Foxconn and Gigabyte Tackle Socket AM2
by Jarred Walton on June 22, 2006 1:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Gaming Performance
We ran our standard battery of gaming benchmarks to assess performance, in single GPU as well as SLI mode. Benchmarks for single GPUs were conducted at 1280x1024/1280x960 without antialiasing or anisotropic filtering.
All three of the nForce 590 SLI motherboards perform similarly, with certain boards doing better in some games and falling slightly behind in others. NForce 570 SLI performance follows close behind, however, and given the much lower cost of such boards they are worth serious consideration. You can see that the new drivers and BIOS also caused some changes in the Foxconn results, but we would expect similar improvements/decreases on the other boards when running the same NVIDIA drivers.
Our general advice on both drivers and BIOS versions is to only upgrade if you have a specific issue that is fixed with the later version. We have also experienced BIOS flash failures using WinFlash with two different motherboards in the past couple of weeks, which makes features like Gigabyte's dual BIOS very useful. Unfortunately, neither of the failed motherboards had such a feature. At any rate, we would echo motherboard manufacturers' advice and urge caution with regards to BIOS updates. If you do need to flash the BIOS, you might also want to break out the old floppy drive and use a boot disk for maximum reliability.
SLI Performance
For dual GPU performance, we have increased the resolution to the 1600x1200, and we also ran with 4xAA and 8xAF enabled. We tested the single GPUs at these same settings for comparison. Even at the higher resolution with antialiasing and anisotropic filtering, certain games are still at least partially CPU limited. Of course, other games like F.E.A.R. are almost entirely GPU limited at anything above 1024x768.
The nForce 590 SLI motherboards appear to have a slight performance advantage over their competition in the SLI market, but the results are still clustered together. If you plan on running a multi-GPU configuration, the more difficult question is going to be whether you want to run ATI cards or NVIDIA cards. If you want to run CrossFire on AM2 you'll have to wait for ATI based motherboards to begin shipping. We expect that to occur within the next month, and you will also be able to run CrossFire on Intel's 975X motherboards.
We ran our standard battery of gaming benchmarks to assess performance, in single GPU as well as SLI mode. Benchmarks for single GPUs were conducted at 1280x1024/1280x960 without antialiasing or anisotropic filtering.
All three of the nForce 590 SLI motherboards perform similarly, with certain boards doing better in some games and falling slightly behind in others. NForce 570 SLI performance follows close behind, however, and given the much lower cost of such boards they are worth serious consideration. You can see that the new drivers and BIOS also caused some changes in the Foxconn results, but we would expect similar improvements/decreases on the other boards when running the same NVIDIA drivers.
Our general advice on both drivers and BIOS versions is to only upgrade if you have a specific issue that is fixed with the later version. We have also experienced BIOS flash failures using WinFlash with two different motherboards in the past couple of weeks, which makes features like Gigabyte's dual BIOS very useful. Unfortunately, neither of the failed motherboards had such a feature. At any rate, we would echo motherboard manufacturers' advice and urge caution with regards to BIOS updates. If you do need to flash the BIOS, you might also want to break out the old floppy drive and use a boot disk for maximum reliability.
SLI Performance
For dual GPU performance, we have increased the resolution to the 1600x1200, and we also ran with 4xAA and 8xAF enabled. We tested the single GPUs at these same settings for comparison. Even at the higher resolution with antialiasing and anisotropic filtering, certain games are still at least partially CPU limited. Of course, other games like F.E.A.R. are almost entirely GPU limited at anything above 1024x768.
The nForce 590 SLI motherboards appear to have a slight performance advantage over their competition in the SLI market, but the results are still clustered together. If you plan on running a multi-GPU configuration, the more difficult question is going to be whether you want to run ATI cards or NVIDIA cards. If you want to run CrossFire on AM2 you'll have to wait for ATI based motherboards to begin shipping. We expect that to occur within the next month, and you will also be able to run CrossFire on Intel's 975X motherboards.
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JarredWalton - Friday, June 23, 2006 - link
Must be - I have a Canan Rebel EOS now, and I haven't come to grips with the manual yet. LOLsprockkets - Friday, June 23, 2006 - link
Rubycons I believe are Taiwaneese caps, but they had the proper formula for the electrolyte in them so they never "blew up", whereas others tried to copy the formula and got it wrong and did "blow up." I still have boards with them from the 2000-2002 time frame still working whereas the other boards with other caps are leaking all over and the boards failed.That is no longer an issue, but still, they are good.
About those new connectors, anyone use a normal cable on them? I did on one, the MSI GF6150 board, and litterally had to crush the connector cable to get it out because it was not one of the new style ones. Anyone else have this happen to them?
JarredWalton - Friday, June 23, 2006 - link
I haven't had a problem with any cables in the new style connector, but here's a shot of the GB cables:http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/motherboards/r...">Gigabyte (Pre-Release) Accessories
Basically, there's a small metal latch that you depress to allow the cable to disconnect. I've seen SATA connections that were so loose they could literally fall off with a slight bump, so the latch avoids that. If you have a cable with a really fat connector, it could cause problems, but all of the other SATA connectors I've seen are about the same, minus the metal latch.
Phiro - Thursday, June 22, 2006 - link
On the first page matrix, you list the Gigabyte as having the Realtek 883, then from about then on, you switch to the 888. Which one is it?Gary Key - Friday, June 23, 2006 - link
The board has the ALC-888 but Gigabyte had planned on the ALC-883 in the beginning, unfortunately the first set of drivers we used incorrectly reported the chipset but after looking at the chip itself (magnifying glass) and running the latest drivers confirmed our sample had the ALC-888. Sorry we missed the update on the first chart.JarredWalton - Thursday, June 22, 2006 - link
It's ALC888, though that's about the same as 883. 888T would be the interesting option, as that adds some support for Skype and VoIP.photoguy99 - Thursday, June 22, 2006 - link
Why would anyone invest in AM2 now when we can see the price/performance shakeout of Conroe in 1 month?Maybe AM2 will come out as a good choice - If a 4800+ drops to $199 I can see getting on board.
If anyone out there is jumping now for an AM2 I would honestly be interested in the logic behind it.
glennpratt - Friday, June 23, 2006 - link
I just bought an AM2 3500 for $100. I doubt Conroe will be at that price point anytime soon and my budget isn't flexible, plus you can't get a geforce 6150 for intel (HTPC). So for $300 I have an excellent upgrade to my media center IMO. New Case, A64 3500, 1GB DDR2, gerforce 6150.I would see your point if I was shooting for the latest and greatest, but personally I never spend more then ~$100 for a component in my PC's (usually < $80). And in my experience things don't change too quickly in that price range. Regardless of hype.
photoguy99 - Friday, June 23, 2006 - link
That makes sense Glen, good luck with your new system.Mant - Thursday, June 22, 2006 - link
This is off topic...does anyone know where can I buy one of those cool new copper heatpipe coolers that are on these boards to replace the Turbo-charged-extreme-jet-turbine fan on my 939 motherboard? I'm dying to retire that POS and this would be just the thing to replace it!