Sapphire Pure RS780G Hybrid CrossFire motherboard: hot or not at £60?

[HEXUS]

We take a look at Sapphire's PI-AM2RS780G Hybrid CrossFire-supporting motherboard. Can it achieve the impossible and make integrated graphics interesting?

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[SiM]

I don't understand why people would go for this hybrid crossfire (£60 mobo + £25 gfx = £85) over a cheaper board + a HD3650 (£45 mobo + £40 gfx)? Might even be able to squeeze a 8800gs into that budget as they were going for less than £50 on ebuyer...

[mercyground]

Being able to have the performance of a HD 4800-series card on demand, with the power-draw of the integrated HD 3200 during idle and media playback would be a far greater boon than receiving around 20 per cent additional performance when pairing the chipset with a HD 3450-based card.

So can you pair the board with a 4850 and have it work in tandem? Is the 790G series going to bring that to the table?

I really like the idea of the Hybrid CrossFire motherboards. I saw the reviews of the 680G's and will definatly use them or more likely the 780G's for any media pc's or simple surfing machines for anyone that wants a new pc.

I'd love either a X3 or X4 BE with a 4850 and the onboard for 2D/movies. Fire up the 4850 for games only. Dump it in a little Shuttle Enclosure with Mirrored Raid for storage and a little SSD for OS/Games.

/me goes back to dreaming of lottery win (And a Puma Laptop)

[Michael H]

The RS780G does not allow a higher end graphics card to power down at idle for 'performance on demand'.

I believe the upcoming RS780GX may though.

[BUFF]

& afaik Hybrid Crossfire runs both at the specs of the lower so you would in fact be better off running the 4850 with the IGP disabled than running in Hybrid Crossfire.