Intel 925X Roundup: Creative Engineering 101
by Wesley Fink on August 12, 2004 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Gigabyte 8ANXP-D: Overclocking and Stress Testing
FSB Overclocking Results
| Front Side Bus Overclocking Testbed | ||
| Processor: | Pentium 4 Prescott LGA 775 2.8GHz |
|
| CPU Voltage: | 1.3875V (default) | |
| Cooling: | Thermaltake Jungle 502 | |
| Power Supply: | HiPro 470W | |
| Maximum OC: | 255FSB (+28%) | |
The only way to overclock an Intel CPU is to increase the FSB. When we first tested the Gigabyte, the overclock limit was less than 10%, 218 to be precise. With no adjustment for PCIe frequency, it appeared Gigabyte was fixing the PCIe bus, but they did have PCIe word overclocks like "PCIe Turbo". We went through several BIOS revisions to finally reach where Gigabyte is today, reaching 255 with the ATI X800 XT. However, the nVidia 6800 Ultra on the Gigabyte is still pretty mediocre at a maximum overclock of 228.
These results indicate Gigabyte is probably using a different approach to getting around the 10% OC issue. That also means that we may see even more improvement in the 8ANXP-D overclocking performance in the future.
Memory Stress Test Results:
The memory stress test measures the ability of the Gigabyte 8ANXP-D to operate at its officially supported memory frequency (533MHz DDR2), at the best performing memory timings that Crucial/Micron PC2-4300U will support. Memory stress testing was conducted by running DDR2 at 533MHz (stock 3:4 ratio) with 2 DIMM slots operating in Dual-Channel mode.| Stable DDR533 Timings - 2 DIMMs (2/4 DIMMs - 1 Dual-Channel Bank) |
|
| Clock Speed: | 266MHz |
| Timing Mode: | 3:4 (200:266 - Default) |
| CAS Latency: | 3.0 |
| Bank Interleave: | Auto |
| RAS to CAS Delay: | 3 |
| RAS Precharge: | 3 |
| Cycle Time (tRAS): | 10* |
| Command Rate: | N/A |
Like the other 925X motherboards in this roundup, the Gigabyte was completely stable with 2 DDR2 modules at the best performing settings of 3-3-3-10 at default speed and 1.8V default voltage.
Filling all four available memory slots is more strenuous on the memory sub-system than testing 2 DDR2 modules on a motherboard.
| Stable DDR533 Timings - 4 DIMMs (4/4 DIMMs - 2 Dual-Channel Banks) |
|
| Clock Speed: | 266MHz |
| Timing Mode: | 3:4 (200:266 - Default) |
| CAS Latency: | 4.0 |
| Bank Interleave: | Auto |
| RAS to CAS Delay: | 4 |
| RAS Precharge: | 3 |
| Cycle Time (tRAS): | 10 |
| Command Rate: | N/A |
The Gigabyte board required 4-4-3 timings for complete stability at default voltage with 4 DIMMs. This is slightly slower than the best boards in the roundup with 4 DIMMs, but it is very close to the best 4-3-3 settings. As was said in the Foxconn review, the next Gigabyte 8ANXP-D that we test might well do 4-3-3 timings with 4 DIMMs, as it could just as well be explained as normal production variation in 925X chipsets or Gigabyte motherboards. This small difference in memory timings is not really that significant.
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jdoor0 - Tuesday, October 26, 2004 - link
This review has been reviewed:http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=18896
Nige - Tuesday, October 12, 2004 - link
Does the ASUS P5AD2 Deluxe motherboard have the same overclocking capability as the P5AD2 Premium?skiboysteve - Friday, August 13, 2004 - link
Wow nice catch. i guess my "(I know... toms sucks)" disclaimer came true.yaeh i understand.
Wesley Fink - Thursday, August 12, 2004 - link
#26 -There is now an apology to Asus up at THG. They measured the voltage wrong. We had also measured the voltage and found 1.5 to 1.55 which is well within spec, not 2.1 as they reported. They now acknowledge the correct voltage measurement for the P5AD2 is 1.53V.
High Northbridge voltage is not the reason the Asus, or any other 925X/915 board, overclocks well. There are far too many simple and wrong explanations for the complex overclocking issues of the 925X/915 chipsets.
skiboysteve - Thursday, August 12, 2004 - link
Page 10"...Broadcom attached to the faster PCI Express bus..."
there is no PCI Express bus, its a point to point protocal.
Just nitpicking.
Great review.
Also, over at Toms (I know... toms sucks) they looked at 9x5 Boards over there and showed that the Asus P5AD2 was running at an astounding 2.1v on the northbridge (1.5v is the stock)
Something might have to be mentioned about reliability of such out of spec behavior, and cooling concerns. You might want to conduct your own quick test on the voltage with a multimeter.
broberts - Thursday, August 12, 2004 - link
One of the problems with these arguments is that the FX-53 is almost 20% more expensive.I've been thinking for a while now that benchmarks should show some form of pricing index so that one can better judge the advantage/disadvantage of the various choices. Just quoting prices isn't ideal, for a host of reasons. I'd suggest, instead, a relative measure. And not just the cost of the particular component being benchmarked. Calculate the cost of the each system used in the benchmarks. Pick one, perhaps the lowest or highest cost one and calculate the relative difference in price. I suggest using the entire system because quite often the choice of one component dictates the available choices for other components. Ideally a relative measure for both the components and entire system would be calculated and published.
manno - Thursday, August 12, 2004 - link
Moo Moo MOO.manno - Thursday, August 12, 2004 - link
why no Doom3?Wesley Fink - Thursday, August 12, 2004 - link
#21 -We will definitely be including Doom 3 benches in future reviews. The only reason they are not included in this 925X roundup is because most of the testing was completed before we had a working copy of Doom 3. You can get a clear idea of how the 925X/Intel 560 performs in Doom 3 in Anand's Doom 3: CPU Battlegrounds review published August 4th at http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?...
kherman - Thursday, August 12, 2004 - link
Umm, Doom 3 benches?