DFI nForce4: SLI and Ultra for Mad Overclockers
by Wesley Fink on February 5, 2005 9:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Memory Stress Testing
Optimum tRAS
In past reviews, memory bandwidth tests established that a tRAS of 10 was optimal for the nForce3 chipset and a tRAS setting of 11 or 12 was generally best for nForce2. Since this was the first memory stress test of a production nForce4 board, tRAS timings were first tested with memtest86, a free diagnostic program with its own boot OS that will boot from either a floppy disk or optical disk. Bandwidth was measured from tRAS 5 to tRAS 11 to determine the best setting.
| Memtest86 Bandwidth DFI nForce4 with Athlon64 4000+ |
|
| 5 tRAS | 2191 |
| 6 tRAS | 2242 |
| 7 tRAS | 2242 |
| 8 tRAS | 2242 |
| 9 tRAS | 2141 |
| 10 tRAS | 2141 |
| 11 tRAS | 2092 |
The best bandwidth was achieved in the 6 to 8 range with this combination of nForce4 and the 4000+, so a mid-value tRAS of 7 was chosen for all tests.
Memory Stress Tests
Our memory stress test measures the ability of the DFI to operate at its officially supported memory frequency (400MHz DDR), at the lowest memory timings that OCZ PC3200 Platinum Rev. 2 modules will support. All DIMMs used for stress testing were 512MB double-sided (or double-bank) memory. To make sure that memory performed properly in Dual-Channel mode, memory was only tested using either one dual-channel (2 DIMMs) or 2 dual-channels (4 DIMMs).
| Stable DDR400 Timings - One Dual-Channel (2/4 DIMMs populated) |
|
| Clock Speed: | 200MHz |
| CAS Latency: | 2 |
| RAS to CAS Delay: | 2T |
| RAS Precharge: | 7T |
| Precharge Delay: | 2T |
| Command Rate: | 1T |
Using two DIMMs in Dual-Channel 128-bit mode, the memory performed in all benchmarks at the fastest 2-2-2-7 timings, at default 2.6V voltage.
Tests with 4 DS DIMMs on an AMD Athlon 64 system are more demanding, since AMD specifies DDR333 for this combination. However, most AMD Athlon 64 motherboards combined with recent AMD processors (the memory controller is on the AMD CPU) have been able to handle 4 DIMMs at DDR400.
| Stable DDR400 Timings - 4 DIMMs (4/4 DIMMs populated) |
|
| Clock Speed: | 200MHz |
| CAS Latency: | 2.0 |
| RAS to CAS Delay: | 2T |
| RAS Precharge: | 7T |
| Precharge Delay: | 2T |
| Command Rate: | 2T |
Tests with all four DIMM slots populated on the DFI nForce4 boards required a 2T Command Rate with 4 DS DIMMs in two dual channels. This is the pattern seen on other top-performing Socket 939 boards, but we hoped that higher voltage might allow us to eek out 4 DS DIMM 1T performance. However, additional voltage did not help and DDR400 with 4DS DIMMs still required a 2T Command Rate on the DFI nForce4 boards.
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Jynx980 - Wednesday, February 2, 2005 - link
Eh..whats the molex connector for? (4 picture, page 3, next to the fan connector) Just more power to the mobo? Havent put a new system together for awhile..TheInvincibleMustard - Wednesday, February 2, 2005 - link
Also, does anyone know if the SI3114 chip does on-chip parity calculation for its RAID-5 or is that shoved off to the CPU? It's sad to see that the SI3114 doesn't support SATA-II, either.ChineseDemocracyGNR - Wednesday, February 2, 2005 - link
#6,the first pics had the connector, but they have updated them since.
#8,
when nVidia says "top board maker" they don't care about quality, they care about how many chips the company buys from them. As an example I can mention Gigabyte and their nF3-Ultra boards.
#9,
I'm afraid that won't be possible until a new revision of the A64 is out.
#10,
24-pin.
reactor - Wednesday, February 2, 2005 - link
i count 24 pins..johnson - Wednesday, February 2, 2005 - link
Is it an atx 24 pin + 4 pin or the stated 20 pin + 4 pin?TheInvincibleMustard - Wednesday, February 2, 2005 - link
Looks like a fantastic board, but just sad that it can't handle 4 DS DIMMs at 1T. I was really looking forward to having 2GB memory and still great response times. Oh well.DFI's on my shortlist for my next purchase! (that is, if I can find them in stock ... they were at ZZF but sold out in about an hour (SLI) to two hours (Ultra) :`(
arfan - Wednesday, February 2, 2005 - link
Great Job 4 DFI, now they are not bad or middle board maker but in the top board maker. I afraid what nvidia will do with this ??? They will not keep silence see this DFI board :(Googer - Wednesday, February 2, 2005 - link
http://froogle.google.com/froogle?q=LANParty%20nF4...Penth - Wednesday, February 2, 2005 - link
I've already placed my order for one. I did see the SLI PCB connector in the box in all the pictures I saw, so I am disappointed to read that I won't actually be receiving one. I hope it isn't too difficult to get my hands on one.Avalon - Wednesday, February 2, 2005 - link
This board is perfect for PCI-e users. Hot damn.