MSI: SLI Plus Eight

by Gary Key on April 11, 2006 8:00 AM EST
SLI Performance

Gaming Performance - SLI


Gaming Performance - SLI


Gaming Performance - SLI


Gaming Performance - SLI


Gaming Performance - SLI


The performance of the MSI K8N Diamond Plus in our SLI gaming benchmarks is very competitive and at times class leading. The board displayed excellent stability throughout the benchmarking process and during actual game play. We noted the temperature of our 7900GTX cards were not above normal after extended testing or game play due in part to the two slot space in between the x16 slots. We provided CrossFire results as a high level comparison between the two platforms with the ATI solution providing strong results in games that typically favor their architecture and vice-versa for games that favor the NVIDIA architecture.

Graphics Performance - SLI


Graphics Performance - SLI


Graphics Performance - SLI


The performance pattern continues in the synthetic benchmarks with the MSI board providing very consistent performance figures compared to the other SLI offerings. It is interesting to note that based upon our graphic settings, the x8 SLI based Asus A8N is just as competitive as the x16 SLI based solutions. Basically, the performance of these Socket 939 boards is so close that your choice of manufacturer and core logic chipset should be based upon features, customer support, and overall product stability.

Gaming Performance Disk Controller Performance
Comments Locked

42 Comments

View All Comments

  • OvErHeAtInG - Tuesday, April 18, 2006 - link

    Let me be the devil's advocate here. I know AT reviews (and others) usually regard same-colored RAM slots to be "correct" for dual-channel operation, but for me it's always made more sense when it's like this MSI board--one color for each channel. Of course, it wouldn't be confusing if manufacturers just chose one standard color scheme and left it at that.
  • Gary Key - Thursday, April 20, 2006 - link

    quote:

    Let me be the devil's advocate here. I know AT reviews (and others) usually regard same-colored RAM slots to be "correct" for dual-channel operation, but for me it's always made more sense when it's like this MSI board--one color for each channel. Of course, it wouldn't be confusing if manufacturers just chose one standard color scheme and left it at that.


    We completely agree about having a standard color scheme. The majority of boards have different colors for dual channel operation so our comments are based this fact. A previous MSI board we tested followed this pattern and then they change it on this board. It is too confusing in my opinion when a single supplier cannot agree on a color scheme between board releases. This is certainly not an MSI only issue either. :)
  • Wesleyrpg - Tuesday, April 18, 2006 - link

    quote:

    NVIDIA has tweaked their implementation of ActiveArmor in the latest driver releases by reducing the amount of offloading the ActiveArmor engine provides thereby reducing the amount of hardware based Gigabit Ethernet acceleration. As a result the CPU utilization rates are not as low as before but this was done to avoid data corruption issues that have been dogging NVIDIA since ActiveArmor was introduced.


    Hmmm, is this common knowledge? One of my friends suffers from this so badly that we had to set up his cable modem for use the the USB port (yuck). Is there a workaround/beta drivers? I'm sure NVIDIA wouldnt want this leaked if it was true? Why havent they done anything about it? The current AMD driver 6.70 is about 6 months old now and still corrupts data. Damn them!!!!
  • Gary Key - Thursday, April 20, 2006 - link

    quote:

    Hmmm, is this common knowledge? One of my friends suffers from this so badly that we had to set up his cable modem for use the the USB port (yuck). Is there a workaround/beta drivers?


    Yes, this is fairly common knowledge and we have actually referred readers to NVIDIA for assistance. I do have a new set of drivers for the Business Platform system and will be testing them next week.
  • Wesleyrpg - Tuesday, April 18, 2006 - link

    hmmm, seems NVIDIA have more than just an issue with their ActiveArmor, from what i have been reading theres also huge problems with the IDE/SATA file tranfers as well. Wish i'd know about these issues earlier, up until today i been recommending the NFORCE4, but with all these issues its hard to recommend them at all. Why hasnt any articles been written up on the MAJOR issues with the Nforce4 chipset?
  • Per Hansson - Sunday, April 16, 2006 - link

    Just replying to your message to me in the other mobo review "Please email me - I have the photographs. We are doing some revisions on the engine and could not get these in but I did take the photographs for you."

    I'm not the one that needs the pictures, I can identify the caps anyway... I was just thinking that it would be a nice addition to your articles, incase there where other readers that where interested in this too...

    This board looks really nice though, United Chemicon KZG everywhere it seems, except for the Sanyo Polymers at the VRM and plenty more than what should "really" be necessary for a budget board like this... (okay, there looks to be one or four odd caps in the PCI section but they do oftenly not see very much ripple current so it should be ok)
  • tekkstore - Monday, April 17, 2006 - link

    http://www.tekkstore.com">tekkstore.com
  • AnnonymousCoward - Friday, April 14, 2006 - link

    Macs still don't have a right mouse button? When will they put their stubbornness behind?
  • goinginstyle - Wednesday, April 12, 2006 - link

    I think you guys need to check your facts on the southbridge. According to the HardOCP article the board has the ULi 1575 southbridge. Are you sure the board has the nforce4 sli on the southbridge as that chipset is usually on the northbridge .
  • Gary Key - Wednesday, April 12, 2006 - link

    We will not comment in an open forum about another website's information that might or might not have been posted. However, I can ensure you this board utilizes the NVIDIA nForce4 SLI for the Southbridge (MCP) and the C51D for the Northbridge (SPP) as explained on the front page. If you still question our statements, then please visit MSI's website where the chipset information is available for this board - http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/mainboard/m...">MSI K8N Diamond

    Thanks!

Log in

Don't have an account? Sign up now