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Tyan
S1854 - Trinity 400 Update
2/29/00
VIA's
Apollo Pro133A Just Got A Little Faster |
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The
VIA Apolo Pro133 chipset has an "Achilles
Heal". For quite some time now, it has
been know that memory bandwidth and performance
was somewhat lacking in comparison to some of the
other chipsets like the legacy Intel BX.
Recently
HotHardware's Super Techno-Sleuth, Marco
"BigWop" Chiappetta has discovered
that with the proper settings and a motherboard
based on the Apollo Pro133A, that this VIA chipset
could stand tall against the BX in all aspects,
including Memory Performance. So we decided
to see if he was blowing smoke or giving us the
real dirt. Here's what we found out. |
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Tyan
Trinity 400 Test System Memory
Performance Update |
The
VIA Apollo Pro133A is no slouch |
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Full
Tower ATX Case w/ 300W PS, Pentium III 500E
overclocked to 667MHz. and 750MHz. (supplied by Outside
Loop Computers),
Tyan
S1854 Trinity 400 Motherboard,
128MB PC133 HSDRAM from EMS, WD Expert AC418000
7200 RPM ATA66 Hard Drive, Elsa Erazor X2, Pioneer
10X DVD/40X CD ROM, Win 98SE, DirectX 7, NVidia
Detonator Reference Drivers Version 3.68 |
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One
aspect of our Test System that you should note, is
that it is somewhat different from our original
review with the Tyan Trinity 400 that we generated
only a few months ago. This time we plugged
in a Pentium 500E and overclocked it to
667MHz. This had an effect on performance of
the memory sub sytem of course but in comparison
to a BX chipset running this CPU, historically
Memory Performance clock for clock, was always
well below the BX. This is where things got
interesting.
We also set the
memory timings up much more aggressively due to
some additional capabilities found in the recent
revision of the Trinity 400 BIOS. You
will need BIOS rev. 1.00 to set things up this up
this way. Click if you want a closer look.
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We
set the Auto Detect DIMM/PCI Clk to
"Disabled" and then custom set the
memory timings on the left side of this
screen. Our RAM was a 7.5ns PC133 type
module so we set the Timing to 8ns.
Also, note the SDRAM Cycle Length of 2 and the
DRAM Clock of HCLK (Host Clock)+33M. Now,
don't think for a minute that this setting had our
SDRAM running at 133MHz. + 33MHz. for a total of
166MHz. There is just no way the system
would even have booted at this speed. On the
other hand, setting up this feature this way gave
us optimal results. You can also select Host
Clock -33M for your PC100 types and Auto.
Again, the Host+33M was the fastest and perfectly
stable. |
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Benchmarks
/ Comparison |
The
VIA Apollo unleashed |
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So, now that our VIA
Apollo Pro133A based Tyan Trinity 400 is set up
for max memory performance, how did we do?
Have a look for yourself! Click images for full
view.
Sandra
Memory Benchmark Tyan Trinity 400 - Apollo Pro133A
@ 667MHz.
Not too
shabby at all. The numbers were also taken with
the latest Inf files for the Apollo Pro133A
chipset.
Now take a
look at our Abit BE6 BX board with the same set
up and CPU. The memory timings were set to CAS2
for optimal speed. You need very good PC133
memory to do this.
Sandra
Memory Benchmark Abit BE6 - BX @ 667MHz.
We are in
the same ball park here folks. These scores put
the VIA chipset within striking distance of the Intel
BX. With further optimizations and revisions of
VIA's drivers, we could see this gap closing even
further.
Here is
the rest of the story with CPU and Multimedia Scores
as well.
Tyan
Trinity 400 - VIA Apollo Pro133A
Sandra
CPU Benchmark
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Abit
BE6 - Intel BX
Sandra
CPU Benchmark
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Sandra Multi-Media Benchmark
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Sandra Multi-Media
Benchmark
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Once again
the VIA chipset lags but not by much. In
addition, the VIA could take our CPU to heights of
over clocking with our GeForce card, that the BX
couldn't. Without the 1/2 AGP Divider capability
of the VIA board, the BX couldn't load Windows at
anything higher than a 133MHz. Front Side Bus.
Yes, you could probably plug in a PCI Graphics card
and then overclock the BX to your hearts delight but
what would be the point? You would have to be
utilizing old graphics technology to do it?
Here are
some scores with the Tyan Trinity 400 at 750MHz
Tyan
Trinity 400 - VIA Apollo Pro133A @ 750MHz.
Sandra
CPU Benchmark @ 750MHz.
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Sandra
Memory Benchmark @ 750MHz.
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Sandra
Multi-Media Benchmark @ 750MHz.
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With the VIA Apollo
Pro133A chipset we are able to overclock the
system well beyond 133MHz. Front Side Bus to a
high of 150MHz. We were also able to achieve
this with a GeForce DDR AGP card. No amount
of tweaking would allow us to do this with the BX
board. |
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What
does this all mean? Well, you'll need to
draw your own conclusions from this.
However, in our opinion, if you consider the Intel
CPU based motherboard solutions currently
available, the VIA Apollo Pro133A has the most
flexibility in the market place and the
performance to back it up. The i820 is a
strong contender as well with blazing fast memory
scores, as we have seen in other reviews.
However, if RAMBUS prices don't get in line quick,
VIA will be eating Intel's lunch.
Then
of course there are the AMD solutions as well with
the VIA KX133 and AMD chipsets but that is a
discussion for another day. This is enough
confusion for one sitting. :)
-Davo |
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