Biostar TF560 A2+: Overclocking NVIDIA's new nForce 560
by Gary Key on August 2, 2007 12:15 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Quick Thoughts
Looking at our first overclocking test results from the Biostar TF560 A2+, it is clear that NVIDIA's new nF560 chipset is a worthy contender in the mainstream AM2 market. We expect continued performance enhancements from the NVIDIA 7050 and AMD 690G boards through future BIOS updates and new driver releases and will display those new capabilities shortly. For now, the nF560 is the performance leader in the $80 AM2 market.
We firmly believe the nF560 chipset on this particular Biostar board will more than satisfy the overclocking appetites of most AMD users. While it doesn't offer the absolute performance or features of the more expensive nF590/570 SLI products, the Biostar TF560 A2+ does provide fairly impressive overclocking capabilities for under $80. In fact, its ability to maintain a stable HTT setting of 350 puts it in the same overclocking company as the majority of those nF590/570 SLI boards. The BIOS tuning options do not match those of an ASUS CrossHair as an example, but the majority of options needed to properly tune the chipset and memory are available.
As far as the new performance oriented 0801 BIOS goes, there are not any additional settings when compared to the 0612 BIOS utilized in our preview article. In fact, in early testing we have not found any substantial performance improvements but we have been able to run lower voltages at the same settings and have finally broke the 355 HTT barrier.
Truly, what we found to be most impressive at this time is the ability of our $65 X2 65W 3800+ or $84 X2 45W BE2300 to easily reach 3.0GHz. While it's not always as fast as the top of the line X2 6000+ due to its only having half the L2 cache (and some other minor differences), our two budget AM2 processors certainly come close enough that we would not hesitate to spend our money on buying either CPU and this board if you're willing to overclock. That might allow the use of the extra funds for the purchase of a top tier graphics card.
As for the competition between the budget AMD and Intel processors, it's amazing how evenly matched they are. Top clocks are similar, performance is similar, and only cost is really different. If you want maximum performance, one of the better Core 2 chips will invariably win out, but for good performance on the cheap AM2 still has some life left in it.
Looking at our first overclocking test results from the Biostar TF560 A2+, it is clear that NVIDIA's new nF560 chipset is a worthy contender in the mainstream AM2 market. We expect continued performance enhancements from the NVIDIA 7050 and AMD 690G boards through future BIOS updates and new driver releases and will display those new capabilities shortly. For now, the nF560 is the performance leader in the $80 AM2 market.
We firmly believe the nF560 chipset on this particular Biostar board will more than satisfy the overclocking appetites of most AMD users. While it doesn't offer the absolute performance or features of the more expensive nF590/570 SLI products, the Biostar TF560 A2+ does provide fairly impressive overclocking capabilities for under $80. In fact, its ability to maintain a stable HTT setting of 350 puts it in the same overclocking company as the majority of those nF590/570 SLI boards. The BIOS tuning options do not match those of an ASUS CrossHair as an example, but the majority of options needed to properly tune the chipset and memory are available.
As far as the new performance oriented 0801 BIOS goes, there are not any additional settings when compared to the 0612 BIOS utilized in our preview article. In fact, in early testing we have not found any substantial performance improvements but we have been able to run lower voltages at the same settings and have finally broke the 355 HTT barrier.
Truly, what we found to be most impressive at this time is the ability of our $65 X2 65W 3800+ or $84 X2 45W BE2300 to easily reach 3.0GHz. While it's not always as fast as the top of the line X2 6000+ due to its only having half the L2 cache (and some other minor differences), our two budget AM2 processors certainly come close enough that we would not hesitate to spend our money on buying either CPU and this board if you're willing to overclock. That might allow the use of the extra funds for the purchase of a top tier graphics card.
As for the competition between the budget AMD and Intel processors, it's amazing how evenly matched they are. Top clocks are similar, performance is similar, and only cost is really different. If you want maximum performance, one of the better Core 2 chips will invariably win out, but for good performance on the cheap AM2 still has some life left in it.
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DeepThought86 - Friday, August 10, 2007 - link
elpresidente2075 is probably a 15-year old who thinks newer is better by definition. It'll be a decade or more before he learns critical thinkingstrikeback03 - Thursday, August 2, 2007 - link
Plus once PATA is gone maybe we can get more SATA ports. 4 is a bare minimum.takumsawsherman - Thursday, August 2, 2007 - link
Is that Firewire is still not standard. For the couple of bucks it costs to add it to a board, can we fricking add it already? It should have been standard years ago, and considering how cheaply one can get a card, it can't cost all that much to implement. Meanwhile, there's no apparent rhyme or reason to which systems have it and which don't. I've seen cheap HP's that have it, and expensive ones that don't. It's all over the map.strikeback03 - Thursday, August 2, 2007 - link
Or just eliminate it entirely. With USB2 and eSATA, is there really a need for another external interface standard?flipmode - Friday, August 3, 2007 - link
Firewire is worth keeping and making standard. It's the easiest way to network two computers. It's how almost every video camera downloads video to computers.Myrandex - Thursday, August 2, 2007 - link
The specs said that the chipset supported 2 PATA ports, however there is only 1 slot on the board. So it only supports 2 drives, or did Biostar decide to save $.005 in not putting the 2nd connector on the board?8steve8 - Thursday, August 2, 2007 - link
this is regarded as the industry's first AM2+ board, i assume this means pheonom will plop right in? so does it support HT3?... seperate power planes?how will boards do that with just a bios update?
will this, and other current boards work with phenom, but not at full potential?
Spoelie - Thursday, August 2, 2007 - link
Read the article instead of commenting right away.No, it is not a AM2+ board, it doesn't have any of the AM2+ features, but phenom would normally plop right in yes.
Am a bit disappointed with the feature set, my 3 years old nforce4 ultra has the same amount of sata, pata, usb, gige, etc.
shuffle2 - Thursday, August 2, 2007 - link
"No, it is not a AM2+ board, it doesn't have any of the AM2+ features, but phenom would normally plop right in yes."We realize it doesn't have HT3 or split power lanes, however, the question still stands:
will this board support phenom with only a bios update?
Spuke - Saturday, August 4, 2007 - link
Since this is technically NOT an AM2+ board, when are the AM2+ boards coming out? I'd like to buy one.