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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arfan - Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - link
"So ECS, Foxconn, Biostar - we can only suggest that you need to add features and performance that will make an AMD user want to buy your boards. "Why u think's ECS is bad ???
From your benchmark, ECS is not too bad, their ranking in the middle until top1.
Sorry, if myenglish is so bad.
smn198 - Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - link
Page 1: "There are no performance differences in the SLI and Ultra chipsets, or even the base nForce4 for that matter. These chipsets differ only in which features are available to the buyer - but they beat with the same heart."I thought the base nForce4 had a 800MHz HT where as the Ultra and SLI have 1GHz. Is that not correct?
Frallan - Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - link
For PSU requirements read the mfg websites. Especially the DFI comes with explicit requirements.480W 24pin ATX 2.0+ PSU and from experiance Id have to say that U want a 1st tier PSU on top of that. Anecdotal advices that its possible to run a DFI SLI set up overclocked from a 350W PSU exists but fact remains that a good solid 500W+ ATX 2.0+ PSU will help U with stability.
Calin - Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - link
What I want to ask: does the processor works with four DS DIMMS at 1T command rate at lower frequency? By what you say (that 2T command rate is much slower than 1T command rate), then 1T command rate at 333MHz would be faster than 2T command rate at 400MHz.Vesperan - Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - link
I love the look of that Epox board. Pity noone imports Epox products into New Zealand any more.GhostlyGhost - Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - link
Ermm.. It's "Marvell". With two l's.Heidfirst - Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - link
I think that you must have a bad example of the ABIT. A no. of other sites (HardOCP, Hexus etc.) have all been over 300 ref. clock with it.Not to mention that there is also now the non-Fatality AN8 Ultra which is cheaper & yet has better sound & 3.55Vdimm instead of 2.8V on the Fatality ...
Affectionate-Bed-980 - Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - link
I think the Neo4 should've been included even though it was in the SLI test. Same with the Asus board. Those are really important boards. I'm sure if you add up the Asus and MSI users they would outnumber Biostar + Foxconn + Chaintech + ECS. Iono. just my 2 cents. I dont want to go look at the SLI review and then compare it to this review to see other boards and do a mental benchmark merge to get hte relative performance.You know what we should make? We should make the uber super chart system. Kinda like THG's CPU charts. Just make the interactive system comparation machine. Choose a CPU, a mobo, a gfx card etc. If you bench every component (not every combo), but just CPUs vs CPUs, mobos vs mobos, you can get the relative score and construct a relative table for combinations..... hmm just a thought.
Palek - Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - link
A few mistakes made it into the final article...-------------------------------------------------
Page 7
1. The following bit does not belong in this review. Cut and paste?
"There are absolutely no PCIe slots at all on the Neo4/SLI except for the pair of x16 slots for SLI video. MSI tells us that the 2nd PCIe can function as a PCIe x1 slot if you're not using it for video, but that is it for PCIe. Does this really matter? Right now, it really isn't important, since we had a very hard time even finding a PCIe x1 LAN card for the new PCI Express. It may matter in the future, but by that time, you will likely have moved on to a newer version of whatever chipset is the latest wonder. This is particularly clear when you look at the feature set of the MSI, since it is definitely a cut above the other boards in this roundup."
2. "SPDIG" should be SPDIF, or S/PDIF if you want to be really accurate.
Page 11
1. The title row of the table is incorrect. The motherboard name should read:
"DFI LANParty UT nF4 Ultra"
2. Link to next page is also incorrect, same as above.
Page 12
1. Title of the page is incorrect, same as above.
2. Title row of the table is incorrect, same as above.
Page 13
1. "SPDIG" round two.
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Also, do guys have any idea why placing the codec on a daughter card reduces CPU overhead? Obviously there is something more going on than just the physical relocation of the chips. Any theories or explanations?
Xenoterranos - Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - link
Just a word about the soundblaster Live on the MSI board..."That price tag [200$] may be a bit high for the average gamer who just spent most of his/her savings on a Pentium II / Voodoo2 setup, however if you're going to swallow the cost of an expensive sound card it might as well be the Creative Labs SB Live!"
That was Anandtech back in '99. And you're getting this for free! (well, almost)