EVGA nForce 650i Ultra: Performance on a Budget
by Gary Key on April 10, 2007 2:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Multitasking Performance
We devised a script that would compress our standard test folder consisting of 444 files, ten subfolders, and 602MB worth of data, convert a 137MB High Definition QuickTime movie clip to a 37MB MPEG-4 format, play back the first two chapters of Office Space with PowerDVD, and run our AVG anti-virus program in the background. We stop the script when the file compression and video conversion are complete. This is a very taxing script for the CPU, Memory, and Storage subsystem. We also found it to be a good indicator of system stability during our overclocking testing.
The performance difference basically mirrors our PCMark 2005 tests with the ASUS, MSI, and EVGA boards finishing at the top due to great disk performance, although the Intel boards consistently completed the QuickTime Conversion first. The differences in this test between the ASUS and EVGA boards were minimal with WinRAR showing the only measurable benefits due to tighter memory sub-timings on the ASUS Plus board.
Media Encoding Performance
Our first encoding test is quite easy - we take our original Office Space DVD and use AnyDVD Ripper to copy the full DVD to the hard drive without compression, thus providing an almost exact duplicate of the DVD. We then fire up Nero Recode 2, select our Office Space copy on the hard drive, and perform a shrink operation to allow the entire movie along with extras to fit on a single 4.5GB DVD disc. We leave all options on their defaults except we turn off the advanced analysis option. The scores reported include the full encoding process and are represented in seconds, with lower numbers indicating better performance.
We expected a stronger finish from the EVGA 650i Ultra board in this test based upon previous results. With CPU throughput and disk access times being the critical factors affecting test scores this board should have scored near or at the top. We ran this test with slightly tighter memory sub-timings and also tried 2T timings with 3-3-3-8 settings but the score remained constant at 223 seconds. In this particular test we feel like CPU throughput is slightly hindering the board's performance, although this is not true in every benchmark. We say this because the disk access time and transfer rate for the video files were the best in our secondary tests measuring disk throughput.
Audio Encoding Performance
While the media encoding prowess of the boards was superb in our initial media encoding testing, we wanted to see how they faired on the audio side. Our audio test suite consists of Exact Audio Copy v095.b4 and LAME 3.98a3. We utilize the INXS Greatest Hits CD that contains 16 tracks totaling 606MB of one time '80s hits. We set up EAC for variable bit rate encoding, burst mode for extraction, use external program for compression, and to start the external compressor upon extraction (EAC will read the next track while LAME is working on the previous track, thus removing a potential bottleneck with the optical drive). We also set the number of active threads to two to ensure both cores are active during testing. The results are presented in seconds for the encoding process, with lower numbers being better.
Our Plextor drive consistently took two minutes and nine seconds to read all sixteen tracks. This means our test systems are only utilizing one core during testing until the midway point of the extraction process where the drive speed begins exceeding the capability of the encoder and requires the use of a second thread.
Unlike the media encoding section we see the EVGA 650i Ultra scoring extremely well in a benchmark where CPU and Disk throughput are very important. Based on our previous results we would have to say that disk access and transfer speeds greatly assisted our EVGA board in obtaining the top score in this benchmark.
File Compression Performance
In order to save space on our hard drives and to provide another CPU crunching utility, we will be reporting our file compression results with the latest version of WinRAR that fully supports multi-treaded operations and should be of particular interest for those users with dual core or multi-processor systems. Our series of file compression tests utilizes WinRAR 3.62 to compress our test folder that contains 444 files, ten subfolders, and 602MB worth of data. All default settings are utilized in WinRAR along with our hard drive being defragmented before each test.
The performance of the EVGA 650i Ultra in this benchmark really disappointed us after the ASUS Plus results in our last article. We thought the code had been cracked on the NVIDIA boards and performance would be more competitive in the future with this benchmark. Our 650i board scored near the bottom of the pack but still bested several other boards with NVIDIA chipsets. We tried several combinations of memory modules and timings to no avail in this benchmark. As they say, "It is what it is." In this case that means it's slow.
