FIRST LOOK: Gigabyte K8NXP-SLI
by Wesley Fink on November 24, 2004 9:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Test Setup
The review of the nVidia SLI reference board did a thorough job of comparing performance of single and dual video cards in standard and SLI configurations. For an in-depth look at SLI, you should start with that review.The goal in this First Look is to first compare performance of the K8NXP-SLI as a motherboard to the top Athlon 64 boards that we have tested. For that reason, we have included performance benchmarks of the nVidia nForce4 Reference board running the same FX55. We also verified performance of the K8NXP-SLI compared to the K8NXP-9. Since they are based on the same design, it is not surprising that base performance with a single nVidia 6800 Ultra were virtually identical between the 2 boards. The same results are therefore reported for both boards running a single 6800 Ultra.
To evaluate SLI performance, we also tested performance of two additional video cards in both single and dual GPU configurations. This included the nVidia Reference GeForce 6800 GT and the Gigabyte 6600GT. In all Athlon 64 benchmarks, the CPU was an AMD FX55 and memory was 2-2-2-10 DDR memory by OCZ. We have no problems in any configuration running the OCZ memory at 2-2-2-10 timings on the K8NXP-SLI.
For reference, test results were also included for the Abit Fatality 925XE 1066FSB running a 3.46EE CPU and an Intel 925X with the 560 3.6GHz 800FSB CPU. All benchmarks on all Reference platforms were run with the PCI Express nVidia 6800 Ultra.
| Performance Test Configuration | |
| Processor(s): | AMD Athlon 64 FX55 (2.6GHz) Socket 939 Intel 3.46EE (1066FSB) Intel 560 (3.6GHz 800FSB) |
| RAM: | 2 x 512MB OCZ PC3200 Platinum Rev. 2 2 X 512MB Micron DDR2-533 |
| Hard Drive(s): | Seagate 120GB 7200 RPM IDE (8MB Buffer) |
| Chipset Drivers:/strong> | nVidia nForce 6.31 Beta (nForce4) |
| Video Card(s): | Gigabyte 6600 GT (PCI Express, Single and SLI) nVidia 6800 GT (PCI Express, Single and SLI) nVidia 6800 Ultra (PCI Express) |
| Video Drivers: | nVidia nForce 61.93 Beta (nForce4 SLI) nVidia nForce 61.81 Beta (nForce4) |
| Operating System(s): | Windows XP Professional SP1 |
| Motherboards: | Gigabyte K8NXP-SLI (nForce4 SLI) Gigabyte K8NXP-9 (nForce4 PCIe) nVidia nForce4 Ultra Reference Board Abit Fatality AA8XE (Intel 925XE) Intel 925X Reference Board |
Since the review of the nVidia SLI had found that the biggest advantage for SLI were higher resolutions with "eye-candy" turned on, we ran both our standard 1024x768 resolution for benchmarks, plus the same benchmarks at 1280x1024 with features like Anti-Aliasing and Anisotropic Filtering at their highest levels wherever that option was conveniently available. The same set of DX9 and DX8.1/Open GL benchmarks were run at both resolutions with both single and dual 6600GT and 6800GT.
To clarify test results, benchmarks are reported in separate graphs for standard results at 1024x768 resolution and enhanced results at 1280x1024. Since 1600x1200 normally requires a 20" or larger flat panel monitor, we did not report 1600x1200 results, since most readers will not run at that resolution. For a complete evaluation of 1600x1200 SLI performance, please refer to the nVidia SLI launch review.
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Googer - Friday, November 26, 2004 - link
Jim, Your Hard Drive was not designed from the start to take advantage of newer Technolgical Features.With all things being the same, no ncq or tcq added and all modes Identical except the added bandwith of sata 3 Gb/s port there would be NO hard drive improvement with your older drive over 1.5 Gb/s. Since the drive you are using was not specified or designed to take advantage of it.
If you owned a Yugo that could only go 55mph max on the highway and the Speed limit was 55mph. Would changing the law to make the speed limit 110mph make your Yugo go any faster? NO. Only getting a new car would alow you to go any faster. The new speed limit does not mean that your new Escourt will go any faster than 85mph. :-)
I hope my analogy made some sence and helped to create a clearer understanding of drive interface bandwith. AIM GoogerSmith for any questens.
