Abit's Fatal1ty AA8XE

For our next set of benchmark scores, we did some video encoding with all of the test systems. To get these scores listed below, we took a standard MPEG 2 format video clip and converted it to DivX format using version 5.2.1 of the CODEC with XMPEG. The results below are reported in Minutes : Seconds.  Lower scores equal better performance.

Benchmarks with XMPEG / DivX v5.2.1 Video Encoding Performance

Abit's Fatal1ty AA8XE finished the XMPEG encoding test just behind the two other i925XE based systems we tested, but well ahead of the Athlon 64 4000+.  With only a fraction of a second separating the "fastest" from the "slowest" i925XE based motherboards though, it wouldn't be right to declare any one board the clear winner.

LAME MP3 Encoding Test Converting a Large WAV To MP3

In our custom Lame MP3 tests, we convert a large digital audio file to the MP3 format, which is a very popular scenario that many end users work with on a regular basis, to provide portability and storage of their digital audio content.  In this test, we chose a large 223MB WAV file (a never-ending Grateful Dead jam) and converted it to the MP3 format. Processing times are recorded below. Shorter times equate to better performance.

There wasn't a very large performance delta separating the four systems represented in the graph above either.  Only 5 seconds separated the system that finished in first place based on the Abit Fatal1ty AA8XE, from the last place finisher, the Athlon 64 4000+ / NF4.  And when comparing the i925XE based systems, the Fatal1ty AA8XE was able to outpace the others by about 2 seconds.  Not a monumental difference, but nonetheless it was the best score of the bunch.