FIRST LOOK: Abit Fatal1ty AA8XE
by Wesley Fink on November 9, 2004 8:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Performance Tests
DirectX 9 Gaming
Since Fatal1ty is targeted at gaming, we ran a much larger group of current DirectX 9 benchmarks than we would normally run in a First Look. The goal was to compare the Abit Fatal1ty performance on the most current games to 925X and nForce4.
The tweaks on the Fatal1ty board combined with the extra 2MB of L3 cache on the 3.46EE certainly allow the Abit to outperform the 925X with the faster 3.6GHz Prescott in most Direct X 9 games. The 1066FSB also contributes a very small amount to the increased performance as we found in the recent 925XE launch review. The Abit Fatal1ty is an outstanding performer compared to other Intel boards that we have tested. The improvement in Far Cry performance, in particular, is impressive.
However, all the outstanding tweaks and gaming enhancements just can't offset the gaming horsepower available with the FX55 and 4000+. In most DirectX 9 benchmarks at stock speed, the FX55 wipes the floor with the 3.46EE on the Fatal1ty.
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LoneWolf15 - Wednesday, November 10, 2004 - link
Only two IDE devices? What were they thinking? I'd have to buy new SATA hard disks and spend more cash yet. This board is a real niche design, and I think while Abit's quality is there, there are few people who will buy into this one. I can get an Athlon 64 much more reasonably than a P4, and wipe the floor with the P4 system. I can build a quieter, better cooling setup with a good case so I don't need the fans of the OTES system, and can get a board that still has one serial port like I need and also doesn't take up as many slots with additions. With the money I save not going to this board, I can optimize my system even further with better components. Unless you're a die-hard Intel fan with deep pockets looking to build a system from scratch, I can't see you buying this board.TimTheEnchanter25 - Wednesday, November 10, 2004 - link
Whoops, I read the firewire part wrong. I see one port in the picture now.TimTheEnchanter25 - Wednesday, November 10, 2004 - link
The AN8-Fatal1ty will be based on the Nforce4 Ultra. I think it will be released in the next 2 weeks.Until I read this, I was planning on the AN8-Fatal1ty. I would rather be able to cool my CPU better than the transistors and capcitors... I would also rather have firewire than 2 ethernet ports.
Maybe the AN8-Max will be a better choice.
smn198 - Wednesday, November 10, 2004 - link
#4 AgreedDid some Excel math but unfortunately different ATI and nVidia graphics cards make the results from the 924XE article earlier useless to compare. For example, there is hardly any difference on this review between the FX55 and 4000+ cards with nVidia on Halo but with an ATI there is a pretty big gap!
OK its a first look but without the same chipset and CPU to compare against I am still not really much wiser.
Check:
http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/abit%20fatal1ty... and http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/intel%20pentium...
OzMowerman - Wednesday, November 10, 2004 - link
Gee, is the world so full of pubescent tools?. well, after reading the above posts, it seems so.mrdudesir - Wednesday, November 10, 2004 - link
wow, aside from the fact that it is a poor choice of platform, the board looks like a simply poor design. As it was pointed out in the article you can't use a good air cooler. Plus with 3 40mm fans already on that thing its probably gonna be louder than a jet. not to mention losing a pci slot to the audio daughter card. Not to mention with all these "improvements" they left off some of the best little things, like on-board power and reset switches. Big thumbs down to abit and their sellout spokesman.j@cko - Wednesday, November 10, 2004 - link
I don't get it... Why didn't you include another 925XE board for comparison?FinalFantasy - Wednesday, November 10, 2004 - link
Read #16.........
uhh...
that's all...
ksherman - Wednesday, November 10, 2004 - link
if this is boad that 'Fatal1ty' uses, he's gonna start lagging behind everyone else with their AMD64's.... ;)knitecrow - Wednesday, November 10, 2004 - link
Something is wrong with the following.... a P4 extreme gamming moboOnly if you are a stupid gamer will you spend a premium to get a p4 Extreme Edition system.
Go figure...
buy a FX-55 system... people envy you
buy a p4-EE system and people call you a retart