ASRock Core 2 Duo: AGP/PCI Express Graphics Performance, Part Tres
by Gary Key on August 15, 2006 6:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
System Configuration
Our memory benchmark system uses the following components:
Our test boards represent a blend of performance and pricing requirements for a value-oriented E6300 Core 2 Duo system. The choice of components is designed to provide apples to apples comparison between the PCI Express and AGP capability on our ASRock 775Dual-VSTA platform. We chose the ASRock 775i865G motherboard to provide a comparable AGP system for testing that provided DDR memory capability. We are also only reporting results with DDR memory as the typical user upgrading to either board would probably have both an AGP video card and DDR memory available for use.
Our EVGA 7600GS PCI Express or AGP video card choice represents a very good mid-range alternative and ensures you have respectable game performance at resolutions under 1280x1024 for less than $130. Our EVGA 6800 Ultra tandem represents one of the top performance cards from two years ago and should give a good indication of the performance potential of each graphics slot. Unfortunately, we were unable to procure an ATI X850XT-PE AGP card for comparison with our PCI Express version. However, we doubt there would have been any additional information gained about AGP/PCI-E performance when testing the ATI solutions.
Our feature motherboard is the ASRock 775Dual-VSTA that includes the VIA PT880 Pro Northbridge and VT8237A Southbridge which fully support Core 2 Duo with the proper VRM and BIOS support. The ASRock 775Dual-VSTA is a very unusual board considering all of the available upgrade options and is available at a low entry price of $55.
The board is laid out nicely and certainly caters to those who value IDE and PCI devices. The VT8237A only supports two SATA 1.5Gbps drives but does support four IDE devices. This board also features both AGP 8X capability, PCI-E graphics ability at X4 operation, VIA 10/100 Ethernet LAN, and Realtek ALC-888 HD 7.1 audio. The overall feature set of the VIA chipset is the same as the Biostar PT880 Pro board we reviewed a few months back.
Our other ASRock motherboard is the 775i65G based upon the Intel 865G Northbridge and ICH5 Southbridge with board updates that allow full support for the Core 2 Duo processor series. This motherboard also features on-board graphics capability but requires an external AGP card in order to support the 1066FSB requirement of the Core 2 Duo.
The motherboard utilizes a micro ATX form factor and includes three PCI slots, one AGP 8X slot, one AMR slot, Realtek 10/100 Ethernet LAN, and C-Media 9761a 5.1 Channel audio. The layout is very good and the board is clearly designed for users who want to continue using their AGP video card and DDR memory while upgrading to a newer processor. This motherboard should retail for around US $50 and requires a revision 2 layout for Core 2 Duo compatibility.
Our memory benchmark system uses the following components:
| Performance Test Configuration | |
| Processor: | Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 (Dual core 1.86GHz 2MB Unified Cache) |
| RAM: | 2 x 512MB Patriot DDR-400 (1GB Kit - 2x512 MB) |
| Hard Drive: | Seagate 320GB 7200.10 (16MB Buffer) |
| System Platform Drivers: | VIA 5.09a Intel 8.0.1.1002 |
| Video Cards: | 1 x EVGA 7600GS PCI-E - PCI-E Tests 1 x EVGA 7600GS AGP - AGP Tests 1 x EVGA 6800 Ultra PCI-E - PCI-E Tests 1 x EVGA 6800 Ultra AGP - AGP Tests |
| Video Drivers: | NVIDIA 91.31 |
| CPU Cooling: | Stock Intel Heatsink |
| Power Supply: | OCZ PowerStream 520W |
| Motherboards: | ASRock 775Dual-VSTA (VIA PT880Pro) ASRock 775i865G (Intel 865G) |
| Operating System: | Windows XP Professional SP2 |
| BIOS: | AMI 1.50 - ASRock 775Dual-VSTA AMI 2.50 - ASRock 775i65G |
Our test boards represent a blend of performance and pricing requirements for a value-oriented E6300 Core 2 Duo system. The choice of components is designed to provide apples to apples comparison between the PCI Express and AGP capability on our ASRock 775Dual-VSTA platform. We chose the ASRock 775i865G motherboard to provide a comparable AGP system for testing that provided DDR memory capability. We are also only reporting results with DDR memory as the typical user upgrading to either board would probably have both an AGP video card and DDR memory available for use.
Our EVGA 7600GS PCI Express or AGP video card choice represents a very good mid-range alternative and ensures you have respectable game performance at resolutions under 1280x1024 for less than $130. Our EVGA 6800 Ultra tandem represents one of the top performance cards from two years ago and should give a good indication of the performance potential of each graphics slot. Unfortunately, we were unable to procure an ATI X850XT-PE AGP card for comparison with our PCI Express version. However, we doubt there would have been any additional information gained about AGP/PCI-E performance when testing the ATI solutions.
