FIRST LOOK: Abit Fatal1ty AA8XE
by Wesley Fink on November 9, 2004 8:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Performance Tests (Continued)
DirectX 8 & OpenGL Gaming
Abit and Fatal1ty have some interesting optimizations going on in older Direct X8 and Open GL games. The increase in Quake 3 performance compared to the Intel 925X is astonishing. Comanche 4 sees a similar huge boost compared to 925X. Once again, however, FX55 is a huge winner compared to Fatal1ty/3.46EE.
General Performance
Measuring General Performance with PCMark 2004, we see that the huge cache in the 3.46EE doesn't make much difference. In this benchmark, the faster 3.6 tops the chart. We also see the familiar pattern with PCMark 2004 where Intel processors perform best with this benchmark. The difference is smaller with the FX55, but in most every other benchmark, the FX55 has a huge lead.
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LoneWolf15 - Wednesday, November 10, 2004 - link
Only two IDE devices? What were they thinking? I'd have to buy new SATA hard disks and spend more cash yet. This board is a real niche design, and I think while Abit's quality is there, there are few people who will buy into this one. I can get an Athlon 64 much more reasonably than a P4, and wipe the floor with the P4 system. I can build a quieter, better cooling setup with a good case so I don't need the fans of the OTES system, and can get a board that still has one serial port like I need and also doesn't take up as many slots with additions. With the money I save not going to this board, I can optimize my system even further with better components. Unless you're a die-hard Intel fan with deep pockets looking to build a system from scratch, I can't see you buying this board.TimTheEnchanter25 - Wednesday, November 10, 2004 - link
Whoops, I read the firewire part wrong. I see one port in the picture now.TimTheEnchanter25 - Wednesday, November 10, 2004 - link
The AN8-Fatal1ty will be based on the Nforce4 Ultra. I think it will be released in the next 2 weeks.Until I read this, I was planning on the AN8-Fatal1ty. I would rather be able to cool my CPU better than the transistors and capcitors... I would also rather have firewire than 2 ethernet ports.
Maybe the AN8-Max will be a better choice.
smn198 - Wednesday, November 10, 2004 - link
#4 AgreedDid some Excel math but unfortunately different ATI and nVidia graphics cards make the results from the 924XE article earlier useless to compare. For example, there is hardly any difference on this review between the FX55 and 4000+ cards with nVidia on Halo but with an ATI there is a pretty big gap!
OK its a first look but without the same chipset and CPU to compare against I am still not really much wiser.
Check:
http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/abit%20fatal1ty... and http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/intel%20pentium...
OzMowerman - Wednesday, November 10, 2004 - link
Gee, is the world so full of pubescent tools?. well, after reading the above posts, it seems so.mrdudesir - Wednesday, November 10, 2004 - link
wow, aside from the fact that it is a poor choice of platform, the board looks like a simply poor design. As it was pointed out in the article you can't use a good air cooler. Plus with 3 40mm fans already on that thing its probably gonna be louder than a jet. not to mention losing a pci slot to the audio daughter card. Not to mention with all these "improvements" they left off some of the best little things, like on-board power and reset switches. Big thumbs down to abit and their sellout spokesman.j@cko - Wednesday, November 10, 2004 - link
I don't get it... Why didn't you include another 925XE board for comparison?FinalFantasy - Wednesday, November 10, 2004 - link
Read #16.........
uhh...
that's all...
ksherman - Wednesday, November 10, 2004 - link
if this is boad that 'Fatal1ty' uses, he's gonna start lagging behind everyone else with their AMD64's.... ;)knitecrow - Wednesday, November 10, 2004 - link
Something is wrong with the following.... a P4 extreme gamming moboOnly if you are a stupid gamer will you spend a premium to get a p4 Extreme Edition system.
Go figure...
buy a FX-55 system... people envy you
buy a p4-EE system and people call you a retart