Intel i925X and i915G Architecture, Pentium 4 560 and 3.4GHz EE - The LGA775 Debut
Intel's new Codec technology and chipset combinations boast "High Definition Audio" and they also are delivering the tools to utilize it with their new motherboards. Here's a quick look at Intel Audio Studio on the new i925X and i915P/G Intel Desktop boards.
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In terms of audio quality and performance, we took the D915GUX board for a spin with a few CDs and DVDs we had lying around the lab. We drove the sound through a modest pair of Logitech Z-580 4.1 speakers. The sound quality was fantastic and some of the noise cancellation and environmental control features were really quite good. For on-board audio you can't beat it, and it easily rivals high end discrete PC audio solutions on the market today.
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Intel's Audio Studio software provides the user a myriad of features including:
- Room dynamics simulation
- Jack sensing and port configuration
- Environmental controls for width, depth and ambience, noise cancellation
- Bass Management and tuning
- 2 to 7.1 channel Extrapolation
- Real-time digital encoding to an optical port
- Virtual center channel
We spent some time working with these new features, some of which were a bit gimmicky, others like environmental controls, were impressive enhancements to overall acoustical impact.
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| SYSTEM 1: Pentium 4 560 3.6GHz - LGA775 Pentium 4 EE 3.4GHz - LGA775 Intel D915GUX i915G Motherboard 2x512MB Crucial DDR2 533 PC2-4300 CL4 NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT On-Board 10/100 Ethernet On-Board Audio WD "Raptor" 36GB Hard Drive 10,000 RPM SATA Windows XP Pro SP1 (Fully Patched) NVIDIA Forceware v61.45 DirectX 9.0b |
SYSTEM 2: Pentium 4 560 3.6GHz - LGA775 Pentium 4 EE 3.4GHz - LGA775 Intel D925XCV i925X Motherboard 2x512MB Crucial DDR2 533 PC2-4300 CL4 NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT On-Board 10/100 Ethernet On-Board Audio WD "Raptor" 36GB Hard Drive 10,000 RPM SATA Windows XP Pro SP1 (Fully Patched) NVIDIA Forceware v61.45 DirectX 9.0b |
SYSTEM 3: Pentium 4 Prescott 3.4GHz S478 Pentium 4 EE 3.4GHz S478 Pentium 4 Northwood 3.4GHz S478 DFI LANParty Pro 875 i875 Motherboard 2x512MB Kingston PC3500 CL2 NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT On-Board 10/100 Ethernet On-Board Audio WD "Raptor" 36GB Hard Drive 10,000 RPM SATA Windows XP Pro SP1 (Fully Patched) NVIDIA Forceware v61.45 DirectX 9.0b |
SYSTEM 4: S939 - AMD Athlon 64 FX-53 (2.4GHz) S939 - AMD Athlon 64 3800+(2.4GHz) Asus A8V Deluxe Motherboard VIA K8T800 Pro Chipset 2x512MB Kingston PC3500 CL2 NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT On-Board 10/100 Ethernet On-Board Audio WD "Raptor" 36GB Hard Drive 10,000 RPM SATA Windows XP Pro SP1 (Fully Patched) NVIDIA Forceware v61.45 DirectX 9.0b |
Just a quick note on our test system specs, before we dig into benchmark specifics. In all our test setups, we used an NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT graphics card. In the case of the PCI Express capable Intel systems, we used the NV45 version of the GF 6800 GT and for the AGP graphics based systems we used standard GeForce 6800 GT AGP cards. In both cases GPU core and memory clock speeds were identical. For the Intel based systems, we used the latest chipset drivers provided with the i915/i925X launch kit and we used those same drivers on the Canterwood based motherboard as well. In all cases we were making an effort to utilize identical components across the various Intel and AMD platforms, wherever possible.