Our feature motherboard is the ASRock 775Dual-VSTA that includes the VIA PT880 Pro Northbridge and VT8237A Southbridge which fully support Core 2 Duo with the proper VRM and BIOS support. The ASRock 775Dual-VSTA is a very unusual board considering all of the available upgrade options and is available at a low entry price of $55.
 |
| Click to enlarge |
The board is laid out nicely and certainly caters to those who value IDE and PCI devices. The VT8237A only supports two SATA 1.5Gbps drives but does support four IDE devices. This board also features both AGP 8X capability, PCI-E graphics ability at X4 operation, VIA 10/100 Ethernet LAN, and Realtek ALC-888 HD 7.1 audio. The overall feature set of the VIA chipset is the same as the Biostar PT880 Pro board we reviewed a few months back.
Our other ASRock motherboard is the 775i65G based upon the Intel 865G Northbridge and ICH5 Southbridge with board updates that allow full support for the Core 2 Duo processor series. This motherboard also features on-board graphics capability but requires an external AGP card in order to support the 1066FSB requirement of the Core 2 Duo.
 |
| Click to enlarge |
The motherboard utilizes a micro ATX form factor and includes three PCI slots, one AGP 8X slot, one AMR slot, Realtek 10/100 Ethernet LAN, and C-Media 9761a 5.1 Channel audio. The layout is very good and the board is clearly designed for users who want to continue using their AGP video card and DDR memory while upgrading to a newer processor. This motherboard should retail for around US $50 and requires a revision 2 layout for Core 2 Duo compatibility.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
43 Comments
View All Comments
hibachirat - Saturday, August 19, 2006 - link
I agree that the AGP vs. PCIE would better be compared on another board, but I think Gary's point with these articles was more that those of us with decent AGP cards don't need to dash out and buy a $200 MB, $300 of DDR2 RAM, and a $300 PCIE GPU, just to upgrade to a Core 2 CPU. I'm sure it will run great for more than a year, but by that time it will probably be working as test PC somewhere in the office after I splurge for those other new parts.Yeah, some of those Newegg "junk" people make me yell. Just saw one yesterday where somebody ordered a case and then returned it because the power supply wattage rating was too low for them. Of course the power supply rating was stated clearly in the specs on the same page...doh!
joex444 - Wednesday, August 16, 2006 - link
did you really just write a review and do benchmarks to show that AGP is faster than PCI-E x4? I thought this was a given. Next, why don't you see if x16 has more performance than x4, use a real slot and just tape the pins to cripple the card. Gosh, I'd love to hear how that turns out. Next up: Do you really need L1 cache?Paradox999 - Wednesday, August 16, 2006 - link
I have to congradulate AT for this great series.Chalk me up as another person who is looking at either the ASRock 775i65G or ASRock 775Dual-VSTA for a quick upgrade with one of the lower cost Conroes and recycled 2gigs Mushkin DDR500 and AGP Ati x850XTPE.
What I really want to know is does the ASRock 775i65G have any cpu voltage adjustment at all, or is it stable with mild overclocking on the Conroe? With it's superior performance I prefer the ASRock 775i65G. I'd leave the DDR2/PCI-E to a later bigger upgrade that would at that time include a better motherboard.
Cheers!
Gary Key - Thursday, August 17, 2006 - link
It does not have any voltage options. The FSB is limited to 300 which is no issue for a E6300/6400 to hit without a volt increase. The board is extremely stable at 300FSB.
Paradox999 - Thursday, August 17, 2006 - link
Gary,thanks. If i understand you correctly, I *shoud* get a 300fsb with both low end Conroes but with the higher multiplyer of the E6400 that might be the sweet spot for this 'budget' system.
Thanks again for the reviews!!!!!
teraus - Wednesday, August 16, 2006 - link
i am about to buy this board along with a e6600 conroe with my gainward 7800gs+ and ddr pc3200 memory. this is a fill in until next year. found the article very interesting.there are people who always buy the latest thing and some of us look for performance on a budget and buy later and smarteri dont intend to use a pcie card with this board
zemane - Tuesday, August 15, 2006 - link
I would like to know the performance of a system with my video card, ATI A-I-W X800 XT AGP on this motherboard using a Core 2 Duo E6300 or E6600 CPU and 2GB memory, since I am planning to upgrade to something like that soon. And how it would later perform if I upgrade that with a mid-range PCI-E card. Thanks!lemonadesoda - Tuesday, August 15, 2006 - link
I would like to have seen the comparison of this mainboard PCI-4x against a PCI-8x or 16x with similar CPU so we can see how much of a bottleneck (or performance loss) there is with this system. Plase consider a PART 4.kmmatney - Tuesday, August 15, 2006 - link
Like the lack of Socket 939 Semprons, I think the lack of a low cost Conroe (Core Solo>) is a major bummer. I guess you can always get a Pentium D for cheap, but then your back to a hot, power hungry processor. When are "Celeron" Core processors die out?mendocinosummit - Tuesday, August 15, 2006 - link
I am getting tired of this motherboard. Anandtech has not done a real interesting review that I have actually read for almost two weeks. When are there going to be some different reviews.