µATX Part 1: ATI Radeon Xpress 1250 Performance Review
by Gary Key on August 28, 2007 7:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Test Setup
We selected the Intel E2160 Core 2 Duo processor as our main choice for the Intel platform boards since it represents a great bargain when comparing price against performance in the low end of the market where we will concentrate our uATX review efforts. We also switched to Microsoft Vista Home Premium 32-bit as our operating system of choice for this category. After speaking with several of the larger OEMs, we found out this OS choice is the one most widely offered to consumers. It was a natural then that we would test on Vista Home Premium with a 4GB memory configuration due to rapidly falling memory prices. Even though Vista 32-bit cannot take advantage of the entire 4GB of memory address space, we found the additional 1.2GB (on average) of memory available provided improved performance during multitasking events and gaming. We would not recommend anything less than 2GB with Vista Home Premium.
Our hard drive choice is a little out of the norm but since we will be testing the multimedia capabilities of our boards in an HTPC article we felt like the PVR designed drive would be a natural fit. Our OCZ memory choice was determined based upon a combination of price and performance levels that will be required during the overclocking testing with the higher end G33 boards. We did test each board with a wide variety of budget DDR2-800 memory from several suppliers that will be listed in our compatibility charts at the end of this article series. Our boards were set to utilize 256MB of memory for the IGP solution. The ASRock board supported up to 512MB of shared memory but all of the test results were the same so we left the setting at 256MB.
We will also present GPU comparison testing using external video cards from AMD and NVIDIA. Our results today will include video and gaming performance results with the AMD HD 2600 XT from Gigabyte and NVIDIA 8600 GTS card from Galaxy. All other components in our test configurations are identical with the boards being set up in their default configurations except for memory settings being optimized to ensure maximum throughput on each board. We will cover image quality analysis, audio, installation, and peripheral components in detail in separate articles.
Our choice of software applications to test is based on programs that enjoy widespread use and produce repeatable and consistent results during testing. Microsoft Vista has thrown a monkey wrench into testing as the aggressive nature of the operating system to constantly optimize application loading and retrieval from memory or the storage system presents some interesting obstacles. This along with the lack of driver maturity will continue to present problems in the near future with benchmark selections.
Our normal process is to change our power settings to performance, delete the contents of the prefetch folder, and then reboot after each benchmark run. This is a lengthy process but it results in consistency over the course of benchmark testing. All applications are run with administer privileges.
| abit Fatality F-I90HD / ASRock 4Core1333-FullHD Testbed | |
| Processor | Intel Pentium (Core 2 Based) E2160 Dual Core, 1.8GHz, 1MB Unified Cache, 9x Multiplier, 800FSB |
| CPU Voltage | 1.3250V |
| Cooling | Scythe Ninja Mini |
| Power Supply | SeaSonic S-12 II 480W |
| Memory | OCZ HPC Reaper PC2-6400 (4x1GB) |
| Memory Settings | 4-4-4-12 (2.00V abit/2.04V ASRock) |
| Video Cards | On-Board X1250, Gigabyte HD 2600XT, Galaxy 8600GTS HDMI |
| Video Drivers | AMD 7.8, NVIDIA 163.44 |
| Hard Drive | Seagate DB35.3 7200RPM 750GB SATA 3/Gbps 16MB Buffer Western Digital 74GB 10, 000RPM SATA 16MB Buffer (2 for RAID testing) |
| Optical Drives | Plextor PX-B900A, Toshiba SD-H802A, Pioneer BDC-S02BK |
| Audio Card | Realtek ALC-888, ASUS Xonar D2 |
| Audio Drivers | Realtek 1.73, ASUS 5.12.01.0008.17.19 |
| Audio Test Equipment | Swans M10 (2.1), Swans D1080 (2.0), Acculine A2 (5.1) Onkyo TX-SR605 A/V Receiver |
| Case | Zalman HD160XT |
| BIOS | abit 1.4, ASRock 1.30C |
| Operating System | Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit |
| . | |
| MSI G33M Testbed | |
| Processor | Intel Pentium (Core 2 Based) E2160 Dual Core, 1.8GHz, 1MB Unified Cache, 9x Multiplier, 800FSB |
| CPU Voltage | 1.3250V |
| Cooling | Scythe Ninja Mini |
| Power Supply | SeaSonic S-12 II 480W |
| Memory | OCZ HPC Reaper PC2-6400 (4x1GB) |
| Memory Settings | 5-5-5-12 (2.0V) |
| Video Cards | On-board GMA3100, Gigabyte HD 2600XT, Galaxy 8600GTS HDMI |
| Video Drivers | Intel 15.4, AMD 7.8, NVIDIA 163.44 |
| Hard Drive | Seagate DB35.3 7200RPM 750GB SATA 3/Gbps 16MB Buffer |
| Optical Drives | Plextor PX-B900A, Toshiba SD-H802A, Pioneer BDC-S02BK |
| Audio Card | Realtek ALC-888, ASUS Xonar D2 |
| Audio Drivers | Realtek 1.73, ASUS 5.12.01.0008.17.19 |
| Audio Test Equipment | Swans M10 (2.1), Swans D1080 (2.0), Acculine A2 (5.1) Onkyo TX-SR605 A/V Receiver |
| Case | Zalman HD160XT |
| BIOS | v1.00 |
| Operating System | Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit |
| . | |
We selected the Intel E2160 Core 2 Duo processor as our main choice for the Intel platform boards since it represents a great bargain when comparing price against performance in the low end of the market where we will concentrate our uATX review efforts. We also switched to Microsoft Vista Home Premium 32-bit as our operating system of choice for this category. After speaking with several of the larger OEMs, we found out this OS choice is the one most widely offered to consumers. It was a natural then that we would test on Vista Home Premium with a 4GB memory configuration due to rapidly falling memory prices. Even though Vista 32-bit cannot take advantage of the entire 4GB of memory address space, we found the additional 1.2GB (on average) of memory available provided improved performance during multitasking events and gaming. We would not recommend anything less than 2GB with Vista Home Premium.
