Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe: First ATI RD580
by Wesley Fink on March 1, 2006 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Ethernet Performance
The one area where the Asus A8R-MVP was mildly disappointing was in their choice of an Ethernet controller. Instead of using a PCIe LAN that is capable of providing full 1 Gb bandwidth, Asus used a PCI solution that will be limited in maximum speed by the PCI bus. The A8R32-MVP Deluxe keeps the PCI Ethernet, but it adds a second PCIe Ethernet controller capable of full bandwidth Gigabit LAN.
In practical terms, the PCI bus Ethernet is not much of a roadblock. It caps out about 700 Mb/s compared to the 950Mb/s capability of a PCIe solution. Since most broadband Ethernet connections barely tax 10Mb/s, this will really only matter to those who do sustained high-speed transfer of very large files over a true 1 Gb network - probably less than 1% of users. Still, PCIe Gigabit Ethernet is always a better solution, and it is good to see that Asus addressed this issue in the A8R32-MVP.
The Windows 2000 Driver Development Kit (DDK) includes a useful LAN testing utility called NTttcp. We used the NTttcp tool to test Ethernet throughput and the CPU utilization of the various Ethernet Controllers used on the AMD motherboards.
We set up one machine as the server; in this case, an Intel box with an Intel CSA Gigabit LAN connection. Intel CSA has a reputation for providing fast throughput and this seemed a reasonable choice to serve our Gigabit LAN clients. At the server side, we used the following Command Line as suggested by the VIA whitepaper on LAN testing:
The one area where the Asus A8R-MVP was mildly disappointing was in their choice of an Ethernet controller. Instead of using a PCIe LAN that is capable of providing full 1 Gb bandwidth, Asus used a PCI solution that will be limited in maximum speed by the PCI bus. The A8R32-MVP Deluxe keeps the PCI Ethernet, but it adds a second PCIe Ethernet controller capable of full bandwidth Gigabit LAN.
In practical terms, the PCI bus Ethernet is not much of a roadblock. It caps out about 700 Mb/s compared to the 950Mb/s capability of a PCIe solution. Since most broadband Ethernet connections barely tax 10Mb/s, this will really only matter to those who do sustained high-speed transfer of very large files over a true 1 Gb network - probably less than 1% of users. Still, PCIe Gigabit Ethernet is always a better solution, and it is good to see that Asus addressed this issue in the A8R32-MVP.
The Windows 2000 Driver Development Kit (DDK) includes a useful LAN testing utility called NTttcp. We used the NTttcp tool to test Ethernet throughput and the CPU utilization of the various Ethernet Controllers used on the AMD motherboards.
We set up one machine as the server; in this case, an Intel box with an Intel CSA Gigabit LAN connection. Intel CSA has a reputation for providing fast throughput and this seemed a reasonable choice to serve our Gigabit LAN clients. At the server side, we used the following Command Line as suggested by the VIA whitepaper on LAN testing:
Ntttcps -m 4 ,0,‹client IP› -a 4 -l 256000 -n 30000On the client side (the motherboard under test), we used the following Command Line:
Ntttcpr -m 4 ,0,‹server IP› -a 4 -l 256000 -n 30000At the conclusion of the test, we captured the throughput and CPU utilization figures from the client screen.
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Spinne - Monday, March 6, 2006 - link
NewEgg still doesn't have them in stock, neither does Monarc Computers. Wonder how long it'll be before they get them and the prices drop.dennis hs - Sunday, March 5, 2006 - link
I've just gotten this mobo.. It's pretty sweet! I really like the ALC882 onboard sound! It's really crispy and all good :DOverall I don't have any issues with it. It's a damn good mobo!
[vietnamese hooker mode on]
" Me love it longtime :) "
[vietnamese hooker mode off]
tonser - Friday, March 3, 2006 - link
It is nice that manufactors listen, but why do they still bring out Motherboards for SLI and Crossfire, where the normal PCI cannot be used with their heigh end grafic cards - I am wondering ?yacoub - Thursday, March 2, 2006 - link
This board gets an official "daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamn, Gina!" rating.Holy crap it flies with an X1900XT!
theOracle - Wednesday, March 1, 2006 - link
In the table - "PEG Bugger Length"Wesley Fink - Monday, March 6, 2006 - link
Corrected the Brokeback Mountain referenceDigitalFreak - Wednesday, March 1, 2006 - link
No one has any RD580 boards in stock in the US. Hell, Newegg doesn't even have any listed! Looks like another classic paper launch to me.glynor - Wednesday, March 1, 2006 - link
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82...">Oh, and how about from Newegg hereSLIM - Wednesday, March 1, 2006 - link
http://www.antaresdigital.com/customer/product.php...">1or
http://www.atacom.com/program/print_html_new.cgi?&...">2
Please get a clue before posting. All these people complaining about not making proper comparisons because Anandtech went the extra step of testing the latest vid card from ati on their latest chipset in ADDITION to making a very fair comparison with what nvidia has to offer currently.
Nice article, too bad people don't pay attention to the graphs before they complain about them.
DigitalFreak - Thursday, March 2, 2006 - link
Moron. Did you happen to notice the "Out Of Stock" button?And what's with the bitching about proper comparisons, blah blah blah? Reply to the wrong thread, did we?