GIGABYTE: ASUS Lied and Fooled Customers

malware · May 14, 2008

I will finish my day reporting a story published by Tom's Hardware that involves two big motherboard manufacturers - GIGABYTE and ASUS. According to GIGABYTE's technical team, ASUS is lying about its EPU (Energy Processing Unit) energy efficiency performance figures and is playing tricks with its users. ASUS claims that EPU outfitted motherboards can deliver up to 80.23% "power savings" from motherboards without EPU components. Yea, but that's not what GIGABYTE thinks. Test results from GIGABYTE's lab show that the claimed 80% energy efficiency is around 58.6% in reality, and ASUS is "playing numbers marketing" and "cheating end users." GIGABYTE engineers continued: "We found that [Asus'] EPU in 4 phase mode CAN NOT act PWM phase changing while Asus still claims EPU is a hardware based energy saving chip. Don't get fooled. The EPU (AIGear3+) is pure software based, not hardware!" "How can you believe it? Everything [Asus] say are lies," they added. GIGABYTE even pointed out that ASUS motherboards use poor quality non-Japanese solid capacitors. Read the full story here.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

ShadowFold · May 14, 2008

Gigabyte is just trying to get more customers... Like their power saving thing is any good anyway.

calvary1980 · May 14, 2008

Gigabyte's evidence is too overwhelming to ignore.

- Christine

niko084 · May 14, 2008

Doesn't matter if its a driver or software controlled piece of hardware....
Non of this gimick epu stuff really works very well, want power savings, down clock and drop voltage, let your hard drives spin down, leave speedstep enabled etc...

HTC · May 14, 2008

EPU does NOT work on overclocked CPUs. If this feature saves energy on stock, why the hell not do the same OCed? Unless it does so but messing with voltages or something similar ...

PVTCaboose1337 · May 14, 2008

I will ignore, as I do not like propaganda.

niko084 · May 14, 2008

HTC said:
EPU does NOT work on overclocked CPUs. If this feature saves energy on stock, why the hell not do the same OCed? Unless it does so but messing with voltages or something similar ...

Thats the only way to save power, is to drop multiplier, fsb or voltage when the system if not being used. This is exactly why they don't work when overclocked.

MrMilli · May 14, 2008

Well i'm not surprised about the Asus quality.
I'm having all kinds of issues with Asus motherboards for the last 3-4 years that relate to quality.
I'm talking about +500 mb's where around 20 to 50 had some sort of problem related to quality. Not saying that Gigabyte mb's don't have issues but they are rearly quality related.
Asus is seriously cheaping out lately. Specially on the <100 euro mb's while Gigabyte is not.

imperialreign · May 14, 2008

<sigh>

sadly, I think GIGA fails to realize that this information has been floating around for a while - ASUS EPU design pales in comparison to GIGA's as far as efficiency goes, simply because of how ASUS' 8-phase power design works (they're either ON or they're OFF) - which is why you really only get about 50% energy savings . . .

and for those that OC, both GIGA's and ASUS' energy saving designs go out the door, as they don't work properly with OCing and lead to an extremelly unstable system.

and to the comment from GIGA about ASUS PCB component quality . . . never had an issue here, with any of my boards . . . besides, I'd rather my PCB components come from Japan than China or Taiwan . . . isn't that right, GIGA?

Although it does look like ASUS goofed in their marketing, GIGA is just screaming wolf at this point. Both companies need to go back to the drawing board and get their energy efficiency designs worked out - cause neither one is perfect. ASUS' is more stable, but can't pull the same efficiency that GIGA's can.

niko084 · May 14, 2008

These two companies are neck and neck in the high end, of course they will call either one out on any little thing. Sure okay, maybe Asus goofed, whatever, not too many of us would ever be affected by this.

imperialreign · May 14, 2008

niko084 said:
Thats the only way to save power, is to drop multiplier, fsb or voltage when the system if not being used. This is exactly why they don't work when overclocked.

sorry for the double post - but that's not how ASUS or GIGA's designs work . . . instead of cutting CPU multi or drop the BUS speed or component voltages - they cut phase on the CPU/BUS power supplies. GIGA can drop it down in increments, ASUS, because of their 8-phase power design, can only cut out one phase of 4 . . . which only leaves 4. GIGA can allow for stepping their power up based on system requirements, but with ASUS, once it get's passed a certain point, EPU turns all 8 back on and your back at 100%.

