nForce4: PCI Express and SLI for Athlon 64
by Wesley Fink on October 19, 2004 12:01 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
Performance Test Configuration
If you are interested in more information comparing the Athlon64, Athlon64 FX, Prescott, P4, and P4EE, please see our in-depth comparisons in the recent launch reviews:.09 Athlon 64: Value, Speed and Overclocking
AMD Sempron: A Fresh Take on Budget Computing
Intel's 925X & LGA-775: Are Prescott 3.6 and PCI Express Graphics any Faster?
Intel 925X/915: Chipset Performance & DDR2
Socket 939 Chipsets: Motherboard Performance & PCI/AGP Locks
AMD Athlon 64 3800+ and FX-53: The First 939 CPUs
The Athlon 64 FX-53: AMD's Next Enthusiast Part
Intel's Pentium 4 E: Prescott Arrives with Luggage
| Performance Test Configuration | |
| Processor(s): | AMD Athlon 64 FX55 (2.6GHz) Socket 939 AMD Athlon 64 FX53 (2.4GHz) Socket 939 |
| RAM: | 2 x 512MB OCZ PC3200 Platinum Rev. 2 OR 2 x 512MB Corsair 3200XL XMS3208v1.1 |
| Hard Drive(s): | Maxtor 250GB 7200RPM SATA (16MB Buffer) |
| Video AGP & IDE Bus Master Drivers: | nVidia nForce 6.11 Beta (nForce4) nVidia nForce Platform Driver 4.24 (nForce3 Ultra) |
| Video Card(s): | nVidia 6800 Ultra (PCI Express) nVidia 6800 Ultra (AGP 8X) |
| Video Drivers: | nVidia nForce 61.81 Beta (nForce4) nVidia nForce 61.77 (nForce3 Ultra) |
| Operating System(s): | Windows XP Professional SP1 |
| Motherboards: | nVidia nForce4 Ultra Reference Board MSI K8N Neo2 (nVidia nForce3-250Gb) |
ALL PERFORMANCE COMPARISONS WERE MADE WITH THE FX53 (2.4GHz). Test results with the FX55 were included for comparison and are clearly identified as FX55.
Tests used either OCZ PC3200 Platinum Rev. 2 or Corsair 3200XL XMS3208v1.1 memory modules. Both memories use Samsung TCCD chips and perform virtually the same in our benchmarks at stock speed. Since the nVidia 6800 Ultra AGP was used for testing in the 939 chipset launch, we used the PCI Express 6800 Ultra for all testing with the nForce4. Resolution in all benchmarks is 1024x768x32 unless otherwise noted.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
101 Comments
View All Comments
AlphaFox - Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - link
I take it no one here has used soundstorm with doom3: crackling and cutting out, having to reset the sound all the time. pain in the butt, how is it great??jm0ris0n - Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - link
I still think that Anyone who would want SLI-PCIe WOULD NOT use onboard sound.Viper96720 - Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - link
Ah i see I thought that was agp it is the 16x pci-e.LotoBak - Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - link
55 -I take it your refering to this pic
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showimage.htm...
That long slot is NOT agp. It is PCIe 16x. The two above it are PCIe 4x I believe (could be wrong on the 4x)
jediknight - Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - link
nVidia's decision to dump SoundStorm makes no sense. If it was a business decision because the OEMs and media (??) as an earlier posted pointed out.. how can they justify the extra expense of SLI? What OEM is going to use that high-end tech? (Hint: Not Alienware.. they've got their own stuff)The same people who want SLI want SoundStorm.. these enthusiasts are nVidia's core business (not by sales volume, by prestige, reputation, etc. in the marketplace) and not listening to your customers is a bad idea in my book..
jm0ris0n - Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - link
I could care less about the soundstorm :-p*Drool@SLI goodness :-D*
Viper96720 - Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - link
#45 the board has AGP in case you didn't notice the long brown slot next to the PCI. The 2 small ones right above the audio is the PCI-E.RebolMan - Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - link
The reason soundstorm is nice is because it outpreforms "real" cards - thus leading to better enjoyment of said games by soaking up less CPU time!http://www.tweaktown.com/document.php?dType=review...
It produces a _better_ gaming experience in terms of sound, and still gets better frame-rates than a PC equipped with a SB Audigy Platinum Pro!
http://www.tweaktown.com/document.php?dType=review...
and...
http://www.tweaktown.com/document.php?dType=articl...
Why don't vendors pay as much attention to "APU" performance as they do to GPU performance?
RebolMan - Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - link
BAH! Where's my SoundStorm!!!?!?!?Aquila76 - Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - link
#44 - That dual SLI board (page 3) looks like an MSI (VIA chipset? has an Envy controller at top) board, not the nForce4 SLI reference board. The nVidia reference board design may be different.