DFI NFII Ultra: Mean Green Dream Machine
by Wesley Fink on July 30, 2003 6:25 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
DFI NFII Ultra: BIOS and Overclocking
DFI uses the familiar Award BIOS on the NFII Ultra. Our test board was equipped originally with the 6/05/2003 Performance BIOS. While we were impressed with the incredible array of options available in this BIOS, we had some problems with the stability of the BIOS in some extreme overclocking situations. The later 6/25/2003 BIOS proved to be fast and very stable, and thus, benchmarks were run using this BIOS.DFI later supplied an updated 7/10/2003 Performance BIOS, which proved to combine the excellent stability of the 6/25/2003 BIOS with the incredible selection of tweaking options available in the 6/05/2003 BIOS.
The Performance BIOS has the most incredible array of overclocking options that we have ever seen on an nForce2 board.
FSB - 100-300 in 1MHz intervals
AGP - Auto or FIXED at 1Mhz intervals from 50-100
CPU Ratio - 5X-22X
vCore - Auto, 1.10-2.05 in 0.025v increments
vAGP - Auto, 1.5-1.8 in 0.1v increments
Chipset Voltage - Auto, 1.6-1.9 in 0.1v increments
vDIMM - Auto, 2.5-2.8 in 0.1v increments
RAM Ratios - Auto, 2:1. 5:3, 3:2, 4:3, 5:4, 6:5, 1:1, 5:6, 4:5, 3:4, 2:3, 3:5, 1:2
T(RAS) - 1-15
T(RCD-Read) - 1-7
T(RCD-Write) - 1-7
T(RP) - 1-7
T(RC) - 9-31
T(RFC) - 9-31
Super Bypass - Enable, Disable
Sync Mode Memory Bypass - Auto, Enable, Disable
Data Scavaged Rate - Fast, Normal
DIMM 1 Driving Strength - Auto, 1-15
DIMM 1 Skew Rate - Auto, 1-15
DIMM 2 Driving Strength - Auto, 1-15
DIMM 2 Skew Rate - Auto, 1-15
DIMM 3 Driving Strength - Auto, 1-15
DIMM 3 Skew Rate - Auto, 1-15
CAS Latency - 2.0, 2.5, 3.0
The options available in the Performance BIOS are certainly a demonstration that DFI does know what is involve in producing a board squarely aimed at the computer enthusiast. How can you not be impressed with an enthusiast's dream collection of tweaking options in the Performance BIOS available for this board?
The voltage adjustments, FSB adjustments, and ratio controls are in a menu item DFI calls “Genie”.
We can tell you the added options do make a difference in squeezing every bit of performance from the NFII Ultra, but we have only scratched the surface in mastering the available tweaks. The speed and overclocking abilities with this BIOS are impressive. A word of caution here also: you can get yourself into trouble with the available options if you're not careful. If you don't understand these options, choose AUTO; otherwise, you may be reformatting your hard drive. The 6/25/2003 release version of the BIOS includes a full array of options, but does not include all these options; rather settling for optimum values for most situations. But AMD tweakers will love this Performance BIOS.
The NFII Ultra PC Health section includes System and CPU temperatures, CPU and Chassis fan speeds, Vcore, and Power Supply readings for all rails. There is also an adjustable setting for Maximum CPU temperature that will automatically shut down the system, if the preset temperature is exceeded. DFI includes the familiar Winbond Hardware Monitor for keeping tabs of voltages, temperatures and fan speeds in Windows.
Voltage adjustment options for the DFI NFII Ultra are very well-balanced. We were pleasantly surprised to see vCore adjustments to 2.05V – much higher than offered by most other nForce boards, except those from Epox. The vDIMM adjustment range, while much better than the DFI 975PRO LanParty, tops out at 2.8V. Although this should be adequate for most users, we are now seeing new high-speed memory from OCZ and GEIL that offers warranty support for use at voltages up to about 3.0V. We would have preferred to see the vDIMM reach to the 3.0V to 3.2V range, but in reality, we will not be running nForceII boards at DDR500 as we might on an Intel 875P board. Considering the practical overclocking limits of the nForce 2 Ultra 400, we would conclude that the 2.8V maximum voltage for memory is probably a good choice. Besides, we have chipset voltage adjustments on the NFII Ultra – all the way to 1.9V. In testing overclocks on the NFII Ultra, we found that we often attained better results getting beyond walls by increasing the chipset voltage a bit, rather than increasing vDIMM. Certainly, the wide chipset adjustment range coupled with the decent vDIMM adjustment range gives the overclocker many very effective options.