We devised a script that would compress our standard test folder consisting of 444 files, ten subfolders, and 602MB worth of data, convert a 137MB High Definition QuickTime movie clip to a 37MB MPEG-4 format, play back the first two chapters of Office Space with PowerDVD, and run our AVG anti-virus program in the background. We stop the script when the file compression and video conversion are complete. This is a very taxing script for the CPU, Memory, and Storage subsystem. We also found it to be a good indicator of system stability during our overclocking testing.
The performance difference basically mirrors our PCMark 2005 tests with the ASUS, MSI, and EVGA boards finishing at the top due to great disk performance, although the Intel boards consistently completed the QuickTime Conversion first. The differences in this test between the ASUS and EVGA boards were minimal with WinRAR showing the only measurable benefits due to tighter memory sub-timings on the ASUS Plus board.
Media Encoding Performance
Our first encoding test is quite easy - we take our original Office Space DVD and use AnyDVD Ripper to copy the full DVD to the hard drive without compression, thus providing an almost exact duplicate of the DVD. We then fire up Nero Recode 2, select our Office Space copy on the hard drive, and perform a shrink operation to allow the entire movie along with extras to fit on a single 4.5GB DVD disc. We leave all options on their defaults except we turn off the advanced analysis option. The scores reported include the full encoding process and are represented in seconds, with lower numbers indicating better performance.
We expected a stronger finish from the EVGA 650i Ultra board in this test based upon previous results. With CPU throughput and disk access times being the critical factors affecting test scores this board should have scored near or at the top. We ran this test with slightly tighter memory sub-timings and also tried 2T timings with 3-3-3-8 settings but the score remained constant at 223 seconds. In this particular test we feel like CPU throughput is slightly hindering the board's performance, although this is not true in every benchmark. We say this because the disk access time and transfer rate for the video files were the best in our secondary tests measuring disk throughput.
Audio Encoding Performance
While the media encoding prowess of the boards was superb in our initial media encoding testing, we wanted to see how they faired on the audio side. Our audio test suite consists of Exact Audio Copy v095.b4 and LAME 3.98a3. We utilize the INXS Greatest Hits CD that contains 16 tracks totaling 606MB of one time '80s hits. We set up EAC for variable bit rate encoding, burst mode for extraction, use external program for compression, and to start the external compressor upon extraction (EAC will read the next track while LAME is working on the previous track, thus removing a potential bottleneck with the optical drive). We also set the number of active threads to two to ensure both cores are active during testing. The results are presented in seconds for the encoding process, with lower numbers being better.
Our Plextor drive consistently took two minutes and nine seconds to read all sixteen tracks. This means our test systems are only utilizing one core during testing until the midway point of the extraction process where the drive speed begins exceeding the capability of the encoder and requires the use of a second thread.
Unlike the media encoding section we see the EVGA 650i Ultra scoring extremely well in a benchmark where CPU and Disk throughput are very important. Based on our previous results we would have to say that disk access and transfer speeds greatly assisted our EVGA board in obtaining the top score in this benchmark.
File Compression Performance
In order to save space on our hard drives and to provide another CPU crunching utility, we will be reporting our file compression results with the latest version of WinRAR that fully supports multi-treaded operations and should be of particular interest for those users with dual core or multi-processor systems. Our series of file compression tests utilizes WinRAR 3.62 to compress our test folder that contains 444 files, ten subfolders, and 602MB worth of data. All default settings are utilized in WinRAR along with our hard drive being defragmented before each test.
The performance of the EVGA 650i Ultra in this benchmark really disappointed us after the ASUS Plus results in our last article. We thought the code had been cracked on the NVIDIA boards and performance would be more competitive in the future with this benchmark. Our 650i board scored near the bottom of the pack but still bested several other boards with NVIDIA chipsets. We tried several combinations of memory modules and timings to no avail in this benchmark. As they say, "It is what it is." In this case that means it's slow.
