Socket 939 Chipsets: Motherboard Performance & PCI/AGP Locks
by Wesley Fink on June 2, 2004 12:01 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
Workstation Performance
nVidia's experience as a producer of Workstation Graphics cards shows in Workstation Performance results. Across the board, the nVidia nForce3-250 Ultra is the clear winner over VIA in Workstation Performance. The performance lead is often surprisingly wide for nVidia in Workstation benchmarks, especially considering the chipsets are running the same memory controller on the same FX53 CPU at the same speed.
While we have seen this performance pattern in SPECviewperf before, the nVidia performance lead in this area is wide enough that we would definitely recommend nForce3-250 Ultra over K8T800 PRO for workstation graphics.
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Wesley Fink - Friday, June 4, 2004 - link
#12 and #19 -We received the 2nd motherboard less than 24 hours before leaving for Computex, and did not sleep so first test results could be carried with us to Taiwan - so we could post when NDA expired while we were at Computex. The article was written in-between visiting booths 8000 miles from home - to bring you coverage of the show. Right now I am in Zhongshan, China and will not return until late next week.
We will test 4 dimms when we review the first SHIPPING 939 boards - when we return from China. I rarely have Reference boards and a stock test bench with me in mainland China.
SpaceRanger - Thursday, June 3, 2004 - link
What bothers me, is that days later, questions still go unanswered. Not cool Anandtech. Your reputation is slipping.daveshel - Thursday, June 3, 2004 - link
Do the enthusiasts reading this article agree that we tend to upgrade motherboards more often than processors? Not true for me.FacelessNobody - Wednesday, June 2, 2004 - link
Another factor I'd like to see included in this roundup is RAID performance. Based on this review, I like the nForce3 250 more, but I've heard that VIA is ahead in their SATA RAID implementation. With the two chipsets so close, RAID performance could easily be a determining factor, not to mention one that means more to me (and probably others) than PCI/AGP locks.Eidolon - Wednesday, June 2, 2004 - link
if nVidia isn't going PCI-Express until Q3 or Q4, who is doing it like this or next month? VIA and SiS?HolgMan - Wednesday, June 2, 2004 - link
Will there be any Socket 940 Boards with either nForce3-250 or K8T800 Pro?Wesley Fink - Wednesday, June 2, 2004 - link
#10 -nVidia is showing PCI Express boards for Athlon 64 Socket 939 at Comdex. While the PCI Express boards are an unannounced product, nVidia says we may seen these as early as 3rd quarter.
MemberSince97 - Wednesday, June 2, 2004 - link
# 12 Very good point...SpaceRanger - Wednesday, June 2, 2004 - link
I saw 4 DIMM slots, but they didn't go into how stable and at what speeds these boards were capable of running with all 4 DIMM slots filled. Anyone know?Nyati13 - Wednesday, June 2, 2004 - link
#9 That is because the most important parts of what used to be a 'Northbridge' are now in the CPU itself, which leaves much less for the motherboard chipset to do.
Jeremy