Socket 939 Chipsets: Motherboard Performance & PCI/AGP Locks
by Wesley Fink on June 2, 2004 12:01 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
General Performance and Encoding
We really expected our suite of General Performance benchmarks to be a dead heat, but the performance of the chipsets, while close overall, were surprisingly different depending on the benchmark.
The nVidia nForce3-250 Ultra performed best on Business Winstone 2004, outperforming the VIA board by over 4%. nF3-250 was also a slightly better performer in Multimedia Content Creation. Change the benchmark to PCMark 2004 and the VIA K8T800 PRO is the better performer by about 1% to 1.5%. The 4% difference in Business Winstone 2004 is wider than we would expect to see when the only variation is chipset, and we do not have an explanation for this performance variation.
Two-Pass media encoding was about the same for both chipsets.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
20 Comments
View All Comments
Wesley Fink - Friday, June 4, 2004 - link
#12 and #19 -We received the 2nd motherboard less than 24 hours before leaving for Computex, and did not sleep so first test results could be carried with us to Taiwan - so we could post when NDA expired while we were at Computex. The article was written in-between visiting booths 8000 miles from home - to bring you coverage of the show. Right now I am in Zhongshan, China and will not return until late next week.
We will test 4 dimms when we review the first SHIPPING 939 boards - when we return from China. I rarely have Reference boards and a stock test bench with me in mainland China.
SpaceRanger - Thursday, June 3, 2004 - link
What bothers me, is that days later, questions still go unanswered. Not cool Anandtech. Your reputation is slipping.daveshel - Thursday, June 3, 2004 - link
Do the enthusiasts reading this article agree that we tend to upgrade motherboards more often than processors? Not true for me.FacelessNobody - Wednesday, June 2, 2004 - link
Another factor I'd like to see included in this roundup is RAID performance. Based on this review, I like the nForce3 250 more, but I've heard that VIA is ahead in their SATA RAID implementation. With the two chipsets so close, RAID performance could easily be a determining factor, not to mention one that means more to me (and probably others) than PCI/AGP locks.Eidolon - Wednesday, June 2, 2004 - link
if nVidia isn't going PCI-Express until Q3 or Q4, who is doing it like this or next month? VIA and SiS?HolgMan - Wednesday, June 2, 2004 - link
Will there be any Socket 940 Boards with either nForce3-250 or K8T800 Pro?Wesley Fink - Wednesday, June 2, 2004 - link
#10 -nVidia is showing PCI Express boards for Athlon 64 Socket 939 at Comdex. While the PCI Express boards are an unannounced product, nVidia says we may seen these as early as 3rd quarter.
MemberSince97 - Wednesday, June 2, 2004 - link
# 12 Very good point...SpaceRanger - Wednesday, June 2, 2004 - link
I saw 4 DIMM slots, but they didn't go into how stable and at what speeds these boards were capable of running with all 4 DIMM slots filled. Anyone know?Nyati13 - Wednesday, June 2, 2004 - link
#9 That is because the most important parts of what used to be a 'Northbridge' are now in the CPU itself, which leaves much less for the motherboard chipset to do.
Jeremy