Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe: NVIDIA Dual x16 for the Athlon 64
by Wesley Fink on November 6, 2005 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Test Setup
*Samsung TCCD from OCZ and other Memory manufacturers is currently binned into several speed grades. Our test memory would be equivalent to current OCZ PC4800.
Tests used OCZ PC3200 Platinum Rev. 2 (current equivalent OCZ PC4800) which uses Samsung TCCD chips. All memory ran at 2-2-2-7 timing in all benchmarks.
We tested the Asus A8N32-SLI using both single and SLI MSI NVIDIA 7800GTX with NVIDIA video driver 81.85. Once we discovered the improved performance, we also ran a full retest of graphics and gaming benchmarks on the DFI LANParty nF4 SLI-DR for comparison. Resolutions in standard benchmarks were 1280x1024x32 unless otherwise noted. Some standard tests like 3DMarks and Aquamark set standard tests automatically to 1024x768 to force a consistent comparison. Gaming benchmarks were run at 1600x1200 with 4x Anti-Aliasing and 8x Anisotropic Filtering enabled wherever possible. SLI game benchmarks were also run with 4xAA and 8xAF where possible.
Results for the Asus A8N32-SLI are in red, while results for the retest of the DFI LANParty nF4 SLI-DR are color-coded orange. Results for the other boards are in blue. Other board tests used the 6800 Ultra for testing unless otherwise noted and are included for reference.
We added Quake 4, F.E.A.R., and Splinter Cell - Chaos Theory to game benchmarks in this review. Asus targets the A8N32-SLI at the gamer, and these recent games should provide a better picture of the Asus performance in the latest games. We will be adding Battlefield 2 and Call of Duty 2 benchmarks in future reviews. The benchmarks that we have been testing for these two games are not completely reliable for both single-video and SLI testing, so they were not usable in a review that compares SLI performance. As we find solutions to these issues, we will benchmark with these new games.
| Performance Test Configuration | |
| Processor(s): | AMD Athlon 64 4000+ (2.4GHz) Socket 939 |
| RAM: | 2 x 512MB OCZ PC3200 Platinum Rev. 2* (Equivalent to current OCZ OC4800) |
| Hard Drive(s): | Seagate 120GB 7200 RPM SATA (8MB Buffer) |
| Video AGP & IDE Bus Master Drivers: | NVIDIA 6.82 Platform NVIDIA 6.70/6.66 Platform ATI Catalyst Platform 5.10 |
| Video Cards: | MSI NVIDIA 7800GTX NVIDIA 6800 Ultra ATI X850XT Crossfire |
| Video Drivers: | NVIDIA 81.85 Release ATI Catalyst 5.10 NVIDIA nForce 78.01 |
| Operating System(s): | Windows XP Professional SP2 Direct X 9.0c |
| Motherboards: | Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe DFI LANParty UT RDX200 (ATI RD480) ATI Crossfire AMD Reference Board SiS 756 Reference Board ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 (ULi M1695/1567) Sapphire A9RX480 (ATI) Jetway 939GT4-SLI-G (nForce4) ULi AP9567A (M1695/M1567) DFI LANParty nF4 SLI-DR (nForce4) DFI LANParty UT nF4 Ultra-D (nForce4) MSI K8N Neo4/SLI Platinum (nForce4) |
Tests used OCZ PC3200 Platinum Rev. 2 (current equivalent OCZ PC4800) which uses Samsung TCCD chips. All memory ran at 2-2-2-7 timing in all benchmarks.
We tested the Asus A8N32-SLI using both single and SLI MSI NVIDIA 7800GTX with NVIDIA video driver 81.85. Once we discovered the improved performance, we also ran a full retest of graphics and gaming benchmarks on the DFI LANParty nF4 SLI-DR for comparison. Resolutions in standard benchmarks were 1280x1024x32 unless otherwise noted. Some standard tests like 3DMarks and Aquamark set standard tests automatically to 1024x768 to force a consistent comparison. Gaming benchmarks were run at 1600x1200 with 4x Anti-Aliasing and 8x Anisotropic Filtering enabled wherever possible. SLI game benchmarks were also run with 4xAA and 8xAF where possible.
Results for the Asus A8N32-SLI are in red, while results for the retest of the DFI LANParty nF4 SLI-DR are color-coded orange. Results for the other boards are in blue. Other board tests used the 6800 Ultra for testing unless otherwise noted and are included for reference.
We added Quake 4, F.E.A.R., and Splinter Cell - Chaos Theory to game benchmarks in this review. Asus targets the A8N32-SLI at the gamer, and these recent games should provide a better picture of the Asus performance in the latest games. We will be adding Battlefield 2 and Call of Duty 2 benchmarks in future reviews. The benchmarks that we have been testing for these two games are not completely reliable for both single-video and SLI testing, so they were not usable in a review that compares SLI performance. As we find solutions to these issues, we will benchmark with these new games.
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Phantronius - Friday, November 4, 2005 - link
Holy shit!!! $250 for one of these boards via newegg!!????Capt Caveman - Friday, November 4, 2005 - link
Newegg = ScreweggMwave has it for $195 in stock. And Mwave will call you to let you know that it shipped.
Zebo - Friday, November 4, 2005 - link
Mwave rocks I'm not even sure why people screw around with newegg anymore. I've ordered my last six or so mobo+cpu combos from mwave always cheapest and a free something... game.. app..etc.Asus appears to be back after lackluster non-existant NF3 and recent NF4 boards! I may get this and I don't even run Sli.. $200 is a little hard to swallow with DFI ultra for $120 but I like silent setup.
Jedi2155 - Friday, November 4, 2005 - link
Wat about Monarch?bob661 - Friday, November 4, 2005 - link
Monarch has it for $249 last I checked. I wouldn't buy from Mwave. Like the other dude said their customer service leaves a LOT to be desired. I'll buy from Newegg. Customer service is top notch and their shipping is super fast. I'll also buy from ZZF. Their customer is also pretty good although shipping a bit slower than Newegg.Leper Messiah - Friday, November 4, 2005 - link
See, I've had both good and bad expierences with mwave, their customer service is crappy (can't understand asians who have been speaking english for a month tops.) but their prices are good. Too bad newegg gouges on Fedex shipping now.BTW, whats going on with the forums? Haven't been able to log in for a while...
xsilver - Monday, November 7, 2005 - link
thats a bit racist isnt it?they have a totally different pronounciation format in their language so they never get the english accent totally right
conversly, even if you learned chinese for 20years your accent would still sound funny
sxr7171 - Friday, November 4, 2005 - link
When SLI was first introduced last year, we were told that 8x was more than enough bandwidth and that currently video cards can't even come close to saturating that bus. Now we have all this dual x16 hype - for what? Were they lying then or are they lying now? I guess it's good for future-proofing and progress is good, the consumer must be aware of it.ElFenix - Friday, November 4, 2005 - link
if they're claiming a goodly reduction in energy usage due to the 8 phase design i'd like to see if it bears out.SnakeJG - Friday, November 4, 2005 - link
I would really love to see you guys test this out by comparing the power draw of different SLI systems, and seeing if the 8-phase design actually saves noticable power.