Intel P965: Mid-Range Performance Sector Roundup
by Gary Key on October 20, 2006 9:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Test Systems: Benchmark Setup
All boards support current socket 775 Intel processors. We chose an E6300 for testing as we feel this will be a very popular Core 2 Duo CPU choice with the P965 motherboards. We also chose GEIL PC2-6400 for our memory choice as it represents an excellent blend of performance at today's inflated prices although we are starting to see some price stabilization after six weeks of continued price increases in the DDR2 market. We are utilizing the MSI X1950XTX video card to ensure our 1280x1024 resolutions are not completely GPU bound for our motherboard test results. We did find in testing that applying a 4xAA/8xAF setting in most of today's latest games created a situation where the performance of the system starts becoming GPU limited.
A 2GB memory configuration is now standard in the AT test bed as most enthusiasts are currently purchasing this amount of memory. We chose memory from GEIL that would offer a wide range of memory settings during our stock and overclocked test runs. Our memory timings are set based upon determining the best memory bandwidth via MemTest 86 and our test application results for each board.
Our revision 1.01G Asus P5B-E motherboard will operate at memory settings of 4-4-3-8 compared to 3-3-3-9 for the other motherboards. This is due to the 2.1V memory limitation and our choice of memory for the P965 roundup. The Asus P5B-E 1.02G offers identical performance at the same memory settings as the 1.01G board so our results will be comparable regarding motherboards.
All other components in our test configurations are exactly the same with the boards being set up in their default configurations. Our video tests are run at 1280x1024 resolution for this article at standard settings. We will not report on 1600x1200 4xAA/8xAF single and ATI CrossFire until part three of the roundup. Since our games are GPU limited at that setting all initial results in our testing are within one percent of each other.
All boards support current socket 775 Intel processors. We chose an E6300 for testing as we feel this will be a very popular Core 2 Duo CPU choice with the P965 motherboards. We also chose GEIL PC2-6400 for our memory choice as it represents an excellent blend of performance at today's inflated prices although we are starting to see some price stabilization after six weeks of continued price increases in the DDR2 market. We are utilizing the MSI X1950XTX video card to ensure our 1280x1024 resolutions are not completely GPU bound for our motherboard test results. We did find in testing that applying a 4xAA/8xAF setting in most of today's latest games created a situation where the performance of the system starts becoming GPU limited.
| Standard Test Bed Performance Test Configuration |
|
| Processor: | Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 (1.86GHz, 2MB Unified Cache) |
| RAM: | Geil PC2-6400 800MHz Plus (2x1GB- GX22GB6400PDC), 2.30V (Micron Memory Chips) |
| Hard Drive: | Seagate 320GB 7200RPM SATA2 16MB Buffer |
| System Platform Drivers: | Intel - 8.1.1.1001 |
| Video Cards: | 1 x MSI X1950XTX |
| Video Drivers: | MSI/ATI Catalyst 6.10 |
| CPU Cooling: | Scythe Infinity |
| Power Supply: | OCZ GameXstream 700W |
| Optical Drive: | Sony 18X AW-Q170A-B2 |
| Case: | Cooler Master CM Stacker 830 |
| Motherboards: | Asus P5B-E (Intel P965 C2, 1.01G) - BIOS 0601 Asus P5B-E (Intel P965 C2, 1.02G) - BIOS 0601 Abit AB9-Pro (Intel P965 C1) - BIOS 1.5 BioStar T-Force 965 Deluxe (Intel P965 C1) - BIOS Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 (Intel P965 C2) - BIOS F7 Asus P5NSLI (NVIDIA 570SLI) - BIOS 0601 Asus P5W-Deluxe (Intel 975X) - BIOS 1407 |
| Operating System: | Windows XP Professional SP2 |
| . | |
A 2GB memory configuration is now standard in the AT test bed as most enthusiasts are currently purchasing this amount of memory. We chose memory from GEIL that would offer a wide range of memory settings during our stock and overclocked test runs. Our memory timings are set based upon determining the best memory bandwidth via MemTest 86 and our test application results for each board.
Our revision 1.01G Asus P5B-E motherboard will operate at memory settings of 4-4-3-8 compared to 3-3-3-9 for the other motherboards. This is due to the 2.1V memory limitation and our choice of memory for the P965 roundup. The Asus P5B-E 1.02G offers identical performance at the same memory settings as the 1.01G board so our results will be comparable regarding motherboards.
All other components in our test configurations are exactly the same with the boards being set up in their default configurations. Our video tests are run at 1280x1024 resolution for this article at standard settings. We will not report on 1600x1200 4xAA/8xAF single and ATI CrossFire until part three of the roundup. Since our games are GPU limited at that setting all initial results in our testing are within one percent of each other.
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vailr - Saturday, October 21, 2006 - link
Re:So, how about the (yet unreleased) ATI and NVidia Conroe chipset boards?
Does either chipset include PATA support?
Thanks.
Gary Key - Saturday, October 21, 2006 - link
They both have native support for two drives.
n7 - Saturday, October 21, 2006 - link
Gary, always love your reviews!I read thru the whole thing, & it was a good read :)
Meticulous detail, as well great sarcastic humor as well.
I look forward to the following parts.
Sho - Friday, October 20, 2006 - link
In an earlier AnandTech article, the one about Kentsfield support, it was written that Gigabyte would bring a revision 2.0 of all of their P965 boards to the market in mid-October, including the DS3. The article does not mention whether the board tested was this new rev 2,9 or any other. Could that be clarified?And does anybody know what was changed/fixed in 2.0?
Gary Key - Friday, October 20, 2006 - link
Gigabyte has not released any further details on the revision 2 boards except for the fact they were addressing some layout issues and possible BIOS improvements. The only major change we could see them making would be going from a three phase power design on the DS3 to a five phase system as an example. The board we tested is still revision 1.Sho - Saturday, October 21, 2006 - link
Thanks!dreddly - Friday, October 20, 2006 - link
'caliper' should be caliber on AB9Pro pageGreat work on this roundup though, impressive job.
Puddyglum1 - Friday, October 20, 2006 - link
Which board? The topic of the previous page was about sound cards vs. onboard audio. Is there a missing page? Why is there a picture of the Asus heatsink and no mention of which board is the preferred of the bunch?Just some questions =)
Great article for Cost/Performance comparison.
Puddyglum1 - Friday, October 20, 2006 - link
Woah, there's a lot more there now. Thanks for the explanation.I just built a workstation for a client using the 965P-DS3, but the board was DOA. I went to a local shop and picked up a 965P-S3 instead (seeing as how the only main feature missing was the solid capacitors of the -DS3), and it performed just as well as the DS3. For $110, a GA-965P-S3 would be the best Cost/Performance of the 965P bunch, in my unresearched opinion.
JarredWalton - Friday, October 20, 2006 - link
Now you're skipping ahead to part 2! :p