Gigabyte K8NNXP-940: Built on Athlon64 FX51 Strengths
by Wesley Fink on October 9, 2003 11:52 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
FSB Overclocking Results
With the very complete selection of overclocking options on the Gigabyte, we had very high expectations for the overclocking performance of the board. What we didn't know, and still don't know, however, is what kind of total overclocking range will be available to FX users.| Front Side Bus Overclocking Testbed | ||
| Default Voltage | Maximum Overclock | |
| Processor: | Athlon64 FX51 2.2GHz |
Athlon64 FX51 2.2Ghz |
| CPU Voltage: | 1.5V (default) | 1.6V |
| Cooling: | AMD Stock Athlon64 FX51 Heatsink/Fan | AMD Stock Athlon64 FX51 Heatsink/Fan |
| Power Supply: | Enermax 465W | Enermax 465W |
| Maximum OC: | 2409MHz (+10%) 219FSB |
? |
The above overclocking setup at DEFAULT voltage allowed us to reach a stable FSB of 219MHz. Running our standard Quake3 bench at 2.4GHz yielded Q3 test scores right at 500fps. The maximum overclock, unfortunately, remains a mystery. As you will see in the benchmark suite, the standard test performance with the new F1 BIOS is outstanding. However, there are still problems with multipliers and FSB settings on this motherboard. 11.5X worked until we hit 215FSB; then, mysteriously reset itself to 210, no matter what we set. The 12.0X multiplier worked at 200, and would start generating mysterious FSB and multiplier values above this setting. We even tried downclocking the multiplier, but could not set higher FSB settings that would be retained. We suspect Gigabyte will quickly fix this because this is a very promising board, but for now the Maximum overclock simply cannot be reported. We will revisit this in the near future when we receive a BIOS update.
For a quick comparison, we ran the FX51 in our nVidia Reference board. In that board, by setting the memory to 333, we were able to boot our FX at a CPU setting of 230 at 1.6V. We suspect it may do even better, but with multiplier and FSB settings not completely working, it would be unrealistic to report a maximum overclock at this time. We still believe that with this Gigabyte board, it will be possible to reach the maximum overclock our FX51 chip can achieve. The Gigabyte is remarkably stable in all we can do with it so far, and hopefully a BIOS update will fix the overclocking issues that have surfaced.
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Anonymous User - Tuesday, October 14, 2003 - link
Why would a manufacturer include ECC slots for RAM but no 64 bit PCI bus? Is this aimed at the server market, the high end workstation, or what? Remove two PCI 32 bit slots and make 'em PCI 64bit. You have on board ethernet an USB. All everyone else needs is a video card and you have an AGP slot for that anyway. Come on manufacturers, let's see some damn 64 bit PCI slots already!!!Anonymous User - Tuesday, October 14, 2003 - link
Why would a manufacturer include ECC slots for RAM but no 64 bit PCI bus? Is this aimed at the server market, the high end workstation, or what? Remove two PCI 32 bit slots and make 'em PCI 64bit. You have on board ethernet an USB. All everyone else needs is a video card and you have an AGP slot for that anyway. Come on manufacturers, let's see some damn 64 bit PCI slots already!!!Anonymous User - Tuesday, October 14, 2003 - link
To reiterate and emphasize #19's question:* WHEN will these things become AVAILABLE? *
I've already ordered my FX-51 processor and most of the rest of the system. I'm twiddling my thumbs waiting for this motherboard to appear on the virtual shelves of some reseller.
Maybe I should resort to ball and jacks.
Anonymous User - Monday, October 13, 2003 - link
The anti-AMD comments are completely baseless. So you're going to stop buying from one company because one product is not good? What about the other company's product? Are you going to buy that just because you happened to not have a bad experience with them and then decided to go elsewhere if you do? Such is the attitude of the "all or nothing" extremists. I don't like those people - they tend to have tunnel vision.Let us not forget that purchasing EITHER the P4EE or 64 FX this year is a horrible mistake if you plan to upgrade, unless AMD and intel plan on making higher speed grades for those sockets, which seems unlikely. Combine the price point that could allow one to easily purchase a high-end Dual Socket A system for little more than 5% more performance, and you must ask yourself if what you are doing is really worth it...
