DFI NF4 SLI-DR Expert – Can the best get better?
by Randi Sica on November 25, 2005 12:05 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
DFI NF4 SLI-DR Expert: Memory Overclocking and Performance Evaluation
Memory and HTT overclocking has been the forte of the previous generation SLI-DR board. The objective of these tests was to determine the clockability of different DDR modules on this improved version. It has been stated that this board is much more module-friendly with a wider variety of RAM types than the original DFI nF4. We tested modules at their specified rating and then increased frequency to the maximum that we could reach. For this test, we used the A64 4000+ CPU using a reduced multipier of 8x to assure CPU stability.It's to be noted that the use of a higher multiplier would indeed increase overall system bandwidth, but for this test we were looking for the highest memory Mhz and the accompanying bandwidth chart is purely for module comparisons at their maximum fequency. Everest version 2.20 was used to evaluate Read, write and latency.
It should be noted that during the course of testing the RAM and pushing the envelope, the shipping BIOS started to become a bit troublesome, certainly pushing RAM to its limits can wreak havoc on operating systems and BIOS' in the form of data corruption. After corrupting the original BIOS, we could not find another 11/2/05 shipping BIOS. As a result, we could only locate an 11/9/05 BIOS that is optimized a bit more than the shipping BIOS. The original BIOS failure was a blessing in disguise as the board and RAM responded in a very positive manner to the new BIOS. All settings in the BIOS were left as programmed except for the CAS Latency, RAS to CAS, RAS Precharge and tRAS, which were set to the highest stable, benchable settings. Due to the time constraints involved in producing this review, little time was afforded to experiment with further optimum settings. Another week of evenings may have allowed the following modules to scale a tad higher.
The new player in the RAM battles was Corsair 3200XL TCCD based modules. Though rated at PC3200, they eventually surpassed the 4000PT and OCZ's PC4800EL coming in at 310Mhz. The BH-5 based Corsair 3200LL, even at 2 years old, did very well - achieving 266Mhz at the tightest timings at 3.6V. An observation to be made, though, is the poor write performance of the BH-5 compared to its TCCD brothers. I also tested 2x256MB BH-5 modules from OCZ and Kingston with much less success, but even at similar speeds, all the BH-5 suffered from this same write fall off in comparison. This may very well be a side effect of a TCCD optimized BIOS, but only with more time to experiment with settings may we have been able to improve the score. That shortfall notwithstanding, the BH-5 clearly can still be called "king of the hill" in the read and latency portion of our evaluation.
All memory module testing was performed with the 4000+. At a future point, we plan to test with the 3500+ Winchester. That CPU had hit a max of 370 MHz 1-1 with 2x256MB modules of G.Skill PC4400LE on the original SLI-D, and results should be very interesting on the updated Expert board.
Memory and HTT overclocking has been the forte of the previous generation SLI-DR board. The objective of these tests was to determine the clockability of different DDR modules on this improved version. It has been stated that this board is much more module-friendly with a wider variety of RAM types than the original DFI nF4. We tested modules at their specified rating and then increased frequency to the maximum that we could reach. For this test, we used the A64 4000+ CPU using a reduced multipier of 8x to assure CPU stability.It's to be noted that the use of a higher multiplier would indeed increase overall system bandwidth, but for this test we were looking for the highest memory Mhz and the accompanying bandwidth chart is purely for module comparisons at their maximum fequency. Everest version 2.20 was used to evaluate Read, write and latency.
It should be noted that during the course of testing the RAM and pushing the envelope, the shipping BIOS started to become a bit troublesome, certainly pushing RAM to its limits can wreak havoc on operating systems and BIOS' in the form of data corruption. After corrupting the original BIOS, we could not find another 11/2/05 shipping BIOS. As a result, we could only locate an 11/9/05 BIOS that is optimized a bit more than the shipping BIOS. The original BIOS failure was a blessing in disguise as the board and RAM responded in a very positive manner to the new BIOS. All settings in the BIOS were left as programmed except for the CAS Latency, RAS to CAS, RAS Precharge and tRAS, which were set to the highest stable, benchable settings. Due to the time constraints involved in producing this review, little time was afforded to experiment with further optimum settings. Another week of evenings may have allowed the following modules to scale a tad higher.
