Jetway 915 PDBG: Overclocking and Stress Testing

FSB Overclocking Results

Front Side Bus Overclocking Testbed
Processor: Pentium 4 Prescott LGA 775
560 ES (2.8GHz-3.6GHz)
CPU Voltage: 1.425V (1.3875V default)
Cooling: Thermaltake Jungle 502
Power Supply: OCZ Power Stream 520
Maximum CPU OverClock: 214x18 (3852MHz) +7%
Maximum FSB OC: 216FSB x 16 (+8%)

While the Jetway is a decent performer at stock speeds, the overclocking performance is pretty dismal. The options are there for this board to be a good overclocking performer, but it appears that Jetway has done little with the 915 design, since the demand has been so low in the market. We hope that if Jetway decides to bring the 915PDBG to market, they will update the BIOS to improve overclocking performance significantly.

Memory Stress Test Results:

Jetway designed the 915GDBG and 915PDGB to use DDR memory. Memory stress tests therefore measured the ability of the Jetway to operate at its officially supported memory frequency of DDR400, at the best performing memory timings that our standard OCZ PC3200 Platinum Rev. 2 will support. Memory stress testing was conducted by running DDR400 at a stock 1:1 ratio with 2 DIMM slots operating in Dual-Channel mode.

Stable DDR400 Timings - 2 DIMMs
(2/4 DIMMs - 1 Dual-Channel Bank)
Clock Speed: 200MHz
Timing Mode: 1:1 (200:200 - Default)
CAS Latency: 2.0
Bank Interleave: Auto
RAS to CAS Delay: 2
RAS Precharge: 2
Cycle Time (tRAS): 5

The Jetway 915PDBG was completely stable with 2 DIMMs in Dual-Channel at the DDR400 and memory timings of 2-2-2-5 at 2.6V default voltage.

Filling all four available memory slots is more strenuous on the memory subsystem than testing 2 DDR2 modules on a motherboard.

Stable DDR400 Timings - 4 DIMMs
(4/4 DIMMs - 2 Dual-Channel Banks)
Clock Speed: 200MHz
Timing Mode: 1:1 (200:200 - Default)
CAS Latency: 2.0
Bank Interleave: Auto
RAS to CAS Delay: 3
RAS Precharge: 2
Cycle Time (tRAS): 5

DDR has a long benchmarking history that makes it easier to figure out where to go with memory timings. We found that the RAS-to-CAS delay needed to be increased to a 3 setting for complete stability with 4 DIMMs in the Jetway. 4 DIMMs were completely stable at 2-3-2-5 settings at a default 2.6V memory voltage.

Jetway 915 PDBG: Features and Layout MSI 915P Neo2 Platinum: Features and Layout
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  • coldpower27 - Tuesday, December 7, 2004 - link

    Of course the Pentium 4 560 is gonna be outperformed, The Pentium 4 560 is designed to compete at the 417US price point while the Athlon FX 55 is designed for the 827US, were talking double the P4 560 in price. i believethe closest competitor for the Pentium 4 560 in price is probably the Athlon 64 3700+ even though it is on Single Channel DDR.
  • danidentity - Tuesday, December 7, 2004 - link

    Even the 3800+ could be included, but that is still about $180 more expensive than the 560, according to Newegg.
  • danidentity - Tuesday, December 7, 2004 - link

    I know comments like I'm about to make have been made before, and I am not biased, but I wanted to reiterate.

    Why is the FX-55 even part of the benchmarks in this review? Why not a 3500+? The FX-55 is TWICE the price of the Pentium 560 according to current Newegg prices.

    I know the argument will be that the FX-55 and the 560 are two of the highest performing chips from the two camps. But the fact of the matter is that most people shopping for a 560 aren't going to be shopping for a FX-55. It's in an entirely different class.
  • mongoosesRawesome - Tuesday, December 7, 2004 - link

    Can you do a comparison between soundstorm and dolby digital live? What is the bitrate of the encoding? Frequency range? Overall quality?

    It seems like this may be the second time I pass on AC3 encoding though. Last time I chose a northwood platform over AMD and NF2, and this time I'll likely choose the NF4 over intel and dolby digital live.

    Would be nice to be able to easily hook it up to my klipsch dolby digital decodor though...
  • anandtechrocks - Tuesday, December 7, 2004 - link

    Thanks for the great review!
  • MAME - Tuesday, December 7, 2004 - link

    AMD >>>>>>>>>>>>> *

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