FSB Overclocking Results
For FSB overclocking, the following setup was used on the NFII Ultra:| Front Side Bus Overclocking Testbed | ||
| Default Voltage | Maximum Overclock | |
| Processor: | Athlon XP 2500+ (Barton Core) | Athlon XP 2500+ (Barton Core) |
| CPU Vcore: | 1.65V (default) | 1.775V (default) |
| Cooling: | Thermalright SK-7 with 80mm Thermaltake Fan | Thermalright SK-7 with 80mm Thermaltake Fan |
| Power Supply: | Powmax 350W | Powmax 350W |
The above overclocking setup at default voltage allowed us to reach a stable FSB of 223MHz. This makes the DFI NFII Ultra the best overclocking nForce2 Ultra 400 board that we have tested at AnandTech. With this kind of performance at default voltage, we were curious just how far we could push the Barton 2500+ with a bit more voltage. We were able to achieve complete stability at 227MHz using 1.775V. This represents a true CPU speed of 2.502GHz from a chip designed to run at 1.83GHz – a 37% overclock. Since the 3200+ runs at 2.2GHz, this would represent a performance rating in the range of 3600+, if such a rating existed.
The DFI NFII Ultra has a very wide range of multiplier adjustments, available from 5.5X all the way up to 22X. The whole range of multipliers appeared to work well on our Barton 2500+. We did not see any missing ranges in the multiplier settings, as have been reported on other nForce2 boards.
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Anonymous User - Sunday, August 10, 2003 - link
why is everyone going nuts over this,this is aNforce2 ultra400 chipset so its new the asus a7n8x deluxe its a Nforce2 chipset so its old why compare an old MB with a old chipset with the new chipset,i own both boards and the DFI its 12% faster than asus and its the best
overcloking board for the athlon that i have used.
OH and xtras lots of Xtras for the price, with this board i was able to clock my 2500+ to 2466 MHZ no problem with the asus and same proc i only reach that # and it would not boot at all
and if U where wondering i got version 2.0 of the asus. peace
Anonymous User - Tuesday, August 5, 2003 - link
#34, did you read the review or any of the comments from the editors? You'd have to be stupid to think that DFI's nForce2 Ultra 400 motherboard would show anything different from the many nForce2 and KT600 motherboards AT has reviewed here. Look at any of the past few motherboard reviews and you'll clearly see nForce2 is faster than KT600, and that all nForce2 boards are no faster than each other, varying in performance by no more than 1%.Jeez, why should AT even bother posting reviews for such clueless readers with an ignorant attitude.
Anonymous User - Sunday, August 3, 2003 - link
It does not matter how new he is to Anandtech, there must be an editor responsible enough to make the call as to whether or not this review was worth putting up. In my opinion, I see little or no value to this review because there is no comparison worth mentioning. Come on! A Ti4600 on 3 motherboards but the review board has a 9800!When I finally got the the benchamrks and realized what was being done, I was through taking this article seriously. What is to be gained by reading this? You must compare it to a comparable system with the same components.
What gives with the two different hard drives listed in the setup? Was the DFI using the faster drive while the others used the slower setup?
Cashmoney995 - Sunday, August 3, 2003 - link
Its free, and Anand would never accept any type of bribe from the companies. Its not the easiest thing running a FREE to view website, and doing a multitude of benchmarks on THEIR free time. Just chill a bit guys, we dont want to become completely cynical. AT says the DFI mobo is the best deal out there, and I think im gonna pick one up. I bought a Chaintech and have had horrible experiance with the drivers especially for audio, it comes out all scratchy and the provided driver doesnt even work! Even worse is the horrible chaintech website which does shit for letting u contact support.Anonymous User - Saturday, August 2, 2003 - link
Posting an email i sent here but didn't get any response to regarding this article:"Please correct me if I am wrong but from what I understand Soundstorm is a
certification given to a motherboard that guarantees it meets certain
specification set by Nvidia/Dolby guys. I also understand that it's a money
issue a lot of manufacturer don't pay to be certified, the sound might be as
good but it's not Soundstorm. So in the article when you say:
"On boards using the MCP-T Southbridge, sound is provided by the excellent
nVidia SoundStorm digital audio controllers built into the MCP-T. The
manufacturer provides a compliant audio codec for the front-end that
interfaces to Sound Storm. DFI uses the excellent cMedia codec • the same
codec used on all three LanParty boards."
