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.
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tc2k04 - Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - link
I'm going to back people up on the annoyance of not having soundstorm or atleast something about the audio system. Any nforce2 owner knows how good sounstorm is, i've got an audigy2, and any non EAX source goes through soundstorm for me.I can't believe for enthusiast motherboards, they are touting features like firewalls, 90% of us use routers, its just not that exciting anymore.
Disapointed.
Wonga - Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - link
I think I read somewhere (probably The Inquirer) that nVidia isn't including Soundstorm cos they don't want to pay for a Dolby Digital licence or something.If people don't like the onboard solution, they can just slap an old Sound Blaster Live in the system for peanuts. I do that and it keeps me happy.
don - Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - link
NDA breaker ....knitecrow - Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - link
there is this online petitionhttp://www.petitiononline.com/NVAPU/petition.html
knitecrow - Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - link
dude, where is my soundstorm?This is a rip off to the general consumer, and would have hoped that Anandtech would have picked up on it and made a mention of the problem --
What doesn't nvidia get? there is a huge demand for soundstorm.
Nforce4 is a step back from all the other chipsets in terms of audio.
Intel is pushing hi-def audio, via has got its ENVY series, why would nvidia leave out soundstorm
boooo nforce4
booo Anandtech for not pickup on this
mrdudesir - Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - link
One more thing,Would all the monitor hookups on the cards be active. That would be great cause you could put to gether quite a nice 4 monitor workstation for pretty cheap. you could get those 2 6600GT's and 4 Viewsonic VP171's for about ~$2200. No more expensive then a high end 20"-23" display, and a lot better picture and performance and space (564 square inches vs only 373 for an apple 23" HD Cinema).
Just wondering.
mrdudesir - Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - link
holy crap i want one so bad.BTW, if any one wants a nice big tax write off, my college TV station is looking to replace our PII and PIII video editing and station machines. So if anyone has some extra hardware laying about.....
(No joke, we really, really need new gear).
zhena - Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - link
wait a min,I've seen benchmarks on the web for NVIDIA SLI cards. I don't remember which exact cards were used, but I do remember that one ran in a 16x slot and the other ran in an 4x slot with a 16x connector.
The point, the 4x slot has more than enough bandwidth because it worked perfectly. With no perfomance loss.
Wish I had the link somewhere.
So any chipset that supports pci-e should handle sli just fine, as long as the mobo maker puts two physical 16x slot connectors, regardless of their actual bandwidth.
stelleg151 - Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - link
Will mobo manufacturers increase the possible Bus speeds? Please say yes, I would love one but I want to get to 290... Page 7 says max is 250, that is not ok..plewis00 - Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - link
Can you run, say a 6600GT and 6800 Ultra in SLI? Seeing as they are both Nvidia and the SLI connector should be in the same place?