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HotHardware Test System Setup |
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Flagship Athlon 64 FX Performance |
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ASUS SK8V K8T800 Motherboard (Athlon 64 FX-51)
ASUS SK8N nForce3 Motherboard (Athlon 64 FX-51)
Gigabyte K8VNXP K8T800 Motherboard (Athlon 64 3200+)
1GB Mushkin 2-3-2
Registered PC3200 Memory
1GB Corsair 2-3-2
PC3200 Memory Pro Series
RADEON 9800 XT
(Catalyst 3.9 Drivers)
36GB Western Digital
Raptor SATA Drive (10,000 RPM)
Windows XP Pro SP-1
DirectX 9.0b
VIA Hyperion 4.49p
Forceware 3.13 Driver Set |
Software Setup:
BAPCo SysMark 2004
SiSoft Sandra 2004
Business Winstone 2002
3D Mark03
Comanche 4 Demo
Final Fantasy XI Benchmark
Unreal Tournament 2003 Demo
X2 Demo
Quake III: Arena Demo 'four' |
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Stability is a hallmark of
ASUS' design and the SK8V is truly representative of
quality workmanship; at no point in testing did the
board crash. We were reminded however, that it is
extremely important to install drivers in the correct
order to ensure proper operation. At one point, we
installed the VIA 4-in-1 driver set included on the
installation CD, followed by ATI's Catalyst 3.9 driver
set. Upon discovering a newer 4-in-1 package on
VIA's tech-support site and installing it, 3D
performance dropped by nearly half. After
reformatting the drive and reinstalling the drivers
properly, performance was restored to that of its
expected level.
Fortunately, the Serial ATA
problems we reported in our
VIA PT880 Chipset Preview
were not manifest during installation. All
of the subsystems worked properly, and sub-standard
audio fidelity was the only other quality-related issue
that surfaced.
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SiSoft Sandra 2004 |
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New Synthetic Metrics for the New Year |
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Comparing the SK8N and SK8V
motherboards is fairly straightforward here. They both
utilize Athlon 64 FX-51 processors and registered memory;
the only difference is on the chipset level. And in
each test (CPU, Multimedia, and Memory), VIA's K8T800 comes
out on top, giving the SK8V its first-place finish.
Gigabyte's K8VNXP centers on the same chipset, but features
a Socket 754 interface, highlighting the difference in
performance attributable to the slower Athlon 64 3200+
processor and single-channel, 64-bit memory pathway.
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BAPCo SysMark 2004 |
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SysMark Makes Its Return |
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After a
controversial release in 2002 of its SysMark benchmark
software, BAPCo has developed yet another metric designed to
characterize system performance in the categories of
Internet Content Creation and Office Productivity.
This time around, the organization has AMD's backing, and
should consequently demonstrate a more even distribution
between processors. Interestingly enough, ATI
Technologies also joined BAPCo, while NVIDIA hasn't, so
there isn't a perfect balance quite yet.
The latest
iteration of BAPCo's software includes Adobe After Effects
5.5, Adobe Photoshop 7.01, Adobe Premiere 6.5, Discreet 3ds
max 5.1, Macromedia Dreamweaver MX, Macromedia Flash MX,
Microsoft Windows Media Encoder 9, Network Associates McAfee
VirusScan 7, and WinZip 8.1, and that's just in the Internet
Content Creation portion of the test. Office
Productivity includes Adobe Acrobat, Microsoft Access,
Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft PowerPoint,
Microsoft Word, Microsoft Internet Explorer, ScanSoft Dragon
NaturallySpeaking, Network Associates McAfee VirusScan, and
WinZip 8.1. BAPCo has also published a white paper
(viewable
here) that goes into
greater detail about the benchmark, usage characteristics,
and scoring methodology. Fundamentally, SysMark 2004
aims to measure responsiveness, focusing less on the amount
of time it takes for a given task to complete.
(Overall scores for SysMark
2004, Office Productivity and Internet Content Creation)
(Scores for individual
Internet Content Creation tests)
(Scores for individual Office
Productivity tests)
The SysMark 2004
scores confirm what we saw with SiSoft's Sandra 2004.
That is, ASUS' SK8V is noticeably faster than the nForce3
Pro-based SK8N. The Athlon 64 3200+ platform isn't
really meant to contend here. We added those scores
more to illustrate the difference between AMD's two Athlon
64 families. The extra 200MHz really helps the FX
outperform AMD's Athlon 64 3200+. Stay tuned though,
as we're expecting the launch of another AMD processor that
will help to pinpoint the advantages inherent solely to the
wider memory bus.
Business Winstone 2002 and 3D Mark03 |