Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe: First ATI RD580
by Wesley Fink on March 1, 2006 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Optimum tRAS
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, a tRAS of 7 was optimal for the nForce4/ATI RD480/ULi M1697 chipsets, and a tRAS of 10 produced the best bandwidth on the ULi 1695.
Since this is our first review of a board with the new ATI RD580 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 15 to determine the best setting.
The tRAS setting that produced the highest memory bandwidth with the ATI RD580 chipset was 8. The tRas 8 setting was used for all memory testing on the Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe.
Memory Stress Testing
The Asus A8R32-MVP easily handles 2-2-2-8-1T timings at stock speed. The default setting for Command Rate in the Asus BIOS is 1T, which makes it much easier to assure that the A8R32-MVP consistently delivers top performance than the 2T default seen in the earlier A8R-MVP. We are pleased that Asus decided to implement the more sensible 1T timings in the update to the A8R-MVP.
Running four double-sided 512MB or 1GB DIMMs is much more demanding than running two DS DIMMs, and Asus did not have any special magic here. Like every board that we have tested, except the DFI RDX200, we needed to drop the Command Rate to 2T with 4 DS DIMMs. This really should not be a surprise, since the DIMM timing is primarily a function of the memory controller on the AMD processor. With 4 DIMMs, the A8R32-MVP remained stable with the same aggressive 2-2-2-8 timings that worked best for two DS DIMMs.
*8T was determined by MemTest86 benchmarks to deliver the widest bandwidth with the ATI RD580 chipset. While the board would operate at tRAS of 5T or lower all benchmarks were run at 8T.
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, a tRAS of 7 was optimal for the nForce4/ATI RD480/ULi M1697 chipsets, and a tRAS of 10 produced the best bandwidth on the ULi 1695.
Since this is our first review of a board with the new ATI RD580 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 15 to determine the best setting.
| Memtest86 Bandwidth Asus A8R32-MVP with Athlon 64 4000+ |
|
| 5 tRAS | 1879 |
| 6 tRAS | 1879 |
| 7 tRAS | 1999 |
| 8 tRAS | 2043 |
| 9 tRAS | 1999 |
| 10 tRAS | 1958 |
| 11 tRAS | 1958 |
| 12 tRAS | 1879 |
| 13 tRAS | 1870 |
| 14 tRAS | 1843 |
| 15 tRAS | 1807 |
The tRAS setting that produced the highest memory bandwidth with the ATI RD580 chipset was 8. The tRas 8 setting was used for all memory testing on the Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe.
Memory Stress Testing
The Asus A8R32-MVP easily handles 2-2-2-8-1T timings at stock speed. The default setting for Command Rate in the Asus BIOS is 1T, which makes it much easier to assure that the A8R32-MVP consistently delivers top performance than the 2T default seen in the earlier A8R-MVP. We are pleased that Asus decided to implement the more sensible 1T timings in the update to the A8R-MVP.
Running four double-sided 512MB or 1GB DIMMs is much more demanding than running two DS DIMMs, and Asus did not have any special magic here. Like every board that we have tested, except the DFI RDX200, we needed to drop the Command Rate to 2T with 4 DS DIMMs. This really should not be a surprise, since the DIMM timing is primarily a function of the memory controller on the AMD processor. With 4 DIMMs, the A8R32-MVP remained stable with the same aggressive 2-2-2-8 timings that worked best for two DS DIMMs.
| Stable DDR400 Timings - 4 DIMMs (4/4 DIMMs populated) |
|
| Clock Speed: | 200MHz |
| CAS Latency: | 2.0 |
| RAS to CAS Delay: | 2T |
| RAS Precharge: | 8T* |
| Precharge Delay: | 2T |
| Command Rate: | 2T |
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SuperStrokey - Friday, February 17, 2006 - link
i assume that was not the gtx512 was it? If so wowDeathBooger - Friday, February 17, 2006 - link
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?Web...">http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?Web...If you do a currency conversion it's $217USD. Some lucky guy actually got to buy it before they were supposed to sell it. http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=...">http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=...
Egglick - Friday, February 17, 2006 - link
Why would you use two different videocards when benchmarking a motherboard?? This really tells us nothing about the motherboards performance in relation to the others, because you have another huge variable.Wesley Fink - Friday, February 17, 2006 - link
As we stated in the test setup we ran BOTH the 7800GTX and the X1900XT video card on the Asus A8R32-MVP. We reported both results so you could compare 7800GTX performance to the previous boards also tested with the 7800GTX. Since the X1900XT is the latest and fastest video card the results were included for Reference only - many would have asked for X199XT results if they were excluded.As someone else pointed out, when testing Dual X16 Video you have to run SLI on nVidia and Crossfire on ATI (or Intel).
andrewln - Friday, February 17, 2006 - link
because you can not run SLI in Crossfire motherboardstuteja1986 - Friday, February 17, 2006 - link
Why didn't Asus include the cool feel as they did with the ASUS A8N 32-SLI. Like the 8-Phase Power and the cool looking Fanless Motherboard cooling system.mino - Friday, February 17, 2006 - link
Just wondering. maybe 8-phase is a waste for ~60 watt Athlon64s. Also why do a fancy(an expensive) "cool looking Fanless Motherboard cooling system" when chipset is cool and doesn not need one at all???I.m glad someone has a sense and doesn't produce third central heater in the system(after CPU & GPU).
Hoping SB600 will be a good one.
Wesley Fink - Friday, February 17, 2006 - link
The RD580 chipset also ran very cool on this board, so there may not be the need for the more exotic passive heatpipe cooling used on the A8N32-SLI.Wesley Fink - Friday, February 17, 2006 - link
The A8R32-MVP was designed to sell for a lower price - probably around $130 to $150, where the A8N32-SLI was designed to sell for $200+. While the A8R32-MVP isn't 8-phase, it actually overclocked ba bit better and gave up nothing to the more expensive and excellent A8N32-SLI in performance. This board can also run dual X1900XT cards in Crossfire mode.tuteja1986 - Friday, February 17, 2006 - link
I wonder how much will it sell for and if it goes arround same price as Asus A8N 32-SLI (220ish). if it cost that much then i will end up buying DFI RD580 motherboard if its got no issue bugs like the 1st rev of DFI RD480 CRossfire.