Other Features and Performance
Audio
It seems that everyone agrees that the NVIDIA audio supplied with most NF2 motherboards is quite superb. Well the EPoX 8RGA+ is no exception and produced wonderful sound quality. There are adjustments galore in the software and the pitch and definition is as good as I have heard, even when compared to the Audigy2, it is difficult to find fault with the on board sound. We did purchase the add on SPDIF Optical out card from EPoX. If you have the ability to use the optical connection we would highly recommend it. The true sound quality is passed to the speakers producing a significant improvement.
Our setup took the optical output from the EPoX and fed it through a Pioneer VSX-C300 surround sound amp. Although it only produces 30 watts per channel, the sound quality really was astounding.
LAN
The 8RGA+ has a single integrated RJ45 LAN connector – yes only one! – Well how many do you need? Seriously the NVIDIA NFII LAN connector seems perfectly suitable. It will run at 10 or 100 mb/s which should suit 99% of current needs. I wish that Microsoft had added driver support into Windows XP, the only frustrating part about the NF2 LAN is that it is not recognised by windows without the chipset driver. This means that you can’t get your hands on your networked drivers until you have installed the NF2 drivers from Hard Drive or CD. – A small point but worth knowing.
Performance
We tested the board using some of the best equipment we could lay our hands on. This really is a fast board, with massive potential and we make no apologies for wanting to show it off with some good numbers.
Although the UT2003 benchmark is really a graphics test, we have included it as a test of the board’s performance using a real life application. As the hardware and drivers used were identical, other than the motherboard, the test does demonstrate the effect a motherboard can have on performance.
The Asus A7N8X has won a reputation as one of the fastest NF2 motherboards at stock speed. That’s probably why our evaluation Barton XP3000+ arrived with one, AMD were looking for it to provide the very best performance figures available. The results above clearly show that there is practically nothing between the 8RGA+ and the A7N8X in performance terms. This demonstrates that the 8RGA+ is as good as it gets, but nothing new, when run at stock speed. It is not until you start to overclock the two boards that the EPoX moves into the lead.
