|
 |
|
SPEC Viewperf 7.1 |
|
Professional CAD and DCC Testing |
|
Although one might conclude
that SPEC Viewperf is also graphics intensive, since many of
its tests are 3D Modeling and Rendering benchmarks, in
actuality it is heavily processor and memory bandwidth
dependent as well.
Again, although
the lead is not a huge one in each test, the SiS 655TX
driven Asus P4S800D-E opens up another can of whoop-ass on
the competition here and sweeps the entire Viewperf test
suite. So, while we were initially a bit put off by
this board's finicky ways with SATA drives, that is now
beginning to fade as a result of the 655TX's ability to
consistently beat out the i875P and VIA PT880 in every test
so far.
|
|
|
Wolfenstein Enemy Territory and Unreal Tournament
2003 |
|
Hardcore Gaming Action |
|
We'll wrap up
the testing with a bit of OpenGL and DirectX based game
benchmarking. Wolfenstein Enemy Territory is now our
standard OGL based gaming test, at least until Doom3
arrives. It is a heavily modified and enhanced Quake 3
engine title. Unreal Tournament 2003 needs no
introduction really but it is a DirectX 8.1 based title
that, like Wolf ET, is very CPU and Memory performance
sensitive.
That pretty much
covers all the angles of performance for this new chipset
from SiS and we feel it's safe to say that have they highest
performance Pentium 4 solution on the market today, with the
655TX. The Asus P4S800D-E once again takes a
significant lead over the PT880 and i875P motherboards, in
our Wolfenstein ET custom demo playback test. It then
moves on to just edge out the i875P Canterwood board, in the
low resolution UT2003 Bot Match test. You can't argue
with the benchmark numbers here from the SiS 655TX and the
Asus P4S800D-E. It was consistently faster than the
competition from VIA and Intel, in nearly every test we ran.
To say we were
surprised by the performance put forth by the Asus
P4S800D-E, would be a total understatement. Truth be
told, we were a bit shocked that the SiS 655TX could compete
and surpass the best that Intel has to offer in the i875P
and even the latest offering from VIA. With the
exception of its somewhat immature drivers for Serial ATA,
this new SiS chipset was stable and strong throughout
testing, taking the lead from the competition in all but our
PCMark 2004 Hard Disk test. While we were initially
put off by this motherboard's fussy SATA drive compatibility
issues, those issues began to pale, as the P4S800D-E took
benchmark after benchmark with excellent performance
characteristics. Not to mention the feature set of the
655TX is as complete as anything currently on the market,
with asynchronus memory timings and ratios available, that
you won't find in any other chipset. We also shouldn't
forget to mention its next generation Prescott P4
compatibility, which will keep things future proofed for
what's on the horizon from Intel in early 2004.
Consider as
well, that Asus brings forth a well rounded bundle, complete
with extra USB and Firewire back plates and associated
cabling, all for an expected market price of around $100.
Yes indeed, bang for your buck is big time with the
P4S800D-E and the new SiS 655TX chipset. Drop in new
SATA drivers and performance, a BIOS revision of maturity
and this board gets as close to current perfection as you
get.
For now, we're
giving the Asus P4S800D-E a solid
8.5
on the HotHardware.com Heat Meter.
HotHardware's PC Hardware Forum is all the rage!
Are you in?
| 
