GIGABYTE GA-MA770-UD3 AM2+/AM3 Motherboard Review

Included Software

Now that we have the motherboard unpacked and installed, it is time to take a look at some of the software utilities that Gigabyte has included with the GA-MA770-UD3.


Here are the setup screens for the included software CD. All the necessary drivers or utilities are present and accounted for, but you should always check Gigabyte's website for the latest versions, which you can do by clicking on the 'Download Center' tab.


EasyTune6

EasyTune6 is a system management utility that displays system clock speeds, voltages, temperatures, and fan rotation but more importantly it allows users to overclock from within Windows. Anyone familiar with past EasyTune iterations knows that although this utility has always contained a fair bit of functionality, its ease of use left much to be desired. Thankfully Gigabyte went back to the drawing board and created a brand new EasyTune version from scratch. Let's check it out.


The CPU and Memory tabs provide basic component information and are somewhat reminiscent of the immensely popular CPU-Z utility. For those who desire a more manual approach to overclocking, the Tuner tab has an Easy mode which allows control over system bus. When users click on Advance, the voltage control options are revealed but in the case of the MA770-UD3 only the CPU vCore and memory voltages are available. A little meager, but this model is not really targeted towards heavy overclocking.

The Graphics tab can be used to manipulate your graphics card’s core/memory/shader clock speeds while the Smart tab gives you access to the CPU Intelligent Accelerator (C.I.A) 2 and Smart Fan functions. The CPU Intelligent Accelerator was designed to automatically overclock the CPU according to system load and user-selected level. In our experience, C.I.A.2 has never really worked as well as it should, so we still recommend that users take a manual approach to overclocking. As the name suggests, Smart Fan feature gives users finely-tuned control over the CPU fan speed.

Lastly, we have HW Monitor which displays the 'true' voltage readings for the CPU vCore, DIMM, +3.3V, and +12V rails. Obviously, this is not exactly a plethora of voltage readings, but then again this is a budget-oriented motherboard. Overall, EasyTune6 remains a solid piece of software, but on this particular motherboard its functionality has been somewhat limited.


Easy Energy Saver


After first installing the Easy Energy Saver software, we are greeted with a powered down control panel. This means all energy saving functions are turned off and disabled. Only when we click on the large Easy Energy Saver logo to the right does the panel come to life and the power savings begin.

The software is pretty straightforward; we have our power savings meter in the top portion providing us with information about how much power was saved. There is the meter total that can easily be reset and the total amount saved since EES was first installed and enabled.


AMD OverDrive Utility


When it works properly the AMD OverDrive Utility is a very impressive piece of software. It provides in-depth system information, extensive monitoring capabilities, lots of tweaking and overclocking functionality, benchmarking and stability testing capabilities, the works. While AOD still occassionaly displays erroneous figures, it worked much better on this motherboard than on the newer AM3-based ASUS M4A78T-E motherboard.