NOTE 11/23/05: There is now a shipping BIOS listed at DFI's site for the Expert, along with a newer beta bios.
| Modules | Maximum clock | Read mb/s | Write mb/s | Latency |
| 2x256MB Corsair CMX256A-3200LL BH-5 | 266Mhz @ 3.6v 2-2-2-5 1T |
7255 | 2108 | 35.9ns |
| 2x512MB Corsair CMX512-3200XL TCCD | 310Mhz@ 3.1V 3-4-4-8 1T |
7011 | 3042 | 38.5ns |
| 2x1GB Corsair CMX1024 4000PT | 300Mhz @ 3.1V 3-4-4-8 1T |
6703 | 2686 | 40.4ns |
| 2x512MB OCZ PC4800EL Elite Platinum Ed. TCCD | 300Mhz @ 2.96V 2.5-3-3-8 1T |
6991 | 2950 | 39.6ns |
The new player in the RAM battles was Corsair 3200XL TCCD based modules. Though rated at PC3200, they eventually surpassed the 4000PT and OCZ's PC4800EL coming in at 310Mhz. The BH-5 based Corsair 3200LL, even at 2 years old, did very well - achieving 266Mhz at the tightest timings at 3.6V. An observation to be made, though, is the poor write performance of the BH-5 compared to its TCCD brothers. I also tested 2x256MB BH-5 modules from OCZ and Kingston with much less success, but even at similar speeds, all the BH-5 suffered from this same write fall off in comparison. This may very well be a side effect of a TCCD optimized BIOS, but only with more time to experiment with settings may we have been able to improve the score. That shortfall notwithstanding, the BH-5 clearly can still be called "king of the hill" in the read and latency portion of our evaluation.
All memory module testing was performed with the 4000+. At a future point, we plan to test with the 3500+ Winchester. That CPU had hit a max of 370 MHz 1-1 with 2x256MB modules of G.Skill PC4400LE on the original SLI-D, and results should be very interesting on the updated Expert board.
DFI NF4 SLI-DR Expert: Memory Stress Testing
DFI NFR SLI-DR Expert – Overclocked 3D benchmark performance + SLI verification
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Hardass1 - Sunday, February 19, 2006 - link
Another well done review Sir.Hardass.
lopri - Saturday, November 26, 2005 - link
If you had to pick one, which one would you pick? A8N32-SLI or Expert? Please don't tell me "Both are good", "They're different animals" or anything in that sense. Most of us have to pick ONE and that exact question is what we want to know. I'd venture to say what matters are following two:1. Overclockability
2. Stability
Fetures, layouts, etc... yeah.. they are all good and nice, but what really matters are whether the overclock is stable. And that's what brought DFI here today. Could you comment on it? If you had a choice to pick JUST ONE, which one would you pick?
Great review anyway. I'm actually happy that AT is becoming more enthusiast-friendly and looking forward to the next review. (Possibly Opteron Overclocking review?)
Thanks.
lop
RSica - Sunday, November 27, 2005 - link
Hi Lop:)I'll be honest in telling you I have not had my hands on the Asus board to know it's full overclocking abilities, so I really can't give you an opinion on which board to choose. Wesley could give you full insight on that one.
I go way back in the overclocking business, having hooked up with my best buds OPPAINTER and DDTUNG back in the day. At that time we were modding and overclocking each generation of Abit AMD based boards starting with the KG7 and culminating with the NF7-S, which we were pre-production testing prior to it's retail release. I've also had a play with Epox, Gigabyte, and the famous Shuttle A64 board.When I recieved the original SLI-D back in January it was an overclockers dream come true.All the voltage and overclocking/memory options and it overclocked way easy compared to the norm.(Thank you Oskar Wu:))
The Expert is more of the same but much better. I am a bit biased on a personal level about the board, and if you had just asked about it, I'd have given a thumbs up.
Thanks for your comments !
Randi
Scrith - Wednesday, November 30, 2005 - link
Does this use the same chipset as the A8N32-SLI? If not, why not, and where are the competitors for that board?Heckler 5th - Sunday, December 4, 2005 - link
how come the box the reviewer received already has that "anandtech gold medal" sticker on there? hmmm, kinda fishy... LOLcbkia - Saturday, November 26, 2005 - link
Under the extreme oc page, the pic showing the HTT @ 400MHz and RAM @ 300MHZ 2.5-3-3-8 but the sisoft is only 6674 MB/s? 300MHz should be displaying something near 8GB/sRSica - Sunday, November 27, 2005 - link
That would be true if not running at 2400Mhz.All HTT and Memory overclocking tests were done at a reduced multiplier. Each multiplier also has an effect on system bandwidth in the way the A64 responds to them.If I had chosen to run 7 and a total CPU Mhz of 2800, you would have most likely seen the 8000mb/s figure.In contrast, the stock 4000+ at 12x200Mhz with tight timings will average 5600-5700mb/s.
Another consideration is that with the bios used which made it more ram overclocking friendly, that there was possibly a relaxation of some of the bios register settings, which can also reduce bandwidth a bit in the name of pushing the memory higher in Mhz.
Thanks for your comments !
Randi
RobFDB - Saturday, November 26, 2005 - link
What i'm really interested in is if this board suffers from the same problem as my Ultra-D with PC4000 VX memory (the infamous cold boot issue)?I don't really want to pick this board up and have it suffer from the same problem. Not that i've tried my VX with the latest beta bios, but that's besides the point.
RobFDB - Tuesday, November 29, 2005 - link
Can anyone confirm or deny that the cold boot issue exists with this board?yacoub - Saturday, November 26, 2005 - link
If it had passive cooling like the A8N32-SLI I'd be more interested.