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Abit NI8 SLI: nVidia SLI for the Intel Gamer

 by Randi Sica & Wesley Fink on October 7, 2005 12:05 AM EST
19 Comments | Add A Comment
19 Comments
General Performance and Encoding

Business Application Performance

Content Creation Application Performance

General Performance

General Performance

General Performance

General Performance

MPEG-4 Encoding Performance - 'Sum of All Fears' Chapter 9

As is often the case with boards based around the same core logic chipset, results in these tests are very similar. The notable concerns here are within Winstones 2004, where there seems to be a performance or test method issue, and in Worldbench 5 where a wider than normal margin exists. We are still looking for answers to the Winstones results, and the numbers will be updated if and when we can find an acceptable explanation for the variations in performance. The Worldbench test notes show that an issue cropped up while running the 3Dsmax OpenGL portion of the test. It was a repeatable anomaly - one where it appeared to run through the test in "slow motion" as compared to its DirectX counterpart test. The final score indeed reflected that issue. After hours of driver changes and reinstalls, the issue still could not be pinpointed. The issue even remained after a full OS reinstall.

In the Futuremark PCMark 2004 and 2005 tests, the ABIT NI8 SLI performed equal to or slightly better than the MSI nForce 4 and Gigabyte 955X based mainboards. In the encoding test, we find all three boards essentially tied, with a 0.6% spread between them.

Test Setup Memory Performance
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  • TheInvincibleMustard - Saturday, October 8, 2005 - link

    Thanks for clearing that up, Wesley ... here I was thinking that AT had gone off their rockers for a moment :D

    -TIM

  • jojo4u - Friday, October 7, 2005 - link

    A new Forceware was also used in the gaming tests.

  • smn198 - Friday, October 7, 2005 - link

    Agreed. This is not a motherboard test.

  • TheInvincibleMustard - Friday, October 7, 2005 - link

    QFT ... what's the point in testing a new board while conveniently slipping a new processor into it as well? That's akin to "Let's compare this Accord versus this Corolla, oh and by the way, the Accord has nitrous, aftermarket shocks, aftermarket brakes, aftermarket muffler ..."

    Thanks for an article that shows that dual-core is better than single-core in multi-threaded applications ... funny, I thought Anandtech did one of those articles a while back ...

    -TIM

    PS -- WTF is up with no Firewire on this board? Mobos http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82...">less than $80 shipped have IEEE1394 connectivity for cryin' out loud ...

  • TheInvincibleMustard - Friday, October 7, 2005 - link

    Err ... well ... I tried to QFT, but apparently it didn't work? Whatever, I still agree with you guys.

    -TIM

  • ksherman - Friday, October 7, 2005 - link

    Man, I REALLY like the passively cooled chipset... wish DFI did that in the nF4 boards...

  • mongoosesRawesome - Friday, October 7, 2005 - link

    eh, not so impressed myself. what ABIT did looks expensive and it doesn't get the job done adequately. DFI includes temperature controlled fans in their BIOS, which makes their fans bearable. A nice thing about Nforce 3/4 boards is that you really only have one chip to cool.

    Who exactly is Abit targeting with this board? Who games with Intel? A64s are cheap, nforce 4 boards are cheap, and they perform better. I realize that in the corporate world, there are people out there that only use Intel, but I figured gamers were different. I just can't see this board really being that popular.

  • KristopherKubicki - Friday, October 7, 2005 - link

    ASUS did it first with the "Premium" series stuff.

    Kristopher

  • emc2-1955 - Sunday, August 29, 2010 - link

    I got an Abit NI8 SLI with an extreme processor and 4 gig of ram. The problem is that to takes forever to load. I've tried it with windows xp pro and windows 7 can anyone tell me what I chould check any tips
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