Gigabyte GA-8N-SLI Quad Royal Motherboard
Encoding Time Tests
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We continued testing with another module from World Bench 5, this time based on Windows Media Encoder 9. PC WorldBench 5's Windows Media Encoding test reports encoding times in seconds, and like the tests on the previous page, lower times indicate better performance here.
This winds up being the first benchmark that the GA-8N-SLI failed to compete for the top spot. Gigabyte's motherboard took the longest to complete the encoding, and at 374 seconds was 8 seconds longer than the top score held by the Asus P5N32-SLI. There were relatively equal differences separating each board from another.
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In our custom Lame MP3 encoding tests, we convert a large WAV 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. Once again, shorter times equate to better performance.
The LAME MP3 tests told us a different story - all boards turned in roughly the same time. While the Asus P5N32-SLI technically held the top spot, coming in at 2:25, the one second variance can easily be dismissed within the limits of standard deviation. We typically haven't seen too many differences in this test using the current crop of P4 boards.
