nForce4 SLI Roundup: Painful and Rewarding
by Wesley Fink on February 28, 2005 7:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
MSI K8N Neo4/SLI Platinum: Features and Layout
| Specification | MSI K8N Neo4/SLI Platinum |
| CPU Interface | Socket 939 Athlon 64 |
| Chipset | nForce4 SLI (single chip) |
| BUS Speeds | 190MHz, 200MHz to 400MHz (in 1MHz increments) |
| PCI/AGP Speeds | Asynchronous (Fixed) |
| PCI Speeds | 100MHz to 145MHz in 1MHz increments |
| Dynamic Overclocking | Auto Overclocking Disable, 1%, 3%, 5%, 7%, 9%, 11% |
| Core Voltage | Auto, 0.825V to 1.55V in 0.025V increments (Normal) PLUS CPU VID 3.3%, 5%, 8.3% (to 1.68V) |
| DRAM Voltage | Auto, 2.55V to 2.85V in 0.05V increments |
| Chipset Voltage | 1.5V to 1.85V in 0.05V increments |
| Hyper Transport Ratios | Auto, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0 |
| LDT Bus Transfer | 16/16, 16/8, 8/16, 8/8 |
| CPU Ratios | Auto, 4x to 25x in 0.5x increments |
| Aggressive Timings | Enable, Disable |
| SSE/SSE2 Instructions | Enable, Disable |
| DRAM Speeds | Auto, 100, 133, 166, 200 |
| Memory Command Rate | Auto, 1T, 2T |
| Memory Slots | Four 184-pin DDR Dual-Channel Slots Unbuffered ECC or non-ECC Memory to 4GB Total |
| Expansion Slots | 2 x16 PCIe Slots 1 x4 PCIe 1 x1 PCIe 2 PCI Slots |
| SLI Setup | Movable PCB Card |
| Onboard SATA | 4-Drive SATA 2 by nF4 PLUS 2-Drive PCIe SATA 2 by Sil3132 |
| Onboard IDE | Two Standard nVidia ATA133/100/66 (4 drives) |
| SATA/IDE RAID | 4-Drive SATA 2 PLUS 4-Drive IDE (8 total) Can be combined in RAID 0, 1 PLUS 2-Drive SATA 2 by Sil3132 Raid 0, 1 |
| Onboard USB 2.0/IEEE-1394 | 10 USB 2.0 ports supported nF4 2 1394A FireWire ports by VIA VT6307 |
| Onboard LAN | Dual Gigabit PCIe Ethernet PCIe by Marvel 88E1111 PHY PCIe by Marvel 88E8053 |
| Onboard Audio | Creative Sound Blaster Live! 24-bit Hardware 8-Channel with Dolby Digital encoder, 6 audio jacks, CD-in, front audio, and both optical and coaxial SPDIF Out |
| BIOS | Award 3.0B1 |
As Asus has most often been the performance leader for boards for Intel processors, MSI has been the leader of late in the performance of their Athlon 64 motherboards. The whole K8N series from Socket 754 through Socket 939 has provided some of the best performance available for Athlon 64, and provided several Editors Choices along the way. Past performance has set high expectations as we took a closer look at the nForce4 Neo4/SLI.
MSI is the only SLI board in the roundup to provide a SATA 2 add-on controller instead of the SATA 1 Sil3114 used on all the other SLI boards. The Sil 3132 only supports 2 additional ports (added to the 4 SATA 2 provided by nForce 4), but the 2 ports are 3Gb/sec. All of the SLI boards provide dual Gigabit LAN, but MSI provides two PCIe LAN ports, assuring top performance whichever port you use. The biggest standout here was MSI's decision to use the Creative SoundBlaster Live! 24-bit audio chip on the K8N Neo4/SLI instead of the cheaper codec that others used. MSI claims that the Creative chip is a hardware audio solution, and not just a CPU-hogging software solution such as you would normally see on motherboards. Our CPU utilization tests support MSI's claims with very low CPU overhead. The Audio also fully supports Dolby Digital encoding, which will matter a great deal to some users.
Except for the missing PCIe ports, layout of the MSI is really excellent. Ports and power connectors are where they should be, and even the floppy port, which many no longer use, is in a location where full tower owners can use a regular floppy cable for their connection.
Our only complaint is the finicky and flimsy lock for the SLI card. We doubt that the lock will last through many changes from normal to SLI and back. In addition, once the pin is turned to unlock the SLI selection card, it is extremely difficult to lock the SLI card again once you have switched the mode. Someone in MSI design needs to take a look at this little plastic part and improve it before MSI gets a raft of RMAs because users can't secure the SLI card with a broken "lock pin".
Gigabyte K8NXP-SLI: Overclocking and Stress Testing
MSI K8N Neo4/SLI Platinum: Overclocking and Stress Testing
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
108 Comments
View All Comments
ajmiles - Wednesday, March 2, 2005 - link
If i was a doubting type I would suggest that Nvidia spent as much time tuning their drivers for benchmarks as they do games.Nice to see support for some unreleased games such as Battlefield 2 on the list though.
Wesley, you get my email btw? (sorry for bugging you)?
