µATX Part 1: ATI Radeon Xpress 1250 Performance Review
by Gary Key on August 28, 2007 7:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
abit Fatality F-I90HD: Board Layout and Features
abit engineered an attention grabbing motherboard that has a unique color layout that we really like. The board easily installed into a variety of micro-ATX cases and most connections were easily reached. The board features a four-phase voltage regulator system that provided very good stability throughout our testing. The abit board features a combination of Conductive Polymer Aluminum Solid Capacitors and Electrolytic Capacitors.
The board comes with four fan headers which is an excellent decision in our opinion. The CPU and System fan headers can be controlled via the BIOS and the abit EQ program within Windows.
Around the CPU socket area, we find an ample amount of room for the majority of cooling solutions. We utilized the stock heatsink/fan in our base testing but also verified several aftermarket Socket-775 cooling solutions would fit in this area during our overclocking tests. The 4-pin ATX power connector is located right behind the optical out port and did not interfere with our various cooling units.
The rear panel contains the standard PS/2 mouse and keyboard ports. The panel also includes a LAN port with activity indicator lights, four USB ports, and an optical out S/PDIF port. The audio panel consists of six ports that can be configured for 2, 4, 6, and 8-channel audio connections for the Realtek ALC888 HD codec. The board also has an HDMI 1.2 and D-Sub port for video out capabilities. If you use the HDMI port with a DVI converter, the PS/2 keyboard port will be blocked.
The DIMM module slots' color coordination is correct for dual channel setup based upon the premise of installing DIMMs in the same colored slots for dual-channel operation. The memory modules are easy to install with a full size video card placed in the PCI Express x16 slot. The 24-pin ATX power connector is properly located on the edge of the board with the IDE connector. The black floppy drive connector is located below the PCI slot and proved to be a difficult location to reach in smaller cases.
We found the positioning of the four red SB600 SATA ports to be excellent when utilizing the expansion slots. The RS600 and SB600 chipsets are passively cooled and remained fairly cool to the touch throughout testing.
The board comes with one physical PCI Express x16 connector, two PCI Express x1 connectors, and one PCI 2.2 connector. The second PCI Express x1 slot will be blocked by a dual slot graphics card. The first PCI Express x1 slot is a tight fit as a card installed in this slot will have minimal clearance between the RS600 heatsink and video card.
We had to raise the CPU cooling fan a little in order to clear the Northbridge heatsink but otherwise this setup worked perfectly in several of our micro-ATX case designs. Cases such as our Silverstone SG-03 and SG-01 would not accept this heatsink due to height restrictions. In those cases we ended up utilizing the retail heatsinks.
The slight offset in location for the PCI Express x16 slot allowed our MSI 8600 GTS to fit on this board with the OCZ HPC Reaper memory. Actually, it just barely fit as it turns out. Our only real issue with this setup is the fact that the CPU ran around 3C higher than the ASRock board since the CPU fan was inhaling hot air off the back of this video card. Also, the first PCI Express x1 slot will be blocked with this combination.
abit engineered an attention grabbing motherboard that has a unique color layout that we really like. The board easily installed into a variety of micro-ATX cases and most connections were easily reached. The board features a four-phase voltage regulator system that provided very good stability throughout our testing. The abit board features a combination of Conductive Polymer Aluminum Solid Capacitors and Electrolytic Capacitors.
The board comes with four fan headers which is an excellent decision in our opinion. The CPU and System fan headers can be controlled via the BIOS and the abit EQ program within Windows.
Around the CPU socket area, we find an ample amount of room for the majority of cooling solutions. We utilized the stock heatsink/fan in our base testing but also verified several aftermarket Socket-775 cooling solutions would fit in this area during our overclocking tests. The 4-pin ATX power connector is located right behind the optical out port and did not interfere with our various cooling units.
The rear panel contains the standard PS/2 mouse and keyboard ports. The panel also includes a LAN port with activity indicator lights, four USB ports, and an optical out S/PDIF port. The audio panel consists of six ports that can be configured for 2, 4, 6, and 8-channel audio connections for the Realtek ALC888 HD codec. The board also has an HDMI 1.2 and D-Sub port for video out capabilities. If you use the HDMI port with a DVI converter, the PS/2 keyboard port will be blocked.
The DIMM module slots' color coordination is correct for dual channel setup based upon the premise of installing DIMMs in the same colored slots for dual-channel operation. The memory modules are easy to install with a full size video card placed in the PCI Express x16 slot. The 24-pin ATX power connector is properly located on the edge of the board with the IDE connector. The black floppy drive connector is located below the PCI slot and proved to be a difficult location to reach in smaller cases.
We found the positioning of the four red SB600 SATA ports to be excellent when utilizing the expansion slots. The RS600 and SB600 chipsets are passively cooled and remained fairly cool to the touch throughout testing.
