nForce4 SLI Roundup: Painful and Rewarding
by Wesley Fink on February 28, 2005 7:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Gigabyte K8NXP-SLI: Overclocking and Stress Testing
FSB Overclocking Results
| Front Side Bus Overclocking Testbed | |
| Gigabyte K8NXP-SLI | |
| Processor: | Athlon 64 4000+ (2.4GHz, 1MB Cache) |
| CPU Voltage: | 1.55V (default 1.50V) |
| Cooling: | Thermaltake Silent Boost K8 Heat sink/Fan |
| Power Supply: | OCZ Power Stream 520W |
| Memory: | OCZ PC3200 EL Platinum Rev. 2 (Samsung TCCD Memory Chips) |
| Hard Drive: | Seagate 120GB 7200RPM SATA 8MB Cache |
| Maximum OC: (Standard Ratio) |
230x12 (4X HT, 2.5-3-2-7, 1T, 2.8V) 2760MHz (+15%) |
| Maximum FSB: (Lower Ratio) |
230x12 (2760MHz) (4X HT, 2.5-3-2-7, 2.8V) (1:1 Memory, 1T, 2 DIMMs in DC mode) (+15% Bus Overclock) |
After the excellent overclocking results that we found in our pre-production review of the K8NXP-SLI, we really expected the Gigabyte SLI to be near the top of our overclocking charts. However, something has happened along the way from pre-production to production because our production board could only reach a very disappointing 230 CPU speed regardless of the multiplier selected. This is in stark contrast to the 284 that we easily reached on the pre-production board.
We recently met with Gigabyte to discuss this issue and Gigabyte has assured us that they will make updates to get overclocking back to the levels which we saw in our earlier review. For now, we can only say that we have no idea what you will actually find in the overclocking capabilities of a K8NXP-SLI that you might buy. It could be stellar, like the pre-production board that we tested, or mediocre, like the last board that we tested. We have evidence to support either conclusion.
Memory Stress Test Results:
Our memory stress tests measure the ability of the K8NXP-SLI to operate at its officially supported memory frequency (400MHz DDR), at the lowest memory timings that OCZ PC3200 Platinum Rev. 2 modules will support. All DIMMs used for stress testing were 512MB double-sided (or double-bank) memory. To make sure that memory performed properly in Dual-Channel mode, memory was only tested using either one dual-channel (2 DIMMs) or 2 dual-channels (4 DIMMs).| Stable DDR400 Timings - One Dual-Channel (2/4 DIMMs populated) |
|
| Clock Speed: | 200MHz |
| CAS Latency: | 2.0 |
| RAS to CAS Delay: | 2T |
| RAS Precharge: | 7T |
| Precharge Delay: | 2T |
| Command Rate: | 1T |
Using two DIMMs in Dual-Channel 128-bit mode, the memory performed in all benchmarks at the fastest 2-2-2-7 timings, at default 2.6 voltage.
Tests with 4 DS DIMMs on an AMD Athlon 64 system are more demanding, since AMD specifies DDR333 for this combination. However, most AMD Athlon 64 motherboards combined with recent AMD processors (the memory controller is on the AMD CPU) have been able to handle 4 DIMMs at DDR400.
| Stable DDR400 Timings - 4 DIMMs (4/4 DIMMs populated) |
|
| Clock Speed: | 200MHz |
| CAS Latency: | 2.0 |
| RAS to CAS Delay: | 2T |
| RAS Precharge: | 7T |
| Precharge Delay: | 2T |
| Command Rate: | 2T |
Tests with all four DIMM slots populated on the Gigabyte required a 2T Command Rate with 4 DIMMs in two dual channels. This is the pattern seen on other top-performing Socket 939 boards. There was no problem running 4 DS DIMMs at DDR400 at the same aggressive 2-2-2-7 settings, which worked well with 2 DIMMs.
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Gholam - Monday, February 28, 2005 - link
I'm curious, where can I find benchmarks of SiI3114 with a 3 or 4 drive RAID5 setup? Read/write speed, access time, CPU utilization (especially important since it's essentially a software hack), general stability impressions, etc.I'm finally replacing my aging Duron 1200 soon, and looking at A8N-SLI Deluxe (no other NF4 board has a layout suitable for passive/quiet chipset cooling due to video card interference), and I plan to eventually build a ~700GB redundant storage array as home media server on it. However, I can't find benchmarks of SiI3114 RAID5 function anywhere.
