CrossFire Xpress 1600 Motherboards: DFI, Asus, ECS

Name: CrossFire Xpress 1600 Motherboards: DFI, Asus, ECS - Page 17
Brand: CrossFire

by Marco Chiappetta — Thursday, May 04, 2006, 01:30 AM EDT

To start our in-game testing, we did some low-resolution benchmarking with Half Life 2. When testing a processor with HL 2, we use a specific set of game engine initialization settings that ensure all of the systems are being benchmarked with the exact same in-game settings and graphical options. Like the other in-game tests in this review, we used low-quality graphical settings and a low screen resolution to isolate CPU and memory performance.

Benchmarks with Half Life 2: Low-Res / Low Quality

DirectX 9 Gaming Performance

Our custom low-resolution Half Life 2 test had the Asus A8N32-SLI finishing 3-5 frames per second faster than any of the CrossFire Xpress 1600 powered boards. The DFI RDX200 CF-DR came in just ahead of Asus' offering, followed by ECS' KA1 MVP, but less than a 2 frame per second delta separated the three.

Benchmarks with Quake 4 v1.05: Low Quality

OpenGL Gaming Performance

For our next game test, we benchmarked all of the test systems using a custom single-player Quake 4 timedemo. Here, we installed the new v1.05 patch which is SMP capable, cranked the resolution down to 640 x 480, and configured the game to run at its "Low-Quality" graphics setting. Although Quake 4 typically taxes today's high-end GPUs, when it's configured at these minimal settings it too is more CPU and memory-bound than anything else.

Our custom Quake 4 benchmark produced similar results to our HL2 test. Here, the A8N32-SLI finished with a framerate of 166 FPS, which was about 2.5 - 3.5 frames per second higher than any of the CrossFire Xpress 1600 boards. This time around though, the ECS KA1 MVP pulled ahead of the DFI and Asus CrossFire Xpress 1600 offerings.

Tags: Asus, ECS, Fire, Motherboard, CrossFire, motherboards, SSF, Pre, DS, XP, OS, board, OSS, CrossFire X, AR

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com