DFI nForce4: SLI and Ultra for Mad Overclockers
by Wesley Fink on February 5, 2005 9:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Overclocking: DFI nForce4
With DFI's reputation as an overclocker's board, and the incredible range of tweaking options available in the BIOS, everyone is expecting incredible overclocking performance with the new DFI nForce4 boards. They will definitely not be disappointed.
| Front Side Bus Overclocking Testbed | |
| Processor: | Athlon 64 4000+ (2.4GHz, 1MB Cache) |
| CPU Voltage: | 1.55V (default 1.50V) |
| Cooling: | Thermaltake Silent Boost K8 Heatsink/Fan |
| Power Supply: | OCZ Power Stream 520W |
| Memory: | OCZ PC3200 EL Platinum Rev. 2 (Samsung TCCD Memory Chips) |
| Hard Drive: | Seagate 120GB 7200RPM IDE 8MB Cache |
| Maximum OC: (Standard Ratio) |
238x12 (Auto HT, 2-3-2-7, 1T, 2.9V) 2856MHz (+19%) |
| Maximum FSB: (Lower Ratio) |
318x9 (2862MHz) (Auto HT, 2.5-4-3-7, 2.9V) (1:1 Memory, 1T, 2 DIMMs in DC mode) (+59% Bus Overclock) |
The DFI nForce4 boards shredded all previous records with this CPU and memory - reaching the highest overclocks at stock speed and at a lower mulitiplier that we have ever tested with this combination. We have squeaked by the 300 CPU clock frequency (DDR600) in the past, but it always required a 2T command rate. This time, we reached an astounding 318 (DDR636) at 1T, at the rather aggressive memory timings of 2.5-4-3-7 with our standard OCZ PC3200 Platinum Rev.2, which is based on Samsung TCCD chips. This is the highest DDR speed that we have ever reached with this memory or any other double-sided DDR memory.
What impact does 318 have on performance? Quake 3 ran at 642FPS and SiSoft Sandra 2004 standard memory bandwidth was 8,300 MB/s. The Sandra unbuffered memory bandwidth was at 4000 MB/s. All these results are new performance records in our memory testing. The very wide range of memory voltages to 4.0V is particularly useful in reaching the highest possible overclocks, along with a very complete set of memory tweaking options in the BIOS. There is still a huge reserve in the available memory voltage range as we only needed 2.9V to reach these performance levels. Those with exotic cooling will appreciate that the CPU voltage and memory voltage settings on the DFI will give them what they need to squeeze every bit of performance from their CPU and memory.
DFI delayed final release of both nForce4 boards to update some 20 components on the board and to make further modifications to BIOS timings. The goal was to improve memory compatibility and further improve the already stellar overclocking abilities of the engineering sample. Compared to the engineering sample board that we tested, the final retail board is a much better overclocker. The update certainly appears to be a success, and DFI tells us that all retail boards, the boards coming off the line, have the modifications and new BIOS.
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Avalon - Saturday, February 5, 2005 - link
If you don't like the exclusive, wait for the NF4 roundup. It's that simple. Just because you feel enough data wasn't included in an ARTICLE, doesn't mean that Anandtech does not have such data in their LABS waiting to be released. Again, wait for the roundup.overclockingoodness - Saturday, February 5, 2005 - link
Justimann: Like others pointed out, Wesley is one of the most respected journalists in this industry. And AnandTech is one of the best sites as well, so I doubt they will be putting their integrity on line just to get a damn exclusive. AnandTech is just like any business but I am proud to say that I have hardly seen any bias on this site (the only bias may be disagreement between my interpretion of the reviwer's words).AnandTech would never recommend anything unless they are confident about it and even if the data is not on the graph, we trust AnandTech's editors.
DEMO24 - Saturday, February 5, 2005 - link
I dont remeber if people have asked this yet(having a feeling they have, but I dont want to read 5 pages of replys;)) but do you guys at Anandtech still have some Winchestor CPUs lieing around? Would be nice to see how far you could get one :)bersl2 - Saturday, February 5, 2005 - link
#79, #80: It's got nothing to do with any of that. SLI nForce4 chips have a price premium on them. Every Ultra sold instead of an SLI means less money for nVidia.joe4324 - Saturday, February 5, 2005 - link
Its more likely that nvidia doesnt want to deal with supporting hardware running out of spec AND beyond its intentions, There not stupid, they know how people are. Even if this board preformed perfectly in all ways, UNTILL you modded it. then it caught fire. They would be slamed for being unreliable and unsafe, and thus not worth buying. even though it was the best mobo out at the time, when NOT modded.rjm55 - Saturday, February 5, 2005 - link
I don't get it. Why did nVidia do this? If anybody did a mod to SLI they had to buy two nVidia video cards to use SLI. So nVidia got more profit. Looks like they couldn't lose with SLI only working with nV cards.Guess nVidia has now totally forgotten their gaming and enthusiast roots and they're just another big company throwing around their weight. Maybe ATI will do better.
Wesley Fink - Saturday, February 5, 2005 - link
The following Update has just been added to the front page of the review:"UPDATE 2/05/2005: nVidia has acted to prevent, or at least make it more difficult, to mod the Ultra board to SLI. First, DFI has advised us, and posted on their website, that they will NOT sell the SLI bridge to buyers of the Ultra board. Second, nVidia has advised us that future shipments of the Ultra chipset have been modified so that the mod to SLI will no longer be possible. An additional side effect of this second action is that the "Dual Video" mode, which performs at about 90% of SLI performance levels, will only work with early nVidia drivers 66.75 or earlier. If you do a quick check of web driver postings you will see it is now very difficult to find 66.75 drivers. With a chipset modded to SLI the "Dual Video" mode worked through 70.xx versions of the nVidia driver. nVidia also made it clear they will continue to make driver changes to prevent operation of any "non-standard" (8X/8X) operation of their SLI driver. This also throws into question whether the VIA "dual graphics" mode on the 894 Pro chipset will ever work with nVidia graphics cards. If you are interested in the current UT Ultra-D we suggest you buy one now if you can find it. Future versions of the UT Ultra-D will not have the same capabilities as a result of these actions."
ImJacksAmygdala - Friday, February 4, 2005 - link
I guess beauty is hard to quantify. Like Wesley said he has saved the Editor's Choice Award for the SLI board review that will provide more hard data to support his opinion on the DFI board.justinmann - Friday, February 4, 2005 - link
Dear Gerbil, I am not wasting my time. I read the article, and like any good scientist I looked at the data. The data do not support the conclusions, therefore I felt it necessary to ask why he did not perform an experiment that backed up his proclamation. It's really a pretty simple concept.Justin
Happy Buddha - Friday, February 4, 2005 - link
Hey Wesley,You did use a IDE HDD for benchmarking so the question about SATA and overclocking pop right to my mind: Is Overclocking as stable with SATA drives?!?
I know that the NF3 250GB was, but sometime engineer can make silly mistake. ;)
An can you or DFI confirm that the low end (Utra-D) will have as much success with OC? Thanks...