MSI G33M and K9NGM3: new MoBos on integrated chipsets

MSI G33M Chipset Intel G33 CPU LGA775 Pentium 4 FSB 1333/1066/800/533 MHz Celeron FSB 800/533 MHz Dual-Core Pentium4 Core 2 Duo (+ Yorkfield, Wolfdale) HyperThreading Memory DDR2 533/667/800 HDD 1x UltraDMA/100 5x SerialATA II (RAID) Extras 2 IEEE-1394a Audio Intel HDA 12 USB 2.0 Gigabit Ethernet Price: $112

MSI K9NGM3 Chipset NVIDIA GeForce 7050 CPU Socket AM2 Athlon64 HTT 200 MHz Memory DDR2 533/667/800 HDD 1x UltraDMA/100 4x SerialATA II (RAID) Extras 2 IEEE-1394a Audio Intel HDA 10 USB 2.0 Gigabit Ethernet Price: $75

After the release of new integrated Intel chipsets (i.e., G31, G33 and G35; Q33 and Q35), we got the question: what is their performance in 3D applications as compared to integrated chipsets for the AMD platform? The number of the latter has complemented a whole series of NVIDIA products, in particular, GeForce 7050 and GeForce 7025.

These chipsets offer an integrated graphic core with the architecture of the GeForce 7 series, however, the number of pipelines has been reduced to two pixel and one vertex. The frequencies of GeForce 7050 and GeForce 7025 equal 425 MHz, which is somehow lower than in the previous GeForce 6150 (475 MHz). But the functionality of series 7 is higher: the chipsets support HDCP encoding, offer support for two video outputs (both digital and analogous). Besides, GeForce 7050 and GeForce 7025 offer support for the TV-out, as well as high resolutions up to 1920x1440 (75 Hz; the RAMDAC frequency = 300 MHz).

The differences between GeForce 7050 and GeForce 7025 are in that 7025 supports DVI-output only but has no support for the PureVideo technology. The idea about the latter is in the support for hardware acceleration of H.264, VC-1 and MPEG-2 video decoding, as well as improved playback of HD- and SD-video (up to the 1080p resolution). As you have understood, support for the PureVideo is a privilege of the GeForce 7050 chipset. Therefore, motherboards on this chipset may have the HDMI-output, unlike motherboards based on GeForce 7025.

Another important feature of GeForce 70?? is in its single-chip architecture: the south bridge nForce 630a is "integrated" into the chip. In the end, the basic expansion options include 12 USB2.0 ports (7050; in 7025 - only 10 ports), a Gigabit LAN controller, four SerialATA II lines (with support for RAID of level 0,1,0+1,5), one ParallelATA line, and integrated HDA. The number of PCI Express bus lanes equals 20, which allows the developers of motherboards to install a full-featured PCI Express x16 slot for the external graphic card, as well as three PCI Express x1 slots for expansion cards (the last "vacant" line is meant for the Gigabit LAN controller).

As you can see, the specifications of NVIDIA chipsets are up to date with modern standards, and we'll also compare their expansion options versus the functionality of Intel products. To this end, we'll be comparing two motherboards made by MSI. These are G33M based on Intel G33 and K9NGM3 (NVIDIA GeForce 7050).

Specifications

Layout and Features

Both the motherboards have one shortcoming in the design: the latches of DIMM slots are blocked by a PCI Express video card. But for value boards aimed at operation with the integrated video core that is not a flaw but a design feature. Also, in view of the low price, we don't think of the inconvenient positioning of the additional power connector on the G33M board as a shortcoming.

The fundamental difference in the design is that the board G33M uses two bridges (north and south), whereas K9NGM3 - only one chip.

Both the motherboards offer the integrated graphic core and allow for use of an external video card which is installed into the PCI Express x16 slot.

The configuration of the remaining slots is identical for both the motherboards: each uses two PCI slots and one PCI Express x16 slot.

To cool the north bridge, both the motherboards use only aluminum radiators without fans.

Each of the boards also uses four 240-pin DIMM slots for DDR2 memory modules, with the overall supported memory capacity being 8 GB (DDR2-533/667) and 4 GB (DDR2-800).

The MSI G33M uses the south bridge ICH9 which supports four SerialATA II lines. We should point out here that G33M has one more modification with the south bridge ICH9R which supports six SATA lines and RAID features. On both the modifications, a couple of ports is brought over to the rear panel to plug in external SATA devices.

Besides, MSI G33M uses the additional Marvell 88SE6111 controller which provides support for one ParallelATA and one SerialATA lines.

As regards MSI K9NGM3, it implements support for ParallelATA with the chipset, with no additional controllers installed onboard.

Then, both the chipsets (G33+ICH9 and NVIDIA 7050) support 12 USB2.0 ports each. On the G33M, all the 12 have been implemented: six ports on the rear panel (with four installed within a massive box), and six additional. The K9NGM3 has only 10 ports implemented: 4 on the rear panel and 6 additional ones.