Slaimus - Monday, February 28, 2005 - link
About the audio CPU utilization tests. Is that with the nForce Audio or Realtek driver?Wesley Fink - Monday, February 28, 2005 - link
#15,#18 and others - the 3DMark2003 SLI scores were an incorrect duplicate of 3DMark05. The 3DMark03 SLI scores have now been corrected and should make sense now. I apologize for the error.#4 - I saw none of the heat and instability issues with the DFI that were described at [H]. I discussed this with Editors from several other websites who also had no problems with this board. I would agree that the 5V jumper for very high memory voltages can get everything on the board real hot real fast, but this is a feature unique to the DFI and one that only the hardcore with more advanced cooling would attempt to use anyway.
#5,#20 - Any x16 PCIe slot can be used for x1 or x4 or any other flavor of PCIe. MSI does NOT have an extra x1 slot, but they tell us video slot 2 can be used for an x1 device. You still can't use SLI and another PCIe device at the same time on the MSI, but you can use single video with an additional PCIe device in video slot 2.
Wesley Fink - Monday, February 28, 2005 - link
#4 - Abit has just shipped the Fatal1ty Ultra board to AnandTech. We haven't even received it yet. It will be included in a later Ultra roundup, bu the Ultra boards will have the same performance in single video as the similar SLI board from the same manufacturer. We met with Abit this weekend and they told us it would still be several weeks until their SLI would be available for review - and the SLI is NOT a Fatal!ty board.L3p3rM355i4h - Monday, February 28, 2005 - link
318fsb 1:1? Jeezus Christ!ChineseDemocracyGNR - Monday, February 28, 2005 - link
"but on the Asus board you also have to connect another 4-pin Molex for additional video card power. Asus says that this is required for "stable SLI operation", but the other 3 SLI designs do fine and are quite stable without the 5th power connector."The gold-winner DFI also has the same connector, though it wasn't mentioned in the review. And even though it wasn't necessary in your testings (with an OCZ 520W PSU), other people (like tbreak.com) could only find a stable SLI setup with the ASUS board, probably because of it.
I also don't think its location is important, the fact it's close to the PCI-E x16 slots is probably a smart engineering decision.
For future reviews it would be nice if you could show results with "Maximum FSB" where it actually means "Maximum FSB", that is, you remove memory overclocking from the table. It's great to see DDR600 and beyond, but I'm the kind of guy who spends $130 for quality 1GB of RAM, but still want a board that can take a 3000+ to 9*300.
It's not really a 1:1 ratio as you're always using a divider for memory speeds (from the CPU clock).
Looking forward to reviews of the mainstream PCI-E boards (K8T890, nF4 Ultra, etc).
ceefka - Monday, February 28, 2005 - link
oops typoIt's a shame that there are non nF4 Ultra boards with HD Audio.
I meant
It's a shame that there are none nF4 Ultra boards with HD Audio.
ceefka - Monday, February 28, 2005 - link
Jeez, Wesley, that must have been a hell of a job. Thanx.It's a shame that there are non nF4 Ultra boards with HD Audio.
#12 Right, I am contemplating the Gigabyte GA-K8NXP-9 (the Ultra, not the SLI) and wonder if the Yesico FL-420ATX will do. Have you searched http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/mainboard/m... or http://www.giga-byte.com/MotherBoard/Products/Prod... ? Look for manuals (Gigabyte) and compatability tables (MSI).
I wish though these manufacturers would clearly state if its ATX 1.3 or 2.0 etc + minimum V/A requirements. That would be much easier than scrolling through their website.
Just one silly question, because this has not been clear since the introduction of SLI-boards. Can you use a one of the 16xPCI-e slots on a SLI-board for something else than a second graphics card (in the future)? Maybe a (hefty) soundcard in the future?
neologan - Monday, February 28, 2005 - link
btw, excellent review, one of the best i've read in a long time!blckgrffn - Monday, February 28, 2005 - link
Yeah, what is with the 3dmark03 scores? The SLI seems really low..more like a repeat of the 05 scores....Glad to see more indepth mobo reviews! I for one was getting tired of looking at the BIOS as a way to differentiate!