DFI nForce4: SLI and Ultra for Mad Overclockers
by Wesley Fink on February 5, 2005 9:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Memory Stress Testing
Optimum tRAS
In past reviews, memory bandwidth tests established that a tRAS of 10 was optimal for the nForce3 chipset and a tRAS setting of 11 or 12 was generally best for nForce2. Since this was the first memory stress test of a production nForce4 board, tRAS timings were first tested with memtest86, a free diagnostic program with its own boot OS that will boot from either a floppy disk or optical disk. Bandwidth was measured from tRAS 5 to tRAS 11 to determine the best setting.
| Memtest86 Bandwidth DFI nForce4 with Athlon64 4000+ |
|
| 5 tRAS | 2191 |
| 6 tRAS | 2242 |
| 7 tRAS | 2242 |
| 8 tRAS | 2242 |
| 9 tRAS | 2141 |
| 10 tRAS | 2141 |
| 11 tRAS | 2092 |
The best bandwidth was achieved in the 6 to 8 range with this combination of nForce4 and the 4000+, so a mid-value tRAS of 7 was chosen for all tests.
Memory Stress Tests
Our memory stress test measures the ability of the DFI to operate at its officially supported memory frequency (400MHz DDR), at the lowest memory timings that OCZ PC3200 Platinum Rev. 2 modules will support. All DIMMs used for stress testing were 512MB double-sided (or double-bank) memory. To make sure that memory performed properly in Dual-Channel mode, memory was only tested using either one dual-channel (2 DIMMs) or 2 dual-channels (4 DIMMs).
| Stable DDR400 Timings - One Dual-Channel (2/4 DIMMs populated) |
|
| Clock Speed: | 200MHz |
| CAS Latency: | 2 |
| RAS to CAS Delay: | 2T |
| RAS Precharge: | 7T |
| Precharge Delay: | 2T |
| Command Rate: | 1T |
Using two DIMMs in Dual-Channel 128-bit mode, the memory performed in all benchmarks at the fastest 2-2-2-7 timings, at default 2.6V voltage.
Tests with 4 DS DIMMs on an AMD Athlon 64 system are more demanding, since AMD specifies DDR333 for this combination. However, most AMD Athlon 64 motherboards combined with recent AMD processors (the memory controller is on the AMD CPU) have been able to handle 4 DIMMs at DDR400.
| Stable DDR400 Timings - 4 DIMMs (4/4 DIMMs populated) |
|
| Clock Speed: | 200MHz |
| CAS Latency: | 2.0 |
| RAS to CAS Delay: | 2T |
| RAS Precharge: | 7T |
| Precharge Delay: | 2T |
| Command Rate: | 2T |
Tests with all four DIMM slots populated on the DFI nForce4 boards required a 2T Command Rate with 4 DS DIMMs in two dual channels. This is the pattern seen on other top-performing Socket 939 boards, but we hoped that higher voltage might allow us to eek out 4 DS DIMM 1T performance. However, additional voltage did not help and DDR400 with 4DS DIMMs still required a 2T Command Rate on the DFI nForce4 boards.
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ShadowVlican - Wednesday, February 2, 2005 - link
beautiful analogy #22for now i guess this is THE best AMD64 board money can buy... i wonder if Abit's AN8 will change the results...
PrinceGaz - Wednesday, February 2, 2005 - link
Can hard-drives be installed in non-RAID mode on the Sil3144 sockets with this board?As far as I know, the additional controller on the Asus SLI Deluxe board requires SATA drives to be in a RAID configuration and does not support individual drives. Can you confirm if that is the case with the DFI board.
erios666 - Wednesday, February 2, 2005 - link
#49 - Thanks much Wesley. I did actually see that. I still feel it doesn't answer the question of whether or not you can span all those monitors. It will work great for when I'm at work. Which I can accomplish with an AGP plus a PCI vid card. But I am hoping to get some "surround gaming" going in UT2004, HL2 and NFSU2. So *span* capabilites with a 3840x1024 res' I guess is what I'm looking for rather than a simple multi-mon.Zebo - Wednesday, February 2, 2005 - link
This is what I call a "ten year board" ...a motherboard built to last (jap caps, mosfets, al cooled etc), with every feature imaginable... you DON"T have to be an overclocker to get this board. In fact it's probably the best mobo ever built for the price using componets found in high-end server boards costing hundreds more. You should buy this DFI reguarless if you plan to overclock or not.That said... it's overclcoking options leave me speechless..never has a board came with these kind of heavy duty options..2.1 Vcore..4Vdimm..fuggin incredible. And it shows...guys at xtreme are posting over 400HTT with this bad boy.
Just awesome..you'd have to bee a damn fool to buy any other skt 939 mobo, or any mobo for that matter over DFI...
Stiganator - Wednesday, February 2, 2005 - link
Between the A8n-SLI and this DFI SLI board which would you choose?Wesley Fink - Wednesday, February 2, 2005 - link
#48 - DFI has responded to your question."That's what we call "Dual Xpress Graphics" technology, supporting 2 video cards simulatneously and therefore 4 monitors. The DFI Ultra-D in normal mode will support up to 4 monitors off 2 video cards"
erios666 - Wednesday, February 2, 2005 - link
Please please does anyone know if it will be possible to do a 3 monitor span on the Ultra-D?!I beg of you! I want to do something like a Matrox Parhelia but with more 3D power. I've already got all my lcds and now I'm just sitting and waiting to see how this all pans out.
nserra - Wednesday, February 2, 2005 - link
Athlon 64 3200+ (Socket754) ALL 1003Athlon 64 3000+ (Socket754) ALL ALL
Athlon 64 3400+ (Socket754) ALL ALL
Athlon 64 2800+ (Socket754) ALL 1003
Athlon 64 3700+ (Socket754) ALL 1003
Sempron 3100+ (CG version) (Socket754) ALL 1004
Sempron 3100+ (D0 version) (Socket754) ALL 1005
Any one know how sempron 3100+ D0 overclocks?
Wesley Fink - Wednesday, February 2, 2005 - link
Instead of answering emails, we asked DFI to name some vendors who would likely have boards this week. They suggested New Egg, Frys (and their outpost.com online store), NCIX, zipzoomfly, and Monarch Computer. DFI also says Tiger Direct and Microcenter will have them by next week.That's all we know and it's straight from DFI, so PLEASE stop emailing us asking where to buy. Thanks!
HardwareD00d - Wednesday, February 2, 2005 - link
Onboard sound has pretty much always been crap, with a few exceptions (Sound Storm). I wasn't too impressed with Via Envy24 BTW. An add-in soundcard is the best way to go IMHO.* waits for Creative to get off there a$$ and make a PCI-e soundcard with Dolby Digital Encoding *