<<edit>>

If I'm thinking about this right - ASUS is probably pulling their 80% figure by also taking into account CPU energy saving options . . . if you enable E1ST, TM and C1E on an Intel CPU, plus running a DDR3 board on an X38 chipset . . . yeah, you might just be able to achieve 80% overall, but it'd still be a little tough. EPU alone won't do it.

And besides, both companies are goofing with any energy efficieny implimentations right now - because they're only offered on HIGH-END motherboards . . . the kind of motherboards that tend to draw rabbid OCers like fly's to a pile of crap, and OCers don't give a wh00t1! over energy efficiency for the most part either . . . plus, neither company has announced plans to impliment these features in their mid-range boards yet . . .

:shadedshu

Nitro-Max · May 15, 2008

I actually favour gigabyte boards i loved my last board its just the preformance level tweaks on the asus can boost preformance.

niko084 · May 15, 2008

imperialreign said:
sorry for the double post - but that's not how ASUS or GIGA's designs work . . . instead of cutting CPU multi or drop the BUS speed or component voltages - they cut phase on the CPU/BUS power supplies. GIGA can drop it down in increments, ASUS, because of their 8-phase power design, can only cut out one phase of 4 . . . which only leaves 4. GIGA can allow for stepping their power up based on system requirements, but with ASUS, once it get's passed a certain point, EPU turns all 8 back on and your back at 100%.

<<edit>>

If I'm thinking about this right - ASUS is probably pulling their 80% figure by also taking into account CPU energy saving options . . . if you enable E1ST, TM and C1E on an Intel CPU, plus running a DDR3 board on an X38 chipset . . . yeah, you might just be able to achieve 80% overall, but it'd still be a little tough. EPU alone won't do it.

And besides, both companies are goofing with any energy efficieny implimentations right now - because they're only offered on HIGH-END motherboards . . . the kind of motherboards that tend to draw rabbid OCers like fly's to a pile of crap, and OCers don't give a wh00t1! over energy efficiency for the most part either . . . plus, neither company has announced plans to impliment these features in their mid-range boards yet . . .

:shadedshu

Thanks for the insight, I didn't get into the whole actual workings of the boards, and have been too busy today to really read about them. But yes either way, this isn't a technology that is going to get used in the types of boards its being put into.... Hopefully they will fill down into some super efficent mainstream boards for your average bbuy machine.

suraswami · May 15, 2008

hmm I thought Gigabyte helps in QC for Asus boards. May be Asus didn't renew the contract and giga is whining :laugh:

Asus has relatively better design boards but Gigabyte has better customer support and use better components and has more features for the same price.

cdawall · May 15, 2008

i have an issue with both of them but more Asus than GB simply because vdroop on Asus mobos is crap...

[I.R.A]_FBi · May 15, 2008

I hate Assus so bad. They send you back a broken board to replace a broken one .. i dont expect that when i (or in this case, my friend) spends 250+ dollars on a board.

msgclb · May 15, 2008

Didn't GIGABYTE and ASUS have some kind of an agreement to join forces? I guess there handshake :toast:

has turned to a fist fight :slap:

.

Both the GIGABYTE Dynamic Energy Saver and the ASUS EPU options sound like a gimmick. What we need is a review of these two competing options.

niko084 · May 15, 2008

I don't understand this bad luck people have with Asus or Gigabyte... I have personally rma'd over 50 boards to each company, never an issue, and have always been very pleased with every board from both companies......

