ABOUT BENCH FORUMS PODCAST LOGIN REGISTER
PC Components
Smartphones & tablets
Systems
ENTERPRISE & IT
GUIDES

Abit AT8: µGuru comes to the RD480

 by Gary Key on March 10, 2006 12:05 AM EST
42 Comments | Add A Comment
42 Comments
Memory Performance

Memory Bandwidth Comparison - Read Performance

Memory Bandwidth Comparison - Write Performance

Memory Bandwidth Comparison - Latency Performance

We recently switched to version 2.50 of Everest, so these scores are not comparable to previous tests with version 2.20. The memory latency test shows a slight advantage to the Asus A8N32-SLI, but the read and write performance of the Abit AT8 is impressive and accounts for its performance in our benchmark tests.


Overclocking Performance

The overclocking performance graphs have been added to the standard benchmark test suite and should allow for a better comparison on the overclocking capabilities of tested boards. For more details on the specific overclocking abilities of this board, please refer to the Overclocking and Memory Stress Test sections on page 4.

Overclocking - A64 4000+ - (San Diego)

Overclocking - A64 4000+ - (San Diego)

The Abit AT8 is an excellent overclocking platform when utilizing stock multipliers, but it has overclocking issues when changing the HTT multiplier in the 1.1 BIOS, which is required to ensure widespread memory compatibility. Abit is currently working on this issue and expects to have a solution shortly. We had no issue overclocking our AMD Athlon 64 4000+ to a 322 HTT setting at the 9x multiplier with the version 1.0 BIOS although it limited our choice of memory modules for consistent test results. Although the Asus A8R-MVP has reached a 325 HTT setting in our test results, we had to change the DRAM Command Rate setting to 2 after reaching the 262 HTT level. The Abit board was able to utilize a DRAM Command Rate setting of 1 up to the HTT setting of 285 in our Opteron 170 overclock testing.



General Performance & Encoding Gaming Performance
PRINT THIS ARTICLE
Comments Locked

42 Comments

View All Comments

  • Gary Key - Friday, March 10, 2006 - link

    quote:
    I wonder why the review of "the older/ now economy" Abit ATI 200 chipset for crossfire board, especially since it is known to have some problems (the chipset and microcode)?


    Abit plans on this board becoming a value performance leader with the AT8-32x being slightly more upscale in the price range. We will be reviewing this board once it is available. However, given the current price range of the RD580 boards, the RD480 boards are the better value at this time given the incremental performance differences of the RD580 (although this would be my personal choice).

    There have been some growing pains with the ATI chipsets but there were also growing pains with the NVIDIA/SIS/VIA/ULi/ALI/Intel/etc. chipsets at product launches also. :) Overall, both the ATI RD480 and RD580 are very good chipsets, the fact the SB600 Southbridge was not available in time for either product launch is where I think ATI failed. This forced the board suppliers to utilize a Southbridge solution (ULi M1575) that was not designed in conjunction with the RD480/580 Northbridge. While it is an excellent Southbridge solution, some of the storage access and timing issues that have been reported and now solved, were not seen on the few SB450 equipped boards. I personally expect the ATI equipped boards to mature quickly and provide an excellent competitive alternative to the nForce boards. This is good for all of us.

  • n7 - Friday, March 10, 2006 - link

    Even with the OCing issues, this is still a far better value Crossfire choice for anyone than the craptastic A8R-MVP
Copyright © 2024. All rights reserved.
BENCH
TOPICS
FOLLOW
ABOUT

Log in

Don't have an account? Sign up now