ASUS M2N32-SLI & Epox MF570SLI: AM2 Wunderkinder
by Wesley Fink on June 28, 2006 5:10 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Overclocking Comparison
The overclocking capabilities we have measured thus far with the nForce 500 chipsets and ATI RD580 AM2 are nothing short of extraordinary. Here is a new DDR2 memory controller and a refined AMD CPU on new chipsets that consistently reach over 300 clock frequency in overclocking. Both NVIDA and ATI have done a remarkable job in delivering new chipsets with this level of stability and headroom so soon after launch.
The ASUS tops all seven boards in overclocking, easily reaching overclocks we never could achieve in the last generation of 939 AMD processors. 350 at a 9x multiplier is remarkable - all the more so because it only required a 4x HT multiplier. The new 590 chipset makes 1500 HT, a 50% performance increase, an easy target. The same can be said for both platforms with ATI RD580.
The Epox and MSI, both based on the 570 chipset, occupy the bottom of the OC charts. The bottom in this case is still over 300 at a reduced multiplier and 250 at stock 12x. As stated earlier, we suspect 570 SLI may be artificially limited to a highest overclock of about 315 HTT.
The overclocking capabilities we have measured thus far with the nForce 500 chipsets and ATI RD580 AM2 are nothing short of extraordinary. Here is a new DDR2 memory controller and a refined AMD CPU on new chipsets that consistently reach over 300 clock frequency in overclocking. Both NVIDA and ATI have done a remarkable job in delivering new chipsets with this level of stability and headroom so soon after launch.
The ASUS tops all seven boards in overclocking, easily reaching overclocks we never could achieve in the last generation of 939 AMD processors. 350 at a 9x multiplier is remarkable - all the more so because it only required a 4x HT multiplier. The new 590 chipset makes 1500 HT, a 50% performance increase, an easy target. The same can be said for both platforms with ATI RD580.
The Epox and MSI, both based on the 570 chipset, occupy the bottom of the OC charts. The bottom in this case is still over 300 at a reduced multiplier and 250 at stock 12x. As stated earlier, we suspect 570 SLI may be artificially limited to a highest overclock of about 315 HTT.
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Wesley Fink - Wednesday, June 28, 2006 - link
Asus opted to design for PCI access. With SLI using dual-width video cards there are still two PCI slots available, but the single x4 PCIe is covered. With single-width cards in SLI 3 PCI and an x4 PCIe are available.MacGuffin - Thursday, June 29, 2006 - link
The picture of the motherboard on Newegg is different: the AT review shows a PCI slot above the black PCIe x16 slot...but the retail board at Newegg has a PCIe x1 slot. Except for that, everything else looks identical. Are there two versions of this board floating around? One with 3 PCI/1 PCIe x4 and the other with 2 PCI, 1 PCIe x4 and 1 PCIe x1?Wesley Fink - Thursday, June 29, 2006 - link
There are 2 versions of the board - with WiFi and without. The retail version we tested was WITH WiFi built in.