Heck I hit 4ghz on this p5k-e, and going to try for 4.4ghz sometime here on air...

qwerty_lesh · May 15, 2008

i heard about this last night, and believe its true, asus epu is a crock and not hw based.
altho i also think that gigabyte pointing out that asus dont use good caps is just gigabyte trying to make them selves look better. but hey, two years back asus had the crown for premium motherboards, and imo it looks like gigabyte is taking that crown away from them, asus has got to stop using poor quality components, and as i say that i also say that gigabyte have got to smarten up and release their high end boards with marvell chipsets and not the shithouse realtek ones, otherwise imo gigabyte are pretty much doing the same thing for quality and the only thing they really have over asus in that regard is that their energy efficiency des crap actually works hardware based /rant

cdawall · May 15, 2008

just as a common question i thought that solid caps were not supposed to blow?

philbrown23 · May 15, 2008

gigabyte is just mad because asus sels more boards than them, maybe if their boards were not crap more would buy them.

cdawall · May 15, 2008

its not that GB boards are crap its that there BIOS are cryptic and retarded layouts not to mention the lowend mobos have no oc options and i mean nothing like OEM nothing

spud107 · May 15, 2008

cdawall said:
just as a common question i thought that solid caps were not supposed to blow?

normal type electrolyte caps inside? not good without those vents in the top,
thats why they blow themselves off the board, , KA-BOOOM!!!!

PVTCaboose1337 · May 15, 2008

I thought there was no way for solid caps to blow... i researched it, bought 2, and blew one. It took effort, but they are HARDER to break than normal ones. They don't blow in the old way you think of. They just don't work anymore.

Scrizz · May 15, 2008

cdawall said:
its not that GB boards are crap its that there BIOS are cryptic and retarded layouts not to mention the lowend mobos have no oc options and i mean nothing like OEM nothing

I have a pretty nice oc on my lowly giga-byte board :nutkick:

Processor	Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 G0 VID: 1.2125
Motherboard	GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3P rev.2.0
Cooling	Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme + Noctua NF-S12 Fan
Memory	4x1 GB PQI DDR2 PC2-6400
Video Card(s)	Colorful iGame Radeon HD 4890 1 GB GDDR5
Storage	2x 500 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 32 MB RAID0
Display(s)	BenQ G2400W 24-inch WideScreen LCD
Case	Cooler Master COSMOS RC-1000 (sold), Cooler Master HAF-932 (delivered)
Audio Device(s)	Creative X-Fi XtremeMusic + Logitech Z-5500 Digital THX
Power Supply	Chieftec CFT-1000G-DF 1kW
Software	Laptop: Lenovo 3000 N200 C2DT2310/3GB/120GB/GF7300/15.4"/Razer

System Name	The ShadowFold Draconis (Ordering soon)
Processor	AMD Phenom II X6 1055T 2.8ghz
Motherboard	ASUS M4A87TD EVO AM3 AMD 870
Cooling	Stock
Memory	Kingston ValueRAM 4GB DDR3-1333
Video Card(s)	XFX ATi Radeon HD 5850 1gb
Storage	Western Digital 640gb
Display(s)	Acer 21.5" 5ms Full HD 1920x1080P
Case	Antec Nine-Hundred
Audio Device(s)	Onboard + Creative "Fatal1ty" Headset
Power Supply	Antec Earthwatts 650w
Software	Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
Benchmark Scores	-❶-❸-❸-❼-

Processor	Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield L724A629 @ 3.8Ghz 423x9 1.47v
Motherboard	Abit IP-35 Pro Beta 16.B04 (vDroop)
Cooling	6x Scythe S-Flex SFF21F, EK Multi Option 2 Port, dB-1 Compact, Swiftech MCR80, Swiftech Apogee GT
Memory	2x1 OCZ Flex XLC PC-9200 @ 5-5-5-18 1220 2.3v
Video Card(s)	Inno3D Geforce 8800GTS 320
Storage	Western Digital Raptor X 150
Display(s)	Samsung Syncmaster 226BW 22"
Case	Cooler Master RC-690
Audio Device(s)	Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer 7.1
Power Supply	Thermaltake ToughPower 1000