The Value-conscious buyer gets a Barton or 2.4C system NOW if they really need to upgrade, or waits out until fall next year if they don't. Remember all the high-end stuff... 300MHz PII Klamath, 600 PIII katmai, 1130 PII Cumine, 2GHz willamette, etc.... all of those are top-end platforms with virtually NO upgrade path whatsoever. Many with them were utterly disappointed as something with more performance and a much shinier upgrade outlook could be purchased a few months later....
We have all made mistakes, due to lack of research and closed-box thinking burned by non-A via chipsets and the like, but please, let's learn....
Anonymous User - Monday, October 13, 2003 - link
The anti-AMD comments are completely baseless. So you're going to stop buying from one company because one product is not good? What about the other company's product? Are you going to buy that just because you happened to not have a bad experience with them and then decided to go elsewhere if you do? Such is the attitude of the "all or nothing" extremists. I don't like those people - they tend to have tunnel vision.Let us not forget that purchasing EITHER the P4EE or 64 FX this year is a horrible mistake if you plan to upgrade, unless AMD and intel plan on making higher speed grades for those sockets, which seems unlikely. Combine the price point that could allow one to easily purchase a high-end Dual Socket A system for little more than 5% more performance, and you must ask yourself if what you are doing is really worth it...
The Value-conscious buyer gets a Barton or 2.4C system NOW if they really need to upgrade, or waits out until fall next year if they don't. Remember all the high-end stuff... 300MHz PII Klamath, 600 PIII katmai, 1130 PII Cumine, 2GHz willamette, etc.... all of those are top-end platforms with virtually NO upgrade path whatsoever. Many with them were utterly disappointed as something with more performance and a much shinier upgrade outlook could be purchased a few months later....
We have all made mistakes, due to lack of research and closed-box thinking burned by non-A via chipsets and the like, but please, let's learn....
Reflex - Monday, October 13, 2003 - link
Heh, K6-2's rocked provided you did your research on your motherboards. The Asus P5A was easily my favorite, I still have a few systems out there that I built based on those and they are *rock* solid. I suppose if you bought a PC Chips board/relabel and had system issues that it may have colored your perspective, but honestly most of the boards I used at the time from Asus, Abit and Epox were all very very good.But its always that way, if you do your homework you won't get burned. Or at least its rare. ;)
Anonymous User - Sunday, October 12, 2003 - link
#26 - I had a comparable mentality as it relates to AMD. I thought the K6-2 was craptastic as well but let me tell you, AMD has come a LONG way since then and most of the problems with the K6-2's were actually with the MB chipsets. If you don't give AMD another look you are selling yourself short. Sure glad I did!Anonymous User - Sunday, October 12, 2003 - link
It's best to leave people like #26 alone as you can't save them. Just like those people who continuously buy from Dell, best to look, shake your head, and keep walking.Reflex - Sunday, October 12, 2003 - link
#26: Never buy once you have had a defective product? How's that i820 motherboard with MTH doing these days? How about the first generation P4 that was slower than the P3? GOt a P60 with the floating point bug? How much money you invest in the dead end called RDRAM? Ever pick up one of those 1.13Ghz P3 CPU's, the first generation ones that had all sorts of problems...With your attitude I am amazed you can buy Intel. After all, they have had practically a parade of errors and flaws. As far as I know no company hits everything 100% all the time. Judging based on your experience with a single product is pretty idiotic, I am certain I can find a very flawed product that was put out by virtually every company in tech at some point or other. But hey, where will you go when you finally end up with a flawed Intel chip, I mean I guess its off to the Via C3 or something...heh.
Anonymous User - Sunday, October 12, 2003 - link
The Macs are really, really, really freaking fast. What are you talking about? The Mac G5 beats a dual 3Ghz Xeon system by about 50% all around.I'll never ever buy a Mac though. Just like I'll never buy an AMD system since my K6-2 fiasco. Say what you want, it left a bad taste in my mouth. I won't shop at Best Buy. I wont buy anything made by Sony either after 2 discmans (men?), a $600 amplifier, and a CD burner broke way too early. After a company sells me a faulty product, I don't buy from them anymore.
Maybe the Pentium Pro pricing days are coming back, but regardless, Intel's new roadmap suggests that by this time next year a 3.6 Ghz Prescott with a 1Mb cache will be in the midrange price range and still fit in any 478-pin socket. That, to me, says that today's best buy is still a P4 2.4C. Who knows if AMD will still be in business by then anyway. Maybe IBM will be tired of giving them 200 million bail-out gifts, and will own them by then.
I will admit this: The best high-end system, for the buck, right now, is certainly AMD. I just won't buy one.