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Asus P5WDG2-WS: Intel 975X goes to Work

 by Gary Key on December 6, 2005 12:05 AM EST
31 Comments | Add A Comment
31 Comments
Audio Performance

Audio Performance - Empty CPU - 32 Buffers

Audio Performance - 2d Audio - 32 Buffers

Audio Performance - DirectSound 3D HW - 32 Buffers

Audio Performance - DirectSound 3D EAX2 - 32 Buffers

We limited audio testing to the Rightmark 3D Sound version 2.1 CPU utilization test. The Rightmark 3D Sound benchmark measures the overhead or CPU utilization required by a codec or hardware audio chip.

The BlueGears/HDA Mystique 7.1 Gold has the highest utilization rates of the audio solutions tested. BlueGears has confirmed a new driver release within the next 30 days that will offer improved performance in several areas. The RealTek R1.27 driver release continues to improve CPU utilization rates. The Sound Blaster X-FI has the lowest rates with the Sound Blaster Live! 24-bit and Realtek ALC882 solutions following closely. Let's find out how these results translate into real world numbers.

Game Audio Performance - BattleField 2

Game Audio Performance - Splinter Cell Chaos Theory

Game Audio Performance - Serious Sam II - Branchester Demo

Game Audio Performance - Half-Life 2 - AT Jarred Demo C17

Game Audio Performance - F.E.A.R. - Performance Test

Game Audio Performance - Call of Duty 2 - Demo 5

The Battlefield 2 numbers are very interesting as the Realtek ALC882 audio solution creates a 10% loss in frame rates compared to 67% when utilizing the previous R1.26 driver set. Serious Sam II has an average loss of 23%, Half Life 2 at 27%, Call of Duty II at 6%, Splinter Cell at 6%, and F.E.A.R. at 14%. The surprising number is the performance of the Sound Blaster X-FI in Serious Sam II with a 44% decrease in frame rates. The game actually sounded better on the X-FI and Mystique 7.1 Gold but after repeated listening, the Realtek ALC882 is correctly generating the audio streams in the game. Obviously, if you are a serious gamer, then a dedicated sound card is still a requirement to ensure consistent frame rate averages across a wide variety of games.

The ALC882 audio solution displayed excellent sound characteristics in music, video, and games throughout our testing and should seriously be considered as the main audio component if on-line gaming is not your priority. Specifications for the Realtek ALC88x audio family can be located here.

Ethernet Performance Final Words
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  • Cygni - Wednesday, December 7, 2005 - link

    Workstation /= server...

    Overclocking isnt wacky in the worstation world at all. Picture a guy using 3dsmax everyday in his personal studio, or rendering TV streams in Maya, or doing texture work, or compiling source codes at a game studio...

    Overclocking in the Workstation market is probably ALOT more common than people would think. Take overclocking that Pressler. That big of an overclock could mean whole DAYS of extra time per year that the CPU would have otherwise been spending cranking away on rendering. Thats a serious gain.

    I dont think many serious servers will find a board like this one in em, to boot. Its lacking alot of features that a serious server hosting lots of users would deffinitly feel the need for... like built in SCSI, multi cpu support, RAM support over 8gig/4slot, etc.

    On the other hand, this is a near perfect workstation board. High clocked RAM support for both ECC and non ECC. Non buffered memory. Both SLI and Crossfire support at 8x/8x. Plenty of SATA II plugs for cheap storage.

    I took notice of the OC results and settings, and i like what i saw. :)

  • Cygni - Wednesday, December 7, 2005 - link

    That was a reply to the poster one level up, sorry. :D

    Thanks for taking the time to do the OC tests, however. Some people out there did like to see em.

  • Zebo - Tuesday, December 6, 2005 - link

    If those 4.8ghz air overclocks are normal intel won't have to wait for conroe to take back enthusiasts crown. That's amazing.

  • Leper Messiah - Tuesday, December 6, 2005 - link

    Hell yeah. 4.8GHz on air with Dual core is a 20% over what an 840EE will do. And I bet that with nF4 and a DFI 5.0+ is possible. oooh. Sexay.

  • stephenbrooks - Tuesday, December 6, 2005 - link

    Yeah, I'm wondering if the Pentium D 920 might become a new "favourite" chip for them to play with :)

  • Niv KA - Tuesday, December 6, 2005 - link

    Talking about Conroe, isn't the 975X supposed to support upgradability to it

  • xtremejack - Tuesday, December 6, 2005 - link

    If you look at the chipset price guides for this month by Anand, 975x will not support Conroe

  • Gary Key - Tuesday, December 6, 2005 - link

    Intel has not officially confirmed either way on the 975X to Conroe path. We have heard both a positive and negative on this but from different sources. As soon as we have a clear path it will be posted.

  • Niv KA - Tuesday, December 6, 2005 - link

    That would mean I could buy a 975X based MB with a Celeron and buy a Conroe in the summer without having to buy a new motherbord and all

  • Calin - Tuesday, December 6, 2005 - link

    When the graphs shows both min framerate and max framerate, I suggest that ordering should be done by the min framerate instead of the max framerate. Only on F.E.A.R. Performance test on the 9th page the results will change, and only for the top two boards - however, I prefer to have good consistent high framerate in the worst cases than extremely high framerate in the best conditions.
    Thanks
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