Gnoad - Friday, November 26, 2004 - link
Just commenting on this great motherboard review, and reminding people that this was not a SLI review, hence the exclusion of 1600x1200 so we can see performance differences between motherboards. I understand many people want to see 1600x1200 benches because I do too, but this was a mobo review. Lets just thank wesley for a great mobo review, and save our SLI discussions for a SLI review.ChineseDemocracyGNR - Thursday, November 25, 2004 - link
1) The four ports provided by the nForce4 chipset support NCQ.2) No. You need a SATA-300 drive to take advantage of the extra bandwidth available. Right now, even a Raptor is not limited by the SATA-150 interface.
jcromano - Thursday, November 25, 2004 - link
I have a question or two about those SATA ports. There are 4 ports capable of 3 Gb/s and 4 capable of 1.5 Gb/s, if I'm reading things correctly.1) Do any or all of the ports support NCQ?
2) If I had a fairly generic 7200RPM 8MB cache (Seagate or Maxtor or something similar), would I notice any difference at all between the fast port and the slow port? Or would I need some kind of super fancy drive to take advantage of the 3 Gb/s port? (And if so, what kind of drive would it take?)
Cheers,
Jim
Filibuster - Thursday, November 25, 2004 - link
>#18 - 2x6600GT it $400 total, 2x6800 is $600 total, 2x6800GT is $800, and finally 2x6800 Ultra is $1000Where can anyone even get one of the 6800 PCIe cards for under $600? Even the GT is impossible to find for less than $550 (actually in stock).
Is there a reason they are so limited? Like a new core to make the 6800 series PCIe native and to 'update' the video processor?
This appears to be a very common question in many forums but there hasn't been an answer from any knowledgable source.
Any information would be especially useful.
Thank you.
flexy - Thursday, November 25, 2004 - link
>>>I understand your resolution decision, plus you probably didn't have time to bench it all... but no 8xAA/16xAF. Especially when the 6800Ultra came to a crawl with 8xAA enabled.
>>>
why use 8xAA, and why use 16xAF ?
4xAA and 8xAF is the current "standard" and IMHO a good compromise "image quality -> performance"
How many run 8xAA ? See....then there's no point in covering this.
cnq - Thursday, November 25, 2004 - link
OK, I think down deep Wesley knows he screwed up and wrote a fairly useless review. Let's give him a chance to stop denying it and make it right.Who was the Anandtech reviewer a couple months back who redid a review -- during his vacation no less -- after reader feedback? I think it was one of those Opteron vs. Xeon or Itanium reviews, when the mistake was made of using, well, a 3500+ instead of a true Opteron. Darn, I don't remember who it was (was it Kristopher?) but everyone immensely respected him afterward for standing up, acknowledging mistakes, and taking the time to redo things. Wesley has the title of Senior Editor for the web's #1 computer review site, so I'm sure he'll live up to those standards. Everyone knows that SLI users will be running at 16x12 and higher 100% of the time; I think the convincing has been done. Now let's kick back and give Wesley some breathing room and a chance to make the necessary fixes to his review.
Alkali - Thursday, November 25, 2004 - link
"Why is playing a game on a 19" @16x12 difficult at all? If you have a decent 22" Diamondtron try having someone set one input up for you running 1280x1024 4xAA and the other input running 2048x1536 without AA and see what you think is better. I can't even comment about how 2048x1536 with AA would look as the only people that can run that type of setup right now are those with SLI parts in their hands and unfortunately they haven't deemed us worthy of obtaining that type of knowledge."Absolutely agree.
There is absolutely NO point in any SLI review if there is no testing at 1600x1200, 1840x1440, and 2048x1536.
There are many, many, many people like me who own 22" monitors, have tried FarCry etc at 2048x1536 and can't yet run that resolution because 1 card simply isnt good enough.
flexy - Thursday, November 25, 2004 - link
wesley,i am envious you having the privilege having all this nice hardware to test....you know how many people are eagerly waiting for the nforce 4 boards.
The gigabyte looks absolutely great (except the limited vdimm v which is kinda weird, 2.8V max ???)....but lets not forget that there are more boards coming up on nforce 4...who knows what the others (MSI, ASUS etc. will bring)
I still have a burning question because i *need* to know whether the ThermalRight XP-120 HSF would fit on the Gigabyte board.
This is supposed to be one of the best (if not THE best air cooling solution)...
Googer - Thursday, November 25, 2004 - link
Does anybody know if you can use that second x16 PCI-E slot for anything else other than Graphics?