nForce4 SLI Roundup: Painful and Rewarding
by Wesley Fink on February 28, 2005 7:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe: Overclocking and Stress Testing
| Front Side Bus Overclocking Testbed | |
| Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe | |
| Processor: | Athlon 64 4000+ (2.4GHz, 1MB Cache) |
| CPU Voltage: | 1.5375V (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) |
234x12 (Auto HT, 2-3-3-7, 1T, 2.8V) 2808MHz (+17%) |
| Maximum FSB: (Lower Ratio) |
255x11 (2805MHz) (4X HT, 2.5-3-3-7, 2.7V) (1:1 Memory, 1T, 2 DIMMs in DC mode) (+28% Bus Overclock) |
Asus has been the overclocking leader in many of our recent Intel processor roundups, so it was certainly a disappointment that the Asus turned out to be a below-average overclocker in the SLI roundup. The highest CPU speed that we could reach with stability was 255, but performance at the stock 12 multiplier of our 4000+ was a respectable 234. With two of the boards in the SLI roundup going well above 300 in the same configuration, this was hardly impressive overclocking.
Memory Stress Test Results:
Memory stress tests look at the ability of the Asus A8N-SLI to operate at the officially supported memory frequency at the best performing memory timings that our standard OCZ PC3200 Platinum Rev. 2 will support. Memory stress testing was conducted by running 1:1 at DDR400 with 2 DIMM slots operating in Dual-Channel mode.| 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 |
The Asus SLI was completely stable with 2 DDR modules in Dual-Channel at the settings of 2-2-2-7 at default voltage. This matches the best timings that all of the SLI motherboards in this roundup were able to achieve.
Filling all four available memory slots is more strenuous on the memory subsystem than testing 2 DDR modules on a motherboard.
| 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 |
The Asus K8N-SLI was completely stable at 2-2-2-7 memory timings. We did have to lower the Command Rate to 2T, but this is a function of the on-chip Athlon 64 memory controller. It is rumored that upcoming Rev. E chips will have an updated memory controller capable of driving 4 DIMMs at 1T command rate, which would definitely improve memory performance when running 4 DIMMs.
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eva2000 - Monday, February 28, 2005 - link
whoops no mention of psu was used in system config listing but didn't read till page 20 of the review it mentions OCZ 520W PS psu hehSlaimus - Monday, February 28, 2005 - link
They used a OCZ 520W.neologan - Monday, February 28, 2005 - link
I think the test results for 3dmark2003 single and SLI are the wrong way around?http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2358&am...
F4810 - Monday, February 28, 2005 - link
Why did they show no benchmarks with the mobo's overclocked? It doesnt make sense to say these boards are better becuase you can clock the memory higher if the overall CPU clock is roughly the same. The reason they dont show you is that due to the onchip memory controller on the AMD chips, the high memory frequency doesnt make much of a difference at all in real world terms. As long as you can clock the CPU high that is all that really matters. Also they dont take into account cost as some boards cost 50% more that the others.dornick - Monday, February 28, 2005 - link
I was considering jumping on the SLI bandwagon until I had some sense knocked into me.I'd like to see a comparison of the Ultra chipset MBs, including the Chaintech, Epox, etc... since that's where I think the nForce 4 market will go.
eva2000 - Monday, February 28, 2005 - link
missing one vital piece of info, what PSU you used heheSpacecomber - Monday, February 28, 2005 - link
Thanks for doing the indepth analysis of this new chipset and how it is being implemented by some major motherboard manufacturers.There was one detail that I was hoping to see some reference to. I understand, from a friend, who has the MSI SLI motherboard, that the Creative Live sound chip only works if your power supply has a -5 volt connector on it. It looks to me like the OCZ power supply that you used has this, but many of the new power supplies, such as the Enermax v2.0 power supplies, no longer have a -5 volt connection. He was using a Enermax 535 watt Whisper II (SLI ready) when he ran into this issue. This kind of compatability problem slipping through QA seems like another indication that the everyone was in a big hurry to get these motherboards to market, maybe before they were thoroughly tested.
Space
Regs - Monday, February 28, 2005 - link
I liked the subtle hints Wes.In your final words you stated, "If you want the best performance possible then the answer would likely be yes". Then how would this apply for users getting two 6600GTs?
xsilver - Monday, February 28, 2005 - link
great articleminor gripe -- the overclocking "graphs" are useless -- what would be better is the resulting fps of overclocking to show people if its worth it to get that extra xxx fps
arfan - Monday, February 28, 2005 - link
now i am waiting ultra mobo benchmark. What about the price of all this mobo ? i fell disappointed with msi doesn't have PCI 1x. (Sorry my english language is very bad)