We also note that the motherboards use a Firewire controller implemented as a VT6308P chip made by VIA. This chip supports two Firewire ports: one on the rear panel, with the other one being additional.

Both the motherboards have the High Definition Audio subsystem, with similar ALC888 chips used as codecs.

A few words on the network support: both the motherboards use a high-speed (Gigabit Ethernet) LAN controller. However, the chips used are different: on MSI G33M it is Marvell 88E8056, and on MSI K9NGM3 - Realtek RTL8211BL:

The board's rear panel is of the following configuration:

Note that on the boards in question the engineers at MSI gave up support for one of the COM ports and a LPT port. Among the special traits, we should point out the nonstandard box for four USB ports, two external SATA ports on G33M, and a HDMI output on K9NGM3.

Now on to the BIOS settings.

BIOS

The BIOS of MSI G33M and MSI K9NGM3 is based on the AMI BIOS version.

Despite the differences in settings in general, the major BIOS features of these boards are very similar; in particular, the feature for setting the memory frequency:

The section for setting memory latency timings:

Now look at the system monitoring section.

Both the boards display the current values of the temperature of the CPU and the system, rotational speeds of the two fans (on MSI G33M there are two 4-pin connectors; on MSI K9NGM3 - there is one 4-pin and one 3-pin), as well as voltage levels. Besides, the boards offer support for the Smart Fan feature that allows for a dynamic adjustment of the CPU cooler's rotational speeds depending on the CPU temperature.

Overclocking and stability

Before we move on to overclocking, let's look at the power converters. The PWM of MSI G33M uses a 4-phase (!) power scheme, in which there are four 1000 mkF and seven 680 mkF capacitors. The PWM of MSI K9NGM3 uses a 3-phase power scheme, in which there are five 1800 mkF and six 1000 mkF capacitors.

Now on to the overclocking features.

We don't have to compare voltage ranges in this table, since the boards are aimed at various platforms. Now let's look at the practical results of overclocking. The maximum stable FSB speed in MSI G33M is 474 MHz (perfect result; the maximum possible = 558 MHz), in MSI K9NGM3 the HTT = 250 MHz (the maximum possible result is 400 MHz):

Performance

While determining the starting FSB/HTT speed, it turned out that MSI G33M overstates it by merely 1 MHz, whereas MSI K9NGM3 downstates it equally.

In our test setup, we used the following hardware:

Let's first take a look at the results of synthetic benchmarks. But we should note first that Gigabyte 965G-DS3 and MSI G965M are based on Intel G965. MSI G965M uses the slowest PCI-E video card, namely, GeForce FX 5750. Therefore, we'll be comparing the performance of systems with the integrated and discrete graphics. Another interesting comparison is in the difference of operating speed of MSI K9NGM3 with the single-core Athlon 64 3500+ and DDR2-800 memory, and the same board with the dual-core Athlon X2 6000+ plus DDR2-667 memory of the same capacity. And despite the impressive difference in speed, there is absolutely no difference at speed!

Now on to the gaming benchmarks.

Another test - WinRar (Kb/s.; the more, the better)

Conclusions regarding the performance in 3D applications. Of course, the operating speed of the integrated graphic is twice as slow versus the weakest PCI Express video card, however, we should note a performance gain of the former. First, the chipset G33 with Intel's latest drivers is well ahead of its predecessor (that is, G965). But in combination with a CPU of the Core 2 Duo architecture it is well ahead of the integrated AMD platform.

However, the GeForce 7050 chipset is functionally superior to any Intel's graphic solutions and supports all 3D applications which we have just tried. But the Intel chipset has a number of incompatibilities: the outdated Comanche does not work (Intel Gxxx does not support T&L ), nor works GunMetal (problems with drivers), and at X2-Threat the Intel chipset won due to the worse and more simplified details in the 3D image. Moreover, the functional superiority NVIDIA's graphic core provides a high speed in modern 3D games like Doom 3, Far Cry, and Half Life 2. In particular, at Doom 3 and Far Cry the operating speed of GeForce 7050 is much higher, and in Half Life 2 - absolutely the same but attained with a very weak processor (Athlon 64 3500+).

Final Words

In choosing a value integrated motherboard, we should keep two important factors in mind: the 2D quality, and the retail price. At the quality of the image, there is nothing to complain about any of these boards, and at the price - the MSI board based on GeForce 7050 costs $30 less. At the same time, the expansion options, package bundle, and the functionality of both the boards are approximately equal. So the conclusion is simple: of the two tested motherboards, MSI K9NGM3 looks more attractive. And we recommend to use it in combination with a cheap single-core CPU and DDR2-800 memory.

Of special mention is the good overclocking capability. At that, the superiority is with MSI G33M which showed simply fantastic results (FSB = 474 MHz). In other words, this board is an excellent buy for overclocking for both value Intel CPU of 800 MHz bus and CPUs of middle level of 1066 MHz bus.

Conclusion