ULi M1695 PCIe/AGP for Athlon 64 – Part 2 with SLI
by Wesley Fink on August 5, 2005 10:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Final Words
In Part 1 of our ULi M1695 Reference Board review, we concluded that the ULi competes very well against NVIDIA, and is a performance drop-in to the NVIDIA performance levels. The further testing that we have done here in Part 2 only strengthens that conclusion. This is very good news for those shopping for Athlon 64 Socket 939 boards. The ULi chipset is a solid choice featuring excellent performance.The initial ULi review also confirmed the unique AGP capabilities of the M1695/M1567 on a PCI Express motherboard. This ULi chipset is the only one that we have seen on PCIe that provides AGP 8X without compromises. As we found, those of you who want to take your high-end AGP card to a new PCIe board will be ecstatic over the performance of your AGP video card on the ULi board. The conclusion was simple - if you want to use AGP and have PCI Express for the future, the ULi M1695/M1567 is your only real choice.
Reference Board 2 tests provided another new twist for ULi because we also found that the Riser card and dual x8 PCIe options in BIOS do support NVIDIA SLI. Two 6800 Ultra video cards were recognized as SLI and properly initialized. While we did have some issues with 3D performance using the modified 71.24 drivers, this appears to the result of an early Reference Board. We fully expect the driver issue to be resolved before vendors start talking about NVIDIA SLI on the ULi chipset. Dual PCIe video also worked, adding some very unique capabilities to the boards ability to run PCIe, AGP, and PCI graphics all at the same time on the same motherboard.
With our positive opinion reinforced, we will revisit the question of where ULi may be positioned in the market place. While we still don't have solid answers, manufacturers like Abit, Gigabyte, Foxconn, and ECS are said to be readying ULi-chipset motherboards. If this is the case, you will likely be able to find a great rendition of this unique chipset in the market in the near future. We have too often seen decent chipsets left to languish in the bargain bin because no manufacturer will support them - SiS comes to mind. However, the higher level manufacturer support, the partnership with ATI, and the south bridge options for other chipsets all bode well for ULi's future. And so do the unique and top-performing chipsets that ULi is producing. A lot of people tried to do AGP on PCIe, but ULi actually has it working - and working extremely well. ULi is producing flexibility and performance, and both should sell well.
Last, but certainly not least, there is the overclocking potential. What can you say, but "Wow!" to a board that actually can run the Athlon 64 at 400 clock speed - double the normal 200. The sizzle is certainly there, and if ULi can finish the job with working and rational memory voltage overclock ranges, a much enhanced selection of vCore adjustments, and a more extensive selection of BIOS tweaking options, then they could definitely have one of the best Enthusiast chipsets that you can buy for Athlon 64. It's not there yet, but it certainly could be.
There's much to like with the ULi M1695/M1567 Reference Board 2, and the coming south bridge options look to be even better. ULi belongs on your short list for a new Athlon 64 mainboard, alongside ATI Radeon Xpress 200 and NVIDIA nForce4. Isn't competition wonderful?
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Wesley Fink - Saturday, August 6, 2005 - link
The 400 graph has been removed. After considering the questions here it is fair to say the ULi tests were not run under the same test conditions (due to no DDR Voltage controls and limited vCore adjustments) and should not be directly compared. The 242 remains since it was achieved with the same test conditions.Wesley Fink - Friday, August 5, 2005 - link
Yes, this is the only board using the FX57 in OC testing, but we will be testing with the FX57 in the future. Yes, that makes it an unfair comparison.It really was not possible to use our normal OC tests because the Reference board has no memory voltage adjustments at all. We stated this very clearly in the reviews. The option was to report very low results, or to make changes to the test to show how high the board could actually go in overclock (400 clock speed). We chose to show what the board could do on OC, but the results are not directly comparable to past results.
Lonyo - Friday, August 5, 2005 - link
OCZ BOOSTER FFS!!!!Aquila76 - Friday, August 5, 2005 - link
So if you want to run SLI, you have to use that riser card, right? How exactly does that fit in a standard ATX case? The cards are 90 degrees from their normal position. I understand that this is a good board if you're going to use older AGP cards and want an upgrade path; but I would think they could make it a lot cheaper if they left SLI capability off as it seems rather pointless in this format.kmmatney - Saturday, August 6, 2005 - link
I thought the same thing, but yes, its just a prrof of concept - the retail board makers will implement it without the need for a riser card.MarkB - Friday, August 5, 2005 - link
I think it's more of a proof of concept for showing off the chipset's capabilities, instead of making a whole new reference board to house the 2 x8 pci-e slots.I doubt any retail board would use the riser approach.
Sunbird - Friday, August 5, 2005 - link
Here is South Africa the ASRock 939A8X-m based in this ULi chipset has arrived at our local reseller last week.Its a mATX board and has SATA raid and all the other usual stuff. Near the bottom price range of the local market (aka cheap).
grug2k - Friday, August 5, 2005 - link
The AsRock 939AX-M is NOT a ULi M1695 board. It's an old AGP-only board based on the ULi M1689 chipset.lsman - Friday, August 5, 2005 - link
Computex2005 show also has Jetway A695DAG, Chaintech S1695-2WT - Friday, August 5, 2005 - link
This board should be on the short list (hehe, so short there is only one name on it) of boards for the DIY builder looking to keep their current AGP card and move to PCI Express down the road. There are a lot of users that fit that description so this board makes sense in every way. The only downside will be whether the boards are actually produced by some quality vendors who are not stuck on the Nvidia bandwagon.My S754 setup is adequate for any game that I play, so I should be able to make another year on it. After that, S939 and a 3800+ x2 makes more sense, but after buying that, I won't have the $ left to splurge on a mid-high end PCI Express video card. My 6800 cost $295 when I bought it, so moving that to the S939 setup makes financial sense.