NVIDIA 680i SLI: Official 1333MHz FSB CPU Support Arrives
by Gary Key on July 20, 2007 12:01 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
Test Setup:
Test conditions were maintained the same, as much as possible, over the platforms tested. Our game tests were run at settings of 1280x1024 HQ to ensure our GPU was not a bottleneck during testing. All results are reported in our charts and color-coded for easier identification of results.
We utilize new drive images on each board in order to minimize any potential driver conflicts. Our 3DMark results are generated utilizing the standard benchmark resolution for each program. We run each benchmark five times, throw out the two low and high scores, and report the remaining score. All results are run at stock speeds for this article with memory timings at 6-6-6-15 1333-DDR3 for the ASUS Blitz Extreme, 4-4-4-10 1066-DDR2 for the ASUS P5K Deluxe and 3-3-3-6 1T 800-DDR2 for the EVGA 680i SLI motherboard. In order for our tests to be fair, we did upgrade to the latest BIOS releases for the ASUS P35 boards for comparison scores.
Our choice of software applications to test is based on programs that enjoy widespread use and produce repeatable and consistent results during testing. Microsoft Vista has thrown a monkey wrench into testing as the aggressive nature of the operating system to constantly optimize application loading and retrieval from memory or the storage system presents some interesting obstacles. This along with the lack of driver maturity or features (Hello NVIDIA) will continue to present problems in the near future with benchmark selections.
Our normal process was to change our power settings to performance, delete the contents of the prefetch folder, and then reboot after each benchmark run. This is a lengthy process to be sure, but it results in consistency over the course of benchmark testing. All applications were run with administer privileges.
| Standard Test Bed Vista Ultimate 64-Bit Test Configuration |
|
| Processor | Intel Core 2 Duo QX6850 (3.00GHz, 8MB Unified Cache) |
| RAM | OCZ Reaper PC2-9200 (2x1GB) TEAM Xtreem DDR3-1600 (2x1GB) |
| Hard Drive | Western Digital 150GB 10,000RPM SATA 16MB Buffer |
| System Platform Drivers | Intel 8.3.0.1013 NVIDIA 15.00 |
| Video Cards | 1 x MSI 8800GTX |
| Video Drivers | NVIDIA 163.11 |
| CPU Cooling | Tuniq 120 |
| Power Supply | OCZ ProXStream 1000W |
| Optical Drives | Plextor PX-760A, Plextor PX-B900A |
| Case | Cooler Master CM Stacker 830 |
| Motherboards | ASUS Blitz Extreme (Intel P35 DDR3) - BIOS 0702 ASUS P5K Deluxe (Intel P35 DDR2) - BIOS 0404 EVGA 680i SLI (NVIDIA 680i DDR2) - BIOS P30 |
| Operating System | Windows Vista Ultimate 64-Bit |
| . | |
Test conditions were maintained the same, as much as possible, over the platforms tested. Our game tests were run at settings of 1280x1024 HQ to ensure our GPU was not a bottleneck during testing. All results are reported in our charts and color-coded for easier identification of results.
We utilize new drive images on each board in order to minimize any potential driver conflicts. Our 3DMark results are generated utilizing the standard benchmark resolution for each program. We run each benchmark five times, throw out the two low and high scores, and report the remaining score. All results are run at stock speeds for this article with memory timings at 6-6-6-15 1333-DDR3 for the ASUS Blitz Extreme, 4-4-4-10 1066-DDR2 for the ASUS P5K Deluxe and 3-3-3-6 1T 800-DDR2 for the EVGA 680i SLI motherboard. In order for our tests to be fair, we did upgrade to the latest BIOS releases for the ASUS P35 boards for comparison scores.
Our choice of software applications to test is based on programs that enjoy widespread use and produce repeatable and consistent results during testing. Microsoft Vista has thrown a monkey wrench into testing as the aggressive nature of the operating system to constantly optimize application loading and retrieval from memory or the storage system presents some interesting obstacles. This along with the lack of driver maturity or features (Hello NVIDIA) will continue to present problems in the near future with benchmark selections.
Our normal process was to change our power settings to performance, delete the contents of the prefetch folder, and then reboot after each benchmark run. This is a lengthy process to be sure, but it results in consistency over the course of benchmark testing. All applications were run with administer privileges.
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FireTech - Saturday, July 21, 2007 - link
Seconded.
Actually, it's over four months now. First post in http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid...">mATX Roundup was on 15/03/07....
No matter, we do have another Intel focussed article to read while we wait for it ;)
DigitalFreak - Friday, July 20, 2007 - link
Good job! Want a cookie?
JKing76 - Friday, July 20, 2007 - link
No thanks, the thrice-promised uATX roundup would be fine.CrystalBay - Friday, July 20, 2007 - link
It must get really boring to keep testing MB's without much more than 2% performance differences.... Parity blows.....poohbear - Friday, July 20, 2007 - link
nice article, but the above was a bit much for a "professional" article. no offense, i like anantech for their technical knowledge not their ability to ramble on w/ half-hearted jokes. do i really need to read all that before understanding all u needed was a P35 board?
Chunga29 - Friday, July 20, 2007 - link
I actually thought the snarky comments at the beginning was the most enjoyable part. All NVIDIA's marketing hype kicking in bragging about their platform, when the reality is that it's nothing really special. The more pressing concern was the next sentence:Okay, so that's just one more reason to stick with XP for me, but seriously are you telling me that NVIDIA's launch Vista drivers were so perfect that no updates are necessary? I'd say their driver teams are probably overworked right now, but regardless if I were looking at Vista that situation wouldn't make me very happy.
BitJunkie - Friday, July 20, 2007 - link
I've had this board and a 7950GX2 card from nvidia since December 2006 with an E6600 plugged in to it. It's been stable at a 1333 FSB with memory running at 1066 since then all be it with slack 5-5-5-15 timings.On the whole it's a fast(ish) and stable system BUT....and it's a BIG but the drivers have been the weak link since I installed Vista in January. Not real change for me in that time, I STILL get BSOD'd regularly, the SLI functionality is borked for the gfx card and up until new BIOS my raid array keept locking up on boot.
Expecting them to deliver the goods for the newer 1333 fsb quad core CPUs is kind of like pissing in to the wind. I so hope amd / ati get their act together soon, this is getting old.
Sunrise089 - Friday, July 20, 2007 - link
Agreed - I can find benchmarks anywhere, and this sort of article (unlike say the memory wall one) doesn't require a lot of technical expertise - so why not liven it up a bit.