DFI UT P35-T2R: Tweakers Rejoice!
by Rajinder Gill on October 18, 2007 2:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Gaming Performance
As usual, gaming performance was tested with a variety of current games. We ran our benchmarks at a 1280x1024 resolution with high quality settings
Battlefield 2
This benchmark is performed using DICE's built-in demo playback functionality with additional capture capabilities designed in house. During the benchmark, the camera switches between players and vehicles in order to capture the most action possible. There is a significant amount of smoke, explosions, and vehicle usage as this a very GPU intensive Battlefield 2 benchmark. We run Battlefield 2 using medium quality graphics settings available in the video settings. The game itself is best experienced with average in-game frame rates of 35 and up.
Company of Heroes
Company of Heroes was released last year but is still one of the high points of the RTS genre. The game is extremely GPU intensive but can also requires a fast CPU at times. The game contains a built-in performance test that utilizes the game engine to generate several different action scenes. We find the performance test gives a good indication of how well your system will perform throughout the game. Some of the in-game action sequences can be more demanding than the performance test, however, so we find the game to be enjoyable with an average frame rate score in the performance test above 35FPS.
Prey
Prey offers some superb action sequences, unique weapons and characters, and is a visually stunning game at times. It still requires a very good GPU to run it with all of the eye candy turned on. We set all graphic settings to their maximum except for AA/AF and utilize a custom timedemo that takes place during one of the more action oriented sequences. We generally find the game to be enjoyable with an average frame rate above 35FPS.
Gaming Summary
Although the DFI board did not finish first in our benchmarks, it did perform very consistently with differences only averaging around 1% between the P35 boards. This only reiterates our original statements about the performance of the P35 chipset: just about any board based on it will perform great and performance differences between boards is generally less than 2% at stock speeds.
We did not need to test the DFI board to figure this out, but wanted to provide the preceding results in the interest of completeness. Now let's release the hounds and see what this board is really capable of doing; in other words, let's delve into the BIOS and take a look at how to overclock this board.
As usual, gaming performance was tested with a variety of current games. We ran our benchmarks at a 1280x1024 resolution with high quality settings
Battlefield 2
This benchmark is performed using DICE's built-in demo playback functionality with additional capture capabilities designed in house. During the benchmark, the camera switches between players and vehicles in order to capture the most action possible. There is a significant amount of smoke, explosions, and vehicle usage as this a very GPU intensive Battlefield 2 benchmark. We run Battlefield 2 using medium quality graphics settings available in the video settings. The game itself is best experienced with average in-game frame rates of 35 and up.
Company of Heroes
Company of Heroes was released last year but is still one of the high points of the RTS genre. The game is extremely GPU intensive but can also requires a fast CPU at times. The game contains a built-in performance test that utilizes the game engine to generate several different action scenes. We find the performance test gives a good indication of how well your system will perform throughout the game. Some of the in-game action sequences can be more demanding than the performance test, however, so we find the game to be enjoyable with an average frame rate score in the performance test above 35FPS.
Prey
Prey offers some superb action sequences, unique weapons and characters, and is a visually stunning game at times. It still requires a very good GPU to run it with all of the eye candy turned on. We set all graphic settings to their maximum except for AA/AF and utilize a custom timedemo that takes place during one of the more action oriented sequences. We generally find the game to be enjoyable with an average frame rate above 35FPS.
Gaming Summary
Although the DFI board did not finish first in our benchmarks, it did perform very consistently with differences only averaging around 1% between the P35 boards. This only reiterates our original statements about the performance of the P35 chipset: just about any board based on it will perform great and performance differences between boards is generally less than 2% at stock speeds.
We did not need to test the DFI board to figure this out, but wanted to provide the preceding results in the interest of completeness. Now let's release the hounds and see what this board is really capable of doing; in other words, let's delve into the BIOS and take a look at how to overclock this board.