System Name	Back to Blue
Processor	i9 14900k
Motherboard	Asrock Z790 Nova
Cooling	Corsair H150i Elite
Memory	64GB Corsair Dominator DDR5-6400 @ 6600
Video Card(s)	EVGA RTX 3090 Ultra FTW3
Storage	4TB WD 850x NVME, 4TB WD Black, 10TB Seagate Barracuda Pro
Display(s)	1x Samsung Odyssey G7 Neo and 1x Dell u2518d
Case	Lian Li o11 DXL w/custom vented front panel
Audio Device(s)	Focusrite Saffire PRO 14 -> DBX DriveRack PA+ -> Mackie MR8 and MR10 / Senn PX38X -> SB AE-5 Plus
Power Supply	Corsair RM1000i
Mouse	Logitech G502x
Keyboard	Corsair K95 Platinum
Software	Windows 11 x64 Pro
Benchmark Scores	31k multicore Cinebench - CPU limited 125w

System Name	HTC's System
Processor	Ryzen 5 5800X3D
Motherboard	Asrock Taichi X370
Cooling	NH-C14, with the AM4 mounting kit
Memory	G.Skill Kit 16GB DDR4 F4 - 3200 C16D - 16 GTZB
Video Card(s)	Sapphire Pulse 6600 8 GB
Storage	1 Samsung NVMe 960 EVO 250 GB + 1 3.5" Seagate IronWolf Pro 6TB 7200RPM 256MB SATA III
Display(s)	LG 27UD58
Case	Fractal Design Define R6 USB-C
Audio Device(s)	Onboard
Power Supply	Corsair TX 850M 80+ Gold
Mouse	Razer Deathadder Elite
Software	Ubuntu 20.04.6 LTS

GIGABYTE: ASUS Lied and Fooled Customers

malware

New Member

ShadowFold

New Member

calvary1980

New Member

niko084

HTC

PVTCaboose1337

Graphical Hacker

niko084

MrMilli

imperialreign

New Member

niko084

imperialreign

New Member

Nitro-Max

niko084

suraswami

cdawall

where the hell are my stars

[I.R.A]_FBi

msgclb

niko084

qwerty_lesh

cdawall

where the hell are my stars

philbrown23

New Member

cdawall

where the hell are my stars

spud107

PVTCaboose1337

Graphical Hacker

Scrizz

System Name	Whim
Processor	Intel Core i5 2500k @ 4.4ghz
Motherboard	Asus P8Z77-V LX
Cooling	Cooler Master Hyper 212+
Memory	2 x 4GB G.Skill Ripjaws @ 1600mhz
Video Card(s)	Gigabyte GTX 670 2gb
Storage	Samsung 840 Pro 256gb, WD 2TB Black
Display(s)	Shimian QH270 (1440p), Asus VE228 (1080p)
Case	Cooler Master 430 Elite
Audio Device(s)	Onboard > PA2V2 Amp > Senn 595's
Power Supply	Corsair 750w
Software	Windows 8.1 (Tweaked)

System Name	УльтраФиолет
Processor	Intel Kentsfield Q9650 @ 3.8GHz (4.2GHz highest achieved)
Motherboard	ASUS P5E3 Deluxe/WiFi; X38 NSB, ICH9R SSB
Cooling	Delta V3 block, XPSC res, 120x3 rad, ST 1/2" pump - 10 fans, SYSTRIN HDD cooler, Antec HDD cooler
Memory	Dual channel 8GB OCZ Platinum DDR3 @ 1800MHz @ 7-7-7-20 1T
Video Card(s)	Quadfire: (2) Sapphire HD5970
Storage	(2) WD VelociRaptor 300GB SATA-300; WD 320GB SATA-300; WD 200GB UATA + WD 160GB UATA
Display(s)	Samsung Syncmaster T240 24" (16:10)
Case	Cooler Master Stacker 830
Audio Device(s)	Creative X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro PCI-E x1
Power Supply	Kingwin Mach1 1200W modular
Software	Windows XP Home SP3; Vista Ultimate x64 SP2
Benchmark Scores	3m06: 20270 here: http://hwbot.org/user.do?userId=12313

