ECS GameUnion 746 vs nForce2+IGP

OCWorkbench posted some benchmark comparisons of the ECS GameUnion 746 and NVIDIA nForce2 IGP from a powerpoint slide they received from ECS (Elitegroup Computer Systems).

“Today we received a powerpoint slide from ECS. To my surprise, it is the benchmark data of the ECS’s Gameunion 746 board based on SiS 746 chipset with integrated VGA chipset Xabre 200. It is compared to the nForce2+IGP. The following table list the components used to test both boards. Do take special notice that it is 128M vs 256M (dual channel). The following pages will be the extracts from the powerpoint slides”.

OCWorkbench don’t go into too much detail - but the ECS benchmarks appear to indicate better onboard graphic performance from the GameUnion (Integrated Xabre 200 DDR 64MB) over the nForce2 IGP (Integrated Geforce4 MX 64MB). “From the slides, it can be seen that the GameUnion board ECS K7S7AG based on the SiS746 chipset and on board VGA chipset Xabre 200 does provide a competitive edge to the nForce2 IGP board. In most of the benchmarks especially the 3D tests. In the slides, there were no tests done using an external VGA card, e.g. a Radeon 9700 or a Ti4600 etc.

“It is also interesting to note that the benchmarks were done by ECS and it was based on 128M on ECS SiS 746 board vs 256M (2×128) (Dual Channel) on the nForce2+IGP. If the price of K7S7AG is low, it might eat into the pie nForce2+IGP boards”.

“No tests were done using an external VGA card, e.g. a Radeon 9700 or a Ti4600 etc” - which would be impossible as the ECS GameUnion 746 doesn’t appear to have a separate AGP slot anyway - unlike the nForce2 IGP.

Also worth noting, if comparing like-for-like, is the number of available PCI (three) and memory (two) slots. ECS appear to have sacrificed a number of them to clear space on the motherboard for the GameUnion’s integrated graphics memory. Even a microATX nForce2 IGP board comes with three PCI slots, three memory slots and support for an external graphics card - not to mention a whole host of other features including Firewire, DualNet, SoundStorm audio, etc.

Competition is good for everyone, but if you consider the overall features and performance of an nForce2 IGP board - even a microATX version - this is less ‘David and Goliath’ more ‘Mike Tyson meets Peewee Herman’. Now if ECS can add some extra ingredients like this or this there might be some pie left to eat…