nForce4 SLI Intel Edition Arrives

Testing

Individual Test Systems:

• Intel P4 3.73 EE — Intel D955XBK (Intel 955X), 1GB (2x512MB) Corsair PC5400UL @ DDR2 667 (3-2-2-8), Geforce 6800GT 256mb (Forceware 71.84), 120GB Seagate SATA150 HDD, Windows XP w/SP2 and DX9C.
• Intel P4 3.73 EE — nVidia C19 Reference Board (nForce 4 SLI Intel Edition C19), 1GB (2x512MB) Corsair PC5400UL @ DDR2 667 (3-2-2-8), Geforce 6800GT 256mb (Forceware 71.84), 120GB Seagate SATA150 HDD, Windows XP w/SP2 and DX9C.

Testing Procedure:

All testing was done on a fresh install of Windows XP Professional build 2600 with Service Pack 2 and DirectX 9.0c. All benchmarks were completed on the desktop with no other software programs running. No overclocking was done on the video card during any of this review.

Memory Testing:

We are really hoping to see a significant difference with the nForce4 SLI Intel edition versus the Intel i955X Express when it comes to memory performance. Let’s take a look and see if having 1T command rates paired with the new NVIDIA controller make a big difference.

Everest Version 2.00.300 Beta:

Everst 2.0 is a professional system information, diagnostics and benchmarking program for Win32 platforms. It extracts details of all components of the PC. It also tests the actual read and write speeds of your memory giving a fairly accurate look of true memory performance.

Results: Everest shows a huge difference between the two memory controllers. So far NVIDIA’s nForce4 SLI Intel Edition’s controller is leading the way with an amazing 800MB/Sec difference.

ScienceMark 2.0 Final:

Science Mark 2.0 is an attempt to put the truth behind benchmarking. In an attempt to model real world demands and performance, ScienceMark 2.0 is a suite of high-performance benchmarks that realistically stress system performance without architectural bias. All of our testing was completed on the 32 Bit Final benchmark version that is dated March 21st 2005.

Results: ScienceMark 2 final shows another win for the nForce4 SLI Intel chipset with more than a 500 point gap between the two. This is amazing seeing how they are both clocked at DDR2-667 with 3-2-2 timings.

Futuremark; PCMark04 v1.3.0:

PCMark04 is an application-based benchmark and a premium tool for measuring overall PC performance. It uses portions of real applications instead of including very large applications or using specifically created code. This allows PCMark04 to be a smaller installation as well as to report very accurate results. As far as possible, PCMark04 uses public domain applications whose source code can be freely examined by any user.

Results: PCMark04 clearly loves the 1T command rate that NVIDIA is offering with the nForce4 SLI Intel edition. Here we see the biggest gap yet with nearly a 1,000 point difference.

Super Pi 1.1e:

Results: Running an overclockers benchmark like SuperPi we can see a very slight difference between the two chipsets. Although it is only a second difference at 1 million Pi anyone aiming to lower their score by a second knows how hard that is to do.

So far the nForce4 SLI Intel Edition is looking like a strong chipset. The memory controller is clearly faster than that of Intel’s. In terms of options in the BIOS NVIDIA has Intel beat hands down on this one. Now let’s move on to other system testing.