FIRST LOOK - nForce4: Gigabyte K8NXP-9
by Wesley Fink on November 12, 2004 8:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Test Setup
The performance of the Gigabyte K8NXP-9 was compared to the nVidia nForce4 Reference board using an AMD FX55 and 2-2-2-10 DDR memory. Test results with the Intel 925XE Abit Fatal1ty AA8XE were included for Reference with the fastest 1066FSB CPU currently available. For reference, test results were also included for the Intel 925X with the 560 - the fastest current Intel 800FSB CPU. All benchmarks on all platforms were run with the PCI Express nVidia 6800 Ultra. Tests on the Gigabyte K8NXP-9 were all run with 5X (1000 HT) enabled.| Performance Test Configuration | |
| Processor(s): | AMD Athlon 64 FX55 (2.6GHz-1MB Cache) Socket 939 AMD Athlon 64 4000+ (2.4GHz-1MB Cache) Intel 3.46EE (1066FSB) Intel 560 (3.6GHz 800FSB) |
| RAM: | 2 x 512MB OCZ PC3200 Platinum Rev. 2 2 X 512MB Micron DDR2-533 |
| Hard Drive(s): | Seagate 120GB 7200 RPM IDE (8MB Buffer) |
| Chipset Drivers: | nVidia nForce 6.31 Beta (nForce4) |
| Video Card(s): | nVidia 6800 Ultra (PCI Express) |
| Video Drivers: | nVidia nForce 61.81 Beta |
| Operating System(s): | Windows XP Professional SP1 |
| Motherboards: | Gigabyte K8NXP-9 (nForce4) nVidia nForce4 Ultra Reference Board Abit Fatality AA8XE (Intel 925XE) Intel 925X Reference Board5 |
The configuration was kept as close as possible between the 4 motherboards, but we are forced to compare apples to oranges in some cases. DDR400 memory at 2-2-2-10 is being compared on the nForce4 boards to DDR2-533 at 3-3-3-10 on the Intel 925X/XE boards. However, as we saw in the DDR vs. DDR2 review, the performance of fast DDR400 and DDR533 is very close.
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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.