nForce4 SLI Roundup: Painful and Rewarding
by Wesley Fink on February 28, 2005 7:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Ethernet Performance
We have often talked about the throughput advantage of PCI Express compared to PCI and its impact on Gigabit LAN performance. To show you this, the new motherboard test suite needed to include LAN performance measurements.The Windows 2000 Driver Development Kit (DDK) includes a useful LAN testing utility called NTttcp. We used the NTttcp tool to test Ethernet throughput and the CPU utilization of the various Ethernet Controllers used on the nForce4 SLI motherboards.
We set up one machine as the server; in this case, an Intel box with an Intel CSA Gigabit LAN connection. Intel CSA has a reputation for providing fast throughput and this seemed a reasonable choice to serve our Gigabit LAN clients. At the server side, we used the following Command Line as suggested by the VIA whitepaper on LAN testing:
Ntttcps -m 4,0,‹client IP› -a 4 -l 256000 -n 30000On the client side (the motherboard under test), we used the following Command Line:
Ntttcpr -m 4,0,‹server IP› -a 4 -l 256000 -n 30000At the conclusion of the test, we captured the throughput and CPU utilization figures from the client screen.
All Ethernet tests were performed with standard frames, but Gigabit Ethernet supports Jumbo frames as well. Jumbo frames will theoretically provide a further reduction in CPU overhead. We have seen test results that show the combination of Active Armor and Jumbo Frames, which can reduce CPU utilization below 10%, a very respectable performance for on-chip gigabit LAN.
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Heinrich - Monday, February 28, 2005 - link
Hi, this is a great article. I'm really disappointed that the issues with the new Winchesters and the MSI board were not uncovered. The new CPUs will not post past FSB of 219, which is far below the 250 many get with other boards. Someone with the depth of knowledge, experience, and understanding of all these little options in the BIOS could help us uncover the real problem. Here's the best thread devoted specifically to the problem on Rebel HQ:http://www.rhcf.com/sisubb/ultimatebb.php/topic/21...
ajmiles - Monday, February 28, 2005 - link
Hey,I enjoyed the round up of the SLI boards very much and thought it was very thorough.
I own an A8N SLI Deluxe board, and too have been thoroughly disappointed with it's overclocking performance.
On behalf of tens of users on the Anandtech - Motherboards forums, would it be beyond Anandtech's power to get a statement from Asus about the issue???
At a 2T Command Rate the board will overclock to 316, 1T however just 249. The sudden BSODing as you approach 250 smacks of something that could be fixed with a BIOS update.
Please Anandtech, A8N users are begging for this to be fixed, or at least be told it can't be.
Many thanks, and again, a great article.
Adam Miles
Viper4185 - Monday, February 28, 2005 - link
is it true that the MSI board doesnt have a PCI Express x1 slot so that when the new Creative PCI express sound cards come out it wont fit?Viper4185 - Monday, February 28, 2005 - link
Thanks for the review guys, just what I wanted! Although I am interested in the Ultra versions its still very similar...I was wondring if you could comment on the stability/stress testing of the DFI board as Hardocp seems to have had some issues...
http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NzE3LDc=
Also would have been good if you included the Abit Fatal1ty board to make the review 100% conclusive for me.
nzimmers - Monday, February 28, 2005 - link
dang, I wasn't first, oh well.one more thing....I no longer chase the FPS demon, and I am better for it (mentally and emotionally). To be honest I don't expect SLI to become a standard in MB design.....even for high end gamers. Isn't the price just too high?
nzimmers - Monday, February 28, 2005 - link
First post!I was actually really (plesantly) surprised that DFI did so well. I know that they have been improving lately but isn't it great to see another MB manufacturer improving for once?
arfan - Monday, February 28, 2005 - link
finally...., thx 4 your reviewjkv71 - Saturday, June 3, 2017 - link
My DFI video quit. I use an adapter to run hdmi on my tv. I replaced the video card and still nothing. I replaced the mother board. Still nothing. Any ideas?