Our hard drive choice is a little out of the norm but since we will be testing the multimedia capabilities of our boards in an HTPC article we felt like the PVR designed drive would be a natural fit. Our OCZ memory choice was determined based upon a combination of price and performance levels that will be required during the overclocking testing with the higher end G33 boards. We did test each board with a wide variety of budget DDR2-800 memory from several suppliers that will be listed in our compatibility charts at the end of this article series. Our boards were set to utilize 256MB of memory for the IGP solution. The ASRock board supported up to 512MB of shared memory but all of the test results were the same so we left the setting at 256MB.
We will also present GPU comparison testing using external video cards from AMD and NVIDIA. Our results today will include video and gaming performance results with the AMD HD 2600 XT from Gigabyte and NVIDIA 8600 GTS card from Galaxy. All other components in our test configurations are identical with the boards being set up in their default configurations except for memory settings being optimized to ensure maximum throughput on each board. We will cover image quality analysis, audio, installation, and peripheral components in detail in separate articles.
Our choice of software applications to test is based on programs that enjoy widespread use and produce repeatable and consistent results during testing. Microsoft Vista has thrown a monkey wrench into testing as the aggressive nature of the operating system to constantly optimize application loading and retrieval from memory or the storage system presents some interesting obstacles. This along with the lack of driver maturity will continue to present problems in the near future with benchmark selections.
Our normal process is to change our power settings to performance, delete the contents of the prefetch folder, and then reboot after each benchmark run. This is a lengthy process but it results in consistency over the course of benchmark testing. All applications are run with administer privileges.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
22 Comments
View All Comments
Brick88 - Thursday, August 30, 2007 - link
doesn't anyone feel that AMD is cutting itself short? Yes Intel is their primary competitor but by not producing an igp chipset for intel based processors, they are cutting themselves out of a big market. Intel ships the majority of processors and AMD will need every single stream of revenue to compete with Intel.bunga28 - Wednesday, August 29, 2007 - link
Charles Dickens would roll over his grave if he saw you comparing these 2 boards by paraphrasing his work.Myrandex - Tuesday, August 28, 2007 - link
I don't knwo why they would ever put that name on the board. the fact that it is getting beat by a ASRock motherboard in gaming performance is pathetic, since that name is supposed to be all about gaming (no offense to the ASRockers out there, as they aren't bad boards I have more experience with them then fatal1ty's anyways).Etern205 - Tuesday, August 28, 2007 - link
On the "abit Fatality F-I90HD: Feature Set" page,that Abit EQ software interface of a car looks
familar one of those real models.
Like this one
<img>http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/8490/toyotafjhh...">http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/8490/toyotafjhh...
source:
http://www.automobilemag.com/new_car_previews/2006...">http://www.automobilemag.com/new_car_previews/2006...
strikeback03 - Tuesday, August 28, 2007 - link
I was thinking Hummer, either way...Etern205 - Tuesday, August 28, 2007 - link
Not really because the face of a Hummer is differentthan the one from Toyota. The face of a Hummer has
vertical grill bars, while the Toyota does not.
strikeback03 - Wednesday, August 29, 2007 - link
However the Hummer has the full-width chrome fascia, the Toyota has a part-width sorta satin chrome thing.I highly doubt they licensed an image of either, so it can't look exactly like any vehicle. I remember a lawsuit between Jeep and Hummer over the 7 vertical slots in eachother's grilles several years ago.
eBauer - Tuesday, August 28, 2007 - link
Why are the Xpress 1250 systems running tighter timings (4-4-4-12) where the G33 system is running looser timings (5-5-5-12)?strikeback03 - Tuesday, August 28, 2007 - link
Top of page 8
Mazen - Tuesday, August 28, 2007 - link
I have a 6000+ (gift) and I am just wondering whether I should go with a 690G or wait for nvidia's upcoming MCP 78. Can't wait for the 690G review... thoughts anyone?