System Name	Hells Core.
Processor	Ryzen 9 5950x
Motherboard	Asus Crosshair hero viii (wifi) x570
Cooling	AlphaCool Aurora 420mm
Memory	Patriot Viper Gaming RGB Series DDR4 DRAM 4133MHz 32GB Kit
Video Card(s)	MSI Gaming X Trio 3070
Storage	Sabrent 1TB Rocket Nvme PCIe 4.0 M.2
Display(s)	Acer Predator XB271HU
Case	Thermaltake Core X71
Power Supply	Corsair RM850 80 plus gold
Software	Windows 10

System Name	---
Processor	FX 8350 @ 4.00 Ghz with 1.28v
Motherboard	Gigabyte 990FX-UD3 v4.0, Hacked Bios F4.x
Cooling	Silenx 4 pipe Tower cooler + 2 x Cougar 120mm fan, 3 x 120mm, 1 x 200 mm Red LED fan
Memory	Kingston HyperX DDR3 1866 16GB + Patriot Memory DDR3 1866 16GB
Video Card(s)	Asus R9 290 OC @ GPU - 1050, MEM - 1300
Storage	Inland 256GB PCIe NVMe SSD for OS, WDC Black - 2TB + 1TB Storage, Inland 480GB SSD - Games
Display(s)	3 x 1080P LCDs - Acer 25" + Acer 23" + HP 23"
Case	AeroCool XPredator X3
Audio Device(s)	Built-in Realtek
Power Supply	Corsair HX1000 Modular
Software	Windows 10 Pro 64 bit

System Name	All the cores
Processor	2990WX
Motherboard	Asrock X399M
Cooling	CPU-XSPC RayStorm Neo, 2x240mm+360mm, D5PWM+140mL, GPU-2x360mm, 2xbyski, D4+D5+100mL
Memory	4x16GB G.Skill 3600
Video Card(s)	(2) EVGA SC BLACK 1080Ti's
Storage	2x Samsung SM951 512GB, Samsung PM961 512GB
Display(s)	Dell UP2414Q 3840X2160@60hz
Case	Caselabs Mercury S5+pedestal
Audio Device(s)	Fischer HA-02->Fischer FA-002W High edition/FA-003/Jubilate/FA-011 depending on my mood
Power Supply	Seasonic Prime 1200w
Mouse	Thermaltake Theron, Steam controller
Keyboard	Keychron K8
Software	W10P

Processor	C2Q6600 @ 1.6 GHz
Motherboard	Anus PQ5
Cooling	ACFPro
Memory	GEiL2 x 1 GB PC2 6400
Video Card(s)	MSi 4830 (RIP)
Storage	Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320 GB Perpendicular Recording
Display(s)	Dell 17'
Case	El Cheepo
Audio Device(s)	7.1 Onboard
Power Supply	Corsair TX750
Software	MCE2K5

System Name	My Classified System
Processor	Intel Core i7-3770K Ivy Bridge
Motherboard	ASUS P8Z77-V
Cooling	Koolance CPU-380I, XSPC RX360, XSPC Dual 5.25" Bay Reservoir with Single Laing DDC
Memory	G.SKILL Sniper Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 2133
Video Card(s)	EVGA 04G-P4-3988-KR GeForce GTX 980 Classified with EK-FC980 GTX Classy Waterblock
Storage	Western Digital Caviar Blue WD3200AAKS 320GB
Display(s)	Acer S220HQLAbd Black 21.5" 5ms LED Backlight Widescreen LCD Monitor
Case	NZXT SWITCH 810 Black
Audio Device(s)	Onboard HD Audio
Power Supply	Thermaltake - 850-Watt TR2 RX Power Supply
Mouse	Black Microsoft Wheel Optical USB Mouse
Keyboard	Black Microsoft USB Keyboard 2000
Software	Microsoft Windows 10 Home 64 Bit

