System setup and notes
Hardware and Software
Test Platforms
|
Gigabyte GA-G1975X system |
Gigabyte GA-81955X Royal System |
MSI P4N Diamond System |
Intel i945G System |
Athlon 64 S939 PCI-Express System |
| Processor(s) |
Intel Pentium 4 660 |
Intel Pentium 4 660 |
Intel Pentium 4 660 |
Intel Pentium 4 660 |
AMD Athlon 64 4000+ |
| Mainboard |
Gigabyte GA-G1975X |
Gigabyte GA-81955X Royal |
MSI P4N Diamond nForce4 SLI I.E. |
Intel D945GTP |
ABIT Fatal1ty AN8 nForce4 |
| Memory |
1GByte (2x512MB) Corsair XMS2-5400UL |
1GByte (2x512MB) Corsair XMS2-5400UL |
1GByte (2x512MB) Corsair XMS2-5400UL |
1GByte (2x512MB) Corsair XMS2-5400UL |
1GByte (2x512MB) Corsair XMS3200XL |
Memory timings |
3-2-2-8 @ DDR533 |
3-2-2-8 @ DDR533 |
3-2-2-8 @ DDR533 |
3-2-2-8 @ DDR533 |
2-2-2-5 1T @ DDR400 |
| Graphics Card |
ATI RADEON X850 XT PE - PEG16X - CATALYST 5.3 |
Disk Drives |
160GB WD IDE & 36GB SATA Raptor |
| BIOS Version |
BIOS F1 (17/11/2005) |
BIOS 1 |
BIOS F4d |
NT94510J.86A.0897 |
BIOS 1.3 -25/04 05 |
| Operating System |
Windows XP Professional, SP2 |
| Mainboard Software |
Intel INF Update Utility 7.0.0.1025 |
Intel INF Update Utility 7.0.0.1019 |
nForce4 7.02 platform driver |
Intel INF Update Utility 7.0.0.1019 |
nForce 6.39 platform driver |
Benchmark Software
HEXUS.in-house Cryptography Benchmark
HEXUS Pifast Benchmark
ScienceMark 2.0 (7th February 2005)
Realstorm Raytracing 2004
CINEBENCH 2003 multi-CPU render
HEXUS.in-house MP3 Encoding Benchmark using LAME 3.97a (Intel HT compiler) - 701MB WAV
picCOLOR 32-bit v4.0
KribiBench v1.1
Microsoft Movie Maker 2.1
Simpli Software HDTach
3DMark2001SE b330
3DMark05 b1.2.0
DOOM 3 b1282
Far Cry v1.3
Notes
It makes implicit sense to compare the performance of Gigabyte's G1975X motherboard against the company's premium i955X motherboard, the GA-81955X Royal. Further, results from NVIDIA's nForce4 SLI Intel Edition, Intel's i945G, and AMD's nForce4 Ultra are added.
We initially benchmarked with a beta BIOS that would inflate the default CPU FSB to 206MHz. Testing with the first official release, dated 17/11/2005, reduced the FSB to 200.2MHz and corrected a number of minor issues.
Leading on the from the above, benchmark differences between motherboards sporting similar chipsets is often down to the exact FSB speed of motherboard in question. That being so, the running speed of the boards was as follows:
3611.3MHz - Gigabyte GA-81955X Royal - Intel i955X - Intel Pentium 4 660
3604.2MHz - Gigabyte GA-G1975X - Intel i975X - Intel Pentium 4 660
3600.2MHz - Intel D945GTP - Intel i945G - Intel Pentium 4 660
3599.4MHz - MSI P4N Diamond - nForce4 SLI I.E. - Intel Pentium 4 660
2411.2MHz - ABIT Fatal1ty AN8 - nForce4 Ultra - AMD Athlon 64 4000+
The clockspeed is a little slower than the comparison Gigabyte i955X motherboard and a hair faster than both the nForce4 Intel Edition and i945X reference motherboard.
Overclocking
The 'G1975X is geared up towards overclocking, right? Testing in a conservative manner that put stability before all-out performance, we were able to run the sample, thanks to an unlocked Pentium 4 CPU, at 287MHz FSB without any problems. 300MHz FSB was stable for the most part, yet the occasional reboot precluded it from being rock-solid stable.
