With embedded VGA (DirectX9.0 level), AGP display card interface, and PCI Express display card interface on board, the entire universe of VGA support is at your command!

ASRock has definitely established itself a solid reputation for its creativity in 2004. That did not happen by chance. ASRock injects lots of creative air into the PC industry by its Combo series, designed to solve the trouble of the platform selection encountered by many users.

775Dual-915GL

P4Dual-915GL

Some users do need so badly a platform capable of accommodating both old generation of processors, as well as the newer ones. Following this design consideration, ASRock took a step further by releasing the Upgrade series, aimed to offer more flexible upgrade choices of different processors for the benefit of PC users.

With all those design experiences and good feedback from all our users, we are now proud to announce another innovative product: Dual series boards! ASRock Dual series boards are compatible with both AGP display cards and PCI Express display cards.

The first ones that come out from the Dual series are 775Dual-915GL and P4Dual-915GL. The boards offer two kinds of slots. Users can use AGI Express slot to adopt standard PCI Express display cards. For users who want to keep their AGP display cards stay on job, 775Dual-915GL / P4Dual-915GL preservers an AGI8X slot, the famous design from ASRock former 845GV and 865GV series boards, to fulfill such demand.

Besides two kinds of display card interfaces, 775Dual-915GL and P4Daul-915GL also contain DirectX 9.0 VGA on board. The boards make use of Intel^® Media Accelerator 900 incorporated inside Intel^® 915GL chipset as their on-board graphics engine. This brand new engine supports dynamic video shared memory technology, with maximum 224MB shared memory capacity. In addition, users can apply both AGP and PCI Express display cards together with on-board VGA at the same time. In other words, 775Dual-915Gl and P4Dual-915GL offer up to 5 monitors connectivity. We name this feature as Surround Display, which enables a panorama-like display experiences for PC users.

Here are 775Dual-915GL brief specifications:

• Three-phase power interface design to support all series of Intel^® LGA775 FSB 800/533 processors (Detailed support list is available on www.asrock.com)
• Intel^® 915GL/ ICH6 chipsets, H-T Technology, Dual Channel DDR400/300
• A.G.I. Express slot for usage of PCI Express display card, A.G.I.8X slot for usage of AGP8X/4X display card
• DirectX 9.0 VGA on board, with dynamic video shared memory support, peaking allocation at 192MB
• Surround Display: Up to 5 monitors connecting capability, enabling a panorama-like multiple-display environment
• 4 ports of SATA, 10/100 Ethernet LAN, 7.1 Channel Audio
• Hybrid Booster- ASRock Safe Overclocking Technology
• ASRock 8CH I/O Plus: 4 ready-to-use USB2.0 ports, 8 Ch. Audio jack

Here are P4Dual-915GL brief specifications:

• Three-phase power interface design to support all series of Intel^® Socket478 FSB 800/533 processors (Detailed support list is available on www.asrock.com)
• Intel^® 915GL/ ICH6 chipsets, H-T Technology, Dual Channel DDR400/300
• A.G.I. Express slot for usage of PCI Express display card, A.G.I.8X slot for usage of AGP8X/4X display card
• DirectX 9.0 VGA on board, with dynamic video shared memory support, peaking allocation at 192MB
• Surround Display: Up to 5 monitors connecting capability, enabling a panorama-like multiple-display environment
• 4 ports of SATA, 10/100 Ethernet LAN, 7.1 Channel Audio
• Hybrid Booster- ASRock Safe Overclocking Technology
• ASRock 8CH I/O Plus: 4 ready-to-use USB2.0 ports, 8 Ch. Audio jack

Dual Concept

Compatible with both AGP display card and PCI Express display card. Targeting at the practical DIY fans, who prefer to keep their original AGP display cards at work while preserving the option of upgrading to advanced PCI Express display cards in the future. 775Dual-915GL / P4Dual-915GL incorporate two slots as the display card interfaces:

AGI Express slot:

This is a PCI Express x4 interface in a technical sense, deriving from the 4 PCI Express x1 interfaces provided by ICH6 south bridge chip. AGI Express slot is designed to be compatible with the usage of standard PCI Express display cards. (The standard PCI Express display cards make use of PCI Express x16 transfer mode) Although the transfer mode between standard PCI Express display cards and AGI Express interface is not exactly the same, the platform will operate without any problem. Furthermore, as you will see the comparison test figures below, the performance of AGI Express interface is quite good, compared with the PCI Express x16 interface from other reference board.