The board comes with one physical PCI Express x16 connector, two PCI Express x1 connectors, and one PCI 2.2 connector. The second PCI Express x1 slot will be blocked by a dual slot graphics card. The first PCI Express x1 slot is a tight fit as a card installed in this slot will have minimal clearance between the RS600 heatsink and video card.
We had to raise the CPU cooling fan a little in order to clear the Northbridge heatsink but otherwise this setup worked perfectly in several of our micro-ATX case designs. Cases such as our Silverstone SG-03 and SG-01 would not accept this heatsink due to height restrictions. In those cases we ended up utilizing the retail heatsinks.
The slight offset in location for the PCI Express x16 slot allowed our MSI 8600 GTS to fit on this board with the OCZ HPC Reaper memory. Actually, it just barely fit as it turns out. Our only real issue with this setup is the fact that the CPU ran around 3C higher than the ASRock board since the CPU fan was inhaling hot air off the back of this video card. Also, the first PCI Express x1 slot will be blocked with this combination.
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Sargo - Tuesday, August 28, 2007 - link
Nice review but there's no X3100 on Intel G33. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_GMA#GMA_3100">GMA 3100 is based on much older arhitechture. Thus even the new drivers won't help that much.ltcommanderdata - Tuesday, August 28, 2007 - link
Exactly. The G33 was never intended to replace the G965 chipset, it replaces the 945G chipset and the GMA 950. The G33's IGP is not the GMA X3100 but the GMA 3100 (no "X") and the IGP is virtually identical to the GMA 950 but with higher clock speeds and better video support. The GMA 950, GMA 3000, and GMA 3100 all only have SM2.0 pixel shaders with no vertex shaders and no hardware T&L engine. The G965 and the GMA X3000 remains the top Intel IGP until the launch of the G35 and GMA X3500. I can't believe Anandtech made such an obvious mistake, but I have to admit Intel isn't helping matters with there ever expanding portfolio of IGPs.Here's Intel's nice PR chart explaining the different IGPs:
http://download.intel.com/products/graphics/intel_...">http://download.intel.com/products/graphics/intel_...
Could you please run a review with the G965 chipset and the GMA X3100 using XP and the latest 14.31 drivers? They are now out of beta and Intel claims full DX9.0c SM3.0 hardware acceleration. I would love to see the GMA X3000 compared with the common GMA 950 (also supported in the 14.31 drivers although it has no VS to activate), the Xpress X1250, the GeForce 6150 or 7050, and some low-end GPUs like the X1300 or HD 2400. A comparison between the 14.31 and previous 14.29 drivers that had no hardware support would also show how much things have increased.
JarredWalton - Tuesday, August 28, 2007 - link
I did look at gaming performance under Vista with a 965GM chipset in the http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.aspx?i=306...">PC Club ENP660 review. However, that was also tested under Vista. I would assume that with drivers working in all respects, GMA X3100 performance would probably come close to that of the Radeon Xpress 1250, but when will the drivers truly reach that point? In the end, IGP is still only sufficient for playing with all the details turned down at 1280x800 or lower resolutions, at least in recent titles. Often it can't even do that, and 800x600 might be required. Want to play games at all? Just spend the $120 on something like an 8600 GT.IntelUser2000 - Wednesday, August 29, 2007 - link
It has the drivers at XP.
JarredWalton - Wednesday, August 29, 2007 - link
Unless the XP drivers are somehow 100% faster (or more) than the last Vista drivers I tried, it still doesn't matter. Minimum details in Battlefield 2 at 800x600 got around 20 FPS. It was sort of playable, but nothing to write home about. Half-Life 2 engine stuff is still totally messed up on the chipset; it runs DX9 mode, but it gets <10 FPS regardless of resolution.IntelUser2000 - Wednesday, August 29, 2007 - link
I get 35-45 fps on the demo Single Player for the first 5 mins at 800x600 min. Didn't check more as its limited.E6600
DG965WH
14.31 production driver
2x1GB DDR2-800
WD360GD Raptor 36GB
WinXP SP2
IntelUser2000 - Tuesday, September 11, 2007 - link
Jarred, PLEASE PROVIDE THE DETAILS OF THE BENCHMARK/SETTINGS/PATCHES used for BF2 so I can provide equal testing as you have done on the Pt.1 article.Like:
-What version of BF2 used
-What demos are supposed to be used
-How do I load up the demos
-etc
R101 - Tuesday, August 28, 2007 - link
Just for the fun of it, for us to see what can X3100 do with these new betas. I've been looking for that test since those drivers came out, and still nothing.erwos - Tuesday, August 28, 2007 - link
I'm looking forward to seeing the benchmarks on the G35 motherboards (which I'm sure won't be in this series). The X3500 really does seem to have a promising feature set, at least on paper.Lonyo - Tuesday, August 28, 2007 - link
Bioshock requires SM3.0.