard features AMD's first chipset with integrated graphics since it took over graphics hardware specialist ATI.
The RS690 Northbridge is designed for value and mainstream AM2 socket motherboards, which means it is compatible with all of AMD's current consumer processors except for the high-end 1207pin Quad FX chips.
The Asus M2A-VM is a compact microATX motherboard with the 690G variant of the chipset, which features an ATI Radeon X1250. This graphics chip has four pixel pipelines and AMD states it's on par with a Radeon 9700 from yesteryear.
The X1250 has DirectX 9.0 Shader Model 2 hardware support and also has HDCP keys onboard. This means it is immediately equipped to output encrypted high-definition content from Blu-ray and HD-DVD discs via the DVI port.
If you want to output video from it to an HDMI port on an high-definition television you could use a DVI to HDMI converter, which can be bought for about £13.
Alternatively the superior Asus M2A-VM HDMI board includes an HDMI port on a riser card, occupying the single PCI Express slot onboard, that also contains a 5.1 audio stream.
The board tested here has the same six-channel ALC883 codec as the M2A-VM HDMI uses, but only has a stereo jack output, which is a missed opportunity.
The X1250 graphics chip borrows 64MB of memory from the main system Ram as standard. This can be increased to a maximum of 256MB for better performance at higher resolutions.
The M2A-VM comes with integrated DVI and VGA outputs so you could drive two monitors.
AMD has made a song and dance about the graphics chip having excellent hardware acceleration thanks to its Avivo hardware decoding, which should mean sharper lines and better image quality from your DVDs and other movie content.
However, we've had great difficulty in testing this board since, at the time of writing, the drivers for the integrated graphics and audio hadn't been made available by AMD or Asus on their UK websites. After speaking to AMD in Germany we finally got our hands on appropriate drivers.
During testing with an Athlon X2 5200+, 1GB DDR2 800MHz Crucial Ballistix Ram and a Western Digital 10,000rpm Raptor, the M2A-VM scored 268 in Sysmark 2004 SE. This is fractionally lower than Nforce 6150 chipsets and 590i chipsets achieve and six per cent slower than the performance winning ATI Xpress 3200 chipset with a slightly slower X2 5000+.
A score of 992 in 3Dmark05 indicates it will only provide gamers with the most basic of performance, on a par with a Radeon X300, however, it is superior to all of Intel's graphics solutions and Nvidia's 6150, which scored 664 in our tests. Additionally it will run Far Cry above 30fps (frames per second) at lower resolutions comfortably.
A single PCI Express slot and two old fashioned PCI slots are present for upgrading. The SB600 Southbridge provides four external USB2 ports and internal connectors for another six USB2 ports. Four serial ATA II (300Mbits/sec) ports and two parallel ATA ports sit inside- Raid 0, 1 and 10 support for serial ATA is also provided.
Four DDR2 Ram slots, which can be run in dual channel mode, are included. While the memory clock frequency can be changed in block chunks (400/533/667/800MHz), it can't be fine tuned and CAS timings can't be changed at all, highlighting the fact that this is not an enthusiast's board.
Firewire, 5.1 audio and an HDMI port are all sorely missing from this
motherboard, but despite this the graphical capabilities are better than Intel's
and Nvidia's integrated offerings.
AMD told us 690 motherboards would retail for around £50. Asus is charging £52
for the M2A-VM and £56 for the M2A-VM HDMI.
This is a good motherboard compared to everything that's gone before it, but it's an average affair compared to the HDMI and surround-sound enabled 690G models. Performance isn't exceptional, but as a consequence the 690/SB600 chipsets don't require fans, making them ideal for compact and quiet home theatre PCs.
Overall, this Asus model is nothing special compared to the HDMI alternatives and it's vastly outclassed by the M2A-VM HDMI, which adds two Firewire ports, HDMI, TV-out and 5.1 audio support and is only £4 more expensive.
See also:
A motherboard with gamer-friendly features 12 Dec 2006
Socket AM2 Micro-ATX motherboard with integrated graphics 23 Nov 2006
Intel's quad-core motherboard, but it's expensive and short on features 02 Nov 2006All Motherboards
del.icio.us
Digg this
reddit!
