nForce4 Ultra Roundup: Charting the Mainstream
by Wesley Fink on July 5, 2005 10:28 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
The Roundup
The seven motherboards in this roundup represent a broad range of available motherboards based on the nForce4 Ultra chipset. Also, keep in mind that the four SLI motherboards tested in nForce4 SLI Roundup: Painful and Rewarding are also available in cheaper nForce4 Ultra versions. Since the DFI nForce4 SLI was the co-winner of the SLI Gold Editors Choice and is readily available in an nForce4 Ultra version using the same layout and BIOS, we ran the same benchmarks on this board and included results for the nF4 Ultra board in this roundup. You can also find a launch review of the DFI Ultra and SLI chipsets at DFI nForce4: SLI and Ultra for Mad Overclockers.The four boards in the SLI roundup should perform the same as the Ultra versions of the same board running a single video card. The SLI and Ultra chipsets are the same chipset with different features enabled. You can see this clearly in the fact that early DFI nF4 Ultra boards could be easily modified to SLI by closing a component pair as we showed in Morphing nForce4 Ultra into nForce4 SLI. This means that you can compare single video results from our nForce4 SLI roundup if you are considering purchasing an nF4 Ultra version of the Asus, Gigabyte or MSI.
The boards in the roundup cover a very wide range of selling prices, from the clustering of the Chaintech/Foxconn/ECS/Epox/Biostar in the $92 to $112 range, the DFI at about $135 to the high-end Abit Fatality at $185. Included in the roundup are the Chaintech VNF4 Ultra, Winfast (Foxconn) NF4UK8AA, ECS KN1 Extreme, Epox 9NPA+, Biostar NF4UL-A9, and Abit Fatal1ty AN8. Test results are also included for the DFI LANParty UT nF4 Ultra-D, which was reviewed in DFI nForce4: SLI and Ultra for Mad Overclockers.
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yacoub - Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - link
#33 - Wesley, that's awesome news. Can you post that somewhere more important so buyers know to be on the lookout for it? =)kyparrish - Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - link
Good article!I'm seriously considering dumping my DFI S754/NC 3200+ setup for that Epox board and a cheap S939 A64 :)
Wesley Fink - Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - link
#29 and #31 - UPDATE: I have talked with contacts in the Memory Industry and Samsung TCCD is now available again from Samsung. TCCD disappeared for a few months but production didn't really stop. TCC5 is DDR466 and TCCD is DDR500, but both chips come off the same line and are binned for speed grade. Samsung stopped binning for DDR500 grade until recently - and left this job to the memory makers.Recently Samsung has told memory makers they are binning once again for DDR500/TCCD and the TCCD chips are available again. It will take a few weeks for the pipelines to fill but TCCD is not dead. Some companies are staying with TCC5 at a lower cost and binning for the top performance unless the yields start to go down.
Wesley Fink - Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - link
#24 - The base nForce4 is sometimes called the nForce4 X4 and runs at 800 HTT, while the Ultra and SLI run at 1000HT. When 1000HT was first introduced we found no real difference in performance at 800HT and 1000HT. What the 1000HT did provide was quite a bit more overclocking headroom. A reader may have an example of where 1000HT outperforms 800HT but the real world difference is negligible.#28 - There are now more than 60 BIOS releases for the DFI nF4, many customized for particular memory types. Only 3 have been posted to their website. For the latest DFI nF4 BIOS a good place to check is www.xtremesystems.org or the BIOS Files Forum at www.bleedinedge.com. There is now a 7/04 BIOS that is reported to be more stable in upper memory ratios (433,466,500) with Rev. E chips.
#29 - You are overstating the TCCD situation. Corsair still sells TCCD, as do several other memory vendors. There is no doubt TCCD is drying up everywhere but Corsair, and that will continue. New TCC5 dimms that are said to perform like TCCD are in process in at least one memory company. We have requested these new TCC5-based dimms and will share our findings as soon as we receive the memory. There are also some new BH5 dimms that we thought were gone forever. We have even seen the new BH5 binned and advertised as DDR500 2-2-2 at higher voltages around 3.3V.
yacoub - Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - link
Well, while this review -has- convinced me to go with the DFI board over the Chaintech, that is purely due to the audio CPU usage issues of the onboard vs daughterboard. I'm shocked at how much difference that makes.That said, most of the memory testing (and thus most of the review) was meaningless to me (and everyone else who doesn't have access to TCCD memory anymore). =/
Wesley Fink - Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - link
#17 - Thanks for pointing out the errors. They have been corrected. Do you want a job proof reading :-)yacoub - Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - link
Regarding the tRAS recommendation:Can we petition Anandtech to stop using memory that the consumer can't get anymore? (Namely TCCD-based Plat Rev2.) Go pick up some TCC5 and do your tests with what the consumer is actually going to be receiving so your tests actually mean something.
mongoosesRawesome - Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - link
What BIOS version did you use with the DFI? It reads: "Award 7/01/2005 Release" in your list of features for the DFI, but I could not find that BIOS release on their website.AsiLuc - Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - link
Sorry I meant: GA-K8NF9http://www.giga-byte.com/MotherBoard/Products/Prod...
AsiLuc - Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - link
I'd liked to see the Gigabyte GA-K8NP9 reviewed, because it has passive southbridge cooling (silence :) ) and is cheap.