It's for me very confusing, and I believe mislead potential buyer,
especially that I remember earlier Nvidia clarifying this issue and stating
that at the time Abit was the only certified motherboard
http://www.nvidia.com/object/motherboards.html. It also doesn't seem to
make sense to say that SoundStorm is built into the MCP-T since it is a
certification process that applies to the entire motherboard once complete
not only to a chipset. Same logic says that anything interfaces with
SoundStorm seems also flawed. As a buyer for me it's the same thing when I
go to the movies and specifically go to the THX certified screens only, I
mean I pay the same price so why not have a peace of mind that sound quality
has been inspected and certified by a team of expert. Personnally I don't
care about sound in motherboard but I would think if someone did the same
logic would apply and they might rather go with Abit, or other SoundStorm
certified motherboard, for peace of mind. That's just my understanding and
opinion."
Anonymous User - Friday, August 1, 2003 - link
why didn't you just go back and rebench the gigabyte board with the 9800? that would make a lot more sense and certainly would have been what AT did back in the day...Wesley Fink - Friday, August 1, 2003 - link
Regarding the post about the 32MB Aperture Size:The Aperture Size makes very little difference in the performance of the ATI 9700/9800 series video cards because of the way the architecture handles textures. For the sake of consistency we have used 128MB Aperture Size and will use it with the 9800PRO in the future.
However, these are game benchmarks run with the ATI 9800 PRO at the same settings - except 32mb and 128mb apertures - with UT2003 and GunMetal 2 DX9:
UT2003 1024x768
Flyby 32MB Aperture 217.08, 128Mb 217.36
Botmatch 32Mb Aperture 81.16, 128Mb 81.28
Gun Metal 2, Benchmark 2 DX9, 1280x768
32Mb Aperture 31.47, 128Mb 31.47
As you can see, the real difference between 32Mb and 128Mb Aperture is negligible in these game benchmarks on the 9800 PRO.
Anonymous User - Friday, August 1, 2003 - link
I'm sure thats what most of us wanted to see. I don't even know if you can use ANY data from a past benchmark and compare it accurately with a new test. Unless you are sure NOTHING has cnaged with the test setup (no driver or windows updates, no programs installed or removed) even just surfing the web with the "test" pc for a couple weeks might skew the results.Fresh OS install > Test > Swap parts
Fresh OS install > Test > Repeat
Nightmare
Wesley Fink - Friday, August 1, 2003 - link
Review conclusions were NOT based on comparisons made with different video cards. I HAVE compared the Gigabyte and DFI nForce2 Ultra 400 boards - both with a 9800 PRO 128Mb card. But my Gigabyte review is posted on a website I used to write for, www.bleedinedge.com, and can not be fairly quoted here since Evan Lieb reviewed the Gigabyte board here at Anandtech. I would never draw conclusions based on differences in benchmarks run with cards performing as differently as the Ti4600 and 9800 PRO.We have moved to the 9800 PRO as our new standard for reviews, and there is never a good time to make such a switch. I considered not even posting earlier benchmarks run with the Ti4600, but there are benchmarks - Media Encoding being one - that are not affected by the video card. I also thought the benchmarks, clearly identified as different video cards, would also help our readers see the changes our new video standard would make in test scores.
This will all make more sense as new reviews are published using the ATI 9800 PRO.
Anonymous User - Friday, August 1, 2003 - link
Without using the same video card, you can NOT compare the DFI and the Gigabyte nForce2 motherboards. Moreover, you can NOT say that the DFI is the best performing AMD motherboard.
This review is useless for someone who wants to buy an nForce2 motherboard and wants to compare these two.