System Name	What the Sigma
Processor	i7 7700
Motherboard	Gigabyte H170-HD3
Cooling	LGA1151 Noctua NH-U12P
Memory	32GB Kingston DDR4 3600 CL15
Video Card(s)	Gigabyte Vision OC RTX 3080ti 12GB
Storage	2GB Lexar Gen3 NVME / 1x 120GB Intel 520 / and some spinny bois
Display(s)	3x DELL S2721DGF
Case	Antec P182
Power Supply	Corsair 750w
VR HMD	Oculus Quest 3
Software	Windows 10

System Name	Dominator
Processor	INTEL C2Q Q6600 FTW!!
Motherboard	ASUS P5Q-E!!!
Cooling	TEC cooled cpu, everything else is under water :D
Memory	4GB CELL SHOCK D9GMH 1066MHZ/4GB CRUCIAL REDS
Video Card(s)	4850 (VT)/ 4850 IN CROSSFIRE!
Storage	western digital= 1X 250GB, 1X 500GB, IDE 160GB (BOOT DRIVE ONLY). SEAGATE FREE AGENT 500GB EHDD
Display(s)	viewsonic 19" hd widescreen
Case	ROCKETFISH FOR NOW :(
Audio Device(s)	ONBOARD WORKS JUST FINE FOR ME :p
Power Supply	ULTRA X3 1KW MODULAR
Software	win vista ultimate 64 TWEAKED!!!
Benchmark Scores	http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc.php?id=434759 3dm06: http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm0

System Name	spuds K8-X2
Processor	amd athlon X2 4200+ toledo s939 2794mhz 254x11 1.4 vcore
Motherboard	MSI K8N Neo4-F v1.0 (MS-7125) nforce4 sata2 mod, laptop cpu heatpipe copper nb cooler
Cooling	akasa evo "blue" + 90mm fan, 2x120mm front, 250mm side, 120mm rear, 120mm in psu, pci slot exhaust.
Memory	OCZ Platinum XTC DDR PC3200 4GB(4x1024) @254mhz 3-3-3-8 2T
Video Card(s)	sapphire HD3870 512mb GDDR4 vf900cu, several ramsinks on components / nvidia 7300gt 256mb secondary
Storage	hitachi 160gb (slightly fried) / hitachi 120gb ATA / Seagate 160gb / 2x ps3 seagate 60gb
Display(s)	CTX EX1300F 20" flat CRT, 1280x1024@100hz / 19" benq FP91G X / 19" hanns-g (all free)
Case	mesh server/gaming black case, 9x 5.25' drive bays, silvestone auto fan controller
Audio Device(s)	onboard realtek alc850 7.1/soundblaster LIVE! ct4780 + kxaudio - sony home theatre surround
Power Supply	winpower 650w, system draws around 470-500w under load(+all screens)
Software	win7 64bit
Benchmark Scores	~16m trips/sec using mty trip generator. triple monitor gaming using SoftTH. 3840x1024

System Name	:)
Processor	Intel 13700k
Motherboard	Gigabyte z790 UD AC
Cooling	Noctua NH-D15
Memory	64GB GSKILL DDR5
Video Card(s)	Gigabyte RTX 4090 Gaming OC
Storage	960GB Optane 905P U.2 SSD + 4TB PCIe4 U.2 SSD
Display(s)	Alienware AW3423DW 175Hz QD-OLED + AOC Agon Pro AG276QZD2 240Hz QD-OLED
Case	Fractal Design Torrent
Audio Device(s)	MOTU M4 - JBL 305P MKII w/2x JL Audio 10 Sealed --- X-Fi Titanium HD - Presonus Eris E5 - JBL 4412
Power Supply	Silverstone 1000W
Mouse	Roccat Kain 122 AIMO
Keyboard	KBD67 Lite / Mammoth75
VR HMD	Reverb G2 V2
Software	Win 11 Pro