System setup and notes
Here's a quick rundown of the test system should you wish to compare benchmark results with your own.
- Intel Pentium 4 2800MHz S478 Northwood CPU
- SOYO SY-P4I 845PE motherboard in DDR333 mode
- Iwill P4HT-S i845PE motherboard run in DDR333 mode
- Gigabyte 8IHXP i850E motherboard run with PC1066 memory
- MSI SiS648 MAX motherboard run in DDR333 mode
- VIA P4X400 P4B Ultra run in DDR333 mode
Common components
- ATi Radeon 9700 Pro (324/320)
- 256MB Corsair XMS3200 C2 run at 2-5-2-2 at DDR333 for all motherboards
- 2 x 128MB PC1066 RAMBUS for the i850E
- 61.5GB IBM 120GXP Hard Drive.
- Liteon 16x DVD
- Enermax 550w PSU
- Samsung 181T TFT monitor
- Thermaltake S478 cooler
Software
- Windows XP Professional Build 2600.xpclient.010817-1148
- Intel 4.00.109 chipset drivers
- Intel application accelerator drivers
- SiS 1.12 AGP drivers
- VIA Hyperion 4-in-1s,
- Plutonium XP 8.1 Radeon Drivers (based on ATI CATALYST build 6166)
- Pifast v41
- Virtual Dub 1.4.10 DVD encoding, DivX 5.02 CODEC
- OcUK SETI benchmark
- 3DMark 2001SE
- UT2003 Demo
- Comanche 4 benchmark
- Serious Sam 2 Demo
- Quake 3 v1.30
Notes
As usual, we've got all the major chipset for the Intel Pentium 4 platform here. The i850E (PC1066 RAMBUS) and i845PE (DDR333) from Intel. The SiS648 from SiS and the P4X400 from VIA. The latter has received a performance boost from the newer Hyperion drivers. All benchmarks will be run at 1024x768x32 @ 85Hz unless otherwise stated.
Overclocking
Using my trusty 1.6GHz Northwood CPU, I managed to get up to 169FSB with 1.85v on tap. I'm sure that the FSB limit of this motherboard was still some way off. We were limited by the physical limitations of our processor. The fixed bus option on the i845PE is a godsend for those that want to overclock. You can do so safe in the knowledge that your sensitive busses are in check.
Compatibility and Stability
No problems to report here. 3 PC3200 sticks from Corsair, Mushkin, and OCZ respectively all ran at DDR333 at the most stringent of timings. Using two modules together resulted in fluid operation at DDR380 (strict timings). It's a pretty well-known fact that Intel have amongst the most stringent qualification procedures in the hardware world. That fact is borne out by the rock-solid stability of each and every Intel chipset-based motherboard I've tested.
Delusions
2833.08MHz - VIA P4B Ultra
2810.4MHz - MSI SiS648 MAX
2806.5MHz - Gigabyte i850E
2793.02MHz - SOYO SY-P4I
2793.02MHz - Iwill 845PE P4HT-S
The above frequencies are what each of the comparative motherboards operate at when set to 133FSB in BIOS. I don't mind a spread of 10MHz from slowest to faster because, after all, most motherboard manufacturers use differing clock generators. What I don't like is VIA's flagrant disregard of standard procedure. Whilst a 40MHz clock advantage may not sound like much, it can make all the difference in benchmarks. SOYO play it safely at 2793MHz. Please bear this speed differential in mind when directly comparing benchmark results.
Enough talk. On to the benchmarks in question.