FIRST LOOK - nForce4: Gigabyte K8NXP-9
by Wesley Fink on November 12, 2004 8:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Overclocking and Memory Stress Testing
With the limited ranges of CPU clock speeds available in the pre-release Gigabyte BIOS, it was not possible to test overclocking thoroughly. We were able to reduce multipliers and easily reach 250FSB, which was the top speed available in the pre-release BIOS. However, until we receive the updated BIOS, we cannot determine the full overclocking capabilities of the K8NXP-9.Since there have been many reports of issues with memory on the earlier Gigabyte nForce3 Ultra, more effort went into testing memory performance on the K8NXP-9. Our memory stress test measures the ability of the K8NXP-9 to operate at its officially supported memory frequency (400MHz DDR), at the lowest memory timings that OCZ PC3200 Platinum Rev. 2 modules will support. All DIMMs used for stress testing were 512MB double-sided (or double-bank) memory. To make sure that memory performed properly in Dual-Channel mode, memory was only tested using either one dual-channel (2 DIMMs) or 2 dual-channels (4 DIMMs).
| Stable DDR400 Timings - One Dual-Channel (2/4 DIMMs populated) |
|
| Clock Speed: | 200MHz |
| CAS Latency: | 2.0 |
| RAS to CAS Delay: | 2T |
| RAS Precharge: | 10T* |
| Precharge Delay: | 2T |
| Command Rate: | 1T |
Using two DIMMs in Dual-Channel 128-bit mode, the memory performed in all benchmarks at the fastest 2-2-2-10 timings, at default voltage. As a further test, we ran every pair of PC3200 DIMMs that we had in the lab at their fastest timings, at DDR400 in DC mode. We had no problem with any RAM that we tested. It appears that the problems with Dual-Channel mode and memory compatibility, which were reported on the earlier Gigabyte nF3 Ultra board, have been improved greatly or eliminated on this nForce4 version.
| Stable DDR400 Timings - 4 DIMMs (4/4 DIMMs populated) |
|
| Clock Speed: | 200MHz |
| CAS Latency: | 2.0 |
| RAS to CAS Delay: | 2T |
| RAS Precharge: | 10T* |
| Precharge Delay: | 2T |
| Command Rate: | 2T |
Tests with all four DIMM slots populated on the Gigabyte required a 2T Command Rate with 4 DIMMs in two dual channels. This is the pattern seen on other top-performing Socket 939 boards. However, an "Auto" setting for Command Rate would not boot, and we had to force a 2T setting in BIOS with 4 DIMMs. Once 2T was set in BIOS, there was no problem running 4 DS DIMMs at the same aggressive 2-2-2-10 timings we had used with 2 DIMMs.
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USAF1 - Saturday, November 13, 2004 - link
Nice job on the review, Wesley! It answered most of my performance-related NF4 questions. One thing it did leave me wondering though is the performance difference (throughput, CPU utilization, etc.) between the NF4 GbE controller and the Marvell controller on the PCIe bus. VIA has recently stated that they won't be offering an onboard GbE controller with the K8T890 because external GbE boards offer better performance. It would seem to me that this board would be an excellent platform to test that theory. Anyway, a fine job on the "first look" review.phaxmohdem - Saturday, November 13, 2004 - link
lol #11 I posted before I wanted to kick that kid on the nuts, Looks like Gigabyte got to him first :) Oh Fatal1ty, I'd recommend an ice pack for that... And your little p4 rig.Superbike - Saturday, November 13, 2004 - link
How about some Excel and Word benchmarks my money ison the P4EE.
blahpbla - Saturday, November 13, 2004 - link
What about nTune. Is it suported? Would be nice to see it in action.ImJacksAmygdala - Saturday, November 13, 2004 - link
I can't wait to see what people can do with this board and a +3200 once the new bios comes out...FinalFantasy - Saturday, November 13, 2004 - link
Wow...it looks like Intel is getting owned on both fronts. Regular AMD64 chips are killing P4 EE's and now we have ATI's RX480/RS480 and nVidia's NF4 mobo's killing Abit's just released Fatal1ty mobo that's based off of Intel's chipset.......hmm...not too good for Intel at all.Wesley Fink - Saturday, November 13, 2004 - link
#22 - As listed on p.2 of the review under "Expansion Slots" the Gigabyte has 1 x16 PCIe, 2 x1 PCIe, and 3 PCI slots. All current PCI Express boards we have seen offer some PCI slots.LX - Saturday, November 13, 2004 - link
As a person concerned about both backward and forward compatibility, I'd like to know if there are boards that offer both PCI and PCIe slots and how many.DrMrLordX - Saturday, November 13, 2004 - link
arswihart, I second that. I'd like to see s939 nf3-250gb vs s939 nf4 using the FX-55.Wesley Fink - Saturday, November 13, 2004 - link
#9 & #10 - Corrected.