FIRST LOOK - nForce4: Gigabyte K8NXP-9
by Wesley Fink on November 12, 2004 8:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Performance Tests
DirectX 9 Gaming
There were many positive responses to using a larger group of DirectX 9 games in our last "First Look", so we're including more recent DX9 games in this "First Look" at a production nForce4 board.
The real comparison here is the nVidia nForce4 Reference Board and the Gigabyte K8NXP-9. Gigabyte has done an excellent job on their nForce4 board. The K8NXP-9 wins every comparison with the nF4 Reference board except Aquamark 3, which is virtually the same with both boards. If this is a reflection of what is coming with shipping nF4 boards, we all have reasons to be pleased. For now, it is fair to say that the Gigabyte K8NXP-9 provides the best performance we have seen on an nForce4 motherboard
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USAF1 - Saturday, November 13, 2004 - link
Nice job on the review, Wesley! It answered most of my performance-related NF4 questions. One thing it did leave me wondering though is the performance difference (throughput, CPU utilization, etc.) between the NF4 GbE controller and the Marvell controller on the PCIe bus. VIA has recently stated that they won't be offering an onboard GbE controller with the K8T890 because external GbE boards offer better performance. It would seem to me that this board would be an excellent platform to test that theory. Anyway, a fine job on the "first look" review.phaxmohdem - Saturday, November 13, 2004 - link
lol #11 I posted before I wanted to kick that kid on the nuts, Looks like Gigabyte got to him first :) Oh Fatal1ty, I'd recommend an ice pack for that... And your little p4 rig.Superbike - Saturday, November 13, 2004 - link
How about some Excel and Word benchmarks my money ison the P4EE.
blahpbla - Saturday, November 13, 2004 - link
What about nTune. Is it suported? Would be nice to see it in action.ImJacksAmygdala - Saturday, November 13, 2004 - link
I can't wait to see what people can do with this board and a +3200 once the new bios comes out...FinalFantasy - Saturday, November 13, 2004 - link
Wow...it looks like Intel is getting owned on both fronts. Regular AMD64 chips are killing P4 EE's and now we have ATI's RX480/RS480 and nVidia's NF4 mobo's killing Abit's just released Fatal1ty mobo that's based off of Intel's chipset.......hmm...not too good for Intel at all.Wesley Fink - Saturday, November 13, 2004 - link
#22 - As listed on p.2 of the review under "Expansion Slots" the Gigabyte has 1 x16 PCIe, 2 x1 PCIe, and 3 PCI slots. All current PCI Express boards we have seen offer some PCI slots.LX - Saturday, November 13, 2004 - link
As a person concerned about both backward and forward compatibility, I'd like to know if there are boards that offer both PCI and PCIe slots and how many.DrMrLordX - Saturday, November 13, 2004 - link
arswihart, I second that. I'd like to see s939 nf3-250gb vs s939 nf4 using the FX-55.Wesley Fink - Saturday, November 13, 2004 - link
#9 & #10 - Corrected.