Ethernet Performance

The current motherboard test suite includes LAN performance measurements. All of these boards utilize PCI Express controllers with the only difference being the supplier of the core logic.

The Windows 2000 Driver Development Kit (DDK) includes a useful LAN testing utility called NTttcp. We used the NTttcp tool to test Ethernet throughput and the CPU utilization of the various Ethernet Controllers used on the Intel 975x motherboards.

We set up one machine as the server; in this test, an Intel system with an Intel CSA Gigabit LAN connection. Intel CSA has a reputation for providing fast throughput and this seemed a reasonable choice to serve our Gigabit LAN clients.

At the server side, we used the following Command Line as suggested by the VIA whitepaper on LAN testing:
Ntttcpr -m 4,0,‹server IP› -a 4 -l 256000 -n 30000
On the client side (the motherboard under test), we used the following Command Line:
Ntttcps -m 4,0,‹client IP› -a 4 -l 256000 -n 30000
At the conclusion of the test, we captured the throughput and CPU utilization figures from the client screen.

Ethernet Throughput

Ethernet Throughput

The Intel 82573L PCI Express x1 LAN solution exhibits excellent throughput and CPU utilization rates. The Broadcom 5789KFB option on the Gigabyte board offers excellent throughput, but at a slightly higher CPU utilization compared to the other solutions. The Marvell 88E8062 PCI Express x4 LAN solution continues to offer the highest standard throughput of the tested options.

All standard Ethernet tests were performed with standard frames and the NVIDIA Active Armor suite disabled unless otherwise noted. Gigabit Ethernet supports Jumbo frames as well and provides a further reduction in CPU overhead. We added another test scenario in which ActiveArmor and Jumbo frames were enabled on the Asus P5N32-SLI Deluxe board via the 6.82 WHQL platform driver set. This is shown for illustrative purposes and shows the favorable impact of this technology.

Firewire and USB Performance Audio Performance
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  • ruprecht - Thursday, January 26, 2006 - link

    What the hell is wrong with Americans? Just say bad ass, it's hardly a hard-core expletive!
  • yacoub - Friday, January 27, 2006 - link

    Professional image versus immaturity. Anandtech has a professional image and likely wants to maintain it.
  • Griswold - Friday, January 27, 2006 - link

    ...land of the free. Whatever.
  • DigitalFreak - Thursday, January 26, 2006 - link

    We're prudes! Well, not me, but...
  • Avalon - Thursday, January 26, 2006 - link

    This board is pretty pitiful, IMO, when several other solutions out there can outpace it. Unless the board is offered cheaper than the competition, I see no reason to buy it.
  • JarredWalton - Thursday, January 26, 2006 - link

    Intel's proven reliability and support. Some people will happily give up 10% or more performance just for a major name like Intel. I'm not one of them, but they do exist.... :)
  • yacoub - Friday, January 27, 2006 - link

    But you pay a lot more for it...
  • Zebo - Friday, January 27, 2006 - link

    No knowledgeable computer hardware expert seriously believes that there is enough of a stability difference between the platforms to warrant a scientific comparison or research study by an objective outsider. Most "issues" stem from OE or bloated buggy SW and drivers, simple as that - not the hardware itself.

    Toms tries such a comparison but as you know a sample size of one is'nt very scientific so we'll discount intels 11 reboots two Asus boards, two intel boards, one gigabit board to AMD's 0 reboots in the stress test.:D:)
  • Zebo - Friday, January 27, 2006 - link

    Or should I say where's the proof over anything else? Sounds like urban legend to me. Something the intel boys claim with almost programed resposivness then stop replying in that thread once asked for proof.
  • Sunbird - Thursday, January 26, 2006 - link

    Excuse my ignorance, is Bad Axe a new american slang word?

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