Gigabyte GA-6RX Apollo Pro266 ATX
by Mike Andrawes on March 8, 2001 2:15 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
The Test
In recent times, choosing a motherboard cannot be completely determined by a Winstone score. Now, many boards come within one Winstone point of each other and therefore the need to benchmark boards against each other falls. Therefore you should not base your decision entirely on the benchmarks you see here, but also on the technical features and advantages of this particular board, seeing as that will probably make the greatest difference in your overall experience.
Click Here to learn about AnandTech's Motherboard Testing Methodology.
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Test Configuration |
|
| Processor(s): |
Intel Pentium III 733MHz Retail
|
| RAM: |
1 x 128MB Smart PC2100 DDR SDRAM
|
| Hard Drive(s): |
Western Digital 153BA Ultra
ATA 66 7200 RPM
|
| Bus Master Drivers: |
VIA 4-in-1 v4.28 Service Pack
|
| Video Card(s): |
NVIDIA
GeForce 2 GTS 32MB DDR
|
| Video Drivers: |
NVIDIA
Detonator 6.50
|
| Operation System(s): |
Windows
98 SE
|
| Motherboard Revision: |
Gigabyte GA-6RX Revision 0.2
|
|
Windows 98 Performance |
|||
|
Intel Pentium III 733
|
Sysmark 2000
|
Content Creation
Winstone 2000 |
Quake III Arena - 640 x 480 x 16
|
| Gigabyte GA-6RX |
159
|
30.9
|
126.1
|
Gigabyte has never been strong with their performance, and that’s the case with the GA-6RX as well, which performed on an average level with other Socket-370 boards we've seen. As mentioned in the Apollo Pro266 chipset review, keep in mind that the Pentium III is not able to make use of the incredible bandwidth of DDR SDRAM so the performance improvement offered over the i815E chipset isn't all that great
Final Words
Here with the GA-6RX, Gigabyte set a strong pace for the Apollo Pro266 market. Although there are several layout issues with the board and a relatively expensive price tag compared to i815E boards, Gigabyte does do a good job of producing a feature filled board.
The Apollo Pro 266 chipset gives Gigabyte the benefit of not having the same limitations of Intel's 815E, allowing for larger memory configurations and allowing for more than two PC133 SDRAM DIMMs to be installed at once.
Unfortunately the premium the platform commands over the current set of i815E products isn't worth it. With a price tag of approximately $190, there is little Gigabyte can do to make the GA-6RX any more attractive than it is since they didn't make the chipset.
The Pentium III can't use the extra memory bandwidth that DDR SDRAM offers, and thus we can't justify spending the extra money on a DDR solution for the P3 platform.
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