Introduction

Soon, one year after the launch of the double-graphics card solution called SLI by nVidia also ATi has finally like in the portfolio. The 26.09.2005 was finally officially unveiled the ‘ CrossFire ‘ technique and distributed model of the international press. We have already devoted an article to the performance of graphics cards, but also the CrossFire motherboard offers some news from the House of ATi. In addition to the two PEG interfaces, the new SB450 Southbridge on the Board can be found. Extent to which this pre-production model differs us from its predecessor, which we want to clarify in the article.

Bookmark

In addition to the comparison of the various chipsets for Socket 939, which provides an overview of the facilities and performance, the foundations to the used processor from AMD Cool’n’ quiet feature of Athlon 64 processors are worth reading, as well as the Guide for the very interesting cool. Matching of the energy consumption of processors and the basics of PCI Express are worth a look.

• nVidia nForce 4 SLI vs. VIA K8T890
• Three times nForce 4 SLI
• Socket 939: ATi vs. nVidia vs. VIA
• EPoX EP-8KDA3 + (Socket 754)
• MSI K8T neo-FIS2R vs. shuttle AN50R (Socket 754)
• SK8N Asus vs. MSI K8T Master1-FAR (socket 940)
• Athlon 64 FX-55 and 4000 +
• AMD Athlon 64 3500 + and 3800 +
• Athlon 64 FX-51 and Athlon 64 3200 + (basics, AMD Athlon 64)
• Athlon 64 with cool Cool’n’ quiet (Guide)
• Energy consumption of current processors
• PCI express – the basics

The subject

First, we want to give an overview of the equipment of tested motherboard again.

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ATi Xpress 200 CrossFire Edition

Short included: since it is a pre-production model, not a normal accessories is located at and not even an ATX-bracket has found its way into the box. This is however no great lack, since such accessories are clearly thing the distributor who make their boards on the basis of RD480.

We look at the chipset us. The code name is RD480 and he is a direct relative of the RX480 and RS480. The latter is in addition the integrated graphics unit in the form of RV370, which is known also as X 300. Support for HD audio and the distribution of the PCIe lanes is new to the RD480. Only by the Division on two x 8 lanes use enables CrossFire.

In contrast to the competition, but there are still some basic features are missing the RD480. So there is no native LAN or SATA 300 support. One looks for a hardware-based firewall or cross-RAID across PATA and SATA, as they are commanded by nVidia, also in vain. Here, ATi is much like VIA in the spot, because even ULI offers with the M1575, which by the way can be connected as a Southbridge with the RD480 already SATA 300 and the RAID 5 mode. So probably there will be manufacturers who buy only the Northbridge at ATi and put on the slightly better equipped version of ULI as southbridge.

Layout

Also here again advance the reference to the pre-production version of the mainboard. Manufacturers can of course copy the layout from cost-saving measure, but not forced. So there may be in addition to equipment differences depending on the manufacturer also a completely different arrangement of the components.

Quite classically designed the layout of the ATi mainboard. The RAM slots are on a comfortable distance from the top PEG slot. Long video cards can come but the PATA as well, at least in the lower PEG slot, with the SATA ports in the enclosure. So failed us in the test system, use the top SATA connector in conjunction with the MSI 6800 GT.

Also the ATi reference similar to the EPoX mainboard has two seven-segment displays, which spend at boot status indications. The display is bottom left on the Board. In any case, the absence of both the serial and parallel port in the ATX-bracket is striking.

The Northbridge has a relatively large heatsink, which in addition active cooling of a surprisingly silent 40 mm fan. The southbridge has only a shallow passive heat sink that is graphics cards not based on the. In total, six Fan connectors on the Board are distributed per three two-pole and three-phase. The dipolar are strategically arranged in power supply, North and South Bridge. Of the three-pin, two in the RAM banks and one located at the bottom right of.

Four LEDs is a special feature, which provide information about adjacent tensions. One two above of the processor socket, next to the main power connector, the fourth in addition to the CMOS battery. Three more LEDs are located next to the four SATA connectors, one for two SATA connectors, the third replaced the IDE activity LED. Power-On-and reset button are right as mini button located at the bottom of the Board.

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Interrupt table
No records to distribute the interrupts were in the ATi Radeon Xpress 200 motherboard.

BIOS

Despite the consistently high efficiency of AMD Athlon 64 processors overclocking (OC) is very popular. More and more manufacturers offer the system in different stages in the BIOS or software under Windows the possibility, to overclock. The next table shows the options for the user in the BIOS of the ATi Board, such OC setting.

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All these values are directly taken from the BIOS, which is used in the version 080012.

The ATi RAID BIOS carries the version number 4.2.61., the SiI 3132 the 6.2.11. The ATi BIOS also dominated the change of RAM measure without changing the CPU clock. Works only the settings of 166 have 183, 233 MHz with our test system.

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ACPI Suspend
The ATi motherboard supports the two most important modes with S1 and S3. Both can be selected individually or together in the BIOS. From S1 mode, the computer per keystroke, mouse click, or press the/button can be awakened again. To move the computer from the S3 state back to work, you will need the on/off switch or a PS/2 keyboard despite the BIOS setting to “USB Resume from Suspend”. With a USB mouse or keyboard was not possible a waking them up.

Fan control
The option is not included with the BIOS. Here is to be hoped that the it should use the facilities of ITE IT8712F-A-chips and regulate not only the socket for the CPU fan.

Software

The following content is available from the ATi application after the startup of the CD:

• Install CrossFire and user’s Guide
• Install of CrossFire drivers
• Install additional drivers

The first point includes the two-part pdf series, describes the mainboard and graphics card installation. Point two installed the CF Edition of catalyst 5.8 driver automatically. This also includes.NET and the Catalyst Control Center (CCC).