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Rocket321 - Tuesday, October 23, 2007 - link
I would like to see the overclocking results put into a graph or chart of some kind.I guess tweakers might like the screenshots as "proof" that the overclock ran, but personally I trust you and would rather just have one place to look rather than clicking to enlarge multiple screenshots sequentially.
It was a great review though, I look forward to the future tweaker guides & reviews.
Raja Gill - Wednesday, October 24, 2007 - link
There will be a more typical Anandtech look to future articles, with the DFI board revisited for a round up on a suite of benchmarks, this will be used to cross compare with other boards, clocked to equivalent with board maximums in the range and voltage. In terms of the screenshots, it is nice to have 1 persons trust, but there are many we have to please and not everyone is always as convinced..thanks for the suggestions..
Next up is the Asus Maximus Formula..
regards
Raja
Jodiuh - Thursday, October 25, 2007 - link
Specifically Windvd conversions from divx/xvid to DVD would be wonderful as I've found this app benefits from a solid OC.beoba - Friday, October 19, 2007 - link
It'd be great if this came with a glossary."Strap"?
retrospooty - Saturday, October 20, 2007 - link
strap is a term used for memory clocking. for example, at 266mhz bus, memory can be "strapped" to one of the following.266x(stap2)=533 or DDR 1066
266x(strap1.5)=400 or DDR 800
266x(strap1.25)=333 or DDR 666
If you are running at stock 266 there is no way to have DDR 950 because it has to be strapped to one of the above settings.
I use the 1/1 strap so my bus speed is 500x(strap1)=500 or DDR 1000, in most cases 1/1 is the most efficient, if you can utilize it with your particular hardware, do it.
Avalon - Thursday, October 18, 2007 - link
Unfortunately, DFI's asking price of admission continues to rise for each new board they release. I was mildly annoyed when they started selling boards for $200+ that had little to no tangible benefit over $100-$150 boards, but now they're at the $300 mark? No thanks.This board is for someone who likes to spend his time tweaking and not actually using his computer.
retrospooty - Saturday, October 20, 2007 - link
"This board is for someone who likes to spend his time tweaking and not actually using his computer."The article title is called "Tweakers Rejoice" after all. The idea is not to tweak forever . I did spend alot of time over the first few weeks, but now that its tweaked, I just use it as is.
Avalon - Sunday, October 21, 2007 - link
Yes, I am quite capable of reading the article title. My whole point is that you are working for diminishing returns that I feel could be better spent using your system. If you're doing it to set a record, fantastic. I support that.retrospooty - Sunday, October 21, 2007 - link
Understood... This is obviously not the motherboard for you. I personally love the BIOS options and CMOS reloaded functionality. That alone makes the extra cost well worth it to me. Asus BIOS just sucks, and I have had too many quality problems with them in the past, and Gigabyte just underperforms. I like to know I will not be held back by my motherboard for the next couple of CPU's I buy (will likely get a dual core Penryn on release for under $200, then a high end quad core Penryn a year or so later when it is under $200).I do see your point, but in spite of this article's stock speed comparison (totally pointless for a OC geared mobo), and similar results with one particular CPU, that looks as if it has an FSB limit equal on all 3 boards (meaning the CPU is holding it back) This board overclocks and performs better than any ASUS, or Gigabyte, or any other board out there. If AT tested the max FSB limits on a dozen or so CPU's, or if they had a "golden sample" that had a high FSB limit, you would see the difference. Also if they had time to test many diff RAM stocks and to tweak the memory settings you would also see the difference. Its a good article, but no reviewer has time to really dig into this mobo and all it has to offer. I do feel the article did a good job at explaining that.
JNo - Sunday, October 21, 2007 - link
"I like to know I will not be held back by my motherboard for the next couple of CPU's I buy"I don't know much about overclocking and I hold your views valid Retrospooty but surely this is still a lot of money that will still be needed to replaced in the short/medium-term if a) you want to start using DDR3 once prices come down b) if GPUs come out that take advantage of PCI-E 2 standard (as used on X38). So all that money is only paying for great OC'ing potential for *now* only... no?