Wesley Fink - Wednesday, March 2, 2005 - link
nVidia has just advised the release of Beta 71.84 drivers now supporting 70 games in SLI. The drivers can be downloaded at http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_downloads_rel70b... Below is a list of suypported games and benchmarks.Age of Mythology
AquaNox 2: Revelation
Armed & Dangerous
Battlefield 1942
Battlefield 2
Battlefield Vietnam
Breed
City of Heroes
Colin McRae Rally 2005
Colin McRae Rally 4
Conan
Dark Age of Camelot: Atlantis
Desert Rats vs. Afrika Korps
Dirt Track Racing 2
Doom 3
EverQuest
EverQuest II
Far Cry
Flat Out
Ground Control II : Operation Exodus
Half-Life 2
Halo
Hitman 2
IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles
Joint Operations: Typhoon Rising
Kohan II: Kings of War
Leisure Suit Larry
Lineage II
Lock On
Lord of the Rings, Battle for Middle-earth
Madden NFL 2005
Max Payne 2
Medal of Honor
NBA Live 2005
Need for Speed: Underground 2
Painkiller
Perimeter
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Quake III
Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory
Return to Castle Wolfenstien
Rome: Total War
Serious Sam: The Second Encounter
Sid Meier's Pirates!
Silent Storm
Sims 2
SpellForce
Splinter Cell
Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
Star Wars Battlefront
Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy
Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast
Star Wars: Knight of the Old Republic
SWAT 4
The Chronicles of Riddick
Thief: Deadly Shadows
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005
ToCA Race Driver 2
Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness
Tony Hawk's Underground
Tribes Vengeance
Tron 2.0
Unreal
Unreal 2
Unreal Tournament 2003
Unreal Tournament 2004
Vampire: Bloodlines
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War
World of Warcraft
X2: the Threat
Xpand Rally
In addition to these top games, NVIDIA SLI supports the following applications:
3DMark01
3DMark03
3DMark05
AquaMark 3
Code Creatures
D3DRightMark
HDRLighting
NVIDIA Clear Sailing Demo
NVIDIA Dawn Demo
NVIDIA Nalu Demo
NVIDIA Timbury Demo
PCMark04
Shadermark 2.1
Trees of Pangaea
giz02 - Wednesday, March 2, 2005 - link
I've done some further testing, and still no luck. The PCStats review also indicated 192Khz output, but I can't find that either. I'm still hoping for something, and will let you guys know if anything comes up.Other points:
+ The onboard Creative can attenuate the digital outputs just like a regular live could. Most onboard solutions that i have used could not
- Cannot have Analog and Digital outs enabled at the same time (at least I haven't found that yet). All other onboard solutions that I have tried were able to do this. An example of what I'd like to do (ideally) is have my Zalman Real Surround headphones plugged in to the analog ports, and the z5500's plugged into the digital (coax/optical). When the GF complains, I could turn the z5500's off, and put on the headphones. With creative you do this BUT you also have to uncheck the digital out only box. If they can bot h be enabled at the same time, let me know (Y)
- Either the Z5500's can't accept 96/24 on the optical in, or the creative isn't outputting 96/24 on the optical out.
- Only Coax or Optical work at one time (with the Z5500's)
- DD and DTS passthroughs work with Videolan and DVD's/.ts's.
I'll try this board for a while longer, but if encode will not work, I'll be heading to DFI. It's a bit more expensive, but you get the Lan Tote (woohhoo!) and the extra PCIx slots. Anyone have any comments on DFI's onboard sound?
EODetroit - Wednesday, March 2, 2005 - link
Thanks giz02. One of these days some manufacturer is going to realize there's demand for this and meet it... I just hope that day comes sooner than later.SLK75 - Tuesday, March 1, 2005 - link
I bought the GA-K8NXP-9 because fo the rave reviews on its OC abilities which Anandtech also proved in their pre-production sample reviewed towards the end of last year...All of a sudden now Gigabyte's production version of the board does not seem to clock high as was expected and proved previously WHYYYY ???? and Anandtech make it really clear to Gigabyte that people went and bought their board not only first its great features but also for its OC capabilities...I hope Gigabyte can address this with a new BIOSgiz02 - Tuesday, March 1, 2005 - link
I feel DUPED by that PCSTATS review. I've asked the reviewer for why he indicated that the board can DICE (either how to do it, or who told him it was possible).The board is .... OK...
I'da rather had the DFI (if DICE is not possible!)
Aquila76 - Tuesday, March 1, 2005 - link
#89 - looks like we'll both still wait for the next SoundStorm. Maybe the next gen of PCI-E sound cards will have DDL?bob661 - Tuesday, March 1, 2005 - link
#89Thanks for the test.
giz02 - Tuesday, March 1, 2005 - link
So far, It's a negative on the DICE :(I have a single coax cable connected from the onboard card to my Z-5500's and they are not recieving Dolby on the speaker tests. Left and Right channels come through but that is is... 96-24 is working as well, but zilch on the 5.1 :(
1955mm - Tuesday, March 1, 2005 - link
#87: AMD has NOT made it clear that ECC is an Opteron only feature. Read the document from the link I posted. As for ASUS not supporting ECC, download the manual and look at pages 4-21 and 4-22. In the screenshot for DRAM configuration there is an item for ECC enablement. The ASUS K8N-E deluxe (socket 754) also supports ECC. If you still have doubts that the Athlon 64 supports ECC, go to crucial.com and see what memory is supported by the ASUS K8N-E deluxe and A8N-SLI deluxe. I think that you might be confusing registered memory with ECC. If you write code work with critical data ECC is worth having. I have had bad memory in the past that corrupted data without crashing the machine. Considering misinformation that is sometimes provided by motherboard manufacturers and your obvious confusion about the Athlon 64, I think that ECC deserves some mention by motherboard reviewers. I myself would like to understand why the A8N-SLI apparently supports 4 256MB ECC memory modules but not 2 512MB ECC memory modules (page 2-12 in manual), Wesley?