The third point simply invokes the additional drivers directory on the CD in Explorer. Here, the knowledgeable user can then install as the driver for the Marvell LAN chip.

Of course, it is a CD for testers from press and industry. Therefore you should not assess the choice and number of the software. Other software is not settled.

Test system

• Processor
  • AMD Athlon 64 4000 +
• CPU cooler
  • AMD boxed cooler
  • Zalman CNPS7000B CU
• Motherboard
  • ATi Xpress 200 CrossFire Edition
• Memory
  • 2 x 512 MB OCZ PC3200 EL Platinum Rev. 2
• Graphics card
  • MSI NX6800GT-T2D256E
• Peripherals
  • Samsung P80SD SATA II, 80 GB (1 x system, 3 x RAID)
  • Pioneer DVD-ROM DVD-105
  • Iomega 250 GB USB 2.0 / FireWire 400 / 800 external
• Other
  • Avance B031 housing
  • Tagan TG480-U22-2Force power supply, 480 Watts
  • Noiseblocker S2 ultra silent fan 80 mm (three pieces)
• Software
  • Windows XP Professional SP2
  • DirectX 9.0 c
• Driver
  • ATi catalyst 5.8 CF Edition Southbridge-driver
  • nVidia ForceWare 77.72
  • Marvell LAN driver 8.27.4.3
  • Silicon Image 3112A
  • Silicon Image 3132
  • Realtek HD audio driver R1. 22

Benchmarks

• Synthetic benchmarks
  • PCMark05 1.01
  • SiSoft Sandra Professional 2005SR2a
  • PCI Express return channel-bandwidth
• System benchmarks
  • WorldBench 5
• Interfaces
  • Network: NTtttcp
  • USB 2.0: HDTach 3.0.1.0 to your external hard disk
  • FireWire 400 / 800: HDTach 3.0.1.0 to your external hard disk
  • Sound: RightMark Audio Analyzer 5.5
• Controller
  • RAID 0: HDTach 3.0.1.0
  • RAID 1: HDTach 3.0.1.0
  • RAID 5: HDTach 3.0.1.0
• Games
  • Doom 3 1.3
  • Earth 2160 1.2
  • FarCry 1.32
  • Half-life 2
  • Painkiller 1.64

All benchmarks are in a screen resolution of 1280 x 1024 with 32 bit color depth carried out. All measurements are made regardless of the chip set with only a graphics card.

Synthetic benchmarks

PCMark05

• Official website: www.futuremark.com

• Download: ComputerBase.de
  • At a cost: free standard version, but only with limited features

• What benchen we?
  • Version 1.01 professional

  • Default-benchmark
  • Special settings: – No.

Sandra 2005

• Official website: www.sisoftware.co.uk

• Download: ComputerBase.de
  • At a cost: free version

• What benchen we?
  • Sandra Professional 2005 SR2a

  • Arithmetic and multimedia performance of CPU, memory transfer rates
  • Special settings: – No.

PCI Express performance

The speed of the back channel of the graphics card can be measured with an older tool in 2002 by the company serious magic. So the range of the PCIe bus can be measured indirectly.

System benchmarks

WorldBench

• Official website: www.pcworld.com

• Download: No download possible
  • At a cost: 249 USD

• What benchen we?
  • Version 5

  • Complete benchmark run
  • Special settings: – No.

ACDSee PowerPack 5.0

Adobe Photoshop 7.0.1

Adobe Premiere 6.5

Nero Express 6.0.0.3

Discreet 3ds max 5.1

MS Office XP SP2

MS Media Encoder 9.0

Mozilla 1.4

Multitasking

Musicmatch Jukebox 7.10

VideoWave movie creator 1.5

WinZip 8.1

Interfaces

Network

• Official website: www.microsoft.com

• Download: No download possible
  • At a cost: 199 USD or via MSDN membership

• What benchen we?
  • NTttcp Windows 2000 DDK

  • Server: Ntttcps-m 4.0, ‹client IP›-a 4-l 256000 n 30000
    Client (tested machines): Ntttcpr-m 4.0, ‹server IP›-a 4-l 256000 n 30000
  • Special settings: – No.

USB

• Official website: Simpli software.com

• Download: ComputerBase.de
  
  • At a cost: free standard version, but only with limited features

• What benchen we?
  
  • We determine the speed of the interface with the help of HD tach 3.0.1.0 RW
  • Special settings: long bench (32 MB zones)

FireWire

Sound

• Official website: audio.rightmark.com

• Download: audio.rightmark.com
  
  • At a cost: free version

• What benchen we?
  
  • The quality of the audio input and-Ausgangs is measured via a loop cable
  • Special settings: – No.

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Controller

• Official website: Simpli software.com

• Download: ComputerBase.de
  
  • At a cost: free standard version, but only with limited features

• What benchen we?
  
  • We determine the speed of the interface with the help of HD tach 3.0.1.0 RW
  • Special settings: long bench (32 MB zones), read only

ATi has used while image 3132 the Silicon on the Board as a secondary controller, however, it was not possible to get into the BIOS of the controller. Unable to access the controller was possible under Windows with the GUI tool of SiI. So we must remain its readings unfortunately guilty.

RAID 0

RAID 1

RAID 5

Games

Doom 3

While the game is based on the supposedly inferior believed OpenGL API, but persuades graphically more than through excessive use of high resolution textures and bump. All our measurements were carried out in the “high quality” mode, activated automatically eightfold anisotropic filtering.

• Official website: idsoftware.com

• Download: Doom3.com (demo)
  • At a cost: use free demo version, not demo the benchen

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