Sapphire PURE Innovation - ATI's Chipset for the AMD Enthusiast
by Wesley Fink on July 29, 2005 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
tRAS and Memory Stress Testing
Memory tRAS Recommendations
In past reviews, memory bandwidth tests established that a tRAS setting of 11 or 12 was generally best for nForce2, a tRAS of 10 was optimal for the nForce3 chipset, and a tRAS of 7 was optimal for the nForce4 chipset. The recently tested ULi 1695 was best at tRAS of 10.Since this is our first review of a new ATI chipset, 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 of OCZ PC3200 Platinum Rev. 2, based on Samsung TCCD chips, was measured from tRAS 5 to tRAS 12 to determine the best setting.
| Memtest86 Bandwidth Sapphire PURE Innovation with Athlon 64 4000+ |
|
| 5 tRAS | 2048 |
| 6 tRAS | 2092 |
| 7 tRAS | 2141 |
| 8 tRAS | 2141 |
| 9 tRAS | 2092 |
| 10 tRAS | 2048 |
| 11 tRAS | 2004 |
| 12 tRAS | 1922 |
Two things stood out in our tRAS tests. First, the Sapphire ATI exhibits the best bandwidth at a tRAS setting of 7 or 8. We decided to use 7, since it is the same as the best setting for nForce4. Second, the bandwidth numbers on the ATI were a bit higher across the tRAS tests than what we saw with the ULi 1695. This suggests ATI having better optimized memory management - at least at this stage of development.
Memory Stress Test
Our memory stress test measures the ability of the Sapphire ATI 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: | 2.0 |
| 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 voltage, which was the only memory voltage available.
| 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 Sapphire required a 2T Command Rate with 4 DIMMs in two dual channels. This is the pattern seen on other top-performing Socket 939 boards. The Sapphire AMD had no problem running at a 200 CPU speed setting with 4 double-sided DIMMs. Since the Athlon 64 memory controller is on the processor, there were no real surprises in the memory stress tests. The Sapphire ATI is certainly competitive with the best Socket 939 boards in memory performance.
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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?