Benchmarking, GPUs, and Displays
Our motherboard benchmarks are changing as standardized application test suites like BAPCO's SYSMark 2007 and PC WorldBench 6.0 will be utilized to provide results that look at video creation, E-learning, 3D modeling, and office productivity applications. We will continue to utilize our in-house video/audio/productivity application benchmarks where applicable. Specific application benchmarks for networking, USB, storage, and audio performance will be provided in our in-depth chipset review roundups; otherwise we will reference to these results in first looks or single board reviews.
We are in the midst of a great lull at this time with game benchmarks as the top titles for 2007 such as Crysis, UT3, and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars will not be shipping until the fourth quarter (or "when it's done"), so our current benchmarks will have to suffice until the holiday season. Finally, depending upon the situation we will include synthetic benchmarks such as SuperPI and Futuremark to outline performance differences between stock and overclocked configurations.
One of the most common requests we have received is to see how an integrated graphics chipset on the typical µATX (commonly referred to as microATX or mATX) platform compares to a more performance-oriented graphics chipset designed for mainstream configurations. We're not trying to turn our µATX roundup into a graphics card shootout, but we decided to look at solutions that range in price from $60 to $125 to see just what type of performance and feature improvements an extra week's paycheck could buy.
In keeping with our silence is golden theme, our graphics cards consist of the
Gigabyte 8600GT,
MSI NX8600GTS, and the
Sapphire HD 2400XT. We might even have time to throw in video quality results with our recently arrived
Galaxy 8600GTS HDMI card that features (if you couldn't figure it out) native HDMI output. For those of you who wondering why an AMD HD 2600 card is not included, the reason is simple: passively cooled cards were not available in time. We have now received the
MSI RX2600XT and will include video comparisons with this card and potentially another HD 2600 card in our G35 preview next month.
Overall, our primary focus is to compare video playback quality between these add-in products sporting the latest AVIVO and PureVideo technologies and the latest IGP chipsets from Intel, AMD, and NVIDIA. We will briefly touch on the quality differences in the motherboard test results but will provide an in-depth sidebar article on video quality and gaming performance.
Of course, if you are going to show video card and IGP performance/quality comparisons then one would assume we used a monitor capable of displaying those 1080P capabilities. In fact, we used three different monitors for our test results. Our primary desktop monitors included the
24" Acer AL2416WBsd for DVI and analog output testing along with the
24" Westinghouse L2410NM for HDMI output testing. Our choice for the all-encompassing multifunction monitor in our HTPC buildup is the
42" Westinghouse TX-42F430S (which replaces the older
42" Westinghouse LVM-42w2) that will be reviewed separately in the coming weeks.
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yyrkoon - Tuesday, August 7, 2007 - link
Well you see . . . I often take reviews from *any* review site with a grain of salt anyhow (personally). There are many reasons why, but one of the major reasons is that most reviewers only test a single board. I like to read user reviews from sites like newegg to get a broader 'idea' of how the board works in use, and potential problems that may crop up. Granted, you need to weed out the 'weenies' and their reviews to get at the heart of the matter. This is one factor why I choose ABIT boards, they have a very active forum, and if there are problems with a board, you can bet it will be plastered all over ABITs forums. That, and often times you can get your problem solved very quickly there, and I have seen Anandtech staff there helping ABIT make their boards the best they can be. However, I really do wish ABIT would do away with their current replacement policy, but I guess it is to be expected (replacing bad parts with remanufactuered/recertified parts, would be nice to get a new part, for a new part). Thankfully, I have rarely had the need to replace any motherboard from ABIT.Alyx - Tuesday, August 7, 2007 - link
I must agree, it is their choice. Personally I skip most articles too, I read the first and last pages and maybe glance at charts. Its mostly just to keep me informed.If I'm buying though I read every word. Devil's in the details.
ATWindsor - Tuesday, August 7, 2007 - link
"While performance is important, does a few tenths of second or an additional two frames per second in a benchmark really mean that much when you cannot get a USB port working due to a crappy BIOS release or your system does not properly recover from S3 sleep state when you are set to record the last episode of the Sopranos? "I couldn't agreee more, the main thing is that the board works, miniscule performance-differnces comes far behind in importance.
AtW
Mazen - Tuesday, August 7, 2007 - link
The timing of this article couldn't be better. I really look forward to see what you guys have to say. Question is, how long do we have to wait before we can read it (yes, impatient!). I'll contribute coffee!JarredWalton - Tuesday, August 7, 2007 - link
Word on the street is Gary will have the first part posted within the next week. Beyond that... guess we'll see.Mazen - Thursday, August 9, 2007 - link
Woooo Hoooo! Can hardly wait for next weekAlyx - Tuesday, August 7, 2007 - link
Where in the world did you find these? I see newegg has the lower end Swan stuff but I couldn't seem to find any retailers that sold these speakers.Must be to new?
Alyx - Tuesday, August 7, 2007 - link
nvm. Looks like The Audio Insider is the only place to carry them that I can find. Didn't realize that they sold speakers (Based on the name I thought they did reviews).http://www.theaudioinsider.com/product_info.php?pr...">http://www.theaudioinsider.com/product_info.php?pr...
Bozo Galora - Tuesday, August 7, 2007 - link
OMG!! Reviews that reflect actual "in use" reality??
Reviews that dont fear to tread on alienating a manufacturer that ADVERTISES on AT??
Articles where the reviewer is not terrified that the vendor will cut them off from free samples and insider info??
No more hand selected or engineering sample salivating previews????
Are you saying after 8 years of "we are sure the next bios release (due out in 2 days) will fix everything", you are finally breaking free???
This is unprecedented.
Who woulda thunk it.
Will wonders never cease.
It may even start a trend - ha
sprockkets - Tuesday, August 7, 2007 - link
Do any of the tuner cards you tested allow you to record Xvid and mp3? My leadtek did but some other programs for other tuner cards didn't allow you to use the direct show codecs directly.Also, does vista in general not allow you to use the CDROM/AUX input on the sound card? I have a Foxconn nForce 4 board with onboard audio, and when using Vista on it, it decided I didn't need the cdrom audio input anymore, but kept all the others. I can't use the Leadtek tuner card because that is how it outputs audio. Thanks Microsoft!