ATI Radeon Xpress 200: Performance, PCI Express & DX9 for Athlon 64
by Wesley Fink on November 8, 2004 6:00 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
ATI X800 XT: MSI K8N Neo2 vs. ATI Bullhead
The MSI K8N Neo2 was our Gold Editors Choice in our Socket 939 Roundup. We first compared the ATI RX480 Bullhead to the MSI running the same Athlon 64 3800+ CPU and the same 2-2-2-10 DDR memory. An ATI XT X800 AGP video card was used for the nForce3 Ultra testing while an X800XT PCIe was used for the ATI Bullhead.| MSI K8N Neo2 vs. ATI Bullhead ATI X800 XT (AGP and PCIe), 3800+, 2X512 2-2-2-10 DDR |
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| Benchmark | MSI K8N Neo2 nVidia nForce 3 |
ATI Bullhead ATI RX480 |
% Change MSI to ATI |
| PCMark 2004 | 4880 | 4812 | -1.4% |
| Aquamark 3 | 65620 | 65070 | -0.8% |
| Doom3 - High Quality | 85.9 | 87.3 | +1.6% |
| Far Cry 1.1 | 151.4 | 159.0 | +5.0% |
In many graphics roundups we have seen no real performance difference in AGP and PCI Express versions of the same card. Therfore, we are comparing the ATI RX480 performance to nForce3 Ultra. The % variation is negligible except for Far Cry, where the ATI Bullhead is about 5% faster. As reported at AnandTech in past video reviews, nVidia PCIe is not as well-optimized for Far Cry as ATI. However, it looks like the problem is not just the nVidia PCIe, since the ATI card also is slower on the nVidia chipset than on ATI RX480.
Since the Far Cry issue is known, and will be clearer in other benchmarks reported here, we conclude that the ATI Bullhead and MSI K8N Neo2 are equivalent in performance.
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kogase - Monday, November 8, 2004 - link
Eh... I don't think the boards are kicking Intel's ass. A64 is.fuzzynavel - Monday, November 8, 2004 - link
I didn't realise that the nforce4 and ATI mobos...kicked intels ass so badly!! Not bad for a first attempt....just avoid the integrated graphics and it all looks sweetDenial - Monday, November 8, 2004 - link
This is nice and all, but I'm not uprading until dual cores are out. The difference between my home PC (P4 2.8) and office workstation (dual 2.66 xeons) is night and day. It's at the point that my home PC drives me nuts when one process brings everything else to a halt (all the more frustrating when it's something like explorer running amok). I've absolutely had it with single CPU's, no more!VaultDweller - Monday, November 8, 2004 - link
The tables on pages 10 and 11 both list Halo as the first benchmark, but the review text on page 10 refers to a 14.4% gain in 'Quake 3.' According to the table, that 14.4% was for Halo.MAME - Monday, November 8, 2004 - link
sweet