ASUS P5NSLI: Core 2 Duo and SLI on a Budget
by Gary Key on August 22, 2006 5:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Application Performance
We decided to test a few real world applications that typically stress the CPU, memory, and storage systems to see if the results from our synthetic memory tests carry over to the desktop. Our tasks include three activities that are common on the desktop. Our first test was to measure the time it takes to shrink the entire Office Space DVD that was extracted with AnyDVD into a single 4.5GB DVD image utilizing Nero Recode 2. Our second test utilizes WinRAR 3.6 and measures the time it takes to compress our test folder that contains 444 files, 10 folders, and has 602MB of data.
Our third test consists of utilizing Exact Audio Copy as the front end for our version 3.98a3 of LAME. We setup EAC for variable bit rate encoding, burst mode for extraction, use external program for compression, and to start the external compressor upon extraction (EAC will read the next track while LAME is working on the previous track, thus removing a potential bottleneck with the optical drive). Our test CD is INXS Greatest Hits, a one time '80s glory masterpiece containing 16 tracks totaling 606MB of songs. The results of our tests are presented in minutes/seconds with lower numbers being better.
Unlike the synthetic results where the NVIDIA 570SLI scored well in the Buffered Sandra benchmarks, SuperPI 2M, and Latency tests this chipset scored at the bottom in the DDR2-533 and DDR2-667 tests. However, the board made an amazing comeback at DDR2-800. The other chipsets performance scaled very little from DDR2-533 to DDR2-800 but the NF570SLI scores improved up to 10% in the same range. It is obvious you will want to run this board at DDR2-800 and therein is the critical issue with this board. The memory voltage limits you to 2.1V which will severely hamper your ability to increase the memory clocks on this chipset. This is a chipset that thrives on high memory bandwidth and scales very well up to its limits, but it will be held back due to the memory voltage options as most memory that runs at DDR2-1000 will need 2.2V minimum with 2.3V being the average.
We decided to test a few real world applications that typically stress the CPU, memory, and storage systems to see if the results from our synthetic memory tests carry over to the desktop. Our tasks include three activities that are common on the desktop. Our first test was to measure the time it takes to shrink the entire Office Space DVD that was extracted with AnyDVD into a single 4.5GB DVD image utilizing Nero Recode 2. Our second test utilizes WinRAR 3.6 and measures the time it takes to compress our test folder that contains 444 files, 10 folders, and has 602MB of data.
Our third test consists of utilizing Exact Audio Copy as the front end for our version 3.98a3 of LAME. We setup EAC for variable bit rate encoding, burst mode for extraction, use external program for compression, and to start the external compressor upon extraction (EAC will read the next track while LAME is working on the previous track, thus removing a potential bottleneck with the optical drive). Our test CD is INXS Greatest Hits, a one time '80s glory masterpiece containing 16 tracks totaling 606MB of songs. The results of our tests are presented in minutes/seconds with lower numbers being better.
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| Click to enlarge |
Unlike the synthetic results where the NVIDIA 570SLI scored well in the Buffered Sandra benchmarks, SuperPI 2M, and Latency tests this chipset scored at the bottom in the DDR2-533 and DDR2-667 tests. However, the board made an amazing comeback at DDR2-800. The other chipsets performance scaled very little from DDR2-533 to DDR2-800 but the NF570SLI scores improved up to 10% in the same range. It is obvious you will want to run this board at DDR2-800 and therein is the critical issue with this board. The memory voltage limits you to 2.1V which will severely hamper your ability to increase the memory clocks on this chipset. This is a chipset that thrives on high memory bandwidth and scales very well up to its limits, but it will be held back due to the memory voltage options as most memory that runs at DDR2-1000 will need 2.2V minimum with 2.3V being the average.
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Calin - Tuesday, August 22, 2006 - link
I wonder if the FSB wall (the 320-321 MHz) the mainboard run into is real or an engineering trick... Conspiracy theory, but I think that the top-end chipset might reach a much higher FSB, luring overclockers to pay a handfull of dollars for the premium chipsetGary Key - Tuesday, August 22, 2006 - link
On the previous C19A boards we hit 268FSB with a Pentium 4. We were starting at a 200FSB level. We are now starting at a 266FSB and hitting around the 320FSB level which is actually lower from the base. The Intel NVIDIA chipsets have never been good overclockers and our sample will not even post past 325FSB. We are expecting our final NF590SLI sample this week so it will be interesting if there is a cap although I doubt it.
shabby - Tuesday, August 22, 2006 - link
321 max fsb? Who in their right mind would buy this mobo when the gigabyte ds3 hits speeds over 500fsb?bob661 - Tuesday, August 22, 2006 - link
Because this board costs $120 or lower and has more features (SLI). Not everyone OC's their motherboard. Besides, the DS3 has questionable stability. Why would I or other non-OCers would want to pay $140+ for a board (DS3) that has less features and less stability? Also, DS3's are NOT hitting 500 fsb regularly. A fortunate few are getting 500 fsb but not everyone.DigitalDivine - Tuesday, August 22, 2006 - link
i thought asus would have phased out their signiture gold puke color by now. that board is probably the ugliest i've seen come out of asus, it's not subtle, but bright!!!! black is a very nice color... stick with black... or go platinum silver (i miss my soyo dragon)...the sad part in all of this is that their low cost subsidiary "asrock" offers a very tasteful blue color for their boards.
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This board will be excellent for when i buy a conroe though, maybe i'll wait to see what other manufacturers will be able to put out.
R3MF - Tuesday, August 22, 2006 - link
why does the Intel version of the 570SLI have only 20 PCIe lanes when the AMD version of the 570SLI has 28 PCIe lanes?Gary Key - Tuesday, August 22, 2006 - link
They are not utilizing the same chipset. The 570SLI for Intel Edition is just updated marketing language for the existing C19A+/MCP51(nForce 430).