Sapphire PURE Innovation - ATI's Chipset for the AMD Enthusiast
by Wesley Fink on July 29, 2005 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Overclocking: Sapphire PURE Innovation
| Sapphire PURE Innovation | |
| Overclocking Testbed | |
| Processor: | Athlon 64 4000+ (2.4GHz, 1MB Cache) |
| CPU Voltage: | 1.525V (default 1.50V) |
| Cooling: | Thermaltake Silent Boost K8 Heatsink/Fan |
| Power Supply: | OCZ Power Stream 520W |
| Memory: | OCZ PC3200 Platinum Rev. 2 (Samsung TCCD Memory Chips) |
| Hard Drive: | Seagate 120GB 7200RPM SATA 8MB Cache |
| Maximum OC: (Standard Ratio) |
245x12 (4x HT, 2.5-3-3-10) 2940MHz (+22.5%) |
| Maximum FSB: (Lower Ratio) |
302 x 9 (3x HT, 1T) (2718MHz, 2 DIMMs in DC mode) (+51% Bus Overclock) |
We have rarely tested a board with such incredible stability in overclocking as this Sapphire ATI. It was not always easy to reach our desired overclock with all of the exceptional range of options available in BIOS, but once we reached the overclock, it was extremely stable. We did notice that the Sapphire ATI responds best to gradual increases in overclocking - it does not like, for example, to be set directly to 245 clock frequency. It will reach higher overclocks if the Clock frequency is increased gradually instead of in one fell swoop.
The Sapphire ATI reached a new record with our standard 4000+ Clawhammer. The highest previous overclock at stock multiplier was 242, but the Grouper went on to a stable 245. This would be quite an accomplishment for any board, but it is remarkable for a first production board. The 302 Maximum bus frequency was also a great performance. ATI clearly set out to build an enthusiast board for Sapphire that other manufacturers could copy down to the smallest detail. Sapphire was smart enough to recognize a good thing when they saw it and they have faithfully reproduced the original Reference board. Our advice to most manufacturers developing ATI Radeon Xpress 200 designs would be to copy the Reference Design. Unless you are certain that you can extract even more performance from this chipset, it is best to copy the top-performing Xpress 200 Reference boards - whether single-GPU or Crossfire Dual-GPU.
At settings of 2T, we could reach even higher to a frequency of 320. There is a lot of discussion on the web these days, claiming that you can minimize the impact of the 2T setting with certain options on Revision E AMD processors. We did not verify this claim in our tests with an earlier standard Clawhammer processor, but we can tell you that all the talk about options for improving 2T performance modes are in the memory timings section. It is little touches like this that tell us that enthusiasts in ATI or Sapphire or outside the company have had a big hand in the design of the Radeon Xpress 200 family of chipsets.
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somu - Friday, July 29, 2005 - link
only thing that i would like to know is the pricing, since its on par performance wise with the other entusiast boards, the one thing that will seperate itself will be pricing.L3p3rM355i4h - Friday, July 29, 2005 - link
WTF, these aren't bartons! Props to ATi for including something that high. 4.0vdimm is good too.The white PCB is....interesting, to say the least. Just going to leave it at that. ;)
If these are actually out in Mid-October/Nov. I'm def. going to get one.
L3p3rM355i4h - Friday, July 29, 2005 - link
WTF, these aren't bartons! Props to ATi for including something that high. 4.0vdimm is good too.The white PCB is....interesting, to say the least. Just going to leave it at that. ;)
If these are actually out in Mid-October/Nov. I'm def. going to get one.
erinlegault - Friday, July 29, 2005 - link
I am impressed to say the least. IGP versions will be coming along with Crossfire versions. There are 4 different flavours coming and 8 if you count the addition of IGP. This may lead to a breakthrough into the OEM's. The true test will be how the intel chipset performs.Excellent job ATI!
Quiksel - Friday, July 29, 2005 - link
That white mobo is supa hot. When I saw that pic, my jaw dropped. PRETTY MOBO.Too bad I'm an all-Mac shop now. I need a mobo like this in my G4. :-P
Chef Brian - Friday, July 29, 2005 - link
I wanted to buy this mobo when I saw the awesome colours, but the featureset sealed the deal. If this board can overclock like it should, I will buy it without any further question. This has massive potential..fitten - Friday, July 29, 2005 - link
Just think.... now if they just had a TypeR sticker on it somewhere... :rolleyes:xsilver - Friday, July 29, 2005 - link
is there any mention of the price? Competitive performance at a non competitive price still means little for ATIand also the limited availability (ala rs480) might also kill some of this products hopes
hopefully though they will make a spash and give nvidia a kick in the pants to lower their prices :)
jab98 - Friday, July 29, 2005 - link
Nice to finally see a amd64 board with decent quality onboard audio, wonder if anyone will revise their nf4 boards to support the better codcec?Zebo - Friday, July 29, 2005 - link
I guess you missed the MSI with on-board SBlive?