Shuttle XPC ST61G4: Tiny Computer with Big Integrated Video
by Wesley Fink on January 23, 2004 12:23 PM EST- Posted in
- Systems
Shuttle XPC ST61G4: ATI 9100IGP Memory Performance
With the memory timings limited to 2-3-3-6 and performance as a chipset about 3% to 10% slower than Intel, Science Mark 2 memory benchmarks were run to try to determine the impact of the ATI chipset memory controller on system performance. While ATI has been able to deliver a Dual-Channel memory controller on the 9100IGP chipset, we suspected that the memory bandwidth and memory latency might be poorer than the performance we are seeing currently with Intel chipsets.
As suspected, Science Mark Memory Test reports the raw memory bandwidth of ATI's memory controller at about 80% the bandwidth of Intel's 865/875 chipset. With the deep pipes of the Pentium 4 design, memory bandwidth has been shown to be an important part of performance. Memory latency also can affect performance, and Science Mark shows ATI chipset latency about 50% higher than Intel 865/875.
It would be a mistake to consider these Science Mark 2 memory test results in isolation, since they are merely a couple of pieces of the total picture. However, these results suggest that ATI has more work to do on their memory controller to be fully competitive with the current solution from Intel and others. It should also be pointed out that ATI has made huge strides in the design of their memory controller in recent months, and this makes us excited to see the upcoming ATI chipsets.
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Cygni - Sunday, January 25, 2004 - link
The IGP performance was stellar... if your going to be using the onboard graphics, this box looks like a good choice... but if your going to be using the AGP slot, the i865G looks better.sipc660 - Saturday, January 24, 2004 - link
i think my laptop is running the same ati igp chipset and apart from the crappy celery i noticed performance could be somewhat better..but i don't think that the memory timings are forced that slow..could it be that the shuttle wanted to keep off any possible temperature issues?
i noticed anything video and or memory intensive turns my rather quite laptop into a godzilla.
i reckon anyone purchasing SFF should still get the shuttle and wait for a bios update....that should close the resulting performance gap
why?
ban the freakin 3andHalf floppy drives...
sipc660 - Saturday, January 24, 2004 - link
gamara - Saturday, January 24, 2004 - link
The onboard nForce2 was tested in a previous review, and had better onboard video performance with a processor that cost $80(Athlon XP 2600+) instead of $260(P4 3.0). Not sure if the settings were the same, as the previous article did not list what settings it was tested with.ATI 98 FPS Q3, 50 UT 2003 Flyby, and 38 UT Bot
NForce2 129 Q3, 66 UT Flyby, and 38 UT Bot. Not bad for giving up 1 Ghz on the processor.
artifex - Friday, January 23, 2004 - link
this may sound stupid, but how do you install Windows to the onboard RAID without a floppy for the RAID driver? Not to mention... where does the other drive in the RAID go? :)Lonyo - Friday, January 23, 2004 - link
ATi - Pentium 4, Intel - Pentium 4. nVidia - AMD.Rako00 - Friday, January 23, 2004 - link
Why compare the ATI to intels intergreated graphics card only. At least include the Nforce 2 graphic card too.