GIGABYTE AM1M-S2H Review: What Can $35 Get You?
by Ian Cutress on August 15, 2014 3:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- AMD
- Gigabyte
- Kabini
- AM1
Gaming Benchmarks
While no regular user of the AM1 platform would pair up the system with a $500 GPU, all our results are based on the more mainstream to high end and it is interesting to see if the lack of speed in the lower powered CPU systems makes a significant difference in frame rates.
Also being tested here, aside from the CPU performance effect, is the use of four PCIe lanes from the APU rather than eight or sixteen from the high end platforms. These are also PCIe 2.0 lanes rather than PCIe 3.0, limiting the bandwidth even further.
F1 2013
First up is F1 2013 by Codemasters. I am a big Formula 1 fan in my spare time, and nothing makes me happier than carving up the field in a Caterham, waving to the Red Bulls as I drive by (because I play on easy and take shortcuts). F1 2013 uses the EGO Engine, and like other Codemasters games ends up being very playable on old hardware quite easily. In order to beef up the benchmark a bit, we devised the following scenario for the benchmark mode: one lap of Spa-Francorchamps in the heavy wet, the benchmark follows Jenson Button in the McLaren who starts on the grid in 22nd place, with the field made up of 11 Williams cars, 5 Marussia and 5 Caterham in that order. This puts emphasis on the CPU to handle the AI in the wet, and allows for a good amount of overtaking during the automated benchmark. We test at 1920x1080 on Ultra graphical settings.
Bioshock Infinite
Bioshock Infinite was Zero Punctuation’s Game of the Year for 2013, uses the Unreal Engine 3, and is designed to scale with both cores and graphical prowess. We test the benchmark using the Adrenaline benchmark tool and the Xtreme (1920x1080, Maximum) performance setting, noting down the average frame rates and the minimum frame rates.
Tomb Raider
The next benchmark in our test is Tomb Raider. Tomb Raider is an AMD optimized game, lauded for its use of TressFX creating dynamic hair to increase the immersion in game. Tomb Raider uses a modified version of the Crystal Engine, and enjoys raw horsepower. We test the benchmark using the Adrenaline benchmark tool and the Xtreme (1920x1080, Maximum) performance setting, noting down the average frame rates and the minimum frame rates.
Sleeping Dogs
Sleeping Dogs is a benchmarking wet dream – a highly complex benchmark that can bring the toughest setup and high resolutions down into single figures. Having an extreme SSAO setting can do that, but at the right settings Sleeping Dogs is highly playable and enjoyable. We run the basic benchmark program laid out in the Adrenaline benchmark tool, and the Xtreme (1920x1080, Maximum) performance setting, noting down the average frame rates and the minimum frame rates.
Company of Heroes 2
Company of Heroes 2 also can bring a top end GPU to its knees, even at very basic benchmark settings. To get an average 30 FPS using a normal GPU is a challenge, let alone a minimum frame rate of 30 FPS. For this benchmark I use modified versions of Ryan’s batch files at 1920x1080 on High. COH2 is a little odd in that it does not scale with more GPUs with the drivers we use.
Battlefield 4
The EA/DICE series that has taken countless hours of my life away is back for another iteration, using the Frostbite 3 engine. AMD is also piling its resources into BF4 with the new Mantle API for developers, designed to cut the time required for the CPU to dispatch commands to the graphical sub-system. For our test we use the in-game benchmarking tools and record the frame time for the first ~70 seconds of the Tashgar single player mission, which is an on-rails generation of and rendering of objects and textures. We test at 1920x1080 at Ultra settings.
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DanNeely - Friday, August 15, 2014 - link
Is this board full length mATX? It doesn't look like there's quite enough room below the 3rd PCIe slot to fit the 4th and still have room for the edge of board headers.DanNeely - Saturday, August 16, 2014 - link
Confirmed. Gigabyte lists it as 22x17cm. A full height mATX board would be 24.6cm tall.HigherState - Saturday, August 16, 2014 - link
I think it would be very interesting to see what using a R7 260X with Mantle enabled would do for gaming. I know thats not exactly what this platform is all about, but this is kinda what Mantle is suited for, I think. From what I could tell from a quick google search, it helps. Would like to see some up-to-date numbers, not ones from 4 months ago where Mantle and Kabini drivers were still being fleshed out.hojnikb - Saturday, August 16, 2014 - link
Or you could just get the cheapest 1150 mobo and celeron for a little bit more. it will be faster and much much more upgrade friendly.zodiacfml - Saturday, August 16, 2014 - link
too bulky and complex for any signage use. this is plain cheap mobo for emerging markets or business such as internet shops in some countries.hojnikb - Saturday, August 16, 2014 - link
damn, those green caps really spoil the looks of this thig.Per Hansson - Saturday, August 23, 2014 - link
Those are Japanese Sanyo capacitors (now Suncon)Please stop complaining about a $35 board using high quality Japanese caps!
jardows2 - Saturday, August 16, 2014 - link
What does $35 get me on this board? Too much in my opinion. I can see this platform working well as a media player +, in a very small (think thin mITX) platform, but all the motherboard offerings I have seen are too bulky. What I want is:2x USB 2.0 rear connectors for KB and mouse
2x USB 3.0 rear connectors for external hard drive
HDMI video/audio (don't need standard audio jacks for this)
Gigabit Ethernet.
SO-DIMM slots for RAM
mSATA slot
1 SATA connector for possible optical drive
1 mini-PCIE for wireless.
Unfortunately, I am in no position to purchase 10,000+ of these to have an OEM make such a board for me. Hopefully there are enough people requesting this type of board for someone to make it a reality.
Arnulf - Sunday, August 17, 2014 - link
WTF happened to the DE-15 connector, is blue too expensive compared to black or did we somehow land in 1993 ?yannigr2 - Sunday, August 17, 2014 - link
@Anandtech Your spam filter is NOT working properly. And there is NO way to get help.My apologies for this post that is a result after 1+ month trying to find a way to fix my account other than just making a new one.