System Benchmarking
Sandra 2003
We used the Sandra tests to provide some measure of the theoretical performance characteristics of the boards. I think the graphs speak mainly for them selves. The MSI produced the lowest CPU score which is maybe an indication that the SIS chipset is not quite as efficient as its Intel rival.
We were very surprised that the ‘Buffered’ memory scores did not show the MSI in a better light. The MSI is running the memory at DDR400 speed and yet it was still slower than the P4G8X at DDR266. Things looked far better for the MSI when we compared the un-buffered results. This shows the memory performance more clearly as differences in CPU performance have less of an effect.
PC Mark 2002
Our second theoretical test was using PC Mark 2002 for comparison. Here we saw results which contradicted the Sandra scores a little, The MSI producing a slightly higher CPU score than the competition. Memory performance was still down?
PIFAST
The Pifast benchmark attempts to complete a series of processor tasks measuring the time taken by the system, therefore we are looking for the quickest time to indicate good performance.
The MSI was not a match for either of the Granite Bay chipset clad motherboards.
SETI
The seti results are very similar to those in Pifast although we found that the MSI was sandwiched between the two Granite Bay boards. Seti is probably one of the best programs for comparing systems pure mathematical processing performance. We feel that the MSI 655 should be performing much better in these tests based on its specification.
