System setup and notes
Here's a quick rundown of the test system should you wish to compare benchmark results with your own.- ASUS P4R800-V Deluxe ATI 9100 IGP motherboard (26/02/2004 BIOS)
- EPoX 8HDA3+ K8T800 chipset-based motherboard (02/12/2003 BIOS)
- ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe i875P Canterwood motherboard; (Revision 1.15 BIOS)
Other components
- Intel Pentium 4 3.4GHz Northwood CPU.
Software
- Windows XP Professional
No problems to report with respect to installation and stability. Our only concern was with the proximity of the first DDR slot lock and the back of an ASUS Radeon 9800 XT's heatsink. Onboard graphics' 2D quality was excellent, and far, far better than Intel Extreme Graphics 2's. The picture quality from the S-Video interface was as good as anything else we've seen. Whilst we'll be putting the P4R800-V through our formal benchmarking run, readers should not forget the board's diverse talent at all things multimedia. ASUS adds to it by including InterVideo's latest WinDVD suite.
We'll be benchmarking the P4R800-V Deluxe against the impressive Canterwood-powered P4C800-E Deluxe and an Athlon 64 Model 3400+ / VIA K8T800 combination. We'll also take a look at GPU performance in the gaming tests. Running speeds of the boards were as follows:
3407.7MHz - Intel Pentium 4 3.4GHz / ASUS P4R800-V Deluxe (ATI 9100 IGP, 2-2-2-6)
3398.3MHz - Intel Pentium 4 3.4GHz / ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe (Canterwood, 2-2-2-6)
2208.4MHz - AMD Athlon 64 Model 3400+ / EPoX 8HDA3+ (K8T800 - 2.5-2-2-6)
Overclocking
Not one of the Radeon 9100 IGP's strongpoints, unfortunately. Our ES processor's multiplier was knocked down to 12x and the FSB was raised until stability was compromised. It happened all too easily at 223MHz FSB. If you're in possession of a low-end, overclockable Northwood or Prescott CPU and want to explore the CPU's limits, we'd suggest you look elsewhere.
A busy board!.
