Intel P965: Mid-Range Performance Sector Roundup
by Gary Key on October 20, 2006 9:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Test Systems: Benchmark Setup
All boards support current socket 775 Intel processors. We chose an E6300 for testing as we feel this will be a very popular Core 2 Duo CPU choice with the P965 motherboards. We also chose GEIL PC2-6400 for our memory choice as it represents an excellent blend of performance at today's inflated prices although we are starting to see some price stabilization after six weeks of continued price increases in the DDR2 market. We are utilizing the MSI X1950XTX video card to ensure our 1280x1024 resolutions are not completely GPU bound for our motherboard test results. We did find in testing that applying a 4xAA/8xAF setting in most of today's latest games created a situation where the performance of the system starts becoming GPU limited.
A 2GB memory configuration is now standard in the AT test bed as most enthusiasts are currently purchasing this amount of memory. We chose memory from GEIL that would offer a wide range of memory settings during our stock and overclocked test runs. Our memory timings are set based upon determining the best memory bandwidth via MemTest 86 and our test application results for each board.
Our revision 1.01G Asus P5B-E motherboard will operate at memory settings of 4-4-3-8 compared to 3-3-3-9 for the other motherboards. This is due to the 2.1V memory limitation and our choice of memory for the P965 roundup. The Asus P5B-E 1.02G offers identical performance at the same memory settings as the 1.01G board so our results will be comparable regarding motherboards.
All other components in our test configurations are exactly the same with the boards being set up in their default configurations. Our video tests are run at 1280x1024 resolution for this article at standard settings. We will not report on 1600x1200 4xAA/8xAF single and ATI CrossFire until part three of the roundup. Since our games are GPU limited at that setting all initial results in our testing are within one percent of each other.
All boards support current socket 775 Intel processors. We chose an E6300 for testing as we feel this will be a very popular Core 2 Duo CPU choice with the P965 motherboards. We also chose GEIL PC2-6400 for our memory choice as it represents an excellent blend of performance at today's inflated prices although we are starting to see some price stabilization after six weeks of continued price increases in the DDR2 market. We are utilizing the MSI X1950XTX video card to ensure our 1280x1024 resolutions are not completely GPU bound for our motherboard test results. We did find in testing that applying a 4xAA/8xAF setting in most of today's latest games created a situation where the performance of the system starts becoming GPU limited.
| Standard Test Bed Performance Test Configuration |
|
| Processor: | Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 (1.86GHz, 2MB Unified Cache) |
| RAM: | Geil PC2-6400 800MHz Plus (2x1GB- GX22GB6400PDC), 2.30V (Micron Memory Chips) |
| Hard Drive: | Seagate 320GB 7200RPM SATA2 16MB Buffer |
| System Platform Drivers: | Intel - 8.1.1.1001 |
| Video Cards: | 1 x MSI X1950XTX |
| Video Drivers: | MSI/ATI Catalyst 6.10 |
| CPU Cooling: | Scythe Infinity |
| Power Supply: | OCZ GameXstream 700W |
| Optical Drive: | Sony 18X AW-Q170A-B2 |
| Case: | Cooler Master CM Stacker 830 |
| Motherboards: | Asus P5B-E (Intel P965 C2, 1.01G) - BIOS 0601 Asus P5B-E (Intel P965 C2, 1.02G) - BIOS 0601 Abit AB9-Pro (Intel P965 C1) - BIOS 1.5 BioStar T-Force 965 Deluxe (Intel P965 C1) - BIOS Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 (Intel P965 C2) - BIOS F7 Asus P5NSLI (NVIDIA 570SLI) - BIOS 0601 Asus P5W-Deluxe (Intel 975X) - BIOS 1407 |
| Operating System: | Windows XP Professional SP2 |
| . | |
A 2GB memory configuration is now standard in the AT test bed as most enthusiasts are currently purchasing this amount of memory. We chose memory from GEIL that would offer a wide range of memory settings during our stock and overclocked test runs. Our memory timings are set based upon determining the best memory bandwidth via MemTest 86 and our test application results for each board.
Our revision 1.01G Asus P5B-E motherboard will operate at memory settings of 4-4-3-8 compared to 3-3-3-9 for the other motherboards. This is due to the 2.1V memory limitation and our choice of memory for the P965 roundup. The Asus P5B-E 1.02G offers identical performance at the same memory settings as the 1.01G board so our results will be comparable regarding motherboards.
All other components in our test configurations are exactly the same with the boards being set up in their default configurations. Our video tests are run at 1280x1024 resolution for this article at standard settings. We will not report on 1600x1200 4xAA/8xAF single and ATI CrossFire until part three of the roundup. Since our games are GPU limited at that setting all initial results in our testing are within one percent of each other.
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JarredWalton - Friday, October 20, 2006 - link
I think that was a temporary glitch where the article went live before the last page's text was updated. Shame on you for skipping straight to the end.... ;)BadThad - Sunday, October 22, 2006 - link
Is the v1.02G Asus P5B-E using all solid capacitors? I read a press release stating that Asus was releasing the "P4B-E Plus" version with all solid caps. Rumor says the "Plus" version will not be sold in the USA.....arrgggggg. Tell me that's not true. I want the solid caps for long-term reliability. I'm wondering if our "Plus" is actually the v1.02G?