Test System

Initial Setup

Initial setup with Gigabyte's A75-UD4H was very easy. We did have to update to the most recent BIOS to get DDR3-1866 booting properly, but once we did, we found no issues at all, except one. With only two USB 2.0 ports on the rear I/O, and using a USB drive to install Windows from, we found ourselves short of ports for the drive, keyboard, and mouse, leading to at least one of those devices being non-functional during the installation. Of course, use of a USB hub, or maybe not using the mouse would have fixed that problem, but either way, it's an issue that could possibly arise, yet it's also easily circumvented too.

PWM Power Consumption

Since one of our first tasks was to truly verify system stability, while doing so, we measure CPU power consumption. We isolate the power coming through the 8-pin ATX connector using an in-line meter that provides voltage and current readings, as well as total wattage passed through it. While this may not prove to isolate the CPU power draw in all instances, it does serve as a good indicator of board efficiency and effective VRM design.


There's not much to be said about the power consumption of the A75-UD4H, as we haven't spent a lot of time with current FM1 products. However, we did notice that idle wattage is right in the middle of the pack for the lowest results, at just 4W, while the load wattage is not all that high either, quite a fair bit still under the APU's ACP specification. As we add more products for this platform to the charts, a better picture will emerge of just how well the A75-UD4H performs in regard to power consumption, but it's worth noting that this product does not feature any specific power-saving features like Gigabyte's own "D.E.S." hybrid hardware/software solution.