Nvidia nForce4 Ultra Mobo Shootout --- TheThirdMedia Hardware

Test Setup

All motherboards in this shootout were installed and configured with the same settings to ensure testing integrity and minimized result fluctuations caused by external sources. Each board was updated to the latest available BIOS and benchmarked on a fresh OS installation. The list below details the test setup used in this shootout:-

AMD Athlon 64 3500+ (2.2GHz)

2 x 512MB Kingston DDR400

Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 80GB SATA hard disk drive (one single NTFS partition)

Leadtek PX6600GT TDH Extreme 128MB - with NVIDIA Detonator XP 71.89 driver

NVIDIA nForce4 package 6.53

Microsoft Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 1 (with DirectX 9.0c)

Memory Matters

Default memory parameters used throughout benchmarking are listed in the following table. In the course of our testing, when we encountered boards that displayed memory compatibility or instability problems, more relaxed timings and options were used to complete the benchmark. These special cases are highlighted in the table.

DDR Memory Timing Used For Benchmarking

Motherboard	DefaultMemory Timing	Remarks
ABITFatal1ty AN8	6-3-3CAS 2.5 CMD 1T	-
ChaintechVNF4 Ultra	6-3-3CAS 2.5 CMD 1T	-
DFILANParty UT nF4 Ultra-D	6-3-3CAS 2.5 CMD 1T	-
ECSKN1 Extreme	6-3-3CAS 2.5 CMD 1T	-
EPoXEP-9NPA+ Ultra	6-3-3CAS 2.5 CMD 1T	CMD 2T was used for PCMark 2004's 'Memory' tests to maintain stability.
GigabyteGA-K8NXP-9	6-3-3CAS 2.5 CMD 1T	-
GigabyteGA-K8N Ultra-9	6-3-3CAS 2.5 CMD 1T	-
MSIK8N Neo4 Platinum	6-3-3CAS 2.5 CMD 1T	-

As we all know, one main feature of the Athlon 64 was the inclusion of a built-in memory controller, allowing direct data transmission between CPU and RAM. Along with the arrival of Socket 939 for the AMD64 platform, the Athlon 64 processors now sport dual channel memory controllers. With this significant change in memory architecture, memory addressing has become more complex and Socket 939 users will undoubtedly have noticed certain restrictions to DIMM installation and configuration. Of the four DIMM slots available in all the motherboards, there are some general recommendations to follow for dual channel configurations. Firstly, dual channel operation usually only works in either the first two banks or with all four banks populated. Secondly, using double-sided memory has some disadvantages. If you populate all four DIMM slots or use two modules in single channel mode, memory speed will be reduced to DDR333. Also, memory modules with more than 18 ICs should not be used as a general rule as most boards will not support them.

Most manufacturers today provide users with a table of recommended memory bank configurations that work optimally with their board in dual channel mode. Since the make of a board differs from each manufacturer. Users should double check this information for their respective motherboards to make sure that memory is installed properly, especially if you are encountering stability problems.

Benchmarks

The following list of benchmarks were used for the purpose of this shootout:-

BAPco SYSmark 2004

Futuremark PCMark04

SPECviewperf 8.01

Futuremark 3DMark03

AquaMark3

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