Performance Test Configuration


 Performance Test Configuration
Processor(s): AMD Athlon XP 3200+ (2.2GHz, 400MHz FSB)
AMD Athlon64 3200+ (2.0GHz)
RAM: 2 x 512MB OCZ PC3500 Platinum Ltd OR
2 x 512MB Mushkin PC3500 Level II
Hard Drive(s): Seagate 80GB or 120GB IDE 7200 RPM (8MB Buffer)
Video AGP & IDE Bus Master Drivers: NVIDIA nForce version 4.24
SiS AGP 1.17 (10-07-2003)
VIA 4in1 Hyperion 4.51 (12-02-2003)
Video Card(s): ATI Radeon 9800 PRO 128MB (AGP 8X)
Video Drivers: ATI Catalyst 4.4
Operating System(s): Windows XP Professional SP1
Motherboards: nVidia nForce2 Ultra 400Gb Reference Board
MSI K8N Neo (nVidia nForce3-250Gb)
AOpen AK89 Max (nVidia nForce3-150)
nVidia nForce3-250 Reference Board
AOpen AK86-L (VIA K8T800 3200+)
ECS 755-A2 (SiS 755 A64 3200+)
SiS 755 Reference Board (A64 3200+)
Abit KV8-MAX3 (VIA K8T800 A64 3200+)
ChaintechZNF3-150 (nForce3-150 A64 3200+)
MSI K8T Neo (VIA K8T800 A64 3200+)
DFI NFII Ultra (nForce2 U400 Athlon XP 3200+)

Tests on Socket 754 Athlon 64 motherboards and Socket A Athlon XP (462) used either Mushkin PC3500 Level II or OCZ PC3500 Platinum Ltd memory modules. Both memories use Winbond BH5 chips and perform virtually the same in our benchmarks.

All performance tests were run with the ATI 9800 PRO 128MB video card with AGP Aperture set to 128MB with Fast Write enabled. Resolution in all benchmarks is 1024x768x32 unless otherwise noted.

Additions to Performance Tests

We have added PCMark2004 to our General Performance tests. This is in addition to Veritest Multimedia Content Creation Winstone 2004 and Veritest Business Winstone 2004 for system benchmarking. Some earlier board tests used the earlier Winstones 2003/2002, which are not results comparable to Winstone 2004 and those results have been dropped from our graphs.

System Utility Content Creation, General Usage, and Media Encoding
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  • Myrandex - Thursday, May 13, 2004 - link

    It woudl still be kinda disappointing to go out and purchase a brand new AthlonXP 3200+ system with this nvidia motherboard and later realize that there will be no further upgrades CPU wise. I have been pushing peopel to go to Athlon64 CPUs for that reason really, unless its an extreme budget situation.
  • segagenesis - Thursday, May 13, 2004 - link

    Extra features like SATA + Raid + Gigabit LAN on the chipset are a nice bonus. Kudos to nVidia for continuing to improve on features.
  • psiu - Thursday, May 13, 2004 - link

    Under final words it begins, "The Socket A Athlon 64 has not received the attention that the newer Athlon 64 chips have gotten in recent months, but the motherboards still sell in very large numbers for nVidia."

    That's supposed to be Socket A Athlon * XP *, right?

    Anyway, neato! Happy to see that socket-A won't just up and disappear overnight, and features and performance are still being worked on for it.

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