Abit AB9-Pro: Mainstream P965 Performance and Pricing

Standard Gaming Performance

As usual, gaming performance was tested with a variety of current games. We ran benchmarks with our standard 1280x1024 resolution without antialiasing enabled (and generally without anisotropic filtering, though that varies by game). Given the number of users that run 19 inch LCDs these days, 1280x1024 represents one of the most commonly used resolutions. We could certainly increase the amount of eye candy being displayed in most of the games, but as this is a motherboard benchmark we aren't particularly interested in maxing out the graphics cards for all tests.






As we commented in our previous Conroe Buyers Guide, gaming benchmarks at these settings are generally very close together, and few people would notice a difference between the various motherboards. With the latest BIOS, the Abit board places pretty consistently right in the middle of all the results. Discounting the ASRock board - which is in a completely different price category and is usually at the bottom of our performance charts - the spread between the fastest and slowest motherboards is only 1%-3%. Basically, your purchase decision should be based on price, features, availability, and manufacturer more than gaming performance.