Performance Test Configuration

If you are interested in more information comparing the Athlon 64 chipsets, the Athlon 64, and the Athlon 64 FX, please see our in-depth comparisons in the recent launch reviews:

AMD Athlon 64 4000+ & FX-55: A Thorough Investigation
nForce4: PCI Express and SLI for Athlon 64
.09 Athlon 64: Value, Speed and Overclocking
AMD Sempron: A Fresh Take on Budget Computing
Socket 939 Chipsets: Motherboard Performance & PCI/AGP Locks
AMD Athlon 64 3800+ and FX-53: The First 939 CPUs

 Performance Test Configuration
Processor(s): AMD Athlon 64 FX55 (2.6GHz) Socket 939
RAM: 2 x 512MB OCZ PC3200 Platinum Rev. 2
Hard Drive(s): Seagate 120GB 7200 RPM IDE (8MB Buffer)
Chipset Drivers: nVidia nForce 6.11 Beta (nForce4)
nVidia nForce Platform Driver 4.24 (nForce3 Ultra)
Video Card(s): ATI X800 XT (PCI Express)
ATI X800 XT (AGP 8X)
nVidia 6800 Ultra (PCI Express)
nVidia 6800 Ultra (AGP 8X)
Video Drivers: ATI Catalyst 4.10 (All ATI Video tests)
nVidia nForce 61.81 Beta (nForce4)
nVidia nForce 61.77 (nForce3 Ultra)
Operation System(s): Windows XP Professional SP1
Motherboards: ATI Bullhead (RX480/RS480 PCIe)
nVidia nForce4 Ultra Reference Board
MSI K8N Neo2 (nVidia nForce3-250Gb)

Tests used OCZ PC3200 Platinum Rev. 2, G. Skill TCCD, or Corsair 3200XL XMS3208v1.1 memory modules. All three memories use Samsung TCCD chips and perform virtually the same in our benchmarks at stock speed. Resolution in all benchmarks is 1024x768x32, unless noted otherwise.

ATI RX480: Measuring Performance ATI X800 XT: MSI K8N Neo2 vs. ATI Bullhead
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  • flatblastard - Saturday, April 9, 2005 - link

    Hmmmm, still no real availability even now...Looks like MSI may be our only chance at this chipset....what as bummer :(
  • philpoe - Sunday, February 20, 2005 - link

    Hmmm, after no real availability (in the US at least) as of Friday 2/18/05, there's suddenly a slew of shops selling the MSI board on pricewatch, including Newegg. Anyone know of a reason why the boards are so slow to trickle out?
  • philpoe - Monday, February 7, 2005 - link

    Is it possible to purchase these reference boards? I seem to see them in retail-looking packages in reviews from Canada.
    If you can get your hands on one, are the BIOSes available to the public, or only to the select HW review sites?
  • Wesley Fink - Thursday, November 11, 2004 - link

    PERFORMANCE WITH 4 DIMMS CORRECTED>

    We have added the following update to p.6:

    "UPDATE 11/11/2004: ATI has provided an updated BIOS which corrects the issues of 333 timings with 4 double-sided dimms. With the new BIOS we were able to run 4X512MB DS OCZ 3200 Platinum Rev.2 at 2-2-2-10 timings at DDR400 with a 2T Command Rate. This performance matches the best we have seen with 4 DS dimms on an Athlon 64 motherboard."
  • Momental - Wednesday, November 10, 2004 - link

    #35: I'm right there with ya, bud. Just when I "think" I've made up my mind to do the complete overhaul, the next exit appears on the highway taking me that much closer to the "Best Soft Serve in Town"!!

    The ol' gut tells me to hold out until some time just after the ball drops in Times Square and we'll all be in Fat City, so to speak. ;)
  • callius - Tuesday, November 9, 2004 - link

    Somewhat OT maybe:

    anyone seeing a reason that the next rev of A64 supporting SSE3 (in market Q1/05) coul not be plugged in a 939-mobo (nvid, ati or via) without problems (except any necessary BIOS update) ?

  • callius - Tuesday, November 9, 2004 - link

    Only minus vs nforce4 is that the SB does not support SATA-II's NCQ (for Seagate's upcoming 7200.8 series). Maybe with next SB in Q1/05 though ???
  • mlittl3 - Tuesday, November 9, 2004 - link

    Completely off topic, but does anyone know why there are four chipsets (two actively cooled, one passively cooled and the other with no cooling) in the SLI Tyan motherboard that #33 gave a link for?
  • xeper - Tuesday, November 9, 2004 - link

    i can't seem to find ANY mention whatsoever of shared memory allocation. can someone help me out here?
  • nserra - Tuesday, November 9, 2004 - link

    Isn’t this very funny, I mean Ati was a very close partner to Intel, and they now bring to intel its one competition product but for the intel competitor.

    I see now no reason for Dell or other companies go for intel, because really intel had (has) the edge with integrated solutions.

    A "part" I thought that there weren’t AMD IGP chipsets because it wasn’t possible to use the integrated memory controller for graphics, at least until AMD64 rev E0 came out?

    If ati is going amd on pcie first, these shows that amd have the best processor and will continue for the time been. Even dothan can do much to turn it around again to intel side. And i bet that new p4 2mb is still with problems (performance, heat, …) and every one is running away from intel because already know this even intel, bringing dothan to the desktop market.

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