Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe: First ATI RD580
by Wesley Fink on March 1, 2006 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Ethernet Performance
The one area where the Asus A8R-MVP was mildly disappointing was in their choice of an Ethernet controller. Instead of using a PCIe LAN that is capable of providing full 1 Gb bandwidth, Asus used a PCI solution that will be limited in maximum speed by the PCI bus. The A8R32-MVP Deluxe keeps the PCI Ethernet, but it adds a second PCIe Ethernet controller capable of full bandwidth Gigabit LAN.
In practical terms, the PCI bus Ethernet is not much of a roadblock. It caps out about 700 Mb/s compared to the 950Mb/s capability of a PCIe solution. Since most broadband Ethernet connections barely tax 10Mb/s, this will really only matter to those who do sustained high-speed transfer of very large files over a true 1 Gb network - probably less than 1% of users. Still, PCIe Gigabit Ethernet is always a better solution, and it is good to see that Asus addressed this issue in the A8R32-MVP.
The Windows 2000 Driver Development Kit (DDK) includes a useful LAN testing utility called NTttcp. We used the NTttcp tool to test Ethernet throughput and the CPU utilization of the various Ethernet Controllers used on the AMD motherboards.
We set up one machine as the server; in this case, an Intel box with an Intel CSA Gigabit LAN connection. Intel CSA has a reputation for providing fast throughput and this seemed a reasonable choice to serve our Gigabit LAN clients. At the server side, we used the following Command Line as suggested by the VIA whitepaper on LAN testing:
The one area where the Asus A8R-MVP was mildly disappointing was in their choice of an Ethernet controller. Instead of using a PCIe LAN that is capable of providing full 1 Gb bandwidth, Asus used a PCI solution that will be limited in maximum speed by the PCI bus. The A8R32-MVP Deluxe keeps the PCI Ethernet, but it adds a second PCIe Ethernet controller capable of full bandwidth Gigabit LAN.
In practical terms, the PCI bus Ethernet is not much of a roadblock. It caps out about 700 Mb/s compared to the 950Mb/s capability of a PCIe solution. Since most broadband Ethernet connections barely tax 10Mb/s, this will really only matter to those who do sustained high-speed transfer of very large files over a true 1 Gb network - probably less than 1% of users. Still, PCIe Gigabit Ethernet is always a better solution, and it is good to see that Asus addressed this issue in the A8R32-MVP.
The Windows 2000 Driver Development Kit (DDK) includes a useful LAN testing utility called NTttcp. We used the NTttcp tool to test Ethernet throughput and the CPU utilization of the various Ethernet Controllers used on the AMD motherboards.
We set up one machine as the server; in this case, an Intel box with an Intel CSA Gigabit LAN connection. Intel CSA has a reputation for providing fast throughput and this seemed a reasonable choice to serve our Gigabit LAN clients. At the server side, we used the following Command Line as suggested by the VIA whitepaper on LAN testing:
Ntttcps -m 4 ,0,‹client IP› -a 4 -l 256000 -n 30000On the client side (the motherboard under test), we used the following Command Line:
Ntttcpr -m 4 ,0,‹server IP› -a 4 -l 256000 -n 30000At the conclusion of the test, we captured the throughput and CPU utilization figures from the client screen.
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superkdogg - Wednesday, March 1, 2006 - link
If you had been working for half the time you have been whining on every forum you can find, you could have bought two SLI-Experts or whatever motherboard you think has no problems.Dude, get over it. The A8R was not exactly as reviewed here. Is that disappointing? Yep. Unfair? Maybe. Fact is, anybody who bought it for the "serious overclocking" that you're referencing would do a vMod and get on with it. I have two A8R's. One is dead because I was stupid and tried a vMod. My soldering needs work. I bought a second one on refurb for $75 because I realized that in the best case, that vMod might get me another 150 MHz. You know what else would get me 150 MHz? Dusting off a Pentium Pro in my basement. I could also get the 2% benefit that 1T timing would give me from chance, since most 'marks are + or - 2-3%.
I was burned by the same problem you were. I have learned to live with it and am currently happily running 300x9 with ram @ 2.5-4-4-9, 2T (166/200). That's not bad for standard blue heatspreader Patriot that runs about $80 per gig.
DigitalFreak - Wednesday, March 1, 2006 - link
Omid, is that you?yacoub - Sunday, February 19, 2006 - link
Should have run the 3DMark benches with the 7800GTX like all the other boards so at least we could see if the board itself (the object of review) offered any particular performance gain or loss. :[yacoub - Sunday, February 19, 2006 - link
oic now, thanks. :)green bars. tricksy hobbitses!
Missing Ghost - Sunday, February 19, 2006 - link
I am unhappy with the pictures of the board included in this review. I can't see anything on them because they are too dark. I couldn't even tell if they were a firewire port on the back.Wesley Fink - Wednesday, March 1, 2006 - link
The pictures are not overly dark on several monitors we tried in reading the review. I'm sorry I don't have advice in that area.As stated in the review, both Firewire ports are on an accesory bracket included with the motherboard. The bracket will fit in an empty slot or can be routed to case firewire ports.
Googer - Sunday, February 19, 2006 - link
What Phase Power is this motherboard using? 2,3,4,8,24?Beenthere - Sunday, February 19, 2006 - link
Any properly designed 3-phase or greater CPU vcore circuit that complies with AMD's VRM64/T specs will work just fine. If however a mfg. delivers a poor circuit design or uses inferior MOSFETS, caps, etc., then you experience Vcore instability which causes all kinds of operational Hell. More phases just lowers the ripple and spreads the load across more MOSFETS.Beenthere - Sunday, February 19, 2006 - link
BTW, if you check the A8R-MVP, the A8N series and the Asus P5GL-MX you'll see that all of these mobos have been confirmed to have vcore instability problems when tested at the mobo with a DVM or scope. Asus seems to have some significant mobo engineering issues they can't resolve... and that are not present on other brands of mobos using the same chipsets.Ecmaster76 - Sunday, February 19, 2006 - link
Do you work for DFI or Abit or something? This is the third site where I have ran into you flaming Asus constantly!(where did I put that troll repellant)
Seriously, link some proof of said Vcore instability. Show me scope printouts of the Vcore lines (and the 12v rails that were used to drive it)