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kentster2 - Wednesday, April 18, 2007 - link
This motherboard sounds perfect for me but I can't find it anywhere. In fact I can't find any boards based on the 650i Ultra chipset available anywhere. I did find the specs on an MSI board based on this chipset but again no availability. Does anyone know when the general availability will be for these boards?yyrkoon - Thursday, April 12, 2007 - link
Still does not compare to the best AM2 'budget' board out there. Add the following, and it would do good I think:1) Heatpipe cooled chipset
2) Either one more PATA port, or 2 more SATA ports for a total of 8 drives
3) Firewire ( not supported ?! )
4) Overclocking options out the wazzu, with memeory voltages capable of 3.0v
Are the PATA ports controlled by the 430MCP ? It seems that way, going by the features list. If this is the case, WHY leave out a PATA port ? It does not make sense. These four things I've mentioned above are not too much to ask, ABIT has already proven that with the NF-M2 nView, and places like newegg, ZZF, etc can not seem to keep these boards in stock ! What gives . . .
kmmatney - Wednesday, April 11, 2007 - link
it;s obvious that having a high priced sound card will help out with frame rates, but what about a cheaper card? Would a $27 Creative Audigy SE provide the same speed benefits by taking the load from the cpu?Gary Key - Wednesday, April 11, 2007 - link
The SE will provide frame rates that are on average about 2~3% worse than the X-FI in my experiences.lopri - Tuesday, April 10, 2007 - link
Gary's measure is remarkably similar to my observations on EVGA 680i board. (Interesting because the chips used on the 680i SLI are different from 650i Ultra) Without active cooling, I saw SPP temp rising to 100C(!) and MCP to 80C. This will not only cause instability (especially mated with other high-end components) but likely shorten the lifespan of the board. Even more worrisome is that the ever-increasing popularity of those L-shaped HSFs. These HSFs provide practically zero air-flow on the board's hot (i mean, HOT) spots and therefore the heat keeps building up.
I think NV at this point just assume that their target audience are *enthusiasts* in that:
1. Enthusiasts today just accept that a new motherboard/chipset is basically a beta product and expect fix/patches via BIOS updates and/or hardware revision.
2. Enthusiasts tend to employ their own cooling solution anyway.
And that's exactly what I've done up to this date. Every single NV chipset board I bought the first thing I did was replacing stock chipset/VRM cooling with aftermarket stuff.
And I'M TIRED OF IT.
This board may be selling for $99, but in order for you to build your main rig with a peace of mind on it, you will need an aftermarket cooling for the missing SB HSF (how dare they leave it wide open like that is beyond me) and the paltry NB heatsink for a heavier one. There goes extra $20~30 quite easily.
To my eyes, this board cut so many corners and definitely not worth $99. $70~80 maybe. And I do think that's how much it'll sell for in less than a month.
nullpointerus - Wednesday, April 11, 2007 - link
When it's included, active cooling's crap anyway. The little NB/SB fans last a few months at most before giving out completely. Motherboard makers should get in touch with Zalman or somebody like them and get some decent quality HSF's on these boards.jay401 - Wednesday, April 11, 2007 - link
Totally agree! It would be stupid to buy a motherboard that requires you buy other items just to ensure stable operation and longevity.Scarceas - Tuesday, April 10, 2007 - link
Really, who needs 2.2V? If you have RAM that needs that much voltage, chances are you paid more money for it, and the board you are looking to use it with will probably not be a budget board.WT - Tuesday, April 10, 2007 - link
I have an eVGA N41 board, so I want to like this thing, but looking at this 650 board .. blechhh .. talk about plain Jane !! It looks like a straight reference board or an Intel board ! Regardless of looks, performance is what we want, so I would refer anyone looking at this board to read Anand's earlier article on the MSI P6N Platinum and see if that isn't a better fit for your needs. The extra $40-50 is well justified (in my case at least) with the better cooling setup on the MSI board as well as Firewire (just bought a miniDV camcorder) so give that a read as well.If the MSI Plat is priced too high, then check out the FI board priced at $108 at popular vendors websites.
Pirks - Tuesday, April 10, 2007 - link
Gary, E6300 has TWO megabytes of cache, not FOUR