AGI 8X slot:

This is the same interface we designed for our legendary 845GV and 865GV series boards. It is famous for its capability to adopt AGP8X/4X (1.5V only) cards. This feature was considered impossible in the past, due to the design limitation from the Intel^® chipsets.

Please refer to www.asrock.com for detailed compatible VGA card list.

DirectX 9.0 graphic engine on board with advanced Dynamic Video Shared Memory Support

775Dual-915GL and P4Dual-915GL are also targeting at the users who prefer a value platform to make use of advanced Pentium 4 processors. Embedded graphic engine would be key for this segment of users to achieve a price-performance balanced platform. 775Dual-915GL and P4Dual-915GL adopt the Intel^® Media Accelerator 900 graphic engine as their on-board VGA, offering the complete DirectX 9.0 support. This is the proper embedded graphics engine for users to enjoy many DirectX 9.0 enabled application. And the value platform will work in line better with the newer generation of advanced Pentium 4 processors.

The embedded graphic engine comes with state-of-the-art shared memory technology. Unlike the constant and quite constrained shared memory capacity employed by former embedded graphic engines, Intel^® Media Accelerator 900 provides the dynamic shared memory support. As a result, 775Dual-915GL / P4Dual-915GL will automatically allocate the most efficient memory capacity from the system memory to video memory. The dynamic selection is based on the operation loading and the total system memory employed. Please check out the details from the following table:

Surround Display: Up to 5 monitors display capability

775Dual-915GL and P4Dual-915GL are ideal platforms to keep users' AGP display cards stay on job, and to let users make the smooth upgrade when they acquire PCI Express display cards as prices going down later. However, the usage of PCI Express display card does not mean the end of life of your original AGP display card. 775Dual-915GL and P4Dual-915GL are capable of adopting two different types of display cards simultaneously. The joint operation of two cards enables the multiple-monitors display environment. Since most of the display cards support dual monitors display, two cards employed means the four monitors connectivity potential. 775Dual-915GL / P4Dual-915GL deliver more than that, because of its embedded graphic engine. The on-board VGA is able to work side by side with two display cards, and thus, the maximum 5-monitors-connectivity is born. The full capacity of 5 monitors display at once leads to another feature of 775Dual-915GL / P4Dual-915GL: Surround Display. Some users may be glad to see all their former investments on display cards release the full potential. Try to enjoy this panorama-like display experience by yourself!

Comparison Test: AGI Express (PCI Express x4) vs. PCI Express

Although the PCI Express display cards in the market are using PCI Express x16 transfer mode, the performance of such display cards through our AGI Express interface (PCI Express x4 transfer mode) is exceptionally good! ASRock LAB carried out a detailed comparison test regarding to the real performance between the usage of AGI Express slot and that of PCI Express x16 slot with standard PCI Express display cards. Here the details go: Test Configurations:

It is easy to find out the AGI Express slot has an obvious lead over the PCI Express x1 slot, while only left behind the PCI Express x16 slot in a pretty slim margin in terms of the test scores.

As a matter of fact, our finding is in line with a similar testing result we get from Tom's Hardware web site. In an recently posted article on that site (Conclusion: X4 PCIe Is Usually Sufficient), the author drew a conclusion like this, "...The applications we used (e.g. Doom 3 or Unreal Tournament 2003) require a minimum bandwidth of about x4 PCI Express. Above that setting, it was almost impossible to feel the performance difference. This is especially surprising considering that the rather challenging 3DMark 05, which can be described as a technical trend-setter, is not exactly conservative in terms of graphics features..."

From all these findings, we are quite confident to say 775Dual-915GL and P4Dual-915GL, with AGI Express slot, are really ideal choices for users who desire a board to enjoy the advanced performance of PCI Express display card, but do not want to